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Thursday September 09 2010 Hi ! |
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I've got the MKi9100 installed in my Skoda Octavia - equipped with the satellite navigation system. The MKi9100 system is a bluetooth handsfree kit which also lets you play music from several sources, these are: Ipod Connector 3.5mm Auxilliary Input USB connector Bluetooth streaming I have to say, adding a handsfree kit to the car and getting FOUR extra music sources is a brilliant concept! I hadn't realised until speaking to the engineer that most handsfree kits are wired through a "direct" input on the head unit, which most head units now support. This means that the kit basically gets direct access to the car speakers and drives them directly. I was a little unsure about this arrangement - as my stereo has a free AUX port that I though could be used. Using the AUX port would have the advantage that the stereo could interrupt the bluetooth music playback (e.g. with Sat Nav instructions and Traffic Info) which would be quite handy. On the other hand it would also mean needing to select the Aux input whenever you wanted to hear the music (not so bad, as I already do this with my ipod wired into the car's 3.5mm jack). I also thought that there would also be some kind of input for the telephone audio, since there is a TEL button and telephone preparation on my head unit. This would be a 100% integrated solution. However, it seems that this is not really the way things are done with after-market fits, and it's not that quite straightforward. Instead, the handsfree kit is wired to the 'direct' input on the stereo (as well as the Telephone Mute function etc.) and when it is active the stereo basically hands direct control of the speakers over to the handsfree kit. This is ok and works well - but it does mean you are running two systems that are partially integrated. I.e. there is a separate volume control for the handsfree kit and when it is active there is no way to hear satnav or traffic instructions from car's radio. I have to say, it's workable and I can live with it, and in Parrot's defence it is nothing to do with the handsfree kit, but really just about the level of after-market integration that the car manufacturer's provide (which is not too great and not 100%). So, all in all I am ok with this... In fact, to Parrot's credit, their system makes the most of this situation, in that they have equipped the MKi9100 with a powerful amplifer and a good set of controls around equalisation, volume etc. with independent volume settings for menu voices, telephone, music etc. You couldn't really ask for more. Sound quality is excellent. I wasn't sure at first and couldn't find a program on the built-in equaliser that I was happy with. But then I went with the virtual bass function, and the sound quality is excellent. There's tons of power. The system is equipped with voice playback and speech recognition (for contacts and calls, not for music tracks) and this works very well. You can skip through menus while keeping your eyes on the road and make, accept and reject calls by voice. You can even choose specific entries from the phone book e.g. "call John Smith on Mobile" - brilliant. It works very well for me, and there is no voice training required, and it is not dependent on voice recognition in your phone. The system is very discreet - a small detachable screen and a separate wireless controller.. At last - some sense! the wireless controller means you can mount it on your steering wheel.. great move.. either with a sticky pad or supplied strap. I sometimes catch the odd button when i'm turning cos I'm not used to it being there yet, but this is becoming less and less frequent as I learn that the controller is there. It's certainly handy being able to have it on the wheel rather than stuck to the dash somewhere. Both the controller and the screen are detachable for security. Connectivity  The Mki9100 has three connectors: Ipod, USB and 3.5mm I found that it wouldn't talk to my Ipod Mini (quite old now) but would talk to my 2nd Generation Nano (8Gb), so iI assume it will work with anything more modern than that. I tend not to use my bluetooth phone for streaming music, but it does work, and the control buttons also control the playback which is quite neat. Of more interest to me was playing back the audio from my netbook through the system - which worked well. Now my passengers can watch BBC Iplayer or something while on the road and hear it through the car speakers.. It's very good and seems to be utterly reliable at connecting over bluetooth. Slightly more disappointing is the fact i cannot get my tomtom to connect via bluetooth and stream its instructions over the parrot. Theoretically in my mind it ought to be possible if a phone can use the parrot as a bluetooth HIFI device - but maybe this is not the case. However, what is cool is that the USB connector can be used to charge the tomtom.. :-) (I have all the connections coming up into the dashmount storage box under the tomtom - absolutely perfect). The USB input option was intriging... i tried plugging in a packard-bell audiodream MP3 player, but it was having none of it.. Then I twigged that really the USB interface was primarily for USB memory sticks. I've had an unbranded 1GB work fine and a 2GB sony works fine. I tried an Integral 8GB and 16Gb and they were temperamental. Most of the time they would not work, and after every three attempts the parrot reboots itself (probably a deliberate design feature to avoid it locking up). The 8Gb would *sometimes* work, about one in ten times, but the 16Gb only would once the 1GB had been plugged in and "found" by the system and then replaced immediately with the 16GB.. possibly these memory sizes are just too much. Quirks On that note, on one or two occasions the parrot has locked up and the only way to bring it to life again has been to stop and start the car (i.e. kill the ignition). Turning the headunit off does not kill power to the parrot (at least in my car), which in a way is quite good, because you can play through the speakers even with the in-car head unit turned off.. but on the other hand it means there is no way to 'hard reboot' the system without killing the ignition. Taking the detachable screen off seems to trigger a restart of some kind, but not enough to fix it when it's locked up. Having said all that, the lockups have been mainly down to me trying allsorts of weird and wonderful USB options and on the whole the system has been stable when using Ipod and bluetooth. other cool things: when paired with a laptop PC for streaming audio, the parrot only switches to the PC audio when it's playing.. As soon as it stops, you hear your radio again, which is pretty cool. Plus the back/forward control buttons also work to drive the PC media player (or at least windows media player, which i tested with). When you select bluetooth audio in option on the parrott, it shows your devices paired for streaming. You can select your PC, which will fire up your media player, then press play to start it. USB line is permanently powered when the unit is on. This makes it perfect for charging other USB devices, such as TOMTOM; so handy! Further info Description of the product(s) A full system dedicated to conversation and music in car
Parrot MKi9000, Parrot MKi9100, Parrot MKi9200Three versions for a single system: the Parrot MKi kits connect to your car audio system and deliver hi-quality conversations whatever the conditions are. Each MKi kit is delivered with it independent RF remote control. Positioned Play your music in the carThe MKi kit are delivered with a music cable specifically designed to adapt to any sort of digital and analogue music players: iPod/ iPhone connector, a USB connector to plug any USB MP3 player and a Line-In input for analogue sources. MKi also connect to any Bluetooth Stereo (A2DP) source: MP3 player, musicphone, smartphones, PDAs… The screen of the MKi9200 also features a SD connector to easily access up to 32GB of music! The remote control gives you access to the main functions: PLAY, PAUSE, NEXT SONG, PREVIOUS SONG, and VOLUME. MKi9100 and MKi9200 display the playlist for you to always visualize what is played. All music files are played back on the car’s speakers (front and back) while the MKi built-in digital amplifier transforms your car into a true concert hall!
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