| | |  | Accessories | Home » » » Alpine TUA-T550HD HD Radio™ Tuner Box with iTunes Tagging | | | | | | | Description: | | Alpine HD Radio Tuner - TUAT550HD/ Multicasting/ Over 200 Stations/ Hide-Away Black Box Design/ Compatible With Specific Alpine Head Units And AV Head Units/ Black Finish | | | Features: | |
• HD Radio delivers FM radio with CD sound quality and AM radio with FM sound quality.
• Step up from traditional radio, for a crystal-clear, digital experience.
• HD Radio stations are offering a variety of useful messages that scroll across radio display screens
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 4.0 inches | | Product Width:
| 8.0 inches | | Product Height:
| 11.0 inches | | Product Weight:
| 2.0 pounds | | Package Length:
| 10.7 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.7 inches | | Package Height:
| 3.0 inches | | Package Weight:
| 2.1 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 16 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 16 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Great audio - Bad radioDec 27, 2008
By Its
"Munchiniwa"
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 found the following review helpful:
 Not worth itJul 01, 2010
By Paul Mac
"Paul"
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 found the following review helpful:
Get HD & throw away long distance AM channelsJul 16, 2009
By R. Johnson
"soundboyrich"
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
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 I love Alpine Products But...Feb 12, 2010
By J. Garrison
"SurfDog"
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!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Uselss and waste of money.....Jun 27, 2010
By Carlos A. Casanova
"Carlos"
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.
See all 16 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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