Buying a HU from USA

[dreamdream2006]

Hi,
I m currently in US for a short trip, planning to buy a HU for my car (Swift) preferably Pioneer. I have following questions. Can you please help?

1) Is there any problem if buy a HU from here?
2) Prices are same in US and India (without Warrenty)
3) HUs with similar features and look and feel has diff. model numbers ex. 2950 in india is 2900 in US - what is the significance?

[sreedotk]

The HU bought from US have a different region code for the radio frequencies. So you might have trouble getting good radio reception in India. Also if it is a DVD player then you might have trouble playing region locked dvd's

[aZa]

1. No problem as pioneer authorised service stations are present everywhere.

2. Yes, as without warranty you are paying the taxes and duties applied in india.

3. This is just nomenclature, The model no. 2950 is for asia pacific and 2900 is for US/Canada. No difference in features.

[dreamdream2006]

Originally Posted by sreedotk

The HU bought from US have a different region code for the radio frequencies. So you might have trouble getting good radio reception in India. Also if it is a DVD player then you might have trouble playing region locked dvd's

I am not going for an DVD HU. Just plain MP3 + FM is my requirement

So you suggest not to buy from here because of Radio freq. mismatch?

[Su-47]

@dream..
Pls. make sure that you dont end up with wrong zone code if you are buying a DVD-HU.

[JPL]

Hi,

If you are buying a Hu from the US make sure you get a good one like a atleast a Alpine, as suggested below see if you need a HU with DvD also, the grey price here in bangalore is almost equivalent to that of the US ( after discount, atleast thats what I have observed) but here if you know the grey dealer servicing if needed becomes easy. I would rather buy from the US and forfeit the warranty then buy from the grey. Let us see what the guru's say..

I did not have to pay taxes here as my friend only got the Hu, and she was exempted.

[vikram_d]

Just make sure that any system that you buy has radio frequency settings. If it does then you will not have any problems. Most of the Pioneers have this setting these days.

[dreamdream2006]

Originally Posted by vikram_d

Just make sure that any system that you buy has radio frequency settings. If it does then you will not have any problems. Most of the Pioneers have this setting these days.

What is this Radio Frequence Settings?? How can I check this?
Please give me some more info. I am not sure about this.

Thanks in advance

[prasadee]

"Throughout the world, the broadcast band is 87.5 to 108.0 MHz, or some portion thereof. In the U.S. it is 87.9 to 107.9 MHz. Japan is the only exception, using exclusively its own unique 76 to 90 MHz band with 0.1 MHz channel spacing"
FM broadcasting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

After the 1984 ITU Geneva conference these differences should be resolved. Last year I was in the same boat, I wanted to take a stereo for my dad's WagonR. The price, installation options, & service did not make sense to me. I bought the stereo in India, and had him install it. Going through the below link, and the frequencies used by the stations, I am leaning towards believing, it should work.
FM broadcast band - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

RadioStationWorld - India - Radio Station Websites
Bay Area Radio Stations, San Francisco Bay Area Radio Station List.

[navin]

Originally Posted by dreamdream2006

What is this Radio Frequence Settings?? How can I check this?

Many HUs have both US and EU settings and are switchable between these. It is best to check with your retailer about this.

US radio settings are odd freq. starting at 87.9 and ending at 107.9. below 100Hz the stations are spaces 0.4Mhz apart and above 100Mhz they are spaced 0.8 Mhz apart. Hence all radio stations in the US have odd freq. 87.9, 88.3, etc...The reasons are long and have been detailed and discussed on this forum some time back.

EU settings are 0.1Mhz apart and hence you can have stations with odd and even freq. 88.0, 88.1, etc...where 88.0 is even and 88.1 is odd.

[tsk1979]

The HU I have (Pioneer) can tune 0.05MHz apart.
So with manual tune I can go 91, 91.05 91.10... and so on.
If such an HU is available, it should work.

[navin]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

The HU I have (Pioneer) can tune 0.05MHz apart.
So with manual tune I can go 91, 91.05 91.10... and so on.
If such an HU is available, it should work.

Yes that is usually useful for Eastern Eueope, Japan etc..

[dreamdream2006]

Originally Posted by navin

Yes that is usually useful for Eastern Eueope, Japan etc..

Thank you all. I will check whether I am able to tune 0.05 by 0.05 and will go for it.

[dreamdream2006]

I could not find pioneer HU which meets the tuning by 0.05 units.
So I decided to drop the idea of buying HU from here.

I am thinking of buying rear speakers.

Anyone heard about DUAL brand? It is comparitively better than the basic speakers likes of pioneer, sony etc.

[navin]

Dual is not the barnd it used to be. Dual used to make some excellent turntables and such but that was a couple of decades ago. I did investigate a DUAL HU a few years back but it was not worth it. I suspect the speakers will not be much different.