[8125, K-JAM, P4300, MDA Vario Accessories] BennTech:
Parrot MK6000 Review Update (Part 3)

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FUNCTIONALITY

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After all my installation nightmares, I was positively thrilled to finally have A2DP music streaming. But my elation was quickly replaced by disappointment.

The A2DP connection is so finicky and fragile. I ASS-U-MEd A2DP would simply stream all sound from your phone over Bluetooth. This isn't the case. You have follow specific steps in a specific order to get apps to use A2DP. First of all, the MK6000 initially connects as a hands-free headset only. To get A2DP, you have to press "Play/Pause" on the MK6000. Next, you have to manually start your media app, so you need access to your phone or have voice-recognition software that can launch apps (e.g., Voice Command). Finally, you can start playing via the MK6000 remote or your phone. You have to do it in this order, too, because otherwise the sound comes out the phone's speakers. And if you drop/loose the A2DP connection (e.g., turning off Bluetooth or the MK6000), you HAVE to exit your player and restart it, otherwise sound plays from the phone speakers again. This is so not the impression I got from the Parrot promo videos where a woman hops in her car and streams music and makes phones calls all from her phone that never leaves the inside of her purse.

FYI, after researching the Bluetooth APIs, [I think] I understand what's going on. If I'm wrong about any of this, someone please let me know. When an app needs to output sound, it has to open an audio stream. A2DP is simply another audio stream, and it gets listed as the default stream once A2DP is established. If you start your media app before A2DP is established, your media app opens the audio stream for your speakers. When you drop the A2DP connection and reestablish it, the stream has a different handle. Thus, your media app uses the speaker handle, assuming the app even knows the old handle doesn't work anymore. I thought A2DP was lower in the hardware chain where it was more transparent to applications.

Some apps specifically do not stream via A2DP, like TomTom as sonic mentioned. Based the previous paragraph, that means that TomTom is rejecting the OS default audio stream and specifically opening the speaker output. That's just plain stupid. I don't know what the programmers at TomTom were thinking.

The only way I've found to get it to stream is via BTAudio (as sonica suggested) or VJVolubilis -AGOn. Both of these open the Bluetooth audio gateway data channel and leave the connection open. Hence, all sound goes to the MK6000, including TomTom, which is how I expected A2DP to work in the first place. However, it is mono only and, since the connection is always open, the MK6000 will always mute your radio, as sonica already mentioned. Sorry, sonica.

All system sounds stream via A2DP, which mutes your radio for every menu click, message box, etc.. Now, this is what I expected A2DP to do, but it creates "radio skipping" if you're listening to your radio while navigating your phone. And unlike all the media players, the system never looses track of the A2DP connection and always plays via A2DP if it is available. (<sigh>...if only all the apps worked this way.) This problem is easily solved by muting your phone or turning off Events sounds, but the point is that A2DP already has skipping problems, and now it makes your radio skip, too? Argh! I hate skipping!

A2DP skips, especially with media players that have high CPU usage. Lots of threads indicate this at least partially hardware-related, saying that on the same phone, one A2DP headset skips but a different model doesn't while another user might report the exact opposite. There's also lots of threads with fixes for A2DP skipping, but they all boil down to two solutions: overclock and/or reduce the bitrate (and sound quality) with BitPool and MaxSupportedBitPool found under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Bluetooth\A2DP\Settings.

All the players I tested pause between songs, even with gapless/crossfaded players which baffles me. During the pause, the MK6000 deactivates for a moment, the radio plays a second or two, then the MK6000 resumes playing. It took some tweaking of the file cache, audio buffer, and crossfade settings for each player to get truely gapless playing.

The MK6000 and/or the Wizard does not stream A2DP in "full" stereo. I made a WAV the plays only on the left channel then only on the right. With A2DP, the channel that should completely silent plays the sound, too, albeit at about half volume. And yes I have UseJointStereo=0 (off). However, for the record, if Bluetooth joint stereo is anything like MP3 joint stereo, then it is not mono! Joint stereo means if one channel has more complex audio data, it gets more of the shared bandwidth, but JOINT STEREO IS STILL STEREO!

Phone and music volume levels are drastically different. Calls are at a significantly lower volume. Hence, I have to crank up the volume to hear phone calls. Then, when the phone call is over, my music blasts back.

Voice Command 1.6 has a hard time picking up my commands through the MK6000, and I have to almost shout the commands to be heard. Voice Command 1.6 is supposed to work over Bluetooth, I was hoping Parrot's highly-praised noise reduction and fancy dual-mic would boost Voice Command recognition, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Despite this, callers do report that my normal speaking voice is audible and sounds very clear.

It's too easy to accidentally change your menu prompts to a foreign language. The first press of the MK6000 dial button (I think second if you use the MK6000 phonebook) prompts you to select the language, and if you press it again, you're changing it. And it doesn't start off on your current language--it starts at the first in the list, which I think is Czech? If you do anything other than turning the dial to a language you can speak, then BAM! you've just changed the entire menu to a foreign language. It's a royal pain in the *ss to set it back to your native tongue when you can't understand any of the menu prompts. I've lost count of how many times this has happened to me with accidental presses during the install or when the MK6000 is locked up. Now, seriously, who needs change their menu language so frequently that Parrot has made it the first menu option and can change it with just an accidental double-click? And what's the point in picking a language for the MK6000 ROM download if it's going to install all languages anyway?

If you hold the Talk and End buttons for more than 3 seconds, you wipe the MK6000 memory and have to pair all your phones/devices again, download your phonebook, and re-record your voice tags. You don't even get a confirmation prompt, just a message saying it's wiping out everything. Fortunately, I only have to pair because I use Voice Command instead of the MK6000 phonebook/tags.

The MK6000 requires you to prerecord all your voice tags. Despite the price tag, it can't perform simple voice recognition like the $40 Voice Command.

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FINAL CONCLUSIONS

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There's just too many things wrong with the MK6000 for me to recommend it. Even so, I'll be keeping mine--too much time and money invested in it getting the damn thing installed and functional. If you're still intent on buying one, do some research on your car audio first, specifically:

Do you have an amplifier?

If so, does your car radio have line-in inputs?

Does your car radio have ISO connectors?

Does your radio have a mute line?

Be prepared to accept the consequences of the answers.

Pros:

Callers can hear you clearly.

You can hear callers clearly.

Streams music from your A2DP device.

Cons:

Expensive.

Radios without ISO connectors require additional $50 wiring harness.

Radio mute required because MK6000 doesn't mute the radio output that feeds through it.

"Normal" install sends menu/calls to front speakers only.

"Alternate" install required if you have an amplifier.

"Alternate" install looses automatic switching to MK6000.

Bluetooth laptop required for MK6000 firmware upgrade.

Tenuous firmware upgrades commonly lockup and/or fail.

A2DP upgrade required for Wizard.

Frequent MK6000 lockups.

No way to turn off a locked up MK6000 with "correct" wiring.

Obnoxious engine whine requires noise filter on power leads.

Finicky A2DP connection requires multiple steps in a specific order to stream and must be repeated if connection is dropped.

A2DP requires access to both the MK6000 and phone.

Some apps like TomTom don't stream through A2DP.

Creates "radio skipping" by briefly muting radio for every menu click, message box, etc. on phone.

Pause between songs (even with supposedly gapless playing) unmutes radio briefly.

Does not play in full stereo.

Potential A2DP skipping.

Volume discrepancy between calls and music.

Voice Commander has recognition problems over MK6000.

Too easy to change prompts to a foreign language.

Too easy to reset device and loose all pairing, phonebooks, and voice tags.

Voice recognition requires prerecording voice tags.

Let me make it clear that not all of these problems are directly caused by the MK6000. Even so, that's a lot of negatives for something so expensive. I doubt the Porsche has this many problems.

--Bennett