New Pioneer HU w/ HD radio: Poor HD sound quality

[iCeNN 10+ year member]

I recently bought a Pioneer DEH-5500HD, one of the reasons being that's it has HD radio. When testing out the HD Radio, I noticed some static and lack of bass when music was playing on an HD station( I know it was HD because I turned HD seek on). I know that HD radio is supposed to eliminate or at least reduce static to the point where it's not really all that noticeable. I was wondering what the problem could be. Was I supposed to install this HU in a certain way? Do I need extra components? My car is a 1999 Saturn SC2, currently with factory antenna. I should note I did buy an antenna adapter to be able to connect the antenna to the HU. Does anyone have any suggestions, or have had a similar experience? If you did have a similar experience, did you find a solution? Thank You!

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[maylar 10+ year member]

HD radio is not yet perfected. HD receivers are less sensitive than regular FM and you need a strong signal to get the radio to "lock in". Pioneer decks usually have excellent tuners, but they probably **** on HD like everyone else's. My JVC has lousy FM sensitivity even with an amplified OEM antenna. It's great quality when the signal is strong, but fades out in areas that regular stereo receivers wouldn't. I wish there was an option to turn HD off.

BTW HD isn't High Definition - it's Hybrid Digital. It lets stations broadcast multiple programs on the same carrier. There's one HD station in my area that's commercial free. Other than that, it's useless IMO.

 

[iCeNN 10+ year member]

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can improve the reception/sound quality to meet HD(hybrid definition) standards? Would getting a new antenna help?

 

[vaiboy 10+ year member]

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can improve the reception/sound quality to meet HD(hybrid definition) standards? Would getting a new antenna help?

You can try installing an amplified antenna like this one RetroSound WPA1 Antenna Amplified window antenna at Crutchfield.com but that might not even correct your problem. If the signal in your area is too week HD radio will switch to the analog signal, HD radio sacrifices sound quality for reception that is the way it was designed to work.

 

[iCeNN 10+ year member]

You can try installing an amplified antenna like this one RetroSound WPA1 Antenna Amplified window antenna at Crutchfield.com but that might not even correct your problem. If the signal in your area is too week HD radio will switch to the analog signal, HD radio sacrifices sound quality for reception that is the way it was designed to work.

How about just getting a regular antenna? The sound quality I currently get just has some static, but overall sounds ok. Also could it be because I'm using an antenna adapter?