FFemerson

Yeah, but I'm not buying anything from them.

I love my Journey so far. I'd rather pay $31k for every feature available (minus the sunroof) than $42k for a base model, where you are basically just paying for a name. Only things I don't like is this terrible audio system, and the gas mileage so far isn't too impressive. But besides that, I'm happy. The interior layout is my favorite by far, it is just an expensive looking vehicle inside.

It's a joke, really. I like having the navigation, the back up camera is a cute little commodity that is a great show off piece, but is rarely used. They didn't have an R/T without the premium sound, or I wouldn't have gotten it. I've always been really big into car audio up until a few years ago. I know the kind of system you can get for 1/4 of the price of one of these "premium" audio systems. The thing that puts me over the edge though is the fact that my wife's Dart, with the base speakers, has soooo much better bass output than my car does. If you had told me she had a premium system with 8" subwoofer, I'd believe it. My Journey basically sounds like I have tweeters in the car, and all of my bass coming from a 3.5" speaker located somewhere under a seat.

I was under the impression you can only get diagrams if you purchase from them? Also, I've never heard of them having PIN connector diagrams. Correct me if I'm wrong, I would love to be able to locate these!

If I have to pay over $1000 more for a premium audio feature that doesn't sound as good as the base audio system, then yes, that is something that would make me not want a vehicle.

So after doing some reading around multiple message boards and websites, I have come up with the following solution I think will work fine for my end goal. Bypassing the factory amp doesn't seem like an option. PAC makes a unit that could have possibly done this, but in turn you would lose bass/mid/treb control at the radio itself, which is a big deal. Ultimately, I've decided to go with the Audio Control LC7i. It installs after the OEM amplifier. The feature that sold me on it was the internal channel summing. Since my biggest complaint with the OEM amplifier was the obvious crossover settings that totally eliminated lower frequencies (and therefore eliminated bass) from all speakers except the (terrible) sub in back, the internal channel summing will bring all of those channels together, and bypass the xover in the OEM amp. So, LC7i to bypass (but not remove) the factory amp, a 5 channel amp to power my main speakers and my new subwoofer. Now, my next question is, does anyone know the color codes of the wiring coming into the amplifier? Would be nice to know what wires go to what speakers and whatnot. Thanks!

Had my 2014 Journey R/T a little over a week and I am pretty happy with it. When I test drove it, they didn't have my car on the lot, so I drove a different one without the "premium" Alpine sound package in it. I thought the radio sounded good in that one, so the next day when I got mt R/T, I didn't even bother trying out the stereo. I figured, hey if the stock radio sounds good, then the premium package has to sound even better. Well, I wish I had listened, because I honestly wouldn't have purchased my car. I couldn't be more disappointed in an audio system. The bass, even with the 8" sub in back, is non existent. I have the bass turned all of the way up on the receiver, and there is still barely any bass from the speakers, or the sub in back. My wife has a '14 Dart with the standard audio, and it literally sounds 10x better. If you were to listen to both of our vehicles, you would swear she had the premium audio and I had the base crap audio. So yesterday, in hopes to fix my problem, I installed new speakers, hoping for more output. These speakers sound exactly the same, no additional bass at all. So this leads me to the next obvious issue, the amplifier. The crossovers in the Alpine amplifier have to be set in such a way that they are cancelling out basically all of the bass frequencies from the speakers. I can't handle this. I can't own a car for the next 3 years with poor audio quality. I want to return this damn car, I'm so upset about it. How you can call this a premium sound option blows my mind. Honestly, the stock speakers in my 02 Aztek I had before this car sound ten times better. But I digress. Is there a way to bypass the premium amplifier? If I have to install my own amplifier, I'm fine with that. Is there a harness I can purchase where the factory wiring harness going into the amplifier can unplug from the amp, plug into the new harness, and I can run signal from there into my new amp? I had purchased the Audio Control LQ2i in order to install an amp for a new subwoofer, however this has only 2 channels of output. Any ideas? In summary, I want to replace my factory amplifier without cutting wires since it is a lease.