Parrot Bluetooth
Discussion
Has anybody fitted one of these themselves?
I've just bought an e36 BMW and was ready to fit a Bluetooth MP3 stereo, but I really like the OEM look of the standard CD player in there.
After a little research I came across the Parrot MKi9100 and MKi9200 which look interesting. As far as I can see they connect non-destructively by way of a loom going between the car radio and the car's ISO connectors - they take power from the car in this way and route sound directly to the speakers without the stereo. Both the models I mentioned, as well as having bluetooth facilities, have the ability to pipe music to the speakers by way of its own built in amp - either from iPod, USB, aux in, or A2DP bluetooth.
Anyway...
1. Is the sound quality any good? Not sure the e36 standard stereo/speakers are up to much anyway, but don't want something resembling a 1980s portable radio!
2. How DIYable is it? As far as I can see I buy the kit plus the correct loom for the e36 and it's just plug & play, & routing cables. But there seem to be a lot of people suggesting it should be installed professionally...
I've just bought an e36 BMW and was ready to fit a Bluetooth MP3 stereo, but I really like the OEM look of the standard CD player in there.
After a little research I came across the Parrot MKi9100 and MKi9200 which look interesting. As far as I can see they connect non-destructively by way of a loom going between the car radio and the car's ISO connectors - they take power from the car in this way and route sound directly to the speakers without the stereo. Both the models I mentioned, as well as having bluetooth facilities, have the ability to pipe music to the speakers by way of its own built in amp - either from iPod, USB, aux in, or A2DP bluetooth.
Anyway...
1. Is the sound quality any good? Not sure the e36 standard stereo/speakers are up to much anyway, but don't want something resembling a 1980s portable radio!
2. How DIYable is it? As far as I can see I buy the kit plus the correct loom for the e36 and it's just plug & play, & routing cables. But there seem to be a lot of people suggesting it should be installed professionally...
I've got an MKi9200 in my MINI. Not sure if the stereo is standard or upgrade, but playing bluetooth tunes from my iphone loses nothing over playing the radio at high volume. Good quality voicecall reception as well.
I didn't fit it though. The firm who sold it turned up and an hour later, hey presto.
I didn't fit it though. The firm who sold it turned up and an hour later, hey presto.
I had the i9200 too; for the phone, it was very good with exceptional voice recognition and speaker quality.
For music, it was pretty rubbish and "took over" the stereo (335d) too much. BT music quality was dreadful but you can connect directly to it.
Mine was professionally installed so looked almost OEM. £300 all in.
Batteries need replacing in the controller once in a while.
For music, it was pretty rubbish and "took over" the stereo (335d) too much. BT music quality was dreadful but you can connect directly to it.
Mine was professionally installed so looked almost OEM. £300 all in.
Batteries need replacing in the controller once in a while.
I've only got experience of one, which was fitted in a Jaguar X type courtesy car I had for a handful of months, and I think may have been broken.
Sound quality was just ok, I could hear what the other end of the phone was saying but no one could understand a single word of what I was saying, no matter how I said it.
Sound quality was just ok, I could hear what the other end of the phone was saying but no one could understand a single word of what I was saying, no matter how I said it.
Not sure which one I have, little rectangular thingy. Its excellent. Does exactly what it should.
Ah, looks like the 'PARROT CK3100 LCD' http://www.parrot.com/uk/products/hands-free-car-k...
Ah, looks like the 'PARROT CK3100 LCD' http://www.parrot.com/uk/products/hands-free-car-k...
Apologies in advance for the long post! I've recently installed an Mki9200 in my e46. I bought it used from eBay. I've also just picked up an Mki9100 for the wife's Galaxy - hoping to install it this weekend. The kit was fairly easy to install - for a normal install it really is just plug and play, however I wanted to take advantage of a feature that isn't all that well documented - the line-out.
In a standard install, the Parrot kit actually takes over your head unit when listening to music. You can actually turn the HU off and everything still plays as it should - volume is controlled by the remote. Sound quality this way was reasonable, but I wanted something a bit better.
Certain e46 head units have an aux-in option that requires a custom lead to be made up (with a resistor and a couple of capacitors), and the Parrot has a line out therefore it was a matter of connecting the two up. You then need to disable "mute on streaming" in the Parrot's menu. This way, all the music is routed through the head unit, allowing you to control the volume, eq settings, fader/balance etc. When a call comes through, the Parrot takes over and routes the audio to the car's speakers via its own internal amp.
If your car has ISO connectors on the existing HU then you can connect the Parrot up yourself very easily. If not (like mine) then you'll need to buy a SOT lead, which fits inbetween the Parrot and the HU. This adapter means no cutting of wires making the install completely removeable. I think I paid just over a tenner for the lead.
A "normal" install, using the Parrot's internal amp should take around half an hour. Most of that will be spent figuring out how to route the cable for the microphone.
I like the way the Mki9200 works - menus are fairly simple and intuitive and it looks fairly slick. It's working brilliantly with an 8Gb USB stick but I'm having a few problems with a 32Gb SD card - it was a cheap no-name card so I'll try a better one and see what happens.
In a standard install, the Parrot kit actually takes over your head unit when listening to music. You can actually turn the HU off and everything still plays as it should - volume is controlled by the remote. Sound quality this way was reasonable, but I wanted something a bit better.
Certain e46 head units have an aux-in option that requires a custom lead to be made up (with a resistor and a couple of capacitors), and the Parrot has a line out therefore it was a matter of connecting the two up. You then need to disable "mute on streaming" in the Parrot's menu. This way, all the music is routed through the head unit, allowing you to control the volume, eq settings, fader/balance etc. When a call comes through, the Parrot takes over and routes the audio to the car's speakers via its own internal amp.
If your car has ISO connectors on the existing HU then you can connect the Parrot up yourself very easily. If not (like mine) then you'll need to buy a SOT lead, which fits inbetween the Parrot and the HU. This adapter means no cutting of wires making the install completely removeable. I think I paid just over a tenner for the lead.
A "normal" install, using the Parrot's internal amp should take around half an hour. Most of that will be spent figuring out how to route the cable for the microphone.
I like the way the Mki9200 works - menus are fairly simple and intuitive and it looks fairly slick. It's working brilliantly with an 8Gb USB stick but I'm having a few problems with a 32Gb SD card - it was a cheap no-name card so I'll try a better one and see what happens.
I had a Parrot in my X Type, Mki9200 I think it was, or 9100. Regardless, it had loads of connectivity on it but the amp wasnt powerful enough, it's only a 20W amp I think
I have an IOPlay 2 in the S Type I have now, and that's a lot better sound quality and volumes are higher, but it wont do Android stuff, the iPhone lead is the old 30 pin one. I've got an old iPod classic anyway, and my Note 2 sits on the dash mount connected via Bluetooth, so that works OK for me
Was easy to install, took around an hour, hardest part was getting the HVAC leads back on, the IO (and Parrot) install was just plug and go
I have an IOPlay 2 in the S Type I have now, and that's a lot better sound quality and volumes are higher, but it wont do Android stuff, the iPhone lead is the old 30 pin one. I've got an old iPod classic anyway, and my Note 2 sits on the dash mount connected via Bluetooth, so that works OK for me
Was easy to install, took around an hour, hardest part was getting the HVAC leads back on, the IO (and Parrot) install was just plug and go
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