PMA7000BT - Any owners?

idahoflier

idahoflier

Pattern Altitude
Joined
Jul 21, 2017
Messages
1,609
Display Name
Display name:
idahoflier
Hi,

Does anyone have a PS Engineering PMA7000BT in their panel? If so, how do you like it? Any other feedback on it?

Thanks!
 
PMA450 really like it.

PS Engineering makes a good product and has good customer service. You'll be happy with choosing them for your audio panel needs.
 
PMA8000BT in the plane we just purchased. Haven't had much chance to play around with it ou use the features, but on the flights home it worked great. No issues with squelch, clear sound.
 
I have the 8000BT and it works great for standard use and for streaming ForeFlight advisories and music via Bluetooth.
 
I have a PMA 7000 CD that was installed in early 2004 and that has been operating flawlessly since. I didnt use the CD/MP3 player for very long because, a year or two later, when I bought a 396, I had an aux music input installed and listened to XM. Now I have about 4,500 songs loaded on my iPad and over 5,000 others on my phone and plugging in one of them and hitting random is far more convenient.

The PMA 7000 has been a great piece of equipment and has never been in for service of any sort. Never thought about it before, but likely the most reliable piece of equipment in the plane.

Obviously, I can't comment on the BT quality.
 
I have the 8000bt. fantastic audio panel. love the bt.
 
JCranford said:
Except that I have a REALLY hard time getting the Bluetooth to connect and stay connected to the phone.
Click to expand...
Check to see if you have iPad and iPhone both connected or trying to connect. I had this same problem and when I disabled blue tooth on the iPad the iPhone connected and was solid from there on. Have 8000BTi.
 
Ray Etcheverry said:
Check to see if you have iPad and iPhone both connected or trying to connect. I had this same problem and when I disabled blue tooth on the iPad the iPhone connected and was solid from there on. Have 8000BTi.
Click to expand...

Ahh, could be it. Thanks!
 
mscheuer said:
Dear JCranford, have you reset the Bluetooth in the PMA8000BT?
Mark Scheuer
PS Engineering
Click to expand...

No sir, I haven't. It is a club owned plane. I've since bought my own so I don't fly the club plane now. @AggieMike, do you ever have issues with the Bluetooth?

Thanks for jumping into the conversation Mike. When I upgrade my new plane's audio panel I plan to go with PSE!
 
I love my PMA 8000B
 
The issue I had when my Samsung Galaxy note 3 phone would not function when connected via bluetooth to the 8000bt was caused by a setting in my Samsung. On my Samsung when connecting to the bluetooth device, the Samsung tried to connect as a media device or some sort; I had to tell the Samsung to forget the connection then reconnect with the correct setting in the Samsung.
 
@mscheuer - I’m one of the club owners of the airplane you asked @JCranford anout. And yes, it has been a bit persnickety to get the iPhone or iPad to connect to the PMA450. And with 16 members the, we exceed the capacity of the panel to remember all of our devices.

And I too have experienced the difficulties connecting that John mentioned. But the comment about both the iPhone and the iPad radiating BT signal might be the culprit. I’ll use your suggestion to silence the one I don’t want connecting when I fly next weekend.

If I sill have problems, I’ll reach out to you.

And @idahoflier, this is one example of what I was saying about their awesome customer service.
 
Any ballpark on the labor needed to replace an audio panel? I am thinking about PMA 450 ...

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
WannFly said:
Any ballpark on the labor needed to replace an audio panel? I am thinking about PMA 450 ...
Click to expand...
What do you have now? To get the most out of what PSE offers, installing new stereo wire runs to the jack positions may be required as older audio panels didn’t need that.

@texasag93 can provide the exact cost for 55WB and it’s PMA450... but I’m thinking it was about $5,500 to $6,000 all in (equipment, wiring, install labor, etc)
 
AggieMike88 said:
What do you have now? To get the most out of what PSE offers, installing new stereo wire runs to the jack positions may be required as older audio panels didn’t need that.

@texasag93 can provide the exact cost for 55WB and it’s PMA450... but I’m thinking it was about $5,500 to $6,000 all in (equipment, wiring, install labor, etc)
Click to expand...

I do not remember the exact cost. The extra wire for the enhanced sound cost about $1000 (a day of labor at the shop) and the feature was an extra $500-$1000 for the unit.

Don't do it.
 
Jeez.... I have Garmin SL 15M. It works... So may be I will just wait till it craps out

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
texasag93 said:
I do not remember the exact cost. The extra wire for the enhanced sound cost about $1000 (a day of labor at the shop) and the feature was an extra $500-$1000 for the unit.

Don't do it.
Click to expand...
Bw what u actually get with the enhancement? All I care about is BT audio for pax, it would be good if they have to hear ATC chatter, believe the 450 have that feature.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for the feedback. I have a PMA7000M-S that it starting to act up a bit and I saw that the PMA7000BT is a slide in replacement so was curious if anyone had any experience with it.
 
WannFly said:
Jeez.... I have Garmin SL 15M. It works... So may be I will just wait till it craps out

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Or you could upgrade to the PMA7000BT for $1395 which is a slide in replacement for the SL-15

Mark Scheuer
PS Engineering
 
The SL15M is an older PSE Audio Panel anyway, and a good one. Like Mark says - you can slide-in a PMA7000BT and have the latest and coolest.

Mark's cruel that way! He knows that, one day soon, my PMA8000B will automagically turn into a PMA450A. Problem is, my wife will notice, just like she noticed the Avidyne that sneaked in in place of my GNS430...
 
WannFly said:
Bw what u actually get with the enhancement? All I care about is BT audio for pax, it would be good if they have to hear ATC chatter, believe the 450 have that feature.
Click to expand...
The added function the PMA450 introduced was 3D (known as Itelliaudio) . It is possible to set Comm1 and Comm2 so they sound like they come from different sides of the space.

See the product page for more information. http://www.ps-engineering.com/PMA450A.shtml

At first, our club thought it would be worth having. Turns out, it's one feature that is hardly used. If one of our members sets it up and uses it, the next member often turns it off.

What the PMA450 does excel at is ease of distributing the music stream. It accepts 3 different streams (one BT, 2 wired), and can easily route the streams to the different headset stations. So if the pilot wants to listen to classic rock, the right front seat nothing, and the kids in the back want country/western gansta rodeo rap, you can set the distribution so all hear the music they want to hear. And it does not interfere with intercom.
 
SCCutler said:
The SL15M is an older PSE Audio Panel anyway, and a good one. Like Mark says - you can slide-in a PMA7000BT and have the latest and coolest.

Mark's cruel that way! He knows that, one day soon, my PMA8000B will automagically turn into a PMA450A. Problem is, my wife will notice, just like she noticed the Avidyne that sneaked in in place of my GNS430...
Click to expand...
i spoke to my avoinics guys and he is of the opinion that even though slide-in could work, the wires under it is pretty old and will cause trouble. right now i am dealing with a static noise (could be a unshielded wire or a ground issue) when AOA is on (which has a voice innunciator). trying to think if its worth the money to get the whole wiring changed. good info on SL15M..didnt know it was PSE
 
WannFly said:
i spoke to my avoinics guys and he is of the opinion that even though slide-in could work, the wires under it is pretty old and will cause trouble. right now i am dealing with a static noise (could be a unshielded wire or a ground issue) when AOA is on (which has a voice innunciator). trying to think if its worth the money to get the whole wiring changed. good info on SL15M..didnt know it was PSE
Click to expand...

The harness is probably fine. Of course it depends on how well it was installed to begin with. I don't like edge card contacts but they have worked for decades. All the existing wires should be shielded just as a new 8000BT harness would be.
 
Last edited:
AggieMike88 said:
The added function the PMA450 introduced was 3D (known as Itelliaudio) . It is possible to set Comm1 and Comm2 so they sound like they come from different sides of the space.

See the product page for more information. http://www.ps-engineering.com/PMA450A.shtml

At first, our club thought it would be worth having. Turns out, it's one feature that is hardly used. If one of our members sets it up and uses it, the next member often turns it off.

What the PMA450 does excel at is ease of distributing the music stream. It accepts 3 different streams (one BT, 2 wired), and can easily route the streams to the different headset stations. So if the pilot wants to listen to classic rock, the right front seat nothing, and the kids in the back want country/western gansta rodeo rap, you can set the distribution so all hear the music they want to hear. And it does not interfere with intercom.
Click to expand...

Actually, the club did not know about the additional wiring cost.

We only knew about the additional cost of the unit.

The additional cost would not have been approved knowing the additional wiring cost.

If the passengers want other music, let them have their iPhone or Android headphones on.
 
Lando said:
I have the 8000BT and it works great for standard use and for streaming ForeFlight advisories and music via Bluetooth.
Click to expand...
Question. Just installed my new 8000BT. Flew for the first time today. Linked fine via BT to my iPad running FF. Noticed I didn’t get an audio traffic alert and when I went to Bluetooth, it had disconnected. Anyone else having an issue with the unit doing this? Do you not get any notification when it disconnects? Thanks
 
I had the PMA 7000B in mine for a few years and it worked great. I believe that the only difference between the 7000B and 7000BT is the Bluetooth capability. I recently upgraded to the 8000G which has blue tooth because I wanted to link my Onyx Plus XM receiver via bluetooth and I liked the built-in USB connector. You can't go wrong with PS Engineering products.
 
JCranford said:
Except that I have a REALLY hard time getting the Bluetooth to connect and stay connected to the phone.
Click to expand...
Agree. I had the same issue with my 8000BT. Had the iPad linked using ForeFlight and then connected the phone to listen to music. It cut the iPad off with no notice and I lost all the audio alerts. Apparently you can only connect to one BT device and if one is an iPhone, it takes priority and bumps the other off. Not a big deal now that I know it. I have an audio plug in my panel and use a wired connection and use an old iPod for my music source.
 
just replaced the PMA8000B with the PMA450A. It's nice....but a little disappointed in the sound quality and lack of bass and no EQ for music. I was Bluetooth ing music from the iPad.
 
Hi Checkoutmysix, our documented music frequency response is 10Hz to 26KHZ for our hardwired input.

Bluetooth specified frequency transmissions are 15Hz to 22KHZ

a Bose A20 frequency is 15Hz to 15khZ

Of course that is ridiculous because most of our hearings starts to roll off at 8Khz

But since the 450 is a digital system, there was absolutely no harm in making it perform to that design.

So, let me help you to get to the bottom of the audio fidelity issue you are having.

thank you
-Mark
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top