Interesting new headunit from Parrot

http://www.audiojunkies.com/blog/624/

That headunit would be revolutionary if that "dash pocket" inside it contained an iPod cable and could hold your player out of sight. It's unacceptable that "iPod integrated" cars require the iPod to flop around loose on the passenger's seat or floor with a cable getting in your way.

Maybe it does? I can see a cable coming through inside the hole on the right hand side, right at the back.

Exactly. That's how I thought it would work

Gah, FINALLY. It's about time someone made this.

Really!?
What better place to hide the stuff you don't want people to steal than inside the thing people are going to want to steal.

That's like Michael Vick going to the Miami Airport and hiding his marajuana in his water bottle...
Really!?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RjtVnqZCndo

I don't think that's what he means. It's just neater than having your mp3 player sat on your passenger seat and a cable running out to your dashboard which then disconnects itself every time you turn a corner meaning you then have to reach down and retrieve it from the footwell as you're driving along the motorway.

Nobody in their right minds would think that was a safe place to keep your ipod when you're not in the car, especially seeing as the faceplace detaches leaving the 'pocket' in plain sight...

I see one flaw in their design - it's going to rattle around in there which would annoy the hell out of me

Piece o' foam, rubber mat, stickyback velcro... its not really a deal breaker.

Now scheduled for April 17.
Both the USB and ipod leads are loose wires within the storage area behind the facia.
Interestingly, for all the advances the unit makes, it ignores DAB: and why wouldn't it - the BBC are baulking at many further transmitters and, as we've seen in recent weeks in the UK, other broadcasters have packed it in. It's the old mobile phone argument:"we cover 95% of the population" means we cover roughly less than half the land mass.
I can't see a future for DAB unless it works universally in cars (And delivers the music quality you get from fm (Here at Boxer Towers, we still record our essential music from fm to reel-to-reel,))
I anticipate the fitter being at my door sometime on the 17th. and I'll let you know what I think.

I think I'm going to get one straight away too. I've been without my empeg in the car for 6 months. Given that the main one is pretty much dead I don't think I can be bothered to rebuild the spare. Sticking an 8GB SDHC card should give me plenty of storage.

I think it's a shame DAB hasn't taken off like Freeview did, although I'm sure a DSO for FM would soon make people pick it up. John Lewis now sell a DAB radio for £30 which I think is as cheap as it needs to be, I wouldn't buy an FM (and expect it to be any good) for less.

Where do you buy your tape from?

What's a DSO?
In answer to your query: Anywhere it's offered on ebay (I check from time to time to see if there's a B77 dust cover going), or from http://www.taperecorder.co.uk/, whom I notice are currently out of stock and very expensive.

Digital Switch Over, i.e. turning off analogue.

Now scheduled for the 21st of May. Which is nice, because that's pay day!

.....and I'm out of the Country! But one site is saying available in the next 3 days.

That date is from the Parrot online store. I bet the other one just hasn't updated their ETA.

Parrot fitted and working today, only took me a couple of hours, first impressions are very favourable, but it'll take me weeks to get through all the functions!
The compartment behind the facia is in a rubberised material, so rattling is not an issue.

So it's got an iPod connector. Does it actually CONTROL the iPod?

In other words, once you plug the iPod in and close up the faceplate, can you leave it closed while you do things like change tracks, select playlists, and play/pause from the front panel?

Or do you have to open up the front panel and haul out the iPod each time you want to change anything that the iPod is doing?

Yep, What I'd describe as full functionality (I'm working from the manual, I haven't actually tried it yet).
The other thing that I'm just loading up as we speak, is playing music off my phone through bluetooth.
The only problem I've encountered is that I can't see the display in the sunlight, so I'm waiting 'till later on in the evening to try some things out.

Where did you get yours from?

Halfords: Plenty in stock and the price is as good, and in some cases better, than the web.
.....and if you're lazy, they have an offer on fitting by a spotty 15 year old, or maybe things have improved recently!

.....the fitting, not the spots

Went to Halfords to look at one in person and was just about ready to put my hand in my pocket when two, yes two, people came in to get theirs replaced. Both had failed after only a couple of weeks. It was apparently a known problem and Parrot had issued a recall. Talking to one of them (who actually looked like Hugo with a beard oddly enough) who said that things basically stopped working one by one until eventually it didn't make any sound anymore.

Think I might hold off until next month now, let them iron a few more bugs out.

I'll keep my receipt!

Does not compute.

It was a well kept beard though, quite short.

On a more 'on topic' note. It's a really nice bit of kit, the display in particular was nice and bright. Plenty of options and connectivity it seems. Also interesting to note that when listening to the same FM radio station as one of the other headunits in Halfords there was a considerable (~1 second) delay. I assume this means there's some processing going on, maybe it'll mean it'll be possible to record onto the SDHC in a future release.

The only issues I saw were a few UI quirks that will no doubt get solved in a firmware release and its knob was a little wobbly too.

It looks like it supports mass storage so I'd be interested to see how it copes with a USB harddrive plugged into it. In particular, how many files it can cope with before choking.

They already have a firmware upgrade out.
I would have tried a hard disk on the USB, but my smallest won't fit in the storage at the back.
I've identified a problem and reported it to Parrot, who seem very supportive, the crown for surly unhelpfulness being held by ACER technical support.
ipod connectivity is fairly comprehensive, mine's a 160gb and it loads in a few seconds.
But what has particularly impressed me is the bluetooth connectivity to my mobile: Going to Leeds with my free bus pass, I can seamlessly get out of the car and carry on listening to a file, and vice-versa.
The sensitivity on FM is better than the Pioneer and Sony, as well as the VW head units I've used recently: We have a weak spot in the next village!

Oh well, I give it a fair try, but 90 minutes in silence, with "opening device" on the screen finally convinced me, and Halfords were happy to give me a refund this morning.
What a pity, it's a great idea: What on earth have they been doing since they announced it last Autumn? I wouldn't even call it ready for beta testing, and then you have a fascia that drops off frequently with the volume knob rolling somewhere inaccesible.
I'd take some convincing that they'll ever fix it, and anyway I'd want to be sure that it was a different batch with the fascia fixed: I wish I'd read their forum on the R&B, I'd never have bought it.

Shame, I still think it holds some promise, maybe we just need to wait 'another' 6 months.

The one at Halfords had a wobbly knob too, maybe it just needs a dab of Evostick?

Well I have my new (old) car now and I'm in the market for a new headunit. I'm currently trying to decide between the Parrot (which is now scheduled for a September re-release) or the Alpine iDA-X100. The Alpine looks slicker, and it 'works' apparently. But you need to buy an extra box to get all the Bluetoothy bits that the RK8200 has as standard. It'll also end up being more expensive.

Here's a pic:

You can see what the Parrott engineers were reading when they were looking for inspiration for the RK8200....

I've heard about this fancy headunit called an empeg. Have you given one of those any thought?

I know, I know. I should be putting the empeg in. But I want something with Bluetooth phone and audio integration, a more reliable tuner with option to upgrade to DAB later, the ability to hook up to an ipod and play off a mass storage USB device.

Also, i'd like something that doesn't require an external amp.

So I have installed the Alpine unit in a friend's car.

Pros:
* Easy install
* Works with iPod
* Great audio quality

Cons:
* Holy crap, could you make the UI suck more
* Holy crap, you can only attach one USB device (iPod or FAT device) at a time
* last I looked the bluetooth adapter is backordered everywhere. (new model supposedly, bugs in previous model)

For the most part it works fairly well, and quality is good.. I just can't get over how terrible the UI is. Especially after using my empeg.

I still have yet to find any device on the market at any price tag that can replace my empeg. *sigh*

I don't think that the Parrot will give you that.

I see it has been put back to January now, and no upgrades to the firmware since I returned mine to Halfords.

Looking for some help. I have a 99 volvo C70 convertible. And I'm replacing the head-unit with an aftermarket brand and I cannot find the factory amp. Does anybody know where it is in that model car. It's not in the trunk or under the seats.

I guess it's a little off topic here, but found this with a little googling: "Power amp is located in the trunk, left side, in the quarter panel behind the little storage bin in the side wall of the trunk or behind the 6 disc changer if yours is so equipped."
http://www.volvoforums.com/archive/threads/power-amp-location-44033-1.html

I just happened to notice that the Parrot Car Audio is back on the market, but it has taken a leap from the originally announced £150 to an eye watering £310 - an FM tuner well in to the DAB price range, I feel.
It is now called the Rki8400: I've been staring at the picture to see whether they've utilised the original case and just sorted the software, in which case the fascia will still fall out every time you go over a pothole (And we've got a heck of a load of potholes since the snow), or have they started from scratch?
The only discernible difference is that they now supply a dash mounted mike.
The concept was brilliant (I owned one for three weeks), it just didn't work. Just off to Halfords to shake the display and see if it falls to bits!.....