Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I love this headset. I've had my Parrot SK4000 headset for about 6 months and in that time have put well over 100 hours on it. I'm a technically literate person but I don't think that this device is complicated at all, I suspect that anyone that can use a smart phone, can use this headset. I started out with a Windows Mobile phone and changed to Android after about a month of owning this. I ride a 2010 BMW F800GS with a Shoei RF1100 helmet. It's a moderately quiet bike and helmet.
On the plus side, the headset is very simple to set up and use. I didn't bother with the manual beyond the initial pairing of my phone to the headset. Windows Mobile was fantastic, after less than a minute I was voice dialing my address book and playing music at will. My main use of this is to listen to music on rides, and be able to take or make a call while on the road. I've had 30 minute conversations with my mom while traveling at 80 mph (I mean 70mph) down the interstate. She had no idea she was even talking to me on my bike. I could hear her clearly even though she was also on her cell phone in Alaska while I was in Tennessee. The sound is loud and clear with very little distortion for both voice and music calls. Battery life is very good, just did a 6 hour ride this weekend with no issues. It's gone dead on me before but it does play music for hours and hours, as long as you remember to plug it in every time it goes dead. And I've even plugged it into the bike with a the charger cable hanging from my helmet a few times. So it does play and charge at the same time, a big plus! Scanning for radio stations isn't the greatest and the radio reception is limited to only strongest stations. But it does work and is a great option when I just want to listen to something other than the music on my phone.
Now for the bad...
Just like any headset that you have to install yourself, it takes a lot of tweaking to get it right. I found that by using wide sticky Velcro (Walmart $5.97 a roll) I could stick the backs of a positive and negative strips together and cut out little dics that could be put on the speakers to bring the speakers themselves closer to my ears. The issue was not the headset itself but the distance the speakers were from my ears. The Velcro solved that. The next issue I had was the attachment to the helmet, it took a lot of adjustment and tweaks to get it right and I'm still not happy. The pin fell out at some point but was easy enough to replace. Occasionally I do have an issue with it not streaming, but that seems to be an Android issue, not a headset issue.
On that note, if you have Windows Mobile, Bluetooth is a seamless and fantastic experience. This is one of the very few places Microsoft is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. I have used a Blackberry, Iphone and Android on this headset. My work blackberry is pretty good, my Android isn't bad now that they've done the firmware update to 2.1. But before it would only connect a call for a few seconds before randomly disconnecting, that issue has since vanished. And the Iphone was fine... if you can get it to connect, it works pretty good though I had several issues taking calls while listening to GPS directions and music and having it just disconnect altogether. The big plus to this headset is the built in phonebook with voice dialing. You can actually dial by voice even if you phone doesn't support it. A huge when you're lost or running late. I didn't even realize how much I loved the handlebar remote until I tested other sets without it.
All in all I love this and would purchase it again. Most of the issues I've had were more with the phones themselves, everyone seems to have their own idea of how Bluetooth should work. I really wish I could get alerts and voice announcements to come across Bluetooth on my Android like it did on Windows Mobile.
Finally, I wish that the headset had an intercom. I was riding solo when I purchased this but now that I ride with my girlfriend a lot, I really need an intercom. Hand signals are just not cutting it. Unfortunately, after weeks of research I still can't find a headset with all the features of the SK4000 plus an intercom.
If you ride alone, with a closed faced helmet and you have a smartphone... get this. I can't say enough about being able to stream crystal clear music into my head while having GPS instructions pause your music and still being able to take a call. I'll just live with hand signals in lieu of an intercom system, for now.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Parrot Bluetooth Handsfree Motorcycle Helment Kit SK4000 (HELMET NOT INCLUDED)
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