Seidio and Accessories in General

topgazza

I'm gonna have a general rant. Jjust recieved my Seidio 2500 mount and paid £53 including hardwire cable for the pleasure. Its actually well built and a decent colour for my Passat dash. However, there is heavy hiss from the speaker which although not intrusive when driving is very poor in what is a very simple, technically, product. It is almost unbelieveable with modern electronics that such a simple setu cannot be quiet. Its just unacceptable. That and the lack of instructions for attaching the vent mount makes me think that these companies are taking the p**s.

A lot of pricing in this sector seems to be based on how much they can get away with knowing the desire to own this stuff is strong. At £53 the Seidio is not cheap when you look at what it actually consists of and prices of other electronic gadgets of a similar passive type. You can buy good quality mobile CD players for less. You can even buy a half decent basic DVD player for that price. I looked at the Brodit but when you consider over £90 for what s a piece of moulded plastic and a speaker, with perhaps a voltage regulator, it would have to be made of something damned special to justify that cost. Well made or not, and I am sure it is, the Brodit is almost the cost of a PDA which is ridiculous. I know folk love them and I don't doubt the quality but come on guys, 90 friggin pounds!

Look at other sectors such as computers and look how those costs have gone down. I've just bought a Kingston 512 CF card for £30. A year ago they were £130. You tell me whats going on. Sure costs are expensive on start ups of technology but with the number of people getting into Sat Nav this should have started to feed through. Unfortuately there are not actually that many suppliers or manufacturers so they can charge what they like. I would be very surprised if mark ups in this sector are in excess of 100%. Even that is acceptable if the quality and support matched that. They don't and the Seidio is just an example of that. It has to be unacceptable, we cannot just say "Oh, this sort of qaulity is OK, I'll get used to the noise(or whatever it is)" Its crap, expensive crap and its going back. Fortuatly my 2210, Fortuna BT and CP5 are fine, still expensive but decent quality.

Where do we go from here? Well, I'm gonna buy a charge lead for my iPaq and rest it in my cubby hole by my handbrake. I can buy a small speaker and lead and plug it into my iPaq so job done. I'll forego the pleasure of having my iPaq perched in front of me as I've got used to just the voice over the past few days.

Arri · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 13, 2004 Posts: 7

You're going to plug a speaker diorectly into your iPAQ?

I think the Seidio has an amplifier in it. If you get a speaker with headphone impedance I imagine it will be fairly quiet.

topgazza · Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2004 12:17 pm Post subject:

Hi Arri, you're right of course it would need some some of powered speaker to amplify the sound. Maybe thats whats wrong with the Seidio, the circuitry in the amplifier is just poorly designed. In any case the thought of spending £50 or £90 on a piece of moulded plastic with a simple amplified speaker and PDA connector is still galling. If you were paying £20 you would expect it to work without hiss and interference. I would prefer a mounted solution but will check for those nokia type phone speakers that come with a built in amp. Its very frustrating though

Talkingbollox · Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2004 2:12 pm Post subject:

Have a look at these foldable active speakers.

http://www.tchibo.co.uk/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/uk/-/GBP/TdUkDisplayProductInformation-Start;sid=0JnGM6i-iGHGMenPzTrMV6sqARfBe56sIiQ=?ProductID=j3MKZAOiSTIAAAD%2edZvQ3Gqq&BackTo=Search

Arri · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 13, 2004 Posts: 7

Those speakers look reasonably priced TB, but they also look a little large. I quite like the Seidio’s size and the mount seems to work fine. I find it a lot better than no mount. The sound is awful which I find strange as many have reported excellent sound with it. I can barely make out what TomTom is saying. I am a little worried about the quality of the electronics in it; especially as they are the only thing between my car battery and my £400+ iPAQ. Would I get a new Pocket PC if the Seidio damaged it? I doubt it. I wonder if the 12V to 5V transformer is in the mount or power cable. I might try modifying mine slightly. Take out the dodgy potentiometer. If the sound is still crap, fit a new speaker or get a cheap circuit board amplifier from Maplin.

johnk · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 17, 2004 Posts: 17

I was interested to buy a Seidio G2500 but heard of all those problems. But people seemed to suggest that they were fixed in later models. I enquired at globalpositioningsystems a couple of days ago about their stock, especially on the noise and overheating problems, and was assured that theirs are "newest to the market with any previous problems resolved".

Now I am confused:-(

Anyone else bought recently? What your experience?

nej · Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 9:14 am Post subject:

I bought one about 3 months ago and have had no problems with it.

dave2318 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 30, 2004 Posts: 24

I got one about a month ago from globalpositioningsystems.co.uk. There is no noise on it, except the distortion when the volume goes above the volume of my ipaq4150, making the amp and speaker useless! The vent mount kit is next to useless, i ended up superglueing the thing to my vent to make it stable, it's now very very stable :D .

Overall the mount is good. My boss got one of the older ones that was really naff, so he phoned seidio and complained, they gave him a free one of the new design!

Only real mone with the mount is the amplifier is useless to the extent of leaving the thing unplugged (yes i have tried adjusting the ipaq volume down) and the vent mount kit doesnt!

steveBob · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 14, 2004 Posts: 4

topgazza
if you want cheap and cheerful, it may worth trying one of the phone car kits that you plug in to your cigeratte lighter.
I purchased mine from the local garage for £4.99 with £10 worth of fuel and use it regularily with my nokia phone. Whistles a touch at full volume buts its generally not needed that loud.
Just make sure that you line the clip on mike up with the speaker. If it doesn't work at least its under tenner.
Doesn't solve the mounting problems but at least you'll be able to hear it.

SteveBob

topgazza · Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 8:02 pm Post subject:

Thats a good idea SteveBob.

Its seems the hit and miss success with the 2500 continues. I had only just ordered the thing so I would have thought it was the latest stock. The hiss was pretty bad though. As for the mount, well it was pathetic which takes me back to my other serious complaint about value for money...it wasn't.. I am going to get a Brodit type clip mount off a pal who installs mobile phones and may be approach this another way. I could always spend the £90 on the full Brodit kit Rolling Eyes

lexuscol · Regular Visitor Joined: Jun 25, 2004 Posts: 102

I purchased a Seido G2500 mount from GPS about three weeks ago had to return it, the charging system didn't work GPS replaced both the munt and cable no problem, I plugged in the mounts power supply cable into the cig lighter and it fell apart. I contacted seido direct cos I was fed up with returning items to GPS, they said they would send me a new power supply cable, I am still waiting, I have even offered to pay for it still no joy. I haven't been able to use the mount cos I have no psu cable. If I new the power setup i would go and get one from halfords. I know its 12V but does anyone know the milliamps to charge the ipaq2210?
I beginning to think I have wasted my money.

Arri · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 13, 2004 Posts: 7

topgazza · Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 8:58 pm Post subject:

So Dave, apart from a useless mount, speaker and amplifier its a pretty damn good product then? Laughing

This is all a shame and so frustrating. We have one guy supergluing the mount to his dash, another using it as an expensive holder and several worried new guys and one happy bunny (theres always one!)

Lets us know how you get on Arri, if you've ordered a vent mount tell me the flippin'thing works. I couldn't get it to stay in place at all.

dave2318 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 30, 2004 Posts: 24

Yep the mount it's self is great! My boss has the suction mount bit for it and it rocks! The actual bit the ipaq fits in works a treat (except for sound) would actually say it's better than the TomTom one I have got! Have to force my ipaq into the tomtom mount but it just drops into the seidio one and does not rattle or fall out, charges the ipaq great and connects well to my GPS. The bit I have the problem with is the amp and the vent mount.

Glueing is not so horrific for me; I have a MK4 golf and the vents just pop off, only a couple of quid to replace them, much cheaper than the vent mount.

Which brings me nicely to the previous persons point. The vent mount it's self (the three bits of badly moulded plastic) from seidio are £16 with £15 carriage!!!!!!! What a rip off!

semrots · Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 10:25 pm Post subject:

I've had the 2500 since July, and yes the power cable failed, and yes the vent mount is dire. I e-mailed the chap from Seidio who was in one or two of the threads, immedaite response - send me your address we'll send you a new power cable - I did and its 3 weeks and counting!!!

I bought a Brodit, think it was a package, any way the mount for a Mondeo and the speaker mount for a 2210 was mid £70's? Brilliant - non damaging and firm and secure, shame the speaker volume is little better than the Ipaq on its own - infact I usually leave it unplugged, so I could have saved a bob or two and bought the speakerless one. Its all a learning curve!!

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