Parrot CK3000 EVOLUTION Bluetooth Car Kit Review
You are already familiar with the French manufacturer Parrot from reviews that we have done for some car kit solutions, some of them perfect, others made with compromises. The Bluetooth car kits are roughly divided in two types: those which are installed and therefore are attached to your car’s audio system and those that are just plugged in the lighter. The model that we are reviewing here is CK3000 Evolution and it has the apparently smallest installation kit from the manufacturer. It is connected by a wire to the car’s stereo and is used for the incoming sound so that you’re not limited by the kit’s small and poor-quality loudspeakers.
The sales package includes:
Design:
In the set you will find a big blue box, cables with jacks, a small microphone and a control unit. The blue box is the universal radio mute and includes a few jacks and openings in the four edges for attaching on the car’s dashboard. It is no longer visible after the kit has been installed.
It’s worth paying more attention to the control unit, which, as we have already mentioned, is very small. Its size is 50 x 18 x 14 mm and, after the kit is installed, it is its only visible part, apart from the microphone. The control unit is equipped with two buttons for answering and closing down and a central rotating button for navigating in the voice menus. All three buttons are easy to press, and the central button, which is lined with rubber for more convenient handling, is also rotating.
The necessary fixtures for attaching the control unit and the mic are also included in the set. A small plate, which is attached to the dashboard and then is glued with a two-sided sticker, is used as a control unit, and you have a choice of three accessories for the phone, so that you can install it anywhere on the dashboard.
Installation:
It takes professionals to install this kind of kits. However, if you prefer to DIY, it is comparatively easily done. The only necessary condition is the availability of ISO standard jacks in the car and the radio and basic skills, so that you can connect those correctly. The Radio Mute box, as well as everything else has been done so that to avoid mistakes in connecting them. Provided that you have the ISO jacks in your car, the only thing which you’ll have to do will be to connect them correctly with the kit. You will not have to cut or to connect wires. The difficulty that we experienced was in cramming everything into the dashboard...
You have to use a Bluetooth connection to connect the kit with your phone. When you turn on the kit, which is done upon turning on the car’s electric, the kit will be ready to be connected. You then have to search for it on your phone and enter the code „1234” and then you’ll hear through the loudspeakers “Pairing Successful”. You can recognize it with up to three phones, but it can only be connected to one of them. When the radio is powered, the kit is automatically connected to the phone which has been last used in about 10 to 15 seconds and this is a rather good result: your calls are quickly transferred to the car’s system.
CK3000 is equipped with voice menus, which allow you to use the accessories that go with the device; you can navigate through them by the central rotating button. You have options for a few languages, for setting the sound level (by по default) and for setting the voice commands.
The voice management includes numbers dialing by a voice tag and the use of commands. The magic word function is maintained for those, allowing you to answer or to close incoming calls without pressing any buttons.
In order to use this function, you have to record your voice (the system is not speaker independent) by the „Telephone” and “Hang Up” commands (you can choose any command, which will then be used for the purpose). If you want to use voice dialing, you’ll have to record commands for “Cellular”, “Home”, “Work” phones, so that, in case one of your contacts has more than one number, you’ll be able to choose which exactly to dial.
Voice dialing is not the easiest thing to do, but once adjusted, it works. The kit has its autonomous system, which has nothing to do with that of your phone. After you set in the menu that you want to record a voice name, the kit will disconnect from your phone and it’ll require that you send it a contact card. After it has received the contact card, it’ll ask you to record the voice tag for the respective name. Thus you have to record them name by name. If you want to use many contacts, this’ll take quite a lot of time, since sending and recording each contact is a slow procedure. The kit allows for a maximum of 150 contacts to be recorded.
In standby mode the voice dialing of contacts is done either after pressing the green button, or the magic words after saying the „Telephone” command have been activated.
The voice commands can be used only for the phone from which the respective contact has been sent. Therefore, if you use the kit with phones X and Y and you send contacts only from the phone X, you will not be able to voice-dial the contacts when you’re connected with the phone Y.
Sound Quality:
The sound of CK3000 Evolution is really on an evolution level and it is actually one of the best you can get in a car. It is much similar, or even equal to that of its bigger brother 3400.
In silent atmosphere, e.g. when the engine is not running, the sound is very clear, vivid and normally loud. One can never tell that you are talking from a handsfree, let alone one installed inside a car. However, this is not a big enough challenge for an up-market system. It is much more difficult to achieve such sound when the noise from the moving car interferes. When the sound is a little louder, the DSP (Digital Signal Processing) system is turned on, which aims to eliminate the superfluous noises. In the same instant your voice starts to sound less real with reduced high frequencies, but it is still clear and distinct. When you’re driving at about 60 mph and your car windows are open, the wind blowing into the car is felt like an unpleasant and loud noise. Thanks to the DSP system this is not felt so strongly at the other end, where they can hear you in the same way as if your windows were closed and the atmosphere was much quieter.
We would like to stress on the importance of the correct attaching of the mike, because if it’s not correctly attached, it will vibrate and the vibration will be heard as a noise at the other end.
The sound at your end is not worth discussing, since it depends on your car’s stereo system. In our case these were the manufactures’s loudspeakers, which delivered both a distinct voice and sound volume and clarity without a problem. This kit will ensure that you and the person at the other end hear everything right.
Conclusion:
Parrot CK3000 is a wonderful product and it does what it has been designed for. First of all, we have to mention the perfect sound that it delivers in both directions, thanks to the DSP and the use of the car stereo system. Secondly, the convenience of the kit, which is permanently installed in your car, its only visible part being the small, but handy control unit. Our criticism here is that there is no display showing the caller’s number (other models of the same manufacturer are equipped with such a display) and the voice dialing system, which is not connected to the phone and has to receive all contacts one by one, which takes a long time. Everything else is close to perfection!
The sales package includes:
- Control Unit + attachment tools
- Universal Radio Mute
- Cables for connecting the Universal Radio Mute to the car cables and to the radio.
- Microphone + attachment clips
- User Manual
Design:
In the set you will find a big blue box, cables with jacks, a small microphone and a control unit. The blue box is the universal radio mute and includes a few jacks and openings in the four edges for attaching on the car’s dashboard. It is no longer visible after the kit has been installed.
It’s worth paying more attention to the control unit, which, as we have already mentioned, is very small. Its size is 50 x 18 x 14 mm and, after the kit is installed, it is its only visible part, apart from the microphone. The control unit is equipped with two buttons for answering and closing down and a central rotating button for navigating in the voice menus. All three buttons are easy to press, and the central button, which is lined with rubber for more convenient handling, is also rotating.
The necessary fixtures for attaching the control unit and the mic are also included in the set. A small plate, which is attached to the dashboard and then is glued with a two-sided sticker, is used as a control unit, and you have a choice of three accessories for the phone, so that you can install it anywhere on the dashboard.
It takes professionals to install this kind of kits. However, if you prefer to DIY, it is comparatively easily done. The only necessary condition is the availability of ISO standard jacks in the car and the radio and basic skills, so that you can connect those correctly. The Radio Mute box, as well as everything else has been done so that to avoid mistakes in connecting them. Provided that you have the ISO jacks in your car, the only thing which you’ll have to do will be to connect them correctly with the kit. You will not have to cut or to connect wires. The difficulty that we experienced was in cramming everything into the dashboard...
You have to use a Bluetooth connection to connect the kit with your phone. When you turn on the kit, which is done upon turning on the car’s electric, the kit will be ready to be connected. You then have to search for it on your phone and enter the code „1234” and then you’ll hear through the loudspeakers “Pairing Successful”. You can recognize it with up to three phones, but it can only be connected to one of them. When the radio is powered, the kit is automatically connected to the phone which has been last used in about 10 to 15 seconds and this is a rather good result: your calls are quickly transferred to the car’s system.
Operation:
CK3000 is equipped with voice menus, which allow you to use the accessories that go with the device; you can navigate through them by the central rotating button. You have options for a few languages, for setting the sound level (by по default) and for setting the voice commands.
The voice management includes numbers dialing by a voice tag and the use of commands. The magic word function is maintained for those, allowing you to answer or to close incoming calls without pressing any buttons.
In order to use this function, you have to record your voice (the system is not speaker independent) by the „Telephone” and “Hang Up” commands (you can choose any command, which will then be used for the purpose). If you want to use voice dialing, you’ll have to record commands for “Cellular”, “Home”, “Work” phones, so that, in case one of your contacts has more than one number, you’ll be able to choose which exactly to dial.
Voice dialing is not the easiest thing to do, but once adjusted, it works. The kit has its autonomous system, which has nothing to do with that of your phone. After you set in the menu that you want to record a voice name, the kit will disconnect from your phone and it’ll require that you send it a contact card. After it has received the contact card, it’ll ask you to record the voice tag for the respective name. Thus you have to record them name by name. If you want to use many contacts, this’ll take quite a lot of time, since sending and recording each contact is a slow procedure. The kit allows for a maximum of 150 contacts to be recorded.
The voice commands can be used only for the phone from which the respective contact has been sent. Therefore, if you use the kit with phones X and Y and you send contacts only from the phone X, you will not be able to voice-dial the contacts when you’re connected with the phone Y.
Sound Quality:
The sound of CK3000 Evolution is really on an evolution level and it is actually one of the best you can get in a car. It is much similar, or even equal to that of its bigger brother 3400.
In silent atmosphere, e.g. when the engine is not running, the sound is very clear, vivid and normally loud. One can never tell that you are talking from a handsfree, let alone one installed inside a car. However, this is not a big enough challenge for an up-market system. It is much more difficult to achieve such sound when the noise from the moving car interferes. When the sound is a little louder, the DSP (Digital Signal Processing) system is turned on, which aims to eliminate the superfluous noises. In the same instant your voice starts to sound less real with reduced high frequencies, but it is still clear and distinct. When you’re driving at about 60 mph and your car windows are open, the wind blowing into the car is felt like an unpleasant and loud noise. Thanks to the DSP system this is not felt so strongly at the other end, where they can hear you in the same way as if your windows were closed and the atmosphere was much quieter.
The sound at your end is not worth discussing, since it depends on your car’s stereo system. In our case these were the manufactures’s loudspeakers, which delivered both a distinct voice and sound volume and clarity without a problem. This kit will ensure that you and the person at the other end hear everything right.
Parrot CK3000 is a wonderful product and it does what it has been designed for. First of all, we have to mention the perfect sound that it delivers in both directions, thanks to the DSP and the use of the car stereo system. Secondly, the convenience of the kit, which is permanently installed in your car, its only visible part being the small, but handy control unit. Our criticism here is that there is no display showing the caller’s number (other models of the same manufacturer are equipped with such a display) and the voice dialing system, which is not connected to the phone and has to receive all contacts one by one, which takes a long time. Everything else is close to perfection!
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