Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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

This critique is about the product and NOT Amazon.

I bought this item with the hopes that my radio static would finally disappear. I looked online and was pleasantly surprised to see that the majority of stations in my area were already broadcasting in HD. So, at least according to 'opportunity' to pick up HD stations, I am in good shape.

Sadly however, the unit proved to be useless. The analog stations were 100 times worse than w/o the unit in place and only 1 or 2 stations would lock in on HD. And even those were not guaranteed as soon as I drove around town. I was even in and around downtown Boston, MA the other day and the reception was horrible and inconsistent. When it locks in, it's great BUT....there are so few times it locks in to the HD signal and it is incredibly annoying when it goes in/out of analog/digital.

Bottom line is that I have unplugged the unit and gone back to analog. Hopefully the signal strength will get better in the future and I'll plug it back in.

I would strongly recommend holding off on buying this until lots of people start posting about success with it.

I love Alpine products I have had 4 head units in various cars over the years. I was excited to get this HD tuner because several stations in the area offer HD broadcasts. The great thing about the HD is that you usually get to see the artists name, the song title and the album on the display as it is playing. I like this feature because if I like what I hear then I can make a note of it for future reference. Not all stations offer this feature unfortunately.

The problem with my unit is that it worked for several weeks but then it stopped updating the songs. When I turn it on it will give me the current song but when the song changes the first song played stays on the display. So I called Alpine and the were very helpful. The problem it seems is that my head unit is several years old and the HD tuner is new. The head unit needs an update. So according to the person I spoke with I have to pull my head unit and ship it back to Alpine. The will update the software and return it to me for free. All well and good however they are on the west coast and I am on the east coast. It is a 5 day ship time each way and they will take 2-3 days to do the update. So I am looking at, best case, being with out my head unit (no music or podcasts) for two weeks minimum. It really is not worth all that to me and is kind of disappointing.

What I do not understand is why, with technology today, I cannot download the update myself on my computer and then install it in my head unit (it has a USB connection). Time to update guys!

I seem to get a LOT more stations than some other reviewers. I've heard that in the last few months, the FCC has allowed stations to increase their broadcasting power. Or maybe Alpine has improved the unit. I don't know why, but I seem able to received pretty much every station in my area (Clearwater, Florida) that broadcasts in HD. Sound quality is excellent -- way better than analog FM.

David Greenbaum. Clearwater, FL.

I put a complete Alpine system in my car. From HU through Signal Processor Then over to JL Audio D Class Amp & Speakers. I pulled out all the stops, I got it ALL. CDA-9886 Head Unit. KCE-400BT Blue Tooth, TUA-T550HD HD Receiver, PXA-H100 Imprint Processor, and an AI-Net XM Radio Module with the signals routed into a JL Audio HD900/5 D class amp hooked to 2 sets of JL Audio Separates. 1 set C5-650 (Rear Fill) and one set of ZR-650CSi (Front Doors) The amp's 5th channel drives a pair of JL Audio 12W3 Subs. This review will focus on the TUA-550HD HD Receiver.

I was really looking forward to being capable of receiving HD radio in the car. When I installed everything I was having a VERY rough time getting any music from the HD Radio. With all the AI-Net boxes I have in my AI-Net daisy chain it took me nearly 2 hours of trial and error hooking the equipment all up in different combo's before I got radio source and all my other AI-Net box sources to work. The manual only shows how to hook it up to a AI-Net head unit by itself. No mention of what to do if you are also using an Imprint processor or other AI-Net sources or a combo of the above. So I finally am getting Radio White Noise with everything hooked up. I search for FM stations in the Analog FM band and I get only a few stations to lock in. Hmm the 9886 Head unit FM receiver received a ton more stations than the HD Radio. So I go to my favorite radio station who supposedly has 2 HD sub channels. I'm waiting for some kind of confirmation that I am receiving HD... Nothing... Turns out the reception is so horrible on the receiver that I was not getting a strong enough antenna signal to receive the HD sub channels. I live about 17 Miles from Downtown Chicago and have NEVER in any car I have ever owned had bad reception even when I was 35+ miles from the city. So reception was awful. Now I have to admit my car's antenna is inside my windshield glass and is not a standard whip antenna. Still I had no problems receiving many many stations from the CDA-9886's internal receiver. So I decided to buy an amplified antenna and give it a try. I hook up the amplified antenna and mount it where the instructions say I will have best results. I run the power wire for the amp to the back of the 9886 and hook it up to the power antenna lead on the 9886 so when the radio is on the antenna/amp is also, when the radio is off like while listening to a CD the antenna/amp will also be off. I turn everything on and have no reception at all. Turns out the TUA-T550HD does not cause the 9886's power antenna lead to go hot. So The antenna/amp was off. I pulled the HU and moved the power antenna's power lead over to the amp turn on wire. So now whenever the 9886 is on so is the antenna/amp. So now I have some reception in normal FM. Better than my car's antenna but still not enough signal to receive most HD sub channels. an nowhere NEAR as good as the internal receiver in the 9886 on it's own. So this thing not only cost ~$150 it gives me horrible reception. i cannot even listen to some of my favorite Analog legacy FM stations with this receiver with a better antenna than the 9886's built in receiver. Turns out the only HD sub channel stations I receive are from near by spanish stations. Nothing else. and only half of the normal legacy FM stations I get with the 9886's tuner. This is the First Alpine product I would have to tell people to steer clear of. You may have better luck if you live IN the big city, but this HD Receiver is NOT ready for the Burbs. Save your money unless you live in the City.

I coupled the HD-Tuner with Alpine's iDA-X305S. The supplied Ai-Net cable makes this a snap.

Standard over the air free radio never sounded better. I live in Philadelphia and there are more than 30 stations either broadcasting or multi-casting. My set-up recognised these stations and adapted.

Just as the brochure states... FM stations come in at CD quality, whilst AM stations come in at FM quality. I also enjoy knowing the Artist/song on the display.

I am pleased with the set-up and recommend this unit to those with Alpine's HD-Ready capable devices.

However, before making a purchase do a search for HD radio stations in your locale before making the leap. No sense in spending over $100.00 if there are only 2 stations.

I took a chance purchasing the Alpine TUA-T550HD HD radio tuner for use with my current Alpine head unit IVA-W205. I've done some research and read the reviews from several sites - they were mixed between good and bad. I installed this myself, which was pretty straight forward and relatively easy, once you figure out how to "daisy chain" the Ai-net cable between the IVA-W205, HD tuner, and PXA-H701 processor (in that order). Man, what an improvement on sound quality and selection of stations! Once I turned the system on, I was able to see instantly that I was receiving HD signals, stations multi-cast/HD2 of the same frequency as well. You get to see station info, song title, and band/singer name. The only thing that can't be done is ID tagging with iPhone, which is due to the limitation of the IVA-W205. Overall, I'm very satisified with my purchase.

Range is extremely limited compared to regular FM.Also when the signal srenght gets weak you hear the same line in a song or a commercial over and over again.You may be with a couple miles of the transmitter site, but maybe you turn a corner or cross an overpass; it could be almost anything that wil cause the tuner to repeat the same line repeatedly. Save your money, don't get HD until there are some serious improvements.