Imported Head Units?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Just wanted to know whether American Head Units would work here or would they require some modifications? (if think they do work but just want to make sure).

Im currently looking at the Alpine HDA-5460 with built in Hard Drive unit currently retailing at £950 here but in America, with the current exchange rate, its £422.80   s:shock: :shock: s:shock:  So I think its probably worth getting.

Thanks in advance.

[aaronjb]

Depends on the h/u.. And to find the answer might require a bit of research (unless Buster knows)..

But basically - the (radio) frequency steps are larger in the US than the UK  - I think over here we go up in 0.05MHz or 0.1MHz steps, but the US use 0.2MHz steps.. So you won't be able to pick up all UK radio stations, unless the headunit has an option to switch the step size - some do, some don't..   s:? :? s:?

[Anonymous]

If it's anything like mini-DV video cameras or the iPod, it's probably exactly the same unit sold in both countries....that's just patched to either application.

I would imagine that a £900+ hard-drive head unit has quite extensive firmware control for that kind of thing?

But like you say, better to be absolutely sure before you buy!

[MRMike]

Hey Roadsterboy, remember as well that although the dollar rate is very low at the moment, you will have to pay import duties etc when the product arrives in the UK.  Which could reduce the disparity in prices.  Worth checking

Mike

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Yeah  had already thought of the import tax etc but I did have a friend over there who was coming in the next 6 weeks but they arent coming now so not sure what to do.  

Apparently anything imported over £150 has 12% slapped on top and then 17.5% VAT. OUCH!

hmmm, i cant believe how much the price difference over here compared to there.  Talk about Rip Off Britain!

Oh well, the only thing i could hope for is that the store would be willing to reduce the price written on the package but I seriously doubt it.

Bummer.

[crankshaft]

Hi RoadsterBoy;

Where did you see it at £422.80 - USD ??

The great thing about this player, like the PhatNoise but unlike the Sony MEX1, is that you can remove the hard drive in a cartridge and load songs via your PC.

The Sony can only record from disks you insert into the head unit  or alternatively import via memory sticks which is not very practical since mem stix are relatively small ?!

CrankShaft

[Anonymous]

Hi Crankkshaft,

These places are selling them at pretty good prices but they dont have any in stock at the mo.

 m http://www.hookedontronics.com/sales/A4 ... A-5460.htm m   $848 = £458.628

 m http://www.etronics.com/product.asp?stk ... VBName=374 m
$799 = £432.127

UK Prices retrieved from  w www.xe.com w .


I did manage to read a quick review about this item the other day and they liked it but it is a bit buggy.  1 example is that if the hard drive has more than 5 gigs of MP3's then it sometimes takes anything from 2-30 seconds to retreive the next song but am confident this can be fixed with a firmware upgrade.  Also, the hard drive has a USB1.1 connection so transfering your MP3 collection will take some time!!

[crankshaft]

RoadsterBoy;

Thnx, it seems like no-one in the USA has stocks, very strange, but many shops here in Singapore practice a similar policy. Advertise something at a low price never intending to sell them, but then offer some other alternative 'now you're here' !!

I'm very surprised that anyone has released any new USB products in the last year which are USB 1.1, that's very 'old hat' now !

The 5460 is available in the USA, in Australia and in the UK, so if the channel seperation is different, it's probably switchable as with other units, otherwise they would need to have a different model number, I can't see they would release 2 different spec units with the same model number.

Where did you see the review ?? - all the sites selling it say "no reviews yet" ??!!

Cheers

CrankShaft.

[Anonymous]

Hi Crankshaft,

The review was from an Australian website but I cant seem to find it at the mo.  Ill try and have a look at Google to see if I can find it again.   s:D s:D