Hands free microphone question for E70 owners
 

This quote from 2007bmwx5.net is either a sign there's a newer, better microphone available for the BMW hands-free setup, or it's an outright lie.

Anyone care to comment on the clarity of the mic in an E70? Is it better than the ones available for the rest of BMW's lineup? I was on a new 6-Series forum yesterday and those owners were also griping about a $90,000 car with a useless microphone. If there's something new available, I'd love to know about it.

Sound is clear and crisp but then again it all depends on your phone provider. I have Verizon and every call is loud and clear. Never have any issue. you can use the radio volume to turn the phone volume up or down.

I would think it's both the provider and the hardware in the car, as well as the actual phone that you use. Some phones' bluetooth, from what I've heard (haven't used bluetooth headsets myself yet), work better than others. Same should apply to the setup in the vehicle. As far as the service provider, that would obviously impact reception, but I know my girlfriend has Cingular and in her X3, I sometimes can barely hear her through the bluetooth and if she takes it off bluetooth, sounds perfectly clear through the phone by itself (not a provider/service issue..).

Feedback I'd gotten through a similar post I made is that the E70 setup is pretty good.

I also have Verizon and my calls on my phone are usually clear and they were pretty clear in my E38. But the new mic in my X5 is not cutting it. I even swapped phones and tried a Moto Q, which is a recommended BMW BT phone. Same sorry reception on the far end. Turning up the volume only makes the other person louder, it doesn't help them hear me any better. Everyone I talk to tells me the exact same thing; it sounds like I'm talking into a can with a string attached. I even pulled the mic out of the overhead and held it in front of my face. It still sounded bad. If the damn things weren't so expensive, I'd chuck it and try a new one.

Is the new mic in your X5 the same as the ones in the E70?

I have experience using the handsfree mic via bluetooth in both an E60 545i and now the E70 X5. I never had any issues with the E60. In comparison, I have found the microphone audio quality in the X5 to be terrible. Background noise is much louder and somehow every bump in the road is amplified through the microphone to the other person on the line. When the vehicle is not moving, the sound quality is actually good. While drving on the highway or on a bumpy road, it is almost unbearable to callers on the other end of the line.

I can't imagine the hardware has changed much from previous models to the E70, so my guess was that some combination of the larger cabin/panoramic sunroof/microphone positioning etc. has introduced a lot of background noise that screws up the sound quality of the mic. I would be interested in others experiences, particularly in comparison to other BMW models.

:iagree: 100%