Car audio ‘enthusiasts’ who do it properly are like the Car enthusiast who make nice cars fast.
The assholes who do nothing but throw money @ the local shops because they “wanna be bangin” are the Ricers of the genre. Making a bad name for everyone.
It’s the assholes that have ZERO regard for others (with regards to output levels) that cause problems.
I used to be big into dBDrag and the competitive side of it (with the Termlab pressure sensor and all), but it got boring after a couple years. Even THEN I would dial it down for daily driving and stoplights and such. Not too mention that I’d spent ~$700 on sound deadening (to keep it in also keeps scores up). My last “loud” vehicle (last spring), I used 4 gallons of liquid deadening & close to 40lbs of matting. (I still have some left actually). You’d hardly feel my setup from 20’ OR MORE away. Even full tilt (registered & certified 158 dBs @ 42hz on the dash).
That being said, the aforementioned law will have a shit-ton of loopholes and probably be enforced about as much as the tint / exhaust laws: only when an officer feels like it / cant find something else wrong.
/soapbox