I don't know if this was covered before but Alpine is no longer making add on modules for XM radio. I just had a sweet IVA-D900 installed, its the motorized dvd,mp3,nav-everything in dash player. Well anyway the shop tells me the XM modules are on backorder (after they are done doing the install) I get online and do a search for the part (TUAT020XM) I get 3 hits. 1 is Crutchfield which says out of stock, the next says discontinued and the last was ebay. I call Alpine of America and they say they will no longer make or ship the modules but they are talking to the company that makes the antennas about doing it in a few months..Turk I think. I ended up buying one from Ebay, so anyway guys sorry for the long post but if you are thinking about an Alpine XM ready receiver and want XM thats my story.

 

Makes sense. I was wondering why I couldn't find the things anywhere except used on Ebay. Did you find out if Alpine has any alternative plans other than "maybe in a few months"?

 

Very confusing since they are telling dealers they are replacing the module in June with a new unit. Yet talking directly to Alpine, albeit I only spoke to two people from their corporate and tech depts. These two said they have no plans to support XM ready receivers with a new module period. I guess Alpine has decided to go strictly with built in XM and stop making the seperate tuner box. They are seriously screwing over people with XM ready that didn't get the tuner at time of purchase not to mention that these XM ready receivers are still flying off shelves. They did say they are working with Terk the makers of the antenna to produce a fix. Well I got the only 1 that was for sale on Ebay, theres 1 other for sale but it comes with an in dash Alpine unit..so if anyone needs it bad and doesn't mind paying an extra 150.00 to have a new receiver come with it they better act fast. Also I spoke to about 20 Alpine dealers such as Sound Advice and Circuit City and they were all out of stock-discontinued. 1 guy at Circuit City told me he was able to find one in his system 2 weeks ago from another store 150 miles from his and he bought it for himself.

 

So....what does this mean for people (like me) who just bought the new XM ready 9833 (that still wont even ship until the end of this month) ? Is the tuner built in? Do we need a box? I have no idea from the description on the Alpine website.

 

Well if you look in Alpines 2004 catalogue it shows your unit. Then it shows what you need to get XM running. An XM direct receiver made by Terk and an interface adaptor made by Blitz. Only problem is Terk hasn't released one for Alpine yet and Blitz hasn't released an adaptor for Nissan as well. Those two items are whats replacing the Module that I bought from Ebay. If I hadn't found that one on ebay last night, I was going to have the installer take mine out and order me a Kenwood or something. Alpine owners are going to have a hard time getting XM for the near future.

 

For what it's worth, I just found 12 of the TUA-T020XM units on Ebay. When you do a search, you must type the exact model number: TUA-T020XM. (That includes the dash.) Ebay's search engine is extremely picky.

 

From what I know, XM has raised prices and Alpine couldn't make a deal.

Part of the reason Sirius is gaining ground with stereo manufacturers is that XM is getting more expensive.

 

Also Crutchfield got some in yesterday, don't know how many. I posted that last night in another thread. Yes today it seems Ebay has a few up, I guess yesterday some retailers around the country got a shipment in. Still if you add up the amount of people that need them they are in short supply.

 

Talked to XM RM and he said that Terk is going to use the commander tuner box as the universal tuner box for all XM ready head units. The tuner box is said to have the connections for the ai net and pbus plugs.