Alpine TUA-T550HD HD Radio™ Tuner Box with iTunes Tagging

by Alpine

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4 x 8 x 11 inches ; 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B001764LUQ
• Item model number: TUA-T550HD
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #47,034 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 3, 2008

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great audio - Bad radio, December 26, 2008

By 

Its "Munchiniwa" (Orlando) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alpine TUA-T550HD HD Radio™ Tuner Box with iTunes Tagging (Electronics)

Got one of these and it didn't pick up many stations but sounded great. Thought the reception was normal from the HD reviews I've read. But then it would not turn on when I started the car -- just dead. The regular tuner came on but had no antenna so it didn't work. Turning off the car and turning it back on "fixed" it for a couple of days but then it started getting worse. Got the unit replaced.
The new unit picks up MANY more stations than the first and worked good for a couple of weeks. Now its starting to have dead audio occasionally when I turn on the car. The difference with this one is that the radio comes on -- says 'digital' on the faceplate -- but there is no audio until you turn off the car. That's right, turn off the car, not the radio. Then it usually works when the car is turned back on.
This is very annoying. Alpine makes an amazing amplifier in the 9885 and it is awesome with my iPod connected directly to the radio. But the radio in the 9885 sucks, which is why I bought the HD radio, but the HD radio has its own kinds of problems.
Unless you really like putting up with problems, don't get this tuner until the bugs are worked out.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth it, June 30, 2010

By 

Paul Mac "Paul" (Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alpine TUA-T550HD HD Radio™ Tuner Box with iTunes Tagging (Electronics)

The radio constantly slips from digital to analog as you drive around, and what happens is it sounds like a cd skipping whenever it makes the switch. I'm not sure if this is a limitation with this alpine product or just a problem with HD radio in general. Its impossible to listen to any of the side stations because it cant keep a lock on the digital channel while your moving. I would pass on this radio. I'm going to be uninstalling it and just using my analog receiver till something changes. It seems like a great thing when your playing with the demo at the store and not moving, but once you start to move it cant keep a lock on the channel.

Tampa FL.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Get HD & throw away long distance AM channels, July 16, 2009

By 

R. Johnson "soundboyrich" (Jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alpine TUA-T550HD HD Radio™ Tuner Box with iTunes Tagging (Electronics)

I added the Alpine tua-550HD unit to my Alpine 9886 head unit, alpine kca-sc100 sirius satellite including steering wheel remote control and usb reader slash file player.

I felt when I added the HD unit, the sound reception took a dive. I listen to fm and am. The head unit would pull in long distance AM station at night (300+ miles away) and during the day would pull in weak station. To get this excellent reception of the head unit (no HD), I put a 1mh coil (LPF) between the DC power and an identical coil at the ignition power. I also add an Xterminator radio noise filter to the antenna terminal.

Once I added the HD unit the AM long distance reception took a dive and local station (AM or FM) were weaker. I think I'll remove the unit at a later time since I like receiving distant AM station and I believe I get less multipath with just the head unit (no HD connected). The Alpine spec and most radio heads show identical FM AM specs so I didn't expect a degradation in receiver performance.

This is my second HD radio. The first (a Dual 6420) would pull in AM stereo but constantly flip flop between digital and analog due to the coverage area. In my opinion, at this point HD radio is a flop. Satellite reception is far better, sound quality is better and lots of station (they never go out of coverage).

HD radio is ackin to when Stereo FM came about. It (Stereo FM) replace a noise free 70 mile reception signal with a 40 mile noisy, hissy, multipath Stereo signal. Now the broadcaster have taken us ever closer to 30 miles for HD reception and only added a few absurb side channels. When the broadcasters go full power digital maybe this will improve....

Btw, you must plug the Alpine Ianet cable into the "HD OUTPUT" if you want hear sound (the HD unit is the source). Other units (satellite etc) are daisy chained, out to in...to head unit in