Johnish Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 Has anyone installed HD (High Definition) Radio in to their subies? Mine is the OEM HU for the 07 Spec.B (with SRS WOW)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimm Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 I put a unit in mine. I had difficulty getting it to lock in to an HD signal reliably. I ended up getting sick of it dropping out to analog and skipping so I removed it. You may have more luck in a better reception area though. Rule of thumb with HD radio is if you get solid reception on the regular FM station you will likely have good HD reception, if your FM is spotty at all you can expect HD to drop out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnish Posted August 26, 2009 Author Share Posted August 26, 2009 ok. so which unit did you use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhig Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 By spotty do you mean a little static? I'm looking for any kind of solution for my crappy reception. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimm Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 I used a Directed unit: http://www.crutchfield.com/S-EfgqLpmZt0V/p_60744000/Directed-Car-Connect.html The problem with HD radio (at least with the unit I tried) is that once it locks in, the sound is good. If the radio loses enouhg of the signal, however, it will drop out of HD and switch to regular FM reception. It is similar to the HD signal on your TV only in this case the unit will automatically revert to the analog station if the HD is lost. The result is that you will get the unit locked in to the HD station but as you drive and the reception drops away/changes the unit will lose the HD station and drop to analog. When it drops to analog you will notice the reduction is sound quality and also possibly a time delay switch. It is enough to be even more distracting than just listening to slightly staticy regular radio. I ended up pulling the unit after trying several different antennas (amplified) as well as the OEM antenna. The dropouts were just so frequent and annoying. Bottom line is that digital reception is a fine idea, so long as you can promise a strong signal throughout the trip. A static antenna works fine for HDTV as once you get it set up and receiveing a good signal you can be happy. Since a car can move you will experience the HD signal coming and going and since it is digital it is an all or nothing setup, you either get the digital reception or you don't. The constant switching between analog and digital will, however, cause a great deal of distraction. If you are hoping to improve your basic reception by adding HD radio, don't bother. You get the signal you get with your antenna. You would be better off putting up a mast antenna and hooking it in to you stock deck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.