Parrot Hands Free - Any Good?

[Doug Dastardly]

Hi All,

I'm looking for a bluetooth handsfree phone kit that I could move from vehicle to vehicle easily.

It would need a 12v power source and be good as I can't be bothered with quiet, crackely or background noise.

I've found a parrott minikit+ which seems to fit the bill and not cost a fortune. Does anyone have any experience of these?

Thanks,

Doug

[mikef]

I don't personally but when I was working a couple of my Area Managers had Parrot kits and reckoned they were pretty good. FWIW.

[dombanks]

ive read/heard good things about the parrot things

[JeffC]

Barry Ashcroft would be a good man to drop a pm too

[CL290005]

I had a Parrott minikit, seem to work ok when new but soon the performance dropped off, I had difficulty hearing people. In the end changed to a Parrott fix unit with basically is a full car kit linked to your radio, pleased with this.

[housebeautician]

I have Parrott CK 3100 kits in all my cars

Neat small quality kits, and clear sound, easy to operate.

Going to have one fitted in my new Mondeo rather than use the voice activated rigmarole thats in the car.

Check out prices as they can vary a fair bit.

Think i pay about £140 - £150 per unit and they can be swopped from car to car for about £50.

HTH

Tony

[Dommo]

Not a minikit, but I have the CK3100 in the Land Rover. It's surprisingly good at filtering out the background noise, and there's a lot of it! I've got a Nokia CK-7W in another car and that struggles a bit, tempted to replace it with a new Parrot.

I think I'd go with the hassle of a fitted kit rather than something you swap between cars. From experience having the sound come through the car speakers rather than an internal speaker is a lot better. Being able to place the microphone where you want it would be a bonus too.

Unless you had 5 cars you regularly used or something. Then it could get expensive...

[CL290005]

Fitting the Parrot kits is relatively easy, 12v feed (think it was ignition control) and then you buy a flying lead for the link between the radio and the plugs, so it picks up the front speakers , power supply and earth etc. then route your mike to a suitable point put radio back in position the display and job is done.The leads are about £10 on e bay.

As Dommo says worth doing this

[pistonbroke]

Ive heard they can make a real mess of your dashboard !

[CL290005]

Its called a squawk box!, need to find a way to repair all those claw marks

[Mooch]

I asked Long John Silver why Parrotts were the best ones on the market. .........

He said it's because they Aaaaarrrrrrrrrrrr!

[SootySport]

I have a Parrot Minikit. The sound quality is good, even in a noisy work van, and compatable with all Bluetooth phones, just a couple of button pushes to set up. They have a wire clip that clips on to the sunvisor and is the best place for it. Voice recognition works well with standard english language names but abbreviations it won't recognise.

The downside is battery life, a year of charging and discharging has wrecked my battery and they are not easily changeable if at all. You could leave it permanently plugged in the charge socket when battery life disappears but then you'll have wires hanging about in the car. Mine cost £75 a year ago and the fully fitted ones are about £130 now, thats what I recommend for a using in a single car. Having said that you can fit them yourself easily or transfer to other cars, the wiring is minimal and is easily tucked away behind the plastic trim.

[Stuart]

My cheapo Garmin Nuvi satnav has a Bluetooth facility and is good if your radio has an auxiliary jack. Phonebook on the screen too. Mike extra but not a lot of money either. Had it a few years now bit IIRC the unit was £99 and the mike £8.

[Doug Dastardly]

Thanks to all of you for your help.

I am not surprised to hear that a 'built in' system is better but I needed one to take from vehicle to vehicle, so bought a minikit neo.

I'm very impressed with it.................in the sitting room

Will try it out in action soon......

[Doug Dastardly]

Phone broke yesterday

Life is a rocky road.