HU from the USA

[Pete_br]

I was lookin on Ebay for a new head unit and found some good prices but most of them seem to be delivered from the USA. Am I likely to have problems tuning in radio frequencies etc

Help please

 

[Tom]

yes the radio wont work, dont be cheap.

Get one from a shop.

 

[Pete_br]

As I thought thanks for that m8y

 

[BRUN]

you can buy something from Autoleads that will make the radio work fine, its £14.99, however the number it displays might not be the actual station its on..

 

[Tom]

but still its not worth the saving

 

[BRUN]

nah your right, its not

 

[KDF]

Damn yanks..always have to make everything different.

 

[powelly]

yeah it does work

my mates hu was bought in Canada when he was there and it works the same as any other??

 

[Pete]

Been discussing this all morning on msn with another member, the hu Im looking at comes in silver in the uk and black in the us, I want the black one and was trying to work out if it would work in the uk.

Does any one have the technical reasons for it? ie frequency ranges and steps?

 

[Tom]

Whats the model maybe i can help

 

[Pete]

Alpine 9815, Cheers Tom

Was actually more expensive on ebay than the UK version in online shops.

I know one of the differences was no DAB but satelite instead, doesnt bothered me that one, but if the main tuner doesnt work its a bit crap

 

[Tom]

I thought you might say the 9815

The main tuner will be out of scope for the uk.

But if you got a 9815 euro version you could contact alpine to see if they could send you the facia panel and surround

 

[Pete]

Cheers Tom, Not a bad idea that, I know Rich aka RB_172 has emailed alpine and asked if it would be available in black, but might give them a ring and find out.

 

[Tom]

It will still be blue ilumination.

some units have a tuner that can be switched reigons but because of xm support it could be tricky

 

[Pete]

It was the whole silver in a black interior thing I am trying to avoid. Ill see what Alpine can come up with.

 

[BRUN]

dont bother emailing them

ring Alpine technical in the UK, they will give you an honest helpful answer...

 

[ivegota16v]

my rockford (rf9400r) which i got imported has options for EUROPEAN of USA tunning....

 

[Pete]

Just to update on the whole USA import HU thing, Rich actually received a reply from Alpine Uk confirming that the tuner will not function correctly (as per what Tom said) and it isnt possible to get the black front from the US model from them and they couldnt confirm that it would actually work if it was sourced.

They hinted that they may get it right next year and have a black version of the same level of model!

 

[Locky]

I brought a HU back from the usa... and I sold it promptly... the main probs you will have is that it will not tune into weaker stations due to a different step division... you will have no RDS so it wont show station names, and you will have no AM frequencies... appart from that its fine...