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Car handsfree/audio kits – my experiences

In a previous post, I gave an overview of a few different types of car handsfree kits that can also put MP3 players through your car speakers.  To recap, because I have a Vectra with a CD30 head unit without an aux input, I needed a completely self-contained unit that wouldn’t rely on making use of the amp in the head unit.

Unfortunately I tried a couple of different units before I found one I could live with – this was quite annoying and took a few months.  On the plus side, it means I’ve had hands-on experience with a few different units and can note it down here!

Parrot MKi9000

This was the first unit I tried and the one I liked the most.  It’s not obvious in the car with just a small control unit on display (less clutter, and less tempting for thieves).  It accepts bluetooth connections for both the handsfree function and music (via A2DP).  I opted to use the iPod dock connector which I hid out of the way in a cubby-hole.

The phone connected seamlessly when I turned the ignition on and I could use the iPod through the dock connector.  I found the sound quality to be really good.

Unfortunately after my initial success, I wasn’t able to use the iPod dock connector.  I tried with both my iPod Touch 1G and my iPod Nano 2G.  Often music would start to play and immediately the audio would be lost although the iPod would continue playing.  While I chased up a solution with Parrot and Pixmania I used the 3.5mm jack socket which worked fine.

Parrot’s technical support were pretty certain it was just a faulty unit but after a dispute over a repair with Pixmania which lasted two months and ended up in me being out of pocket, I decided not to risk the same pain with another unit.

There’s not a massive amount to say about the MKi9000.  Other than my issues with the dock connector it just did what it said it would.  It’s really got an impressive spec and isn’t massively expensive, either.

Parrot MKi9200

Halfords had MKi9200 units on display so I went in and tested my iPod Touch with them.  It worked fine in the shop although having to navigate the iPod from the MKi9200 display was a touch annoying.  I figured it’d be safer though, because I could mount the screen closer to the windscreen and nearer my eye-line for skipping tracks.

The unit fitting was the same as for the MKi9000 although with the addition of the display unit which I mounted to the driver’s side vent with a Brodit mount.  Unfortunately with the display, my E71 mount, and my iPod Touch mount, the car was starting to look nearly as cluttered as my desk…

In use everything functioned reasonably well.  There are a couple of main problems with navigating your music collection using the MKi9200.  Firstly there is an issue with paging through lists of songs.  It’s described here on the Parrot forum.  I thought that it wouldn’t worry me but actually it was quite annoying.  It sounds like the most recent firmware updates might be working towards solving it. The other problem was navigating my podcasts which was difficult via their interface.  A few people on the forums have also noted problems with the iPhone.

The main reason I returned the MKi9200 was reliability.  I found that the UI often locked up for a few seconds which was very annoying (and would have been distracting if you tried to use the unit while driving).  I’d be trying to exit the menus to find my album list and the unit would hang.  I would be left wondering whether it had or hadn’t registered my button presses and then, more often than not, the unit would do a hard reset and I’d be back to square one.

The nail in the coffin was on the way home after Christmas. After about 1.5 hours’ use, the Parrot got itself into a state where it would reset itself, turn on for about 30 seconds (just long enough for me to get music playing) and then reset itself again.  This carried on for quite a few minutes before I gave in.

I think that these reliability issues, particularly the second example, could well have been the box overheating; I installed the main box into a cubby hole behind the fan controls where there was probably not enough ventilation.  However I realised that with the slightly clunky UI and the clutter with the display, the MKi9200 wasn’t really the unit I was looking for.

iO Play

There didn’t seem to be many options left after discounting the Parrot solutions!  A friend had an iO Play which he seemed happy with it, and it was a lot cheaper than the Parrot systems, so I bought one.

Because the Play only accepts A2DP connections, I made sure that my package included the iO iPod dongle (my iPod Touch doesn’t have bluetooth built-in).

The installation is, again, simple.  There’s just a remote control unit this time and no cables in the car interior (bluetooth connection, remember?)

The iPod works fine using the dongle and my phone connects happily over bluetooth.  I don’t think the sound quality is as good as the Parrot; I’ve noticed some distortion at times using my iPod with dongle and a friend’s iPhone. The distortion seems less pronounced playing music from my phone so could just be a device problem – it’s not enough to ruin the experience for me, anyway.

Unfortunately I do still have a major problem with the iO Play.  I use has two bluetooth profiles on the iO Play - the A2DP profile and the handsfree profile.  The iPod uses the A2DP profile and I want my E71 to use just the handsfree profile.  Unfortunately, my E71 can also stream using A2DP.  If I allow the E71 to connect before the iPod, it hogs both profiles and the iPod can’t connect.  If I connect the iPod first, the E71 bluetooth system refuses to see, and therefore pair with, the Play.

The net result of this is that I can choose either to connect my phone or my iPod.  Not completely satisfactory but at least I have the option!  I’ve started to use my E71 as a music/podcast player which does work fine, but it’s not as good as the iPod at being my MP3 player

I don’t see this problem going away – I expect all my future phones will support A2DP and unless the phone provides a facility for me to disable the A2DP connection I think I’ll continue to have issues. I’ve spoken to iO’s technical support who claim it should work but their instructions didn’t help.  For reference, I posted their instructions on the Nokia forum.

Summary

So – my pick of the bunch?  I think the MKi9000 is my favourite.  Packed with features and, other than my problem which *should* have been a one off, it was a great unit.

I’m still happy with my iO Play.  I’ll get in touch with iO again (they should have had time to work out a solution to the A2DP hogging by now, right?) and post again here if I get any luck, but I can deal with the compromise.

On balance, next time I buy a car I’ll be looking for one to which I can fit a simple CD changer/iPod interface.  Whatever I disliked about the Picasso as a car, it worked well as my mobile media centre!