Well I picked up my new 2015 Citadel that I ordered with the Beats Premium Sound tonite.
Let me first start by giving some background on my situation, so that you can understand where I am coming from with regards to the comments I make regarding the BEATS system vs. the Alpine System.
1) I bought a brand new 2014 Durango Citadel in March 2015 and absolutely loved it. Had it for one month until I took it in to get the spare key fob programmed and the service rep drove it back to the service bay and smashed it through a brick wall.
2) Despite seeing some other threads about people being very critical of the Alpine 9 speaker sound system, I personally was very impressed with the system as it was exponentially better than any factory system I've owned or heard. I was always very impressed with the clarity and the crossover settings that seemed to channel the perfect frequency ranges to the correct speakers, with the sub really filing in well for the low freqs. It sounded great to me for any type of music, Rock, Rap, Classical, etc.......as I could just sit in the driveway for hours and listen to my bluetooth Spotify feeds to it, which have a much better quality than Satellite or FM Stereo. I can't say enough about how crisp the sound is.
3) While the dealer ended up having to order me a new Durango Citadel ( a 2015 because there were no 2014 left with all the options/color combo, engine, etc), I drove a temporary Citadel loaner with the same Alpine 9 speaker system, and continued to enjoy the system. Meanwhile for months I had heard about the upcoming Beats becoming an option, and when I previously bit the bullet and bought one of the last 2014's on the lot to save money, I figured I could live with that sacrifice, rather than waiting for months for it to become available and then pay much higher price for the 2015 model.
4) Lucky for me, the dealer was cool enough to add the Beats option when they placed the order, since I was inconvenienced for almost two months of waiting for the new one to come in. So needless to say I have been excited for the last two months knowing I was going to have the Beats system. And over the past few weeks, I've been seeing the hilarious video about the Durango pulling up to the Country Club with the Beats Audio system blasting Rap music and shaking up everything inside the place causing drinks to spill, etc.. and the higher class clientele being visibly disturbed by the intrusion. (I POSTED THE VIDEO AT THE END OF THIS POST) This video only got me more psyched about the Beats!!!!
So I picked up my car tonite from the dealer. It was sweet, loaded with every possible possible option, AWD, V8, DVD, Technology, Tow pkg, etc..... And keep in mind, I've been listening to the Alpine System daily for the last two months, listening to all kinds of music. Although everyone has their own tastes, I would listen to Rap and Hip Hop like Nikki Minaj, Jason Derulo, or Snoop almost to the max volume setting, and the system completely "kicked" with very little distortion even at the highest volume levels. Would also listen to AC/DC and Pink Floyd the same way, and the system rocked. I really enjoyed the Pink Floyd song "Wish you were here", which has amazing acoustics and felt like they were playing right in front of you. The stereo separation was amazing and the clarity of the guitar plucks was indescribable.
So then it was Beats time. I didn't even turn the stereo on at the dealer, as I wanted to wait until I got home so that I didn't have any distractions and could really focus on it. So I first turned on FM stereo because I wanted to save the bluetooth or ipod audio for last, since that is by far the highest quality compared to Satellite and FM. I couldn't believe what I was hearing as I switched to different FM stations. The sound was average at best, and yes it got louder as you increased the volume, but no longer could I really tell I had a subwoofer anymore. Sounded like I had a bunch of full-range speakers in front, with no tweeters whatsoever. I skipped directly to ipod input in disgust, hoping that maybe it was just a coincidence and the FM reception was just poor at that one moment in time. Fat chance. As I put on the same songs that I've been listening to the entire last week, I felt that there was something missing, but it's hard to describe exactly what it is.
Certainly, the surround or stereo effect is not as pronounced, but I think that is because the clarity level has dropped for some reason. The crossover settings must have been modified significantly, because the crispness that i enjoyed so much in the Alpine system seems to be gone. Either that or the new speakers are simply subpar. I haven't gotten a chance to go in and see if they replaced the speakers or not.
The best way of describing the sound is like a bunch of full-range speakers firing at you, instead of before where you could experience the clarity of the tweeters in front, but also hear the mid and low ranges without compromising the quality of the sound. Now, things seem on overload, a bunch of noise, with little fidelity. For sure, the front speakers are now much louder in volume with respect to the rear speakers, as I had to actually change the fader to the rear to feel like there were actually speakers behind me, otherwise I was blasted out in front. I cannot hear the subwoofer anymore, as I think there is more bass being passed to the front and rear door speakers, which is causing them to work harder while the subwoofers works less. I had the Bass set at +3 and the Treble at +3, which seems to improve the sound some but made very little difference.
I opened up the rear door and played one of my Bass Heavy Hip Hop songs by Nicki Minaj "The night is still young", and put my hand on the panel above the subwoofer. I could barely tell that it was working, which makes no sense, even with a volume at around 28 or so. I honestly don't think the subwoofer is getting the input level that it was previously getting with the Alpine system, which completely contradicts that ridiculous Beats Audio commercial on TV.
Anyway, although I have a beautiful new car in the driveway and should be on cloud nine, part of me is disappointed because I know I'm never going to be able to hear the music how I've been hearing it for months. Heck, my biggest disappointment was when i replayed Pink Floyd "Wish you were here" (if you don't know this song, you should google it and listen to it so you'll know what kind of acoustics it has) on the Beats and it no longer felt that the band was inside the car sitting next to you. That one hit me in the gut.
In the next few days, I will probably be taking apart the interior panels to see if in fact the speakers and AMP did change or not, or whether it was just a software/processor change. I'll post some photos of the Alpine system components along with the Beats components once I get time to get some photos of the Beats components. Whichever it was, I would do anything to pay $495 just to have the Beats upgrade removed and be back with the Alpine system.
Perhaps some of you will agree with me fully after your Durango's with Beats arrive, and others will possibly disagree. For those of you that end up agreeing with me in that the Beats system is without doubt a "downgrade" to the Alpine system, then hopefully we can work together to figure out exactly what modifications were made to the system that make up the new Beats system. And later may need to find a way to pressure the manufacturer into offering some way of reverting back to the "Alpine" system configuration.
For the time being, I guess I'm gonna have to try to seek out a Beats Audio support group, LOL.
Let me first start by giving some background on my situation, so that you can understand where I am coming from with regards to the comments I make regarding the BEATS system vs. the Alpine System.
1) I bought a brand new 2014 Durango Citadel in March 2015 and absolutely loved it. Had it for one month until I took it in to get the spare key fob programmed and the service rep drove it back to the service bay and smashed it through a brick wall.
2) Despite seeing some other threads about people being very critical of the Alpine 9 speaker sound system, I personally was very impressed with the system as it was exponentially better than any factory system I've owned or heard. I was always very impressed with the clarity and the crossover settings that seemed to channel the perfect frequency ranges to the correct speakers, with the sub really filing in well for the low freqs. It sounded great to me for any type of music, Rock, Rap, Classical, etc.......as I could just sit in the driveway for hours and listen to my bluetooth Spotify feeds to it, which have a much better quality than Satellite or FM Stereo. I can't say enough about how crisp the sound is.
3) While the dealer ended up having to order me a new Durango Citadel ( a 2015 because there were no 2014 left with all the options/color combo, engine, etc), I drove a temporary Citadel loaner with the same Alpine 9 speaker system, and continued to enjoy the system. Meanwhile for months I had heard about the upcoming Beats becoming an option, and when I previously bit the bullet and bought one of the last 2014's on the lot to save money, I figured I could live with that sacrifice, rather than waiting for months for it to become available and then pay much higher price for the 2015 model.
4) Lucky for me, the dealer was cool enough to add the Beats option when they placed the order, since I was inconvenienced for almost two months of waiting for the new one to come in. So needless to say I have been excited for the last two months knowing I was going to have the Beats system. And over the past few weeks, I've been seeing the hilarious video about the Durango pulling up to the Country Club with the Beats Audio system blasting Rap music and shaking up everything inside the place causing drinks to spill, etc.. and the higher class clientele being visibly disturbed by the intrusion. (I POSTED THE VIDEO AT THE END OF THIS POST) This video only got me more psyched about the Beats!!!!
So I picked up my car tonite from the dealer. It was sweet, loaded with every possible possible option, AWD, V8, DVD, Technology, Tow pkg, etc..... And keep in mind, I've been listening to the Alpine System daily for the last two months, listening to all kinds of music. Although everyone has their own tastes, I would listen to Rap and Hip Hop like Nikki Minaj, Jason Derulo, or Snoop almost to the max volume setting, and the system completely "kicked" with very little distortion even at the highest volume levels. Would also listen to AC/DC and Pink Floyd the same way, and the system rocked. I really enjoyed the Pink Floyd song "Wish you were here", which has amazing acoustics and felt like they were playing right in front of you. The stereo separation was amazing and the clarity of the guitar plucks was indescribable.
So then it was Beats time. I didn't even turn the stereo on at the dealer, as I wanted to wait until I got home so that I didn't have any distractions and could really focus on it. So I first turned on FM stereo because I wanted to save the bluetooth or ipod audio for last, since that is by far the highest quality compared to Satellite and FM. I couldn't believe what I was hearing as I switched to different FM stations. The sound was average at best, and yes it got louder as you increased the volume, but no longer could I really tell I had a subwoofer anymore. Sounded like I had a bunch of full-range speakers in front, with no tweeters whatsoever. I skipped directly to ipod input in disgust, hoping that maybe it was just a coincidence and the FM reception was just poor at that one moment in time. Fat chance. As I put on the same songs that I've been listening to the entire last week, I felt that there was something missing, but it's hard to describe exactly what it is.
Certainly, the surround or stereo effect is not as pronounced, but I think that is because the clarity level has dropped for some reason. The crossover settings must have been modified significantly, because the crispness that i enjoyed so much in the Alpine system seems to be gone. Either that or the new speakers are simply subpar. I haven't gotten a chance to go in and see if they replaced the speakers or not.
The best way of describing the sound is like a bunch of full-range speakers firing at you, instead of before where you could experience the clarity of the tweeters in front, but also hear the mid and low ranges without compromising the quality of the sound. Now, things seem on overload, a bunch of noise, with little fidelity. For sure, the front speakers are now much louder in volume with respect to the rear speakers, as I had to actually change the fader to the rear to feel like there were actually speakers behind me, otherwise I was blasted out in front. I cannot hear the subwoofer anymore, as I think there is more bass being passed to the front and rear door speakers, which is causing them to work harder while the subwoofers works less. I had the Bass set at +3 and the Treble at +3, which seems to improve the sound some but made very little difference.
I opened up the rear door and played one of my Bass Heavy Hip Hop songs by Nicki Minaj "The night is still young", and put my hand on the panel above the subwoofer. I could barely tell that it was working, which makes no sense, even with a volume at around 28 or so. I honestly don't think the subwoofer is getting the input level that it was previously getting with the Alpine system, which completely contradicts that ridiculous Beats Audio commercial on TV.
Anyway, although I have a beautiful new car in the driveway and should be on cloud nine, part of me is disappointed because I know I'm never going to be able to hear the music how I've been hearing it for months. Heck, my biggest disappointment was when i replayed Pink Floyd "Wish you were here" (if you don't know this song, you should google it and listen to it so you'll know what kind of acoustics it has) on the Beats and it no longer felt that the band was inside the car sitting next to you. That one hit me in the gut.
In the next few days, I will probably be taking apart the interior panels to see if in fact the speakers and AMP did change or not, or whether it was just a software/processor change. I'll post some photos of the Alpine system components along with the Beats components once I get time to get some photos of the Beats components. Whichever it was, I would do anything to pay $495 just to have the Beats upgrade removed and be back with the Alpine system.
Perhaps some of you will agree with me fully after your Durango's with Beats arrive, and others will possibly disagree. For those of you that end up agreeing with me in that the Beats system is without doubt a "downgrade" to the Alpine system, then hopefully we can work together to figure out exactly what modifications were made to the system that make up the new Beats system. And later may need to find a way to pressure the manufacturer into offering some way of reverting back to the "Alpine" system configuration.
For the time being, I guess I'm gonna have to try to seek out a Beats Audio support group, LOL.