in a new Gen (III) Prius, put the thing, and after connecting the antenna amp (which is needed), still see reception that is not as good as our other cars - yes - the Prius has bad reception - but I have run a random Chinese radio in one that gave great reception. The Pioneer is average.

Has anyone had reception issues? Did HD help? I know Pioneer says do not y signal the HD radio, but I'm thinking that may make sense (this way you can also just switch to analog when HD is on the fritz)???

I'm just trying to tweak the thing to work - changing hardware (car antenna) is out - this has been done, troubleshot, and found lacking.

I'm getting close to losing faith in the powers that be....

Yeah, this has been discussed a lot here. The FM/AM signals are pretty poor in this unit. There is the option of an antenna booster for like $25 online that is inline and will allow you to regain a lot of the signal strength. I drive a huge German luxury barge 7 series BMW and it is very well insulated, so it was pretty bad, but to be honest, after XM and the iPod, I never use the FM band anymore and I don't really miss it.

If you get this unit and don't opt for XM/Sirius on top of the iPod, it is a bit of a waste.

in a new Gen (III) Prius, put the thing, and after connecting the antenna amp (which is needed), still see reception that is not as good as our other cars - yes - the Prius has bad reception - but I have run a random Chinese radio in one that gave great reception. The Pioneer is average.

 

Has anyone had reception issues? Did HD help? I know Pioneer says do not y signal the HD radio, but I'm thinking that may make sense (this way you can also just switch to analog when HD is on the fritz)???

 

I'm just trying to tweak the thing to work - changing hardware (car antenna) is out - this has been done, troubleshot, and found lacking.

 

I'm getting close to losing faith in the powers that be....

Before HD Radio, My AM/FM reception was OK/terrible. Now that I have HD Radio, nothing has changed. Reception possibly could have gotten worse.

did you fire up the correct wire many times the aftermarket plugs ar incorrect for illuminationand antenna turn on. also the antenna adaptor could be bad. my fm ant on my escalade is cut down to 4 inches and it pulls in mad stations. never listen to am/fm. have sirius and ipod jim

I too noticed the terrible quality of FM radio and installed HD radio. Equally terrible.. when it is on a digital station the volume of the station goes down and does not sound any clearer. If I could take it out of my car and return it, I would. If you are in a city with a lot of HD stations then it might benefit you, but if you have three digital stations (like I do) and the quality is still terrible, it probably won't be worth it to you!

HD radio is even more antenna dependent that analog radio. It also has less range from the signal tower. If you're getting poor analog am/fm reception, HD radio will not help one bit.

I would double check the power antenna connection. Otherwise, try an aftermarket power window antenna like the Metra 44UA20.