I agree that for accurate audio reproduction, the Durango's Alpine system is one of the worst. To be able to do it accurately any sound system needs to be adjustable to the music being played. I found myself extremely disappointed that the "premium" stereo system only has Treb, Mid and Bass adjustment only! No separate Sub adjustment (something I've had in all my cars since '97), no built in equalizer... it's just pitiful that abilities that are available on now $100-$150 aftermarket stereos are not on this supposed "premium" system.

 

I measured and recorded the frequency response of my Durango. As you can see...the response curve is fairly flat except for the peak at 500hz and the rolloff in the treble. The midrange response is ruler flat from 800 to 3.15khz and proves my thought that the response is pretty smooth and balanced.
I took these readings with the EQ centered, Fader to front and volume at 20.
I used a Radio Shack digital sound level meter and Warble test tones taken from one of the Stereophile test CDs.
I took readings with the fader centered also, the readings were close but not quite as good. I find the soundstage is ruined the more the fader is set towards the rear also.

 

Didhefocus, Can you translate that to a non educated audiophile like myself?

 

Do you mean the graph itself or some of the terms I used?
I'll explain the graph.
The graph represents the volume of the frequencies from bass through treble.
Left side is bass at 50hz, the right side ends at 12.5khz and all the other frequencies in between. A perfectly flat line would be perfect flat response. Meaning that all frequencies are balanced, none are over-powering the others. In the real world, you can only get sort of close and it's always going to be a little jagged, the more jagged the response curve, the more inaccurate it will sound.

 

Actually, I meant is the setup good or bad from a frequency perspective using the meter. Good explanation of the graph though things make sense, but I still think that my Bose in my 2000 i30 sounds a lot better stock with all settings in the 0 position. I did try lowering the mid and that does help.

 

The steep roll off in treble starting at about 5khz is the system's biggest flaw making it sound a little soft. The hump at 500hz makes the sound a little too heavy in the high bass like kick-drums but some may like that though.

 

I just got an r/t with the Alpine and I'm glad I read this thread. I dropped the mid and it cleaned the sound up a bunch. The mid just seemed to add noise.

 

I too think the audio system needs work. I don't know if I have just become used to the sound or if I have made it better. All I did was add my 12"kicker l7 and 1000.1 kicker amp. I have the eq for the bass at -8, mids at +1, and treble at +3. Sounds pretty good to me now. I adjusted my amp to just be loud enough to fill up the bottom with the eq set low for bass. I will add that I am a bit of an audiophile (I guess) ha. I encourage anyone who has just added a subwoofer to their setup to give it a try. I want to see if it is just me wanting it to sound better or if it really does. But I also thought my challenger srt8 setup sounded good with this same subwoofer added, if you wanted to compare my musical judgement.

 

Yes the alpine system truely falls short of a premium sound system. Even my former '01 g caravan es infinity system had better sound with a full equalizer. I also wanted to know if anyone notices a kind of 'garbally' sound from the satellite stations? It's the only mode that I notice this problem and it' s on all
Sat'stations.

 

I have 2 JL AUDIO Subs that were only in my Gen 1 for about 2 months That enclosures could be made to fit our Gen 3 D's
Listed in for sale section
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/miscell...y-gen-1-a.html