Hands-free car kit with FM transmitter

Great concept: Having cell phone conversations through your car stereo without installing anything. The Bluetooth signal is relayed through the vehicle speakers via a FM transmitter. A fine example of “Connectivity made simple, which is near and dear to Wiredforwireless’heart!

Look and Installation: Uncomplicated. The core swivels around the base for best positioning. The buttons, microphone, and user interface (little red LED screen) are across the top. Plug the unit in a 12v socket (includes rubber tip for adjustments, if needed). If the display orientation is reverse, press the red button instead of moving the base, set your car radio and the PMK5800 to the same frequency (this action is called syntonizing). Tip: Choose the ends of the FM band for a better signal, 88.5 or 107.5 MHz. You can store up to 9 frequencies.

Sound: Clear and powerful, for the both parties. From time to time I experienced some static, but nothing that really bothered the conversation. In large, busy cities all sorts of interference may cause clarity issues. No worries for me in SW Florida!

Pairing: Simple! Once you have paired the PMK with a cell phone you are good to go. You can pair up to 10 phones.

Cool Stuff:
The PMK5800 has more than one string to its bow. Here is what it offers:
- Voice Recognition: I started by recording the magic words, “phone” and ‘hang up”. No problem here. I then added the voice tags, by simply transferring my contacts via the Bluetooth connection and assigning voice prints to each of them. You can also add keywords, like “work”, “home”, “mobile” if a contact has several numbers. All of this works, even though I had to repeat the procedure a few times. For instance the unit would recognize the word “hang up” but not the word “Phone”.

- Streaming music from an A2DP Bluetooth enabled audio device.
Great for cell phones supporting this profile. If not, no worries! I don’t have such a phone and I streamed my MP3 tunes from my laptop. The sound quality was impressive.

- Streaming music from any audio device equipped with a 3.5 mm jack.
Connect your player with the audio jack to mini USB cable (included) and benefit from the FM Transmitter. Compared to sound quality of Monster Radio Play® 300 … sweet!

Bottom Line: I am pleased with the Parrot PMK5800. It is simple to use. No complicated wiring is needed and you can use the unit with your new car or a rental. You can now have a clear conversation while keeping your hands on the wheel at a really reasonable price.

Other features: Redial function, discreet mode (during a call switch to your cell phone for privacy), voice mail managing (thanks to the DTMF** sending ability), microphone mute.


The Wiredforwireless View

Pros:
Plug and Play
Sound quality
Voice activated
Portable
Music streaming capability

Cons:
Voice recognition process
Interference issues in high density areas

** Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency. Simply put you can use the scroll wheel to send a number to the phone, like 3 to delete, 2 to repeat or what have you…