Zumo 665

[LancasterFJR]

Take my advice and don't waste your hard earned cash on this POS:

Dim screen

Small letters, and not particularly crisp fonts either.

XM interference with BT.

Pathetic volume, espcially if using BT ear phones.

Frequent shutdowns.

Don't be fooled to believe that future firmware will fix things. Doubt it.

The device is very expensive. The 550 is far superior. So, what if doesn't give weather. I am re-installing my trysty 550 back.

 

[BIODSL]

Thanks, Sam. I've been skeptical about the new zumo and am taking a wait and see attitude. The 550 was built for motorcycle use, the 660/665's are nuvi's waterproofed and marketed for motorcyclists. I want to believe but...

 

[RaYzerman19]

I had occasion to use a 660 for a short while and wasn't impressed by the screen layout, no hard buttons, and I thought the bigger screen might wash out more in the sun. The bigger screen displays more on the sides, where I'm not going! Perhaps they would rotate these 90 degress? So, I'll stick with my 3 year old 550. I like the higher resolution of the smaller screen and the conveniences. Stereo bluetooth is not really a necessity.

 

[GreyGoose]

Thanks, Sam. I've been skeptical about the new zumo and am taking a wait and see attitude. The 550 was built for motorcycle use, the 660/665's are nuvi's waterproofed and marketed for motorcyclists. I want to believe but...

I"m pretty happy with my 660, but i agree that the screen could be brighter. I was also one of the lucky few that did not upgrade to the 3.80 release of the firmware which causes the occasional shutdowns to occur. I've never had that occur to my device and i plan on waiting untill that bug is fixed before updating. In the end, i'm happy with the purchase (539.00 delivered), and believe the device will get nothing but better as firmware upgrades continue. The 660 and 665 now share a code set which (IMHO) will show some benefits once the initial kinks are worked out of the firmware.

GreyGoose

 

[LancasterFJR]

I like listening to XM on long trips, and I also like to communicate with my GF who rides her own bike. We are quite happy with the F4 interphone BT headset system. I had added a BT dongle to my Zumo 550 (blue ridge transmitter), connected to where the 3.5 audio cable goes. It worked great with my F4 interphone BT headset. Loud and clear even with plugs. I decided to go with the 665 to eliminate the need for the dongle. Even with volume turned up to max on the 665 and the F4, the output in the headset with poor. I thought the built-in BT transmitter in the 665 is weak, but I now know that it's the max volume in the 665 that is the problem. It's more like 60-70% of the 550's. The intercome function of the F4 is still good, but even at max volume I can barely here the music. So I am now back to using the dongle with the 665, still not as loud as the 550.

As mentioned, the screen res is mediocre at the best, and the unexpected shut downs are annoying to say the least.

The XM antenna has to be 10' away fro the 665 otherwise the BT will interfere with the reception.

Garmin did a shitty job here. As for the price? WTF. I guess I can only blame myself for spending this kind of money. But, my exeperience with the 550 was so positive, I was sure the 665 would be an improvement. It surely pays off to wait a little before buying newly released stuff. I suspect these units will be selling for around $500 in the near future, if that. I would return mine in a heartbeat if I could, even for a loss.

Sam

 

[HaulinAshe]

At this time I have two bikes setup for the 660, one wired to Starcom, one BT to Sena SMH-10 BT headset. It gives me a good, back-to-back comparison between audio volumes of wired versus Bluetooth.

The 660 is definitely lacking in volume/amplitude when streaming MP3/music via Bluetooth A2DP. Wired it does just fine. I double-verified this by connecting the wired audio output of the 660 to the wired input of the Sena headset. Instant improvement in volume.

The way I'm dealing with it for now, is to maintain two different micro-SD cards. One is loaded with MP3s "gained" at 92 db. The other is loaded with MP3s "gained" at 96 db. It makes the playback volume close, but not perfect by any means.

Garmin surely needs to get off their proverbial ass and do some serious firmware work on the 66x product line. But I wouldn't go back to the 550 myself. There's too many other things I like about the 660 over the 550, the screen size being just one.

 

[mferriter]

Take my advice and don't waste your hard earned cash on this POS:
Dim screen

Small letters, and not particularly crisp fonts either.

XM interference with BT.

Pathetic volume, espcially if using BT ear phones.

Frequent shutdowns.

Don't be fooled to believe that future firmware will fix things. Doubt it.

The device is very expensive. The 550 is far superior. So, what if doesn't give weather. I am re-installing my trysty 550 back.

Got free weather and traffic on my Zumo this week through XM subscription - might just have to keep it.