BlackBerry® Tour™

[joysellshomes]

I see a lot of postings from owners of the Blackberry Tour talking about how people on the other end can't hear them well.  I don't think I have that problem.  My problem is that when I am in my car (2006 Lexus RX400h) using the in-car Bluetooth, the people I am talking TO sound horribly garbled.  I'm a Realtor and another Realtor called me about a deal and I had to tell him I'd call him back because I was only understanding about every fourth word!  Being able to use that Bluetooth technology in the car is exremely important to me.  This is my first Blackberry and I love the phone but this audio is awful.  I took back my first Tour because of the track ball issue and hoped the second phone's audio would improve but it didn't.  I have talked to Verizon Support several times ("gee, we've never heard about this issue); gone into the Verizon store and made the salesman listen and sync HIS phone (not a Tour and yes, it did sound better); have my son sync his Tour to my car (it sounds awful but in his BMW M5 it sounds fine); had Lexus look at the car ("Well, ma'am, we don't have any software updates for the Bluetooth in your car but for $200, we can have a mechanic spend two hours switching out the speaker in your car to see if maybe that's the problem.")  I have one more day to decide if I keep this phone or possibly just get a Blackberry Curve and hope it sounds better.  I was with Cincinnati Bell for years and just switched to Verizon and already I'm sorry.  But I can't go back to Bell because reception in my house is awful.  Has anyone else had this issue?  Does somebody (Blackberry? Verizon?) eventually create some kind of "fix" that can be downloaded to the phone?  Any ideas would be appreciated.

[cag1624]

I have just got the BB Tour from Verizon and am also disappointed with the audio quality - even on the phone itself.  When connected to the Bluetooth in my 2007 Lexus ES350 people on the other end of my calls have real difficulty hearing me, and apparently this is a known problem at RIM, although there is no estimate of when it will be addressed: http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB19349&sliceId=1&docTy... The BB Tour is replacing my T-Mobile 8700g which worked perfectly in the Lexus so I feel it is either the Tour or Verizon's software that needs to be fixed.

[RayK]

I don't know if this information will help you, but I have a Verizon Tour. First, I'm pleased with the audio quality of the phone. It's not perfect, but I've certainly had much worse in the past.

Neither of my vehicles has factory Bluetooth so I recently bought the BlackBerry VM-605 Bluetooth Visor Mount Speakerphone. It seems to work great on its on, but it can be tuned to the audio system on any FM channel and I was curious how well it would work.

The first time I used it in this way was in my '02 Toyota 4Runner with aftermarket sound system. Callers could understand me fine, but I was having trouble hearing them. Not because of garbled reception or dropouts, but instead because the audio was so bass heavy. I wasn't impressed!

Next, I used it in my '04 Lincoln LS with factory sound system. It worked great! I could hear the caller very well!

I suspect that how the EQ is set on the audio system in the 4Runner has something to do with it. At least it should be part of the equation. Or, it's possible that the Equalizer on the BB for the media player may actually come into play.

Since I got excellent recieve and send sound quality in the Lincoln, I'm not yet ready to give up my Tour.

This might be insulting since you already have factory Bluetooth, but you might want to try the VM-605 and see how you like it. You could always return it.

[R_U_Nuts]

There is a work around using the Lexus's internal bluetooth adjustments for raising the volume but if this is a "garbled" and not a volume issue I'm not sure if it will help.

[Orlanzo]

I'm having a very similar problem too.  In a 2006 Infinit M35, when on a call and connected over bluetooth, the caller is terribly garbled.  The volume seems to be too high, but you can't adjust the handset's volume while connected over bluetooth.  Its a big pain.   Previously, I was using a Samsung and had no issues with it in handsfree mode.

[cag1624]

I found the workaround:

Press and hold the "Info" button to the left of the GPS screen and turn the lights on and off 3 times.  This gets you to the maintenance menu and you can adjust Bluetooth microphone and speaker volume.  My Blackberry Tour now works a charm with the microphone volume set to +4 (out of 5)

[Orlanzo]

@Cag1624

Is this for the Infinit?  The Info button on my vehicle is to the right of the screen.  I didn't think about the "secret" options.  I believe I saw the instructions describing how to open the maintenance screen for my vehicle on the web.  I check into it.

Was the microphone volume the only adjustment you made or did you modify the speaker setting too?  The normal bluetooth options, accessed from the Phone menu through the "Settings" button have an Outgoing volume setting.  Did you adjust it prior to increasing the microphone volume from the maintenance screens?

[cag1624]

Sorry, this was for the Lexus.  I only adjusted the microphone volume as the speaker volume was OK.  The Lexus does not have an outgoing volume in the normal Bluetooth menu, so I searched "Lexus Bluetooth Settings" on Google and found how to access the service menu.

[dj2big]

I shut off the sound enhancement and the tty it works good now for me.

[trvlin]

I have just purchased a 2010 RX 350 and cannot use the "info" button/headlight trick because there aren't buttons.  Does anyone know the trick to get to the maintenance screen on the 2010's?   I cannot use the Bluetooth feature because of the inability of others to hear me.  Such a waste of technology.  there has to be something to fix this.