Car's Bluteooth for phone sounds Horrible???

Hi guys

My 2010 Prius ROCKS but I still cant get the bluetooth to sound decent. Tried the thing where you push the menu with your finger back and forth and turn it up but still sucks.

Should I take it in but.... I know more than them so what good will it do. Anyone get it where it actually sounds ok? My manager bought a hands free he puts on his visor off of ebay for $30 and sounds a heck of alot better. Hate to give up this feature on the car but it is VERY frustration. Thanks!

What phone are you using. No issues at all here with my iPhone 3GS. Even the bluetooth music streaming sounds fine.

I have a blackberry curve. I think it is a 8330 or 8300. Hmmm, do u think it is the phone then? People cant hear and say it is like I am in a tunnel

Very well could be the phone, I suppose. My iPhone 3G works very well -- except for one thing. The sound is great, and no one has trouble hearing me. The problem is that when I answer a call, my first response isn't heard. I always need to say a second "Hello!" before there is a response.

I have Palm 755p and people say it sounds good.

I have to do the same thing, say hello twice, but it still sounds awful

Hmm, must be the phone. Verizon, please get the iphone next year!

Same here, but the rest with my 3GS is good.

Try it out with another phone if you have one or know someone else that does.
That way you can find out if it is indeed something wrong with your particular stereo.

1+

Suggestion: Perhaps it is the source phone volume?

I am not sure what role the volume control plays when a phone is being used in blutooth mode, but may be an originating volume being too low or too high.

Sort of like, when you plug in an IPOD using an adapter into a car stereo, and you have to adjust the IPOD volume to optimize the quality of the sound (e.g., around 80% IPOD volume delivers the best sound through my current car sound system without distortion; too low, and the sound is muffled and tinny; too high, and the sound is distorted). A regular hookup uses an optimal line-out volume level, but is different when you hook up via the headphone jack out.

Maybe this is the same with blutooth? Just a suggestion.

Let me know how it works out!

This is a good idea, and will help isolate the problem.

Some other things you can try: update the firmware on your phone (with the system being new in your new Prius) from the Blackberry site, and doublecheck your bluetooth settings. There seems to be a great number of settings on the 8300 that may need to be tweaked for optimal performance (certainly many more options than on my LG Voyager!!).

The 8300 uses a new bluetooth protocol, so may have some compatibility issues, or compatibility settings that need to be set very deliberately.

In short, it may be your phone, but it may not be a defect, but a settings/update issue.

Here is a link that may be helpful:
BlackBerry 8300 Bluetooth — Files, Pictures, & Stereo Headphones | BlackBerry Cool

Standing by . . . let me know how it works out.

Hopefully, a resident Bluetooth expert will show up soon and solve all problems. Until then, I'll just say that I thought I heard (sources to come later ) the volume setting on the iPod/iPhone (or other device) is not a part of the picture at all. I had thought the entire sound was being provided by the car stereo's amplifier if the signal was picked up in Bluetooth.

I have an iPhone and it sounds great. It also sounds great with my wife's LG which is rather basic.

My BB 8320 sounds fine. I have an application on my laptop that automatically updates my firmware every few days (I charge the phone through the laptop), so maybe that's why it sounds good.

It appears that the outgoing phone sound is very very ???? and very dependent on the phone being used. A shopper tried his iPhone and the sound was very muffled and unclear. Using my own Samsung basic 2 y.o. phone improved the sound on the other end noticably.

This is an area that Toyota needs to address. But it does appear to be phone-dependent which is frankly beyond Toyota's control.

I have a Sprint BlackBerry 8330 for work and an iPhone 3G (3.0) as my personal cell phone and both work great. I currently use the BlackBerry more than the iPhone and people say it sounds fine, some don't even have a clue that I'm in the car on the Bluetooth speaker.

I think it is your cell reception or the location you are calling/receiving a call from. Sometimes you might need to turn off your phone and power it back on to get a stronger signal from another tower especially if you do a lot of travel between counties or cities.

I have a 2004 Prius and an iPhone 3G and I don't have any issues with the sound. As far as the second hello issue. Well that has been something since day one so when I answer the phone I say. HELLO....HELLO. I even do that on my landline out of habit!!!

It is almost certainly your phone. The bluetooth voice phone is essentially the same in the G2 and G3 cars. The G3 has some additional functionality, but not with the phone. There is a web site toyota.getconnected.com, I think that keeps track of which phones and features work on which cars.

I have a Samsung Blackjack 2. When it was running Windows Mobile 6.0, I had echo and other problems. It was virtually unusable (my 2006 Prius). I upgraded to Windows Mobile 6.1 and apparently Samsung fixed some of the hands-free issues. Here are a few things to try:

1. While on the hands-free, try adjusting the phone's handset volumne (not the Prius volume). This might solve some of the problem.

2. Check to see if there is a firmware/software upgrade available for your phone.

The hands-free unit in the Prius is really very good. It has a few quirks but not with voice quality. For example, on my phone I can only import phonebook entries one at a time. However, if you have an iPhone, you can only import your entire directory.

Hope this is helpful,
Bob

So here is something to think about.

Different phone manufacturers use different Operating Systems (OSs) and BlueTooth stacks (Drivers) for the various phones that are manufactured. For example BlackBerrys run on the BB OS while an HTC phone runs on a Microsoft Mobile OS. Both of these different OSs use different Drivers. The reason different phones have different drivers is simply because of licensing issues between the OS developer and the developer of the BlueTooth Drivers.

I have found that my BlackBerry works fine in my 2010 Prius, my 2007 BMW and my 2005 Jeep. However my HTC phone drops its BlueTooth connection every 3 minutes or so while I am driving.

Here is what you might want to try.

• Back up your BlackBerry
• Do a “hard reset” (That basically means wipe your BlackBerry)
• Reinstall the original OS that came with your BlackBerry (you’ll find it on the CD that came with your phone)
• Then (if possible) upgrade to the latest version of the OS
• Now reinstall your backed up data

I would be willing to bet that this will fix your problem.

Thanks and keep us informed,


Dino