Afternoon all,

Has anyone had any experience with this kit?

I've had a Parrot CK3200 and was generally pleased with it, But I'm not interested in the screen and I like the wireless control pad on the iO Talk1 system.

I can't find much in the way of reviews on t'internet so any first hand experience would be good.

Cheers

Phil.

As it happens I noticed this today whilst perusing at Halfords in my lunch break. Couldn't play with it though as the demo radio it was connected to was in SAFE mode :(

Well, I got one.. So I'll write a quick review incase anyone else is considering one.

As with the Parrot units, and probably others, the iO is designed to be plug and play on cars which use standard ISO radio wiring. You simply unplug the two ISO plugs from the back of your radio, plug them into the iO's wiring harness, and then plug the other end of the iO wiring into the radio.

The first thing I did was to compair the positions of the pins in the ISO plugs on the iO with those in my car (VW Passat). They were identical which was nice, so it really was plug and play with no messing about. I struggled to fit the wiring behind the head unit. This was particularly awkward on the Passat.. I know from experience that both the Fabia and Octavia are more accessable (once the glove box is removed).

The wiring harness supplied with the iO is neater than that of the Parrot I had previously which helped when trying to fit it all in the limited space. My only criticism is that the loom is shorter than the Parrot's, meaning you are more restricted in where you can mount the main control box. That said, I'm sure it's long enough to reach the usual mounting spots.

The control box is bigger than the Parrot unit, but it's quite flat. It slotted down to the left of the radio (next to the glove box) in my car, and it would do the same in the Octavia Mk1.

The Microphone feels better quality than the Parrot although it's slightly bigger meaning it's a little more obvious when mounted... This doesn't worry me but I guess some people might find it irritating. The wire to the microphone is thinner than the Parrot. Once fitted I can't see that being a problem, but I did take extra care to make sure it was routed carefully where it wouldn't be disturbed.

The main selling point for me was the wireless control pad... This makes fitting much quicker and means the finished item is neater. There's the obvious down side of needing a separate battery, only time will tell how long that will last.

Fitting took about an hour, possibly slightly more. This was partly due to a mess on trying to get the radio out (I know how it's supposed to be done... but it wasn't happening). If you were able to get the head unit out then I would think a realistic fitting time would be about 45 minutes.

The sound quality is excellent. I may sound anti-Parrot, but I actually rate Parrot units highly, but the iO sounds much better than my previous system. Admittedly it's in a different car so the speakers will play a part in this, but even so I think the iO is more clear. I intend to put someone else in the car so I can call them from a land line and see how well the microphone works but at the moment O2 are having 'network issues' in my area so I can't!

The bluetooth music streaming doesn't really interest me all that much, but I have tried it and I was impressed with the quality. Sadly the sound only comes through the front speakers, but it's still of reasonable quality and perfectly usable if you have music on your phone. The Play/pause/ff/rw buttons all worked as they should when paired with my SE C902.

I have a few small criticisms but they really are small.

Firstly the female computer voice says "ready" every time you turn the ignition on, and then "Paired to phone" a second or two later... I find that quite irritating.

Secondly, the control pad doesn't have a flat back, so you're forced to use the mounting bracket it comes with (rather than being able to stick it flat to the dash with a sticky pad). As it turns out, this actually works quite well in my car (I'll upload a pic in a minute), but it would have irritated me in my Octavia which didn't really have many places to choose from when it came to mounting this sort of thing.

Third, the key pad doesn't illuminate until you press something (not even when a call is coming in). I have a feeling it may be possible to rectify this with a modification to the wiring but even if that was the case, the battery in the controller would probably go flat quite quickly. Again this is not too much of an issue for me as the cat-vision lighting illuminates it enough, but it would be nice to have it lit all the time.

And finally the instructions are total pants... They're almost non-existant.

On the whole I'm very pleased. If you're not bothered about having an LCD on the dash then I would recommend one over a Parrot.

Edited 1 December, 200817 yr by VRSPhil

Sorry for the pic quality. It was taken whilst I was waiting in Sainsburys this evening... Trying to avoid being seen taking pictures of my dash.

Looks nice and quite discreet. A couple of questions thou:

Does the system tell you who is phoning you on an incoming call?

Do you have to put vioce tags on numbers so you can phone them?

How do you phone numbers that are not in your address book/ do not phone very often?

Do you have to train the system to recognise your voice?

Cheers

Peter

Hi Peter

Err... I haven't actually used the system much yet (O2 network problems i my area!). I'll have a fiddle today and let you know.

Cheers

Phil