Last night I was surfing in search of new components for my stereo system and found the HD Radio add-on for my Pioneer Premier DEH-980BT. It adds HD Radio to my system. I found a great price online and noticed that there is a $50 rebate - that ends today...(been running since June 30) DOH!

So I scrambled to get it ordered and then went to the rebate page. Trick is you need to text a word to the rebate sponsor using your cell phone so you will qualify for the rebate. It's legit but caused fits for me because my stock Blackberry is not enabled for texting. I woke up my wife and used hers.

Here's the page for the rebate form and number to text.

http://hdradio.com/rebate/rebate.php

Make sure you read the instructions so you don't get excluded. Here's the list of units that qualify

Accurian TTR
Alpine DVA-9965, TUA-T500HD, TUA-T550HD
Audio Design Associates HDM-1
Axxess (Metra) AHDT-01

BOSS 750HD
Boston Acoustics, Inc. (D&M) Receptor HD
Cambridge Soundworks 820HD
Coby HDR-650, HDR-700
DaySequerra M4.0X, M4.2R, M4C
Denon AVP-A1HDCI, AVR-4308CI, AVR-5308CI, DRA-697CIHD, S-52
Dice HD DICE™, iTR-100
Directed DHHD-1000, DMHD-1000
Dual XHD6420, XHD6425, XHD7714, XHD7720

Eclipse HDR105

iLuv i168, i169

Insignia NS-C5112, NS-HD2114

Integra C-HDSAT, DTC 9.8,DTR 8.8
JBL (Harman) On Time 400IHD
Jensen (Spectra) JiMS-525, JiMS-525i
Jensen Mobile AMM12HDN, HD5112, HD5212, VM8013HD, VM8023HD, VM9022HD, VM9022HDN, VM9312HD, VM9512HD
JVC KD-HDR1, KD-HDR1B,KD-HDR30, KD-HDW10,KT-HD300, KT-HDP1
JVC Arsenal KD-AHD39
Kenwood KTC-HR200
LG PC12
Marantz AV8003, SR8002
Niles Audio TM-HD/R
Onkyo PR-SC885, T-4555,TX-NR905
Peripheral (AAMP) HDRT
Pioneer GEX-P10HD
Polk Audio I-Sonic® ES,I-Sonic® ES2
Polk Designs HDX3
Radiosophy HD100
Rotel RT-1084
Sangean HDR-1, HDT-1, HDT-1X
Sony XT-100HD, XDR-F1HD, XDR-S10HDiP, XDR-S3HD
Visteon HD Jump, HD Zoom,HD Pulse
VR3 VRHDUA100
Yamaha RX-V863, RX-Z11

 

Darn, could have used that last month!

Thanks, though!

 

i have sirius but thanks. just keeping the thread alive

 

Actually if you have your receipt and the UPC code, you can still get in by texting "update" to 34343 and then going to the web site for the form - submit the form before Oct 17!

 

PPRO, thanks for posting. Now you have one more thing to do. Go get your wife a new mobile phone number so they can't SPAM her with ads.

 

No kidding?

I'll start looking! I'm sure I still have the box.

Thanks again!

 

That had to be the fastest Ground shipping I ever saw! Ordered midnight Monday, installed in my car by Wednesday midnight... Scroll sideways to see the whole wiring diagram.




More

Basically plug and play. Cost me around $30 after the rebate. Hard to complain about that!

 

Wow! Speedy all around.

Please let us know what do you think about your new HD Radio tuner / signal, particularly on stations that broadcast in parallel (same program on analog and digital). When you have a good signal on both is there a huge difference? Hardly any difference?

What about when you're getting multipath on the analog signal. Does the digital signal hang with it (presumably due to error correction) or does it lose it too?

 

There's a difference. It's easy to tell because when you tune to a station that is HD, it starts out in regular FM, then goes to HD after a few seconds. You can really hear the difference in the depth of the sound, clarity of the highs and the richness of the lows. Reading the specifications and comparing to the analog receiver, I find the only significant difference is the stereo separation (45dB (analog) vs. 70dB (HD) ). That would account for the depth of the sound. The frequency response is the same for both at 30hz-15000hz. The AM signal-to-noise ratio is better with the HD (expected).

I haven't been in a multi-path situation yet so I can't tell you anything there.

 

Great info. Thx. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts again down the road after you've lived with the HD for a while.

 

Has anyone noticed much improvement with HD radio? I love my HDTV but not ready to switch to HD radio yet. Besides, I'm usually listening to talk radio or CD's.

 

As I said it does sound better. I will confess though that until I found a way to add it for only $30 (component that plugs into my head unit for $80 minus $50 rebate) I wasn't really missing it. But for $30 I decided it was time... I like the improvement in channel separation and the data display.

But I tend mostly to listen to my iPod as it as all my music from home and of course no commercials or blabber. I do listen to XM from time to time and the CD player has been silent since I got the iPod (it takes less space than two CD's). But in terms of options, with all broadcast going over to digital, I just wanted to have it in there so if I need to get some news or listen to broadcasts, I won't have to worry about analog broadcasts going away.

 

My check arrived a couple days ago. Not a single spam message to the cell phone or any junk mail. It was a genuine rebate offer and my net-out for adding HD radio to my car was $30 and a Y-adapter to connect the antenna ($6). Can't beat that with a stick!

I wouldn't be surprised to see them do it again.

 

Excellent job! Any more thoughts on HD Radio.

 

HD radio is mis-named. it is not "high definition."

the terrestrial radio companies can't program their regular radio stations worth a damn, i don't think i'd trust them to do any better with their digital stations.

those are my thoughts...

 

That may be. The point here was about the tech involved to receive HD, not any measure of programming. At the very least, getting HD preserves the option of continuing to receive AM and FM when it goes all digital (like broadcast TV will in February...). For the $30 I spent, I know I can still receive broadcast radio even if it's not my first choice in programming.

But then I still have computers that accept both 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" floppies with running versions of DOS and Windows 95. It doesn't happen often but there are still things that don't run in XP or come on CD's. It's just downward compatibility for me.