Works!
Hi folks,
I am new to this forum; I signed up just to comment on this thread.
As Dan (dmak100) said, it ranks very high when you search for MK6000 reviews on Google. Like Dan, I was nearly scared away from buying the kit after reading about Bennet's experience with it, but after reading Dan's post plus material from a couple of other sources, I decided to give it a try. I installed it just a couple of days ago. I am glad I did: So far it works pretty well, albeit with a couple of (minor) quirks. More on that below.
First the background. I own a 2004 Toyota Sienna with just the plain factory stereo (no JBL). My phone is a Nokia N95 8GB, docked with a Brodit device holder (from ProClipUSA.Com). I also use this phone as my GPS device (Nokia Maps), Internet Radio player (to stream radio from abroad), as well as generic music player. I had already gone through a number of different handsfrree/streaming options, and contemplated even more:
- The Motorola T505 w/FM transmitter: OK sound for handsfree use, limited frequency response (< 15000 Hz) and so not that great for music; also the occasional static; plus lots of steps to start/stop audio streaming via car stereo.
- A custom soldered adapter to use a standard 2.5mm headset as well as a cassette adapter with my phone. The sound quality was excellent for both phone calls and music; but not as convenient, since I couldn't easily grab the phone out of the cradle (e.g. to browse for music, search on Google Maps etc.) without also disconnecting the wire. Plus, I am kindof a neat-freak, and the extra wiring was just, well, ghastly...
- I looked at some aftermarket stereos with built-in or optional bluetooth (mainly at crutchfield.com). I wanted one with decent voice pickup (i.e. not integrated into the deck itself), that integrates well with my steering wheel controls, and that does not look too gaudy with blinking lights and animations etc. That narrowed the field considerably. I liked the way that Eclipse units integrated with steering wheel controls (no adapter required, and with the exact set of controls available in Toyotas and Hondas), but the reviews did not give it very high marks for voice pickup. The Pioneer DEH-P7000BT looks very attractive (stylish, not flashy), comes with a wired microphone to mount anywhere, and apparently has decent voice quality; also with a SWI-PS adapter, matches my steering wheel controls adequately (though the radio would be seek up/down rather than channel up/down). The problem with this one is that every function is on the main knob, which can be turned, tilted, pushed, and lends itself very easily to accidental operation (I walked into a local Best Buy and tried it out). In the end, I did not find any satisfactory unit.
So that led me to the MK6000, which I now installed using a QCToy-1 adapter harness from parrotkits.com ($50). That really made the installation a breeze: No wires to cut, strip, splice, or miswire. Just plug the harness into the wires from the kit, as well as between your car stereo and the plugs currently connected to it. There was simply no way to go wrong here.
Just to address a couple of Bennet's issues here:
If you read my review, you would know that the MK6000 does not mute the radio feed that passes through it and instead relies on the radio to mute itself when signaled to do so by the mute wire. However, many radios don't have this mute wire, and that's an important point that shouldn't be nonchalantly dismissed.
I was a bit concerned about this, since my factory stereo also does not have a mute line; however with the ParrotKits harness, I had no such problem.
Next, as Bennet said elsewhere, it is necessary to update the firmware in this device to fix some lock-up scenarios. With the factory installed version (1.00), music streaming would not resume following a phone call (actually the phone would restart streaming, but nothing would come out through the speakers). None of the music controls on the MK6000 responded either. After upgrading to the current version (1.03), these issues have disappeared.
Regarding the firmware upgrade process itself, I do have a couple of choice words for Parrot, should they choose to hear me out. This is 2008. We use our cell phones with bluetooth keyboards to get web browsing and e-mail on our TV sets. We use internet-centric office applications. Why the **** are Parrot stuck with a Bill Gates-style 1980-era vision of a "PC Centric" computer experience!?!? Even the Parrot devices themselves have more storage, more advanced features than computers did back then! Yes, you need a Windows PC to do the update, despite the fact that Bluetooth technology was really pushed onto "mainstream" computers by way of Apple. When I went to retreive the upgrade from my Mac, I was out of luck. I needed to use my wife's PC, for which I then needed to get a bluetooth adapter. Stupid idiots. (Probably French, too).
That said, with the new firmware version (1.03) installed, things are working pretty good:
- Each time I start the car, the unit connects to my cell phone and automatically synchronizes all my contacts. You can select and dial them from the device itself, but I prefer to use my phone's voice command feature. For that, I simply push the green button.
- I can start playing music or other audio from my phone; the car stereo is automatically muted. This was for me the biggest selling point over a aftermarket bluetooth stereo, which would require manually setting the source to bluetooth before hearing the audio; though in retrospect, the latter may have turned out better (see below).
- Handsfree voice quality is pretty darn good - certainly better than the Motorola T505, or even most bluetooth headsets. There are no echoes on the other end, and background noise is quite effectively filtered out; instead, just my voice (and even the voice of my children in the back seat, speaking softly!) are heard. FWIW, I mounted the microphone in the ceiling under the console, right above the rearview mirror.
Now, there are a couple of issues too:
- There is a 1-2 second delay from when the phone starts streaming and the radio mutes until the sound comes through. This is not noticable when you play music, but since I also use my phone as a GPS device, each instruction gets chopped off in the beginning. This, too me, is the single most annoying factor with the MK6000 and its interaction with my phone. I tried a couple of workarounds, such as pressing the Play/Pause button twice (to start playing, then pausing the music, in order to keep the MK6000 switched to the bluetooth channel), but after the following instruction, the device switches back to the car stereo nonetheless. I guess I'll live with this; if I really need the instruction, I can always press the "4" key on my phone to repeat the instruction within the 1-2 seconds that the MK6000 is still muting the stereo, and/or just look at the display.
- When playing music, any gap between the tracks causes the MK6000 to briefly switch back to the car stereo before starting the next track. The workaround would be to turn off your stereo when streaming music from your phone.
- When any sort of notification is displayed on my phone (e.g. when I seat it in the dock and it starts charging, when the battery is full, etc) the car audio mutes for a few seconds, without any sound. This is of course due to the phone itself, not the MK6000, but annoying nonetheless.
- Likewise, about 5-10 seconds after powering on the car, when the MK6000 has connected to my phone, it mutes the stereo to play a sound. I find this interruption a bit annoying as well.
- There are no sound controls other than volume. For instance, no equalizer/bass/treble, balance, fade, etc.
- Being used to the steering wheel controls, I find myself trying to use that to raise/lower sound volume while streaming or talking on the phone, which of course controls my stereo instead. I've only had it for 2 days though -- I'll get used to it.
Finally, one last response to Bennet's comment:
There are 2 vastly different types of MK6000 firmware:
- One language with text-to-speech.
- All languages pack without text-to-speech.
Text-to-speech (TTS) drives the internal phonebook and voice recognition, the latter of which gets intercepted by the MK6000 if TTS is installed. Thus,
if you want to use your phone's internal voice recognition, you must use the "all languages" firmware. Then you're stuck with multiple languages which are too easy to inadvertently change [...] If I'm wrong, somebody please post a correction so I'm not promulgating misinformation.
Well... I downloaded the English-only firmware (with voice synthesis), and I am certainly able to invoke my phone's voice prompt simply by pressing the green button. (Alternatively, the first push on the middle knob gives me "phone book"; a confirmational second push gives "A", and a third push reads out the first contact whose name starts with "A". At any step, you can use the wheel to scroll through the remaining choices).
All in all, I am satisfied with the device itself. As mentioned, there are a couple of interaction issues with my phone and usage pattern, and since I am still within the return period, I am still contemplating the aftermarket stereo route as well. My main concern with this, as said, would be the handsfree audio (voice pickup) quality -- I have not yet come across any comparison of the MK6000 or other Parrot devices with such stereos (though independently, good reviews for both the MK6000 and the DEH-P7000BT). I'd love to read about the experiences of others who have done such comparisons!
Best,
Tor
