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2013 1200 RT bluetooth issues

bdfbeemer

RT in NC
Hello, I have a new 1200RT. Since day one what ever plays over bluetooth is of terrible quality. The radio and head set has been replaced and still no improvement. Latest from my
Dealer's rep is that BMW will buy back the headset but I have to live with the poor audio. Doesn't sound right to me. I am stuck with a $2000+ optioon that doesn't work as advertised. I quess I will have to start letter writing and contacting a lemon laywer. Seems like BMW would be embarrased to put out such poor equipment. Has anyone else had these issues?
 
Is your Bluetooth the "BMW Communicator". If so there's a software upgrade to V2.50 that noticeably improves sound quality. Good luck!
 
bluetooth

Good luck and let us know if you have any success. My 2012 RT bluetooth audio is horrible thru my Schuberth helmet. I just listen to my iphone thru the helmet and only turn on the bike's very expensive radio if my bluetooth battery dies. It's practically worthless above 65 mph as well. If I were buying another, it would be without a radio, they should be ashamed for such poor audio. Or better yet, those who designed it, should be forced to listen to it all day.
 
Totally agree. It is a BMW headset and C3 pro helmet. I am taking it in tomorrow and pair it with the dealers Senna headset and he wants to pair with a schuberth headset when one comes in. I will ask about the software upgrade.
 
My dealer could not get his headset to air with my bike. He said it was the first time he could not pair with a bike. My headset has the V2.50 update. We paired it to a K bike and it sounded a whole lot better than when paired with my bike. Guess it is in the unit. The dealer is going to contact BMW again.
 
Bluetooth sound is bad but wired sound is good

I gave up on getting the Bluetooth to sound good on my 2012 RT. It comes in like an AM radio, tinny and sounds bad in general. I have read that is the case for most Bluetooth audio as it compresses the signal and loses fidelity. Wired sound is good though, so I just mounted a headphone plug on the handlebars. I am OK with that.

All that said though I can definitely understand being more than a little PO'd at its poor performance for the money.
 
It sounded pretty good on a K bike. Just crappy on mime. I use bluetooth all the time in my truck and it sounds fantastic.
 
Really?

It sounded pretty good on a K bike. Just crappy on mime. I use bluetooth all the time in my truck and it sounds fantastic.

If that's the case then maybe I will go for an aftermarket Bluetooth transmitter and receiver and bypass the one on the bike. Otherwise I have been happy with the radio performance through a wired connection, it sounds fine.
 
experiment

I am downloading some music to my gps and see how the bluetooth works. I hope to try tonight. How did you hard wire?
 
Good question!

I am downloading some music to my gps and see how the bluetooth works. I hope to try tonight. How did you hard wire?

Actually I bought the bike used and the previous guy had done the hard wire. Most of the info about this is on a very long forum post in the Adventure rider forums. I do know a little about it though. The hardwire is hooked into a plug meant for a set of optional rear speakers. What this does then is that you can use the FADE function to shut off the front speakers and FADE all sound output to the rear speakers, which is now your headphones. It is a little tricky at first but once you get the concept it does work well. And unlike when using a non BMW Bluetooth receiver you still get all the same volume and other controls as you do for the front speakers. Or if you wanted to you could have both the front speakers and a headset working this way. Why you'd ever want that I don't know..

BTW, is your GPS hooked up to the BMW harness plugs? If so, I believe that sound out is only mono. There are 3 wires in the sound out plug meant to be used by the BMW Navigator GPS but only two are actually used. Some discussion of that is here: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=21145757 I also use that plug for my radar detector as it does mute the radio a little when an alarm sounds, just like GPS overrides the radio. Works OK instead of having a sound mixer as I used to.

I suggest you search these forums using Google advanced search so you can specify a number of search terms and go against advrider.com. The furoum search engine is not up to the task for this work. Hope this helps.
 
music great through GPS

I copied some music to the sd card in the GPS. The music is great. One more finger pointing at the radio unit. The dealer sent an email to the field rep. I am going to fire another one off to the customer relations person who contacted me, probably a waste of time.:banghead
 
Still a problem

I've had my 2012 R1200RT now for almost two years and have no good solution for the abysmal sound quality of the BMW Motorrad Communication System when paired via Bluetooth to the BMW Motorrad audio system in the bike. The Communication System in the helmet is good. I can pair it with my iPhone and other Bluetooth devices and get good sound quality. The radio receiver part of the bike radio is good. I get good sound quality from speakers on all sources (including Sirius XM). The problem is with the Bluetooth transmitter in the bike radio.

The dealer replaced the radio once with only slight improvement in sound quality. Music is so-so if you are familiar with the tune but talk radio and news are totally unintelligible.

Here are some work-arounds:
1. Hard-wired an audio jack into the system as detailed here: http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?56947-Unnacceptable-sound-fidelity-with-BMW-Bluetooth This gives good audio but you have to wear wired ear buds or ear phones which are uncomfortable in donning and removing the helmet. Plus you have the wire.
2. Bought a Kokkia A9Bluetooth Wireless Universal 3.5mm Audio Stereo Transmitter and plugged it into the hard wired audio jack. This gives good quality sound when Bluetoothed to my helmet but so far have not been able to get the helmet Bluetoothed to the Kokkia and to the Garmin at the same time.
3. I can Bluetooth the helmet directly to my iPhone to play music. To control the iPhone I use a Scosche IPNRFCS. But I can't get AM, FM, Sirius, or WX.

I am totally disgusted with BMW. I spent a bundle for the radio and the Communication System and it is still terrible without the work-arounds, none of which are perfect.

I do not plan to buy another BMW because of this problem.
 
terrible

I had the dealer try and get everything synced and he couldn't. There are lot of us out there with the same problem. I sent a nasty email to a higher up in "Customer Relations". I got an out of office reply. Hopefully he will read it in the next couple of days and respond. If enough people got together and responded to BMW they would be more likely to work a solution. They do not like problems talked about in public. This has soured me on the company. Mainly the way problems are handled. I will not buy another BMW product.
 
Random thoughts

I am wondering if there is some way to change out the bluetooth in the radio to a newer/better version. I have heard it is an Alpine radio and I doubt that Alpine makes that part of the radio. I bet it is a card or some kind of circuit board add on. Next time I get my plastic off I may take a whack at this. In the meantime I am just using an FM transmitter on a hardwire to a receiver and headphones. Way longer battery life than Bluetooth without any of the hassles. For something that has been out for several years Bluetooth just seems like its really not there yet in terms of reliability, battery life, sound quality, and ease of use. IMHO, I'm sure some feel otherwise.
 
Dealer

Have you brought this to the attention of the dealer? The more who complain, the better chance for a remedy.
 
1. Hard-wired an audio jack into the system as detailed here: http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?56947-Unnacceptable-sound-fidelity-with-BMW-Bluetooth This gives good audio but you have to wear wired ear buds or ear phones which are uncomfortable in donning and removing the helmet. Plus you have the wire.
This gets you half-way... next buy a Sena SM-10, plug that into the headphone jack and pair with your helmet. Viola and you can even pair a second one...
 
Just had another conversation with "Customer Relations". Same person who said a field tech would check out my bike. Never happened. The area rep told the dealer he wasn't concerned that the radio is bad. Great company:banghead
 
update

According to a customer relations person, his field tech says the problem could be coming from three areas, the headset which I think has been disproved, the blue tooth antenna , which is in the radio or the radio itself. The radio has been replaced already. He wants me to take the bike in and leave it for more tests. Calling tomorrow to see what I can set up. I still think it is a design problem. Too many others having similar problem.
 
Try desperately to get BMW to take it all back and buy a wired system that works with clarity on any bike: the AUTOCOM. We'll be at the rally selling and installing. And if you must do bluetooth, be aware that wireless solutions will probably not have the reliability and sound clarity that you get with wired solutions unless and until all manufacturers agree to implement the software standard in completion and the same way. That will only happen when hell freezes over.

Lisa
BTW I sell and ride AUTOCOM because it works and has for over 15 years!
 
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