thanks Chad...

and Dave! where did you find that? i think we can safely say that piece of info confirms our theory.

 

ummmm I read and quoted that from the '04 Alpine catalog about 20 posts ago



Perhaps we need to update the first post

 

Good find Mike, and Dave you're right, I will update the first post tonight. I'm burnt out at work right now.

My own 2c: that terk/blitzsafe combination looks like it will work, but won't be quite as elegant as Alpine's original TUA. One more box to stuff somewhere. Unless the combo is significantly cheaper, I personally would rather buy a new or used Alpine TUA.

 

but right now, we're talking about the non-Alpine setup being at or under $100 right? that's notably cheaper than a $250 TUA (new), imo.

perhaps the used units or clearance units will be comparable in price... no telling for now.

 

i had a chance to hold the XM Commander and XM tuner unit that comes with it this weekend. the tuner is the unit which will be used in the terk/blitzsafe configurations that are coming...

a few things worth note --
the new XM antenna that comes w/ it is unbelievably small... i would have to estimate: approximately 2"x2"x1" WxDxH.

it is smaller now due to the omission of the terrestrial XM antenna (it will not work w/ the ground repeaters).

and the new universal XM tuner does not come w/ a terrestrial antenna input, so even by adding another antenna, the ground repeaters will not be usable...

 

Weird why would they disable a system they spent lots of money, time building? I was impressed with the size of the new antenna as well, but after what you just stated...will not be looking to upgrade/downgrade mine!


I just bought one of these setups for my wife's car (going to try using the RF mod, see if she is ok with it)


Also of interest is the new XM feature of "favorite song" you can pick 15 songs and whenever they come on ..you are notified.

 

The single plug xm antenna combines satellite and terrestrial signals, it would be crazy if there was no terrestrial reception, some of us live in cities with tall buildings, tunnels and garages. You can buy a splitter for the single plugged antenna to use with older xm tuners with the separate terrestrial & satellite antenna inputs.

 

you sure? based on what i was reading, it was an omitted component. even at the time i was reading it, i thought that it does seem somewhat foolish to abandon the established terrestrial system.

 

that it would be bad/stupid/mistake for an XM tuner to not have the terrestrial tuner.

BTW I took a closer look at the specs of the Alpine 9820XM, and noticed that the preamp outputs are only 2.2v. That's another reason why it would be better to go with an external tuner and a better head unit (in addition to the lack of internal mp3 capability).

It's not so relevant to me right now because I'm pretty poor. I just bought a used Pioneer Tuner & controller setup from an S2KI member (thanks Simon) and I'll be using that for a while, probably buy a Pioneer head unit to work with it sometime soon, and then perhaps later upgrade to an Alpine setup.

 

well -- i'll stand corrected then...

until we find something firmer, i will continue to assume that the terrestrial system will be supported via the mini-antenna's.
and i also noticed a while ago that the 9820XM isn't much of a HU, that it's an Alpine HU that's been almost completely sacrificed to the gods of XM.