Parrot Rhythm N´blue

Parrot Rhythm N Blue.

I bought this unit on Ebay just over two months ago, paying about £140.00 including delivery. Purchased essentially I felt this would be the easiest way to comply with the new legislation regarding use of mobile phones in a car, and having in the past bought manufacturers fitted options was fed up having to buy a new car kit whenever I upgraded my telephone. One of the main reasons for my choice in this instance was “ease of fitting” – the unit comes with standard ISO connections, so providing the vehicle is less than about fifteen years old it should be a ten minute job fitting the stereo. I currently drive a 1996 Landrover Discovery with the correct connections so the most complicated procedure is fixing the microphone, again supplied with the kit.

At this stage it is probable useful to point out that Landrover have their own ideas about ISO connections, that it to say the constant live and the intermittent live are swapped over, meaning that unless you slightly alter the connections the head unit will lose all its memory every time you switch off the engine!

Once fitted into the dashboard the unit looks just like any other car stereo, and it is a fairly simple procedure to pair the telephone up. Apparently up to five separate telephones can be paired to each unit using Bluetooth technology, something I have never had to try as I am the only driver of the car, and only have need for one telephone.

Most recently I have been using a Bluetooth headset paired to the telephone and the head unit with CD changer supplied with the car, but kept forgetting to recharge the headset which can be awkward when you are away from home for a while and have forgotten the charger, also if it is loud you can be distracted turning off the radio when a call comes in. The fact that the “Rhythm N Blue” can play MP3s I felt was a positive advantage and worth sacrificing the CD changer option.

After fitting in the car tuning the radio is very easy, accessed through the menu button on the front of the unit and selecting the Autostore function available radio stations are found and stored automatically.

I have kept the original speakers in the car and feel the sound from the “Rhythm N Blue” is almost as good as I had previously. There is an equaliser function accessed again through the menu button on the front of the unit allowing you to adjust Bass, Treble etc or select Rock, Pop or Classic set up, and in the same menu a loudness option. If anything I feel the sound is a bit to biased towards the high end or too trebally if that’s a word, but that is down to personal taste.

Playing CDs is pretty self explanatory – the access slot is behind the main display fascia. This folds down revealing the disc slot, put your disc in and it plays. It’s the same for playing a disc with MP3 tracks except with the ID3 function the track name, artist etc will scroll across the front of the display.

Now for the downsides. As already stated I’ve been using this for about two months now and am on the whole very happy, apart from some idiosyncrasies I have encountered –
Firstly – I have made up various discs with MP3 tracks and after so long the unit fails to recognise the disc is present in the machine, although will carry on playing the tracks, but when you try and access the specific menu functions, random play, repeat play etc as it thinks there is no disc you cant change track.
Secondly – I like to let the machine randomly select tracks to play from the disc, this function accessed through the Menu button on the front of the unit. Every time the unit is switched off you have to reselect random play, a small worry but if you are doing lots of small journeys it gets quite annoying.
In the time I’ve been using it my unit has “frozen up” a couple of times, either I’ve not been able to turn it off, turn the volume down etc and I’ve had to press the reset button, losing all stored radio stations, but again this is a minor annoyance.

Working With the Telephone:
This unit is theoretically the ideal solution to comply with the new legislation regarding the use of hand held telephone equipment in a vehicle, as it automatically connects with the telephone whenever the engine starts, ( up to a radius of about 10 metres ) your telephone can stay in you pocket, purse, or briefcase. When a call comes in, the number or name of the caller is displayed on the head unit, the music is muted and your call is relayed through the vehicles speakers. The supplied microphone seems to be pretty good and I can have a legible conversation at motorway speeds, in addition the microphone seems to be able to pick up no matter where the person is sitting, Drivers Seat, Passenger seat etc. The main problem I have been having is not knowing when the phone and head unit are not connected! Dialling out, using the keypad on the fascia, the number shows as dialling, connects with the other party but I cannot hear anything. I thought this might just be incompatibility between the head unit and my telephone (I am using a Sony Ericsson W610i), but having spoken to other users with different brands of phone the problem seems to be universal. This again albeit minor problem is quite frustrating because I am now never 100% sure that when I make a call I will hear anything from the other side.

I would and have recommended the Parrot Rhythm N Blue to others but hope that when the software is upgraded they sort out the minor irritations I have noted above