i created this thread to kinda get an idea of where everyone has their mics set up. some people say they have good bluetooth reception, some say it sucks ass, and it could quite possibly be your placement. personally, mine sucks. so if you can, please just state or show if you have apicture of where your mic is set up. Thanks!!

PS, myne can be seen in my signaure picture, botom left of the deck.

Right now mine is located just to the right of the steering column, but it is surface mounted, so the "noise canceling" aspect should be preserved.

Really it just comes down to the quality of the mic. The unit in an Audi, BMW, Merc, Acura, etc. is $100 at dealer cost, uses RJ45 shielded cable, and is all around a much better quality unit than the $5 mic Pioneer supplies.

im not talking about other mics, im talking about placement wit the pioneer mic. cuz theres people that have good reception wt the pioneer mic and and people with bad so i want to jus have that information organized into one thread so people can get an idea of a good place to mount it based on other members' choices and results

i created this thread to kinda get an idea of where everyone has their mics set up. some people say they have good bluetooth reception, some say it sucks ass, and it could quite possibly be your placement. personally, mine sucks. so if you can, please just state or show if you have apicture of where your mic is set up. Thanks!!

 

PS, myne can be seen in my signaure picture, botom left of the deck.

Mine is terrible according to the people I call. VERY frustrating to use. I actually moved the mic in all sorts of different positions to no avail. Wierd thing is that voice recognition seems to work.

I might try plugging in a higher quality mic and see if that helps.

im not talking about other mics, im talking about placement wit the pioneer mic.

I realize that, but what I'm saying is that placement isn't the issue here. You're looking for the magical key to get good sound quality in any car, but with the POS mic that Pioneer uses, that's not going to happen.

For the record, I've tried the mic on the cluster, the steering column, the top of the A-pillar at the head liner and near the rear view mirror. The quality was horrible in all locations with both my 2G & 3G iPhone, rending the Bluetooth completely unusable.

Anyone know of a GOOD mic that will work with the Pionner Unit?

To the remote caller, I sound like I have duct tape over my mouth. Ya, moved the mic around too. And before anyone chimes in, I do not have the wire looped together inside the dash. Either it is a PAS mic, or the BT simply does not work as it should. I am going to wait to see if the FW update helps. Aint gonna pay extra for a better mic. That is pure BS. If it dont work, back to the dealer it goes......

Mine is in the same location as HiFiSi's and doesnt work well at all. I also ran it around the dash to avoid looping the wire. Maybe it is the phone??

It sucks because the BT was a big selling point for me too. I have it disabled and I'm using my old stand alone BT speakerphone.

BTW, I have F90BT

Might help if people post what model phone they have.

Also, there was a post where someone used the mic from an older Motorola car kit, and that solved his problems, so that's something to consider too. I have a mic from a Parrot kit sitting around, so I'll try plugging that one in to see if it makes any difference.

this has already been covered, but since i'm a nice guy, i'll tell you from my Z-series experience what worked for me.

here's the link to the other thread that you would've found if you would've searched.

http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15732

I had a Z2 and it was notorious for mic problems. A few things that helped up in the Z-series forums were:

1) when pairing the phone, make sure the volume on the phone is turned less than 1/2 way

2) set your output to come from the left side only

3) dont turn the output for the voice very high, it can ricochet off the other door and into the mic, causing an echo for the caller on the other end.

Try these things and if they dont work, dig around the Z-series forums. Alot of solutions were found and there's plenty of info there.

I have my mic placed at the top of the A-pillar and have no problems at all with my F90BT.

Hey vastmax-

The reason why no one responds when you post your stock response about fixing the bluetooth using the lessons learned from the Z-series is because the problems are totally different.

On the Z-series (I had two) the problem was a nasty echo, and all of the suggestions you made would help to curb the likelihood that it would occur. Those of us that are having problems on the F-Series are encountering something completely different. To the person on the other end it sounds like we're standing next to a jet engine and yelling as loud as we can. They can just barely hear something over the background noise, but it's not intelligible as a human voice.

Thanks for the suggestions, they just don't work in this situation.

vastmax, i appreciate the input, but i personally have discussed that with you. those problems will not help, and skicrave explained y. also if i recall, the f has an echo fix option right in the unit.

i dont want to sound like a jerk in any way, since i have a great deal of respect for every1 on this forum, but i think the point of this thread was missed. the point is and ive said it in both my 2 first posts, is that some members have really good bluetooth, most have crappy. now HiFiSi has told me in another thread that he has it at the top of his headliner and even provided a pic (its the stock f series mic) and it works for him. blindmind3 has it in the same exact location but his isnt good. so this thread is meant for members to post where they have their's located and if it works well or not.

and skicrave, good point on the type of phone, but ive seen a thread with that already. i think HiFiSi created it. this is more focused on the location. i think a better note now that i think about it may be the type of avic you have.

The type of phone is related to the problem. Two different phones with the mic in the same location can have totally different results.

Sorry for taking this thread off of your original intended path, but just so you know, you're going down the wrong path. You're not going to find any link between mic location and voice quality. I wish it were that easy, but it's just not.

The type of phone is related to the problem. Two different phones with the mic in the same location can have totally different results.

Can you explain why this would be?

The type of phone is related to the problem. Two different phones with the mic in the same location can have totally different results.

 

Sorry for taking this thread off of your original intended path, but just so you know, you're going down the wrong path. You're not going to find any link between mic location and voice quality. I wish it were that easy, but it's just not.

dont worry about that, i wasnt talking about u directly. but to my best knowledge no one has come up with a deffinite reason for why its bad. theres alotta theories, but no solid fix. vastmax provided a way to reduce the crappiness on Z, but for those with the F, it wont work.

IMO i dont think it has to do with the phone. i think if Phone A and Phone B both connect in the same amount of time, they should work the same.

and i still think mic placement has alot to do with it because putting it too close to a speaker or pillar tweeter will obviously create echo, and putting it too far away may cause you to sound distant. so im still looking for input on this and maybe somethin useful can come out of it. i dont think it idea is so useless its unworthy of any information members have...at the least, future avic owners will have good ideas for where to put it

Really it just comes down to the quality of the mic. The unit in an Audi, BMW, Merc, Acura, etc. is $100 at dealer cost, uses RJ45 shielded cable, and is all around a much better quality unit than the $5 mic Pioneer supplies.

its more than just the mic. voice commands work no problem but the bluetooth doesnt. but at the same time, theres a difference between a human and a computer trying to understand you. maybe it can make out wat we say thru the bad quality but a person just cant understand you.

You are barking up the wrong tree if you think the crappy mic is the problem. The mic is exactly the same as the D3 (or any radio that used the CD-BTB200 Bluetooth module) and there were no bad sound quality problems with it. The problem with the F series is between the Bluetooth software and the Bluetooth chip. Mic placement does make some difference but that is not the problem here. I am a profesional Installer and always place the mic up at the headliner near the rear view mirror with excellent results (except with the F series). I normally place mic on side of an overhead console towards driver or clip to the headliner between console or mirror and sunvisor (make sure visor does not block mic when down).

with all due respect im not barking up any tree or making any conclusion as to what i thought it would be. in no post here or in any threads did i say its the crappy mic. all i meant for by creating this thread was to possibly find a commonground between certain placements and quality through other members input, and see if any useful information from here can be used to better (not perfect if the problem lies where you said it does) the quality.

for example: -u can see where mynes located and the quality is crappy

-my fiance' has a custom flush mount like myne (F700BT)

-so does my sisters boyfriend (Z3)

all 3 of us have crappy quality and i was told that the bak of the mic piece has a noice cancellation feature and having that flush mounted, it wouldnt cancel excess sound. if thats true then i think thats a valuable piece of advice for other future avic owners before they do the same thing.

i understand it may not be most useful information but im sure u can agree that placement can have an impact on the quality.

A microphone is a microphone is a microphone. It converts wave energy into electrical energy and transmits through the wire. Both the microphone and the receiver should be of good quality to reproduce the sound. In this BT case, there is another layer of data transmission stack is introduced. The stack should be able to correct the errors in transmission and reproduce the electrical signal as it was transmitted. BT stack implementation quality varies by different mfrs. So theoretically, you can resolve any issues by substituting the parts involved. The only thing we can do here is to replace the mic and adjust the position until pioneer comes up with the updated firmware.

Using an iPhone (new 2.0 software) with F900BT. Mic is clipped to speedo cluster trim above steering column. Reception is a toss up, sometimes it's great, sometimes it's horrible. I think I'm gonna try new mic positions tomorrow tho.

I have my F90BT in my 04 F-150 with Sirius, HD, backup camera, and no stupid IPOD. The mike is installed on my steering column directly in front of me. When I call my wife, she says she can tell something is different, but says I sound just fine. My phone is an AT&T tilt. By the way, I have all the excess mike wire coiled in a loop just out of sight next to the steering column. The startup time for music is 20 seconds, and sd card music is 1 minute. backup camera is 20 seconds also. Bypass works great too. The only thing I hate is the static in the unit voice. Hope they fix it with the software patch.

I dont belive it's the mic, it's somthing else. This is why I believe this:

Before I got the avic-z2 I had the parrot 3200LS in my chevy silverado with the mic mounted in the overhead console next to the onstar mic. The parrot unit works great, no echo. I Then purchased my Avic-z2 and instead of re-pulling the mic wire I just REUSED the parrot mic in my pick-up.

Finally I installed the parrot kit into my Fiancee's Honda Accord WITH the mic that came with the pioneer bluetooth unit.

Results: It echo's in my pickup, but not in her car. Therefor I believe it's not the mic that is causing the problem.

I know I am a month late in chiming in on this thread, maybe someone else has pointed this out elsewhere, I dont know.