Garmin 660 music?

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Anyone use their Garmin 660 for playing music? Is the quality of the music with a sena any good or should I get an iPod? Never used mp3 at all before
 
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KTD1911

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I have no problem with music from my 595 and sena
 
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I've been running a 660 with Sena 20s for over a year now. No problems so far. Play my loaded music in random mode; it's like a custom radio station with no commercials!:)
 

BakerBoy

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Yes, the 660 can stream the music, and you've touch available to play the music. That functions great, much faster than the labored Zumo 590 I had prior.

I have the 660 on my RT in the BMW 'GPS Ready' mount, with Bluetooth to my Sena 20S.

I've loaded all my digital music on a memory card in the 660, plus I've all the same digital music on a USB drive plugged into the USB port in the RT's glove box. But in that configuration, the music from the 660 is quite flat and effectively mono from the 660, at least when it is in the BMW cradle. So I always play the music off the USB drive, and have the benefit of using the BMW wonderwheel to move through the music (much less of a reach than required to touch the 660 screen on the RT).

I've not tried using the Zumo 660 in it's Garmin cradle to determine whether that music flatness still is present. I suspect the issue is the temperamental system on my RT (perhaps BMW hopes folks will upgraded to their BMW Navigator GPS' to resolve that).
 

The Dan

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Bluetooth to my Sena 20S.
I use the controls on my 20S to control playback of my Garmin 665, I can skip or replay songs with just a tap. I use earbuds and have no complaints about the quality of the music.
 

BakerBoy

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I do not have the 660 paired to my 20S, as that causes disconnects from my RT's BT system (which is only resolved by rebooting the motorcycle!). My 20S pairs to the BMW BT system, which has GPS, AM, FM, XM, USB, Phone, etc combined onto the BT signal to my 20S.

So, my post above was perhaps tangential, but sought to warn others of issues in using a 660 within a BMW system. :)
 

jfheath

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Yes, the 660 can stream the music, and you've touch available to play the music. That functions great, much faster than the labored Zumo 590 I had prior.

Do you mean the 550 ? The 590 is a much faster beast than the 660, which it replaced as their flagship - for a while.

I have the 660 on my RT in the BMW 'GPS Ready' mount, with Bluetooth to my Sena 20S.

I've loaded all my digital music on a memory card in the 660, plus I've all the same digital music on a USB drive plugged into the USB port in the RT's glove box. But in that configuration, the music from the 660 is quite flat and effectively mono from the 660, at least when it is in the BMW cradle.
The music has to be put into a particular folder - read the manual. You have to create it, and IIRC, the name is case sensitive. The 660 always produced good quality stereo music for me - mounted in the cradle and routed by wire to the Autocom.
 

BakerBoy

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Do you mean the 550 ? The 590 is a much faster beast than the 660, which it replaced as their flagship - for a while.



The music has to be put into a particular folder - read the manual. You have to create it, and IIRC, the name is case sensitive.
Oops, yes meant 550, thanks.

But 2nd point, not sure of its relevance. Are you saying that if the music is not put in the correct folder with the correct name, that explains why it plays in mono from the 660 through my BMW audio system? (For the record, the music is in the correct folder in the memory card that is in the 660.)
 

ST Gui

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Play my loaded music in random mode; it's like a custom radio station with no commercials!
Shuffle Play/Random Mode is the best thing to happen to portable music since— portable music! (Actually good at home too.)

Sometimes I'll play an album the way it was meant to be played— like Tommy or a classical piece like Scheherazade. But Shuffle/Random keeps my library fresh.
 

jfheath

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Oops, yes meant 550, thanks.

But 2nd point, not sure of its relevance. Are you saying that if the music is not put in the correct folder with the correct name, that explains why it plays in mono from the 660 through my BMW audio system? (For the record, the music is in the correct folder in the memory card that is in the 660.)
No - I'm not sure of its relevance either ! It was a snippet that came back to me as I was writing. If the folder is named incorrectly or is in the wrong case the 660 cannot find the music at all. Or at least mine wouldn't.

There was something about the 660 and the number of channels available for stereo sound. I no longer have a 660 and I only dabbled with Bluetooth briefly but I read something about it not being able to Bluetooth a stereo source in AND Bluetooth stereo out. I don't think that there are enough channels of the right type for that to happen. When I bought the 590, I noted that this was no longer an issue.

Your issue might be related to the stereo channel being taken by another device, leaving only mono for the music.
 
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My wife thought on this for some time....she's the family computer whiz. She has tried numerous music toys over the years and came up with a good solution for us considering battery life, wads of wiring, etc. Decided to go with bluetooth capable earbuds and 8 hours of music on her tablet which stays in the top box while we are riding. I use only one bud, not the clarity of two. No new toys, she just made use of those she already had.
 
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