[8125, K-JAM, P4300, MDA Vario Accessories] BennTech:
Try the Parrot MKi9000

Haven't tried the iO mentioned above.

However, since my last post, I upgraded to a Parrot MKi9100 after I accidentally shredded the wires of my MK6000's remote unit. The MK6000 is basically dead with no further development of its firmware, and the cost of a new remote unit was half the price of a brand new MKi9000. Consequently, I upgraded and got the MKi9100. BTW, the MKi9100 with LCD was only about $20 more than the MKi9000 sans LCD.

The wiring of the MKi9x00 series is exactly the same, so all the install problems/solutions are the same as mentioned in my review above, with the notable exceptions that (1) the remote unit is now wireless so you can mount it wherever you want, e.g., on your steering wheel, and (2) it has a wired external unit with connections for an iPOD, 3.5mm line in (e.g., connect to any MP3 player), and USB flash drives containing either music or firmware upgrades. That's right, firmware upgrades are now done via USB instead of requiring a laptop with Bluetooth. The MKi9100 has an LCD, which I find useful during configuration to navigate menus faster, but it's not necessary since the MKi9x00 series have good voice prompts for all the menus. If you don't want the LCD, try the MKi9000.

As far as connectivity, the MKi9x00 series has resolved virtually all the phone/Parrot issues mentioned above with the MK6000. I no longer have lockups or the no sound in calls problems. I'm currently running a T-Mobile Touch Pro2 with EnergyROM WM6.5. It still doesn't automatically connect Bluetooth A2DP, but I can establish it via the MKi9100's menus, so I start A2DP, start my music player (with help from Microsoft Voice Command), and stream music from my phone without needing to take it out of my pocket/bag. Yea! Finally!

However, all is not entirely perfect. I had problems streaming music via Bluetooth--the entire connection would drop between every song. If I crossfaded, the disconnection was less frequent, but still happened every 5 or 6 songs. Hugely annoying. I dropped the bitrate of the Bluetooth connection from "Very High" to "Medium" and that seems to have resolved that issue.

Second issue is that the USB drive supports FAT16 ONLY. It won't even support FAT32. Wow. Welcome to 1987, Parrot. FAT32 has been around since Windows 95 and virtually every modern USB device (cards, thumbdrives, phones, MP3 players, etc.) is going to be FAT32 by default. Consequently, none of them will work with the Parrot unless you reformat them as FAT16, which severely limits the Parrot's USB usability. It's possible a firmware update could add FAT32 support in the future unless there is some underlying hardware limitation, which is only reason I can see to not support FAT32 initially. (BTW, I didn't figure out the FAT16 thing until after I ripped apart my dash and RMA'd my first MKi9100 unit.) :(

Overall, the MKi9x00 series are a huge improvement over the MK6000, although you'll still have the same physical install issues, particularly in the U.S., and the lack of FAT32 support is appalling. Other than that, I highly recommend the Parrot MKi9x00. Much better than my marginal review of the MK6000.

--Bennett