Home > Consumer Reviews > Pioneer GEX-P10HD HD Radio Tuner for Pioneer HD Radio-Ready Head Units

The built in analog tuner is less sensitive than the tuner in the base radio, so I lose sensitivity in order to gain HD. I have tried the splitter so I can take advantage of the analog tuner and the HD tuner at the same time, and the analog tuner does not work while the HD is plugged in to the deck.

HD tuner is not as sensitive as the tuner in my older JVC HDR1. HD2 and HD3 stations that came in fine with the JVC do not come in as well with the this unit. If I didn't have the JVC I might be satisfied, but since I know there is better I was definitely let down.

The install is straight forward, and it works, but unless you NEED HD I would skip this add on, or get a JVC Deck with the HD built in to the Deck.

First my background, I worked in a stereo shop from age 16 to 18 and I am an electrician. I have installed many stereos for friends and in my own vehicles over the years. I was excited about this whole HD radio thing so I bought two Pioneer F700BT head units along with two of these GEX-P10HD tuners and upon installation of the first unit into my truck, the tuner worked flawlessly with my head unit. Sound was crystal clear and and I pulled a strong signal. So I installed the second one into my wife's car and at first it worked well but then over a couple days the signal dropped out and the radio would stay on Analog and emit nothing but static. Upon switching the station to regular FM within the built-in tuner of the F700BT, the radio would pull a clear signal. So all evidence pointed toward the HD tuner. I opened my wife's car up and checked all connections and made sure there was an adequate ground and went step by step over everything that I had installed. To no avail, I got nothing but static from the HD tuner. So I ordered another one (they were only $50 at the time), thinking I just got a bunk unit. A few weeks later my HD tuner in my truck failed with the same symptoms. I checked all connections and retraced all steps. No matter what I tried, the result was that the tuner was junk. My wife's second one arrieved. Again, it pulled some good reception and then a few days later it died on us. Its kind of hard for me to believe I just got a "bad unit" when all three do not work. But I am curious if the unit might simply not be compatible with my head unit even though it is advertised as compatible. I have wondered if anyone has ever experienced this. Nevertheless, I must rate this unit as 1 star due to the simple fact that it does not seem to work correctly.

Bought this to go with a Pioneer DEH-P6000UB head unit.

The Good:
HD Radio! It's been nice to discover all the programing out there I never knew before. A few of the stations in the Nashville, TN market broadcast 2 and 3 stations on their HD freq.

Easy to install! Just 2 wires (positive and ground), the IP Bus cord, and the antenna. No problem! Would have been nice if they included a Y adapter for the antenna so you could use the built in tuner if you wanted (see below).

The Bad:
Only a few HD stations are taking full advantage of the media. Not many stations have the song or program titles listed while they play. This isn't the tuners fault of course. Hopefully radio stations will allow HD owners to take full advantage of the technology in the future.

The Ugly:
My head unit has a full OEL display capable of 3 lines of 18 characters each on the display (mode dependant), but the HD radio tuner only uses 1 line 8 charaters (EIGHT! BUMMER!) Such a WASTE of the display capabilities.

I never found a way to set presets with the P6000UB's multi-control knob, but if you use the head units remote control, it's as easy as pushing a button.

While the HD stations come in loud and clear, there are a couple of standard stations that came in better with the head units built in tuner.


Receiving the HD stations is great, but the pitiful display ported to the head unit and the poor reception on standard stations don't justify the cost of this unit (and I only paid $65).

Seems to work ok but some things just are not right, like even though you program the presets they are all blank other than the preset number. I searched around and it looks like its a known problem and sounds like Pioneer can't fix it becasue it is a software problem with the tuner and there is no way to update the firmware on the tuner.

Also doesn't get near as many stations as I would of expected. Many of my stations that I receive fine with a standard FM radio switch back and forth from digital to analog with this tuner.

It was a toss up for me beteen the Satalite Radio tuner or this, I opted for this because the service is free, I should of bought the Satalite tuner!

Works really well. With shipping and everything I was able to get it for $58.57 and it was worth it.

Like others have said you will need the antenna splitter (METRA Ltd 40-UV44 Motorola Antenna Y-adapter) to get the best functionality out of your radio.

I've had no problem with the presets. You get FM1, FM2, FM3, and AM just like your regular tuner and you get 6 presets on each band. So if you get the antenna splitter then you can have 24 presets for HD channels and 24 presets for regular analog channels.

The only way this wouldn't be worth it is if your area doesn't have a lot of HD channels. [...]