sign in to your account | sign up for a new account | Rewards program
0 item: $0.00
Go to Cart
 
Shop the Outlet
 
Return to the main store
Chat Email Call me Connect
1.888.955.6000
 
 
1-888-955-6000
crutchfield.com
Crutchfield

Free Shipping on Everything

60-Day Money-Back Guarantee  |  Lifetime Tech Support

Alpine TUA-T550HD

Add-on HD Radio™ tuner for 2007-up Alpine Ai-Net receivers

Zoom
  • Alpine TUA-T550HD

    Front

  • Alpine TUA-T550HD

    Front Left

  • Alpine TUA-T550HD
  • Alpine TUA-T550HD
Does it work with my system?

Item# 500TUAT550 offer details

Item# 500TUAT550

Review Summary
21 people say  
 
DISCONTINUED
 
This item is no longer available to purchase.
 
Contact us for other options
 
Call   Email   Chat
 
Original price $199.99
Shop all HD Radio Add-on Tuners
 
 
 

By buying this product you'll earn up to 200 Rewards points.

When you sign up for a Crutchfield account, you’ll be enrolled in Crutchfield Rewards. You’ll earn one point for every dollar you spend on gear from us. You can turn your points into Rewards Cards that you can use toward future purchases. You can sign up for an account now, or after you complete your purchase (you’ll get credit for the points either way).

Share this product:
 
Alpine

Our take on the Alpine TUA-T550HD

by Kristen Schaub

Love the variety of your local radio stations, but can't stand the sound quality? Alpine's TUA-T550HD HD Radio™ tuner picks up the crisp, clear digital signals offered by participating local stations so you'll never have to deal with static again. Also, HD Radio technology allows stations to broadcast two or three channels of content. The TUA-T550HD tuner receives these additional channels, so you can enjoy everything your favorite radio stations have to offer.

Just connect this compact tuner to your compatible Alpine receiver, and tuck it neatly away inside your dash or under a seat. Connect your iPod® or other audio device to the built-in USB connection, and listen to your stored digital music.

The TUA-T550HD also allows iTunes® tagging when paired with an Alpine IVA-W505 or iDA-X100 receiver. When you hear a great song, simply press enter on your receiver to save the song's information to your iPod, or save up to 50 songs on the tuner if your iPod isn't connected. Then the next time you sync with iTunes, you'll have the option of purchasing your new favorite songs.

See more info on this item
    Details:
    • HD Radio™ tuner for 2007-up Alpine receivers with Ai-Net
    • receives multicasting content (where available)
    • USB connection for iPod or other audio device
    • iTunes tagging available with Alpine IVA-W505 and iDA-X100 receivers
    • box dimensions: 4-3/4" x 3-1/8" x 1"
    • warranty: 1 year
    • Our 60-day money-back guarantee
    Shop all Alpine HD Radio Add-on Tuners

      Note: Sorry, Crutchfield cannot ship Alpine products to Guam or Puerto Rico.

       

      Hands-on research from the Crutchfield Labs (what are the Labs?)

      What’s in the box? | In-depth notes

      Product Research

      Product Research
      What's in the box?

      Download owner's manual

      • HD Radio Tuner
      • Power wiring harness
      • 8' Ai-NET cable (Ai-NET connector on each end)
      • 10' Antenna extension cable (male Motorola connector on one end and female Motorola connector on the other)
      • 8' USB cable (USB type A on both ends)
      • 4 Self-tapping screws
      • Owner's Manual (English/ French/ Spanish)

      Our Product Research Team

      At Crutchfield, you'll get detailed, accurate information that's hard to find elsewhere. That's because we have our own in-house Product Research team — they open the box, verify contents, check the owner's manual, and record dimensions, features and specs. We stay on top of new products and technologies to help people make informed choices.

      Features
      Connections

      Features

      HD Radio: HD Radio is digital FM and AM broadcasting, allowing you to enjoy your same favorite FM and AM stations with digital sound quality. The FM stations have CD-quality sound and AM stations sound as good as today's analog FM stations.

      Multicasting: HD Radio offers multicasting, meaning current FM stations can provide more than one program stream on their existing frequency.

      Compatibility: This tuner is compatible with 2006 and later Alpine HD Radio ready head units that use the Ai-NET bus system.

      CD Changer Pass-Thru: The HD Radio tuner uses the CD changer input on the Alpine head unit. If you also want to use a CD changer, there is a CD changer pass-through connection on the tuner, so they can be daisy chained together.

      iTunes Tagging: iTunes Tagging allows you to Tag songs on a FM HD Radio station. The songs' information is captured on the TUA-T550HD and transferred to your compatible iPod when connected to the USB port. The next time you connect your iPod to your iTunes account, a new Tagged playlist will appear and give you the option to preview or buy the songs from iTunes.

      Note: iTunes Tagging is supported by the following iPod/iPhone models - iPod classic (80/120/160GB), iPod nano (3rd/4th/5th/6th generations), iPod touch (1st/2nd/3rd/4th gen), iPhone (2G/3G/3GS/4).

      Connections

      Front of Tuner:

      • Antenna: Motorola jack that connects to the AM/FM antenna
      • Ai-NET Output: Ai-NET jack that connects to the head unit using the supplied Ai-NET cable
      • Ai-NET Input: Ai-NET jack that connects to an optional CD changer
      • USB 1: connect iPod using Dock to USB cable (use only when connecting an iTunes Tagging compatible head unit)
      • USB 2: connect to iTunes Tagging compatible head unit

      Rear of Tuner:

      • Power: 4-pin jack for use with supplied power harness
       

      Product Reviews

      Review this product
      Great Gear Giveaway rewards card

      Submit a review and you will be entered to win a $150 gift card

      Crutchfield Great Gear Giveaway Official Sweepstakes Rules

      Reviews for the Alpine TUA-T550HD

      Average Customer Review:

      21 people say:

      Review this product:

      Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences about this product. Please be sure to focus your comments on the product itself. Read our Review Guidelines for more information.

      Your email won't be visible. Please use the email address that is associated with your order.
      (e.g., JohnD) Your review will be signed using the display name and location
      (e.g., Charlottesville, VA)

      Click on a star to rate the overall product on a scale of 1-5
      1500 characters left
      Attach a YouTube Review
      Crutchfield Video Review Guidelines
      • Only submit videos that you made or are authorized to use.
      • Do not submit videos that contain music, video or visuals that are copyrighted and belong to someone else.
      • Please see our Review Guidelines for more information.
      500 characters left
      500 characters left
      Filter by rating:
      Sort by:
      Showing: 1-20 of 21
      View page: 12 »
      3 out of 5

      Works good if connect right

      Written By Robert, Houston on Sunday, January 29, 2012
       
      The blue wire must be connected to the amp turn on lead. It tells the HU that the radio is in the TUA -t550
      Pros:
      works good when connected properly
      Cons:
      too expensive
      2 out of 2 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      5 out of 5

      Alpine HD tuner

      Written By TT, Virginia on Monday, January 03, 2011
       
      I purchased this along with the Alpine IDA-X305SBT and I'm not sure why it has received
      such low reviews. I have not had any issues with stations drifting or fading. Once it's
      locked into a HD signal, that's where it stays. I love HD radio for multicasting, which I hope
      expands a bit more, and for iTunes Tagging. How many times have you heard something
      on the radio and wished you could remember it later. With iTunes Tagging you press the
      "Tag" button on your HU and it's done, iTunes will ask you if you want to purchase the
      song the next time you hook up your iPod to their website. I know this unit is a bit pricey
      but I'd rather pay once initially than pay monthly for satellite radio, there's just something
      about paying for radio that rubs me the wrong way. With an iPod you have endless, non-
      stop, no commercial music. We already pay enough in other monthly bills, I just can't
      make radio one of them. "Bring On More HD Channels!"
      I'd like to thank my sales advisor Buck for steering me towards Crutchfield instead of
      purchasing elsewhere, THANKS Buck and thank you Crutchfield!! I'm very happy with this
      purchase.
      7 out of 7 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      5 out of 5

      Works Great for Me

      Written By David, Clearwater, FL on Friday, December 17, 2010
      Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)
       
      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.
      6 out of 7 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      1 out of 5

      Worse than analog....

      Written By Carlos, Northern Rhode Island on Sunday, June 27, 2010
       
      This critique is about the product and NOT Crutchfield.

      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.
      4 out of 9 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      1 out of 5

      Alpine TUA-T550HD Not Ready For Prime Time

      Written By Warpig, Chicago on Saturday, June 26, 2010
       
      Very hard time installing. With all the AI-Net boxes I have in my AI-Net daisy chain it took 2 hours of different combo's before I got radio and my AI-Net 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. I search for FM stations in the Analog FM band and I get only a few stations to lock in. My 9886 FM receiver picks up way more stations. My favorite radio station who has 2 HD sub channels... Nothing... Turns out the reception is so horrible on the receiver that I was not getting a strong enough signal to receive the HD content. I live 17 Miles from Chicago and NEVER had bad reception ever before. I decided to buy an amplified antenna and give it a try. I run the power wire for the ant/amp to the 9886 and hook it to the power ant lead on the 9886. The TUA-T550HD does not activate the 9886's power antenna lead. I change it to the Amp lead. Now I have some reception in FM. Still not enough signal to receive most HD sub channels. Nowhere NEAR as good as the internal receiver in the 9886 on it's own. This is the First Alpine product I would have to tell people to steer clear of. You may be OK if you live IN the big city, but this Receiver is NOT ready for the Burbs.
      7 out of 8 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      1 out of 5

      TUA-T550HD with alpine Ixa w404

      Written By mike, New York Ny on Tuesday, December 15, 2009
       
      Dont waste your money I live in New York City and the Hd unit keeps fadeing in and out It makes lisining to the raido hard .
      4 out of 9 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      4 out of 5

      Works now!

      Written By Michael, Elk Grove, Ca on Monday, June 29, 2009
       
      For all of you having issues with your HD unit, send it in to Alpine for a software update. I sent mine in and the unit works just fine now although here in Sacramento there are not to many HD stations around. The unit stays on now and transitions from digital to analog smoothly - you can really tell the difference in sound quality.
      15 out of 15 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      1 out of 5

      Needs a lot of work...

      Written By Paul, The Bay Area, CA on Monday, May 18, 2009
       
      I bought this with an Alpine 9887 and it just doesn't work. I have to keep turning off the ignition and on again to get it to work, Sometimes I have to actually unplug the power to the unit itself to make it work, I had to relocate the unit so I could access it easily to unplug it....

      I wish Alpine would hurry up and get the fix out that they have promised, I have stopped using the radio altogether...
      7 out of 8 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      4 out of 5

      READ Head Unit Directions completely 7 times

      Written By kuade, Mountain Home, ID on Monday, April 27, 2009
       
      I have a CDA-9886, added on the TUA-T550HD module resulting in extreme frustration. The audio out of the speakers was really quite with the volume turned all the way up. After several hours of reading the head unit directions I realized there was 3 switches on the bottom of the radio. PAY ATTENTION TO THIS! Make sure they are all in the Norm position. My radio was shipped with one of the switches in the Ai-Net setting. Now the receiver works perfect. I would have rated 5 stars but the instructions included with the HD adapter sucked! No mention of the switches! I can pick up HD stations over 50 Miles away. Sounds great!
      9 out of 10 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      5 out of 5

      A Nice HD Tuner

      Written By Alan, Houston, TX on Sunday, March 01, 2009
      Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)
       
      We have this plugged into the back of our Alpine CDA-9884, and it work's very well. HD radio is a new feature, and we are enjoying it. It gives a little more variety of stations and maybe a tad better sound.
      3 out of 4 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      4 out of 5

      husband liked it

      Written By Debbie, st. augustine fl on Friday, January 30, 2009
      Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)
       
      bought this for xmas gift and husband says it improved his alpine car stereo 100 percent. no problems accessing and holding channels. had great service with crutchfield.
      2 out of 3 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      1 out of 5

      Total Disappointment

      Written By mark, Houston TX on Thursday, January 22, 2009
      Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)
       
      I bought this thing hoping it was all they make it out to b ok first hd is
      clearer when it works but honestly it was better without it not to mention
      that it won't hold a station perset its hooked to a 9887 and when the hd
      don't want to work nothing works no sound no swtiching source no cd
      player nothing u have to unplug the ai cable at the unit and plug it back in
      3 to 10 times before it will come back on if it don't come nothing works
      rendering a very expensive car stero usless i would suggest u but a head
      unit that its built in or buy alpine and have to keep buying addons that
      don't work for hunderds of dollars
      3 out of 13 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      1 out of 5

      Very disappointed

      Written By Michael, Tampa, FL on Friday, January 16, 2009
      Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)
       
      I have to agree with all of the other reviews. I purchased this unit in July
      and received it November. After installation, it would intermittently not
      turn on after turning the ignition on. I returned it for a replacement and
      the new one still does the same thing. I sometimes have to turn the
      ignition off then on and hope the unit turns on. It does sound great with
      the digital signal but it will swap between analog and digital making it very
      annoying to even listen to the radio. I originally wanted Sirius but thought
      this would be a better alternative since there are no monthly fees. I
      thought wrong. Every Alpine product I have owned (amps, speakers,
      head units) all have worked great.....except for this one. I'm very
      disappointed in that I purchased a paper weight. I hope Apline does
      something to correct these problems.
      3 out of 3 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      1 out of 5

      Not ready for primetime

      Written By Bruce, Versailles, KY on Monday, January 12, 2009
      Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)
       
      Purchased this module along with the CDA-9886. Have had problems ever since. Stereo will frequently not recognize that this module is connected to it. Turn the stereo on and off 5 or 6 times, and it will finally recognize the connection. Sound is great when it works. Both the stereo and the HD module have been replaced with same problem. I am returning it because when it is not working the radio will not work.
      6 out of 6 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      1 out of 5

      great - when it works

      Written By Bill, Philly on Tuesday, January 06, 2009
       
      Teamed with the Alpine iDA-X100 this seemed like a no-brainer. It's great when it works, the sound is great when the HD kicks in and as good as the original Alpine head unit (iDA-X100) when out of HD range. Unfortunately, it only works about 50% of the time!

      Half the time the head unit lists the station, but no sound. Turning the head unit off and on has no effect. I have to turn the ignition switch completely off and then back on again (sometimes as many as 5 times) to get the tuner to kick back in with sound.

      The iDA-X100 Alpine head unit ALWAYS worked before I put in the TUA-T550HD radio unit. Not a single problem.

      Crutchfield has been great with support and even swapped the entire HD unit out, cables and all, but the problems persist.

      Even with the Alpine release delay of 4 months, I'm still not sure this unit is ready for prime time. A pitty since when it works, the sounds, features and user interface are hard to beat.

      5 out of 5 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      1 out of 5

      ANOTHER HORRIBLE Alpine TUNER

      Written By tt, Long Island on Tuesday, January 06, 2009
       
      i got this tuner 3 days ago installed it professionally and 1st THE IPOD CONNECTION PROBLEMS started and then 2nd THE RADIO RESETTING itself for couple of times 3rd When you TURN ON YOUR CAR NO SOUND COMES ON so u have to keep resetting the radio all the time 4th THE RECEPTION Horrible reception couldnt even get local stations ALPINE MAKES ILL DECKS BUT HORRIBLE ACCESSORIES THAT GET ATTACHED TO IT STICK WITH SIRIUS OR UR LOCAL STATIONS TRUST ME U WILL BE MORE SATISFIED.....................
      3 out of 3 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      2 out of 5

      Not Ready for Prime Time

      Written By munchiniwa, Orlando, FL on Friday, December 26, 2008
      Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)
       
      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. Crutchfield replaced the unit. 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 doesn't appear to be any better.
      1 out of 1 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      2 out of 5

      Issues, Issues, Issues...

      Written By SirSteve, FL on Wednesday, December 10, 2008
      Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)
       
      I've had nothing but issues with this... mostly due to the iPod connections but I did have to send 1 back already as it would not recognize the iPod at all. Alpine says the iPod issues are due to the "long" cables that were PROVIDED (plus the adapter I had to PURCHASE). The iPod will not stay connected unless it is VERY CLOSE to the head unit. This really is not good as if I put the brain (which is not all that small) near the head unit in the dash, I had to output the iPod cable to the center console (6'). Next comes the HD part... it is really irritating when it goes in and out from analog to digital. And then sometimes, it will not display the station info/song until you change the station. ???
      4 out of 4 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      1 out of 5

      Good if you never plan on driving anywhere

      Written By Alan, Miami on Monday, December 08, 2008
       
      I agree with the first reviewer; HD reception is spotty at best. Switching between digital and analog causes a break in the signal or echo. Nothing against Alpine, but do yourself a favor and give this technology a few years.
      7 out of 7 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      2 out of 5

      Give it a few more years

      Written By stanz, Philadelphia, PA on Wednesday, December 03, 2008
      Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)
       
      Works great when it works, but HD signals do not appear to be mature enough for moving cars yet. Only being 10 miles out of the city (major city: Philadelphia) the the signals start flopping between digital and analog - creating an annoying echo and a skip in the audio. I live only 15 miles out of the city and the reception only gets more spotty the further out you go vs. no glitches with traditional FM.

      I even installed an secondary amplified Blaupunkt antenna (now running two simultaneous antennas) and saw only marginal improvement.

      Perhaps in a few more years HD will have stronger signals and this may become a non-issue.
      6 out of 7 people found this helpful
      Was this review helpful?    Yes | No
       
      1-20 of 21 >>

      For a more in-depth review and enhanced detailed information on the Alpine TUA-T550HD, please visit the Crutchfield website product page (/S-enXscfs7EjR/p_500TUAT550/Alpine-TUA-T550HD.html ).

      Get live, personalized service from an expert

      Crutchfield Advisor: Hi there.

      Crutchfield Advisor: We're happy to answer questions or provide additional info about this item.

      Chat now
      No Thanks

      Advisors also available at 1-888-600-3963

      Sorry, the Alpine TUA-T550HD is no longer available for purchase.

      • Front

        Alpine TUA-T550HD

      • Front Left

        Alpine TUA-T550HD