Hands free recommendation

[imy]

Evening all,

As i'm using my car more im needing a hands free kit.
After several searches on the site a few of you are using a Grom kit or a Parrot kit.

I was hoping if someone could provide me with the following information:

Which kit works well on bluetooth, also the sound quality in particular the mic is acceptable enough so that the other person on the end of the phone can hear me clearly - the reason i ask this as ive been on the receiving end of built in handsfree kits and its not brilliant sound quality.

Music. Which ones can play music from your phone via Bluetooth, is this saved music or can it play from youtube etc,

Now after a visit to the local halfords the chap told me he could fit a kit but i was told id rather go else where as the sound will only come from the front two speakers and he did not want to splice the wires to get any of there kits to work with the all of my speakers including the sub. Is this true or a load of crap?

Also can i use buttons the steering to control the music and or answering calls from the my phone?

I have a sony xperia Z3 - incase that helps.

Many thanks


Imy

[Thanatos]

the io play 2 will do everything you want to do and its a good piece of kit have a read of how we did it in my car here

[charles p]

I installed a Grom in my car - first just the hard wired iPod connector and then I "upgraded" to the Bluetooth and phone kit. Very easy to fit, works well, the phone quality is great (as good as the OEM kit in my '59 D5). Very good for the money.
Music wise it plays from audio and podcasts. Never tried streaming sources like YouTube or Spotify -I always assume a lack of bandwidth will stop the fun!

Charles

[Benji1985]

i also have a grom kit, the hardest bit was getting the stereo out other than that two wires and just positioning it, can not fault it.
the company i used was The Carputer-Shop.co.uk i sat i talked to them and they answered all my questions.

Ben

[warlord0]

I've just been through the same exercise. I settled on a Volvotech MMMi unit with Parrot 9100.

I kept looking at the Grom and didn't like the way it used the CD player interface. I wasn't bothered about the loss of the CD player, just that it seemed quirky to navigate and select tracks.

I was also put off by not being able to have both USB stick and iPod plugged in at the same time and switch between them as I do that quite a lot.

I didn't really want a parrot as I wanted nothing extra in the cabin, but after seeing it in action I decided it was a very good option. I don't have to use the screen or have remote on show, but it will probably make life easier if I do.

The important thing to me was ensuring that the Parrot wasn't using it's own amp to drive the speakers. So seeing that the Volvotech MMMi unit drives the audio digitally to the amp settled that for me.

I only ordered last week and am awaiting it's arrival. The install seems pretty straight forward from a wiring point of view. The difficulty seems to be in locating the stuff on the end of it. I'm tempted to put the iPod/USB in the centre console behind the handbrake, but that really doesn't seem like a good place for unobtrusively getting the wiring to.

[DT19]

Another vote for the Grom BT kit here.
Very easy to fit in 20 minutes (apart from routing the mic) and it works perfectly.

[charles p]

Originally Posted by DT19

Another vote for the Grom BT kit here.
Very easy to fit in 20 minutes (apart from routing the mic) and it works perfectly.

I found routing the mic a 5 minute job - and even my wife thought it was a very neat job, so it must have been perfect

Charles

[blueacid]

I went for a cheaper option: I got the Grom aux-in kit and I use that for music (Bluetooth streaming isn't quite as good as a cable, just.. in general). So there's a cable going to my phone's headphone socket.

I then simply wear one of those headsets. Not slick but easy enough