GMA-350C or PMA-450B?

Timothy Burchett

Timothy Burchett

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Tim
I am installing a GTN-650 and got the green light from my wife to upgrade our audio panel (currently an ancient Narco unit) at the same time. I have narrowed it down to two options, the GMA-350C and the PMA-450B. My avionics installers are recommending the 350C because they (and their customers over the years) have really loved the voice commands. I know basically every online forum is unanimous with love for the 450B and the great company behind it. I am a professional pilot and have never used voice commands, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t find them great. I list the pro’s for each as I see it below. Essentially, do you think the voice commands with the 350C make it a better option than all the great benefits in the 450B? Does the 350C have the same audio quality as the 450B? Thanks!

350C benefits:
Voice commands with the GTN
One manufacturer, so integrate seamlessly with GTN
Still has digital audio for music distribution and 3D audio like 450B
Can manually adjust squelch for each seat if required (might be good when you have a quiet wife and loud kids)

450B benefits:
Great to support the well run small company that makes it
Great customer service
Two Bluetooth inputs, so fewer wires to come unplugged as the kids watch movies on an iPad and the wife listens to music
USB charger on front end
Modern look (wife is a big fan of something that looks modern when you are about to drop several thousand dollars on it)
User friendly interface
Great audio
wife (who knows nothing about avionics or aviation) likes the looks and features of the 450B
 
asicer said:
This should be the overriding factor right here. All else shouldn't matter.
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Ha, yea. I am fortunate- my wife is very pragmatic. She likes the 450B, but trusts my judgement and is ok with either. For her, it is more cosmetic and the desire to support a smaller company.
 
Do you regularly have conversations with Siri/Alexa/Google? That might be a reasonable indicator of how often you'd use the 350c's voice command. I'd say that's probably the only thing going for the GMA since you aren't ever going to remote control it from the 650.
 
asicer said:
Do you regularly have conversations with Siri/Alexa/Google? That might be a reasonable indicator of how often you'd use the 350c's voice command. I'd say that's probably the only thing going for the GMA since you aren't ever going to remote control it from the 650.
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I use Alexa at home, but never use Siri on my phone. That is a great perspective.
 
Garmin has a promo going on if you buy GTN + Audio panel and have a old Garmin GPS to turn in, you get X amount. that was the deciding factor for me choosing 350C
 
In some ways I wish I went with the PMA450b. The single Bluetooth receiver is the biggest disappointment. I had the 350c installed and I have been flying with it for the last two weeks. Funny timing of your post as I have another post in my drafts that I was working on last night reviewing my use of the 350c. I will likely post that tonight or tomorrow, not as an intent to compete with your post.
 
I
Jonathan Spoer said:
In some ways I wish I went with the PMA450b. The single Bluetooth receiver is the biggest disappointment. I had the 350c installed and I have been flying with it for the last two weeks. Funny timing of your post as I have another post in my drafts that I was working on last night reviewing my use of the 350c. I will likely post that tonight or tomorrow, not as an intent to compete with your post.
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look forward to reading your review. How have you found the voice commands? Those are the only reason I would choose the 350C. Thanks.
 
I have a ps engineering 8000bt, and no experience with the Garmin unit. My favorite feature by far is the automatic squelch on the 8000. It just works, perfectly, all the time. Even with 4 mismatched headsets and kids in the back squelch is seemingly perfect. I love not having to adjust it ever.




Timothy Burchett said:
I am installing a GTN-650 and got the green light from my wife to upgrade our audio panel (currently an ancient Narco unit) at the same time. I have narrowed it down to two options, the GMA-350C and the PMA-450B. My avionics installers are recommending the 350C because they (and their customers over the years) have really loved the voice commands. I know basically every online forum is unanimous with love for the 450B and the great company behind it. I am a professional pilot and have never used voice commands, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t find them great. I list the pro’s for each as I see it below. Essentially, do you think the voice commands with the 350C make it a better option than all the great benefits in the 450B? Does the 350C have the same audio quality as the 450B? Thanks!

350C benefits:
Voice commands with the GTN
One manufacturer, so integrate seamlessly with GTN
Still has digital audio for music distribution and 3D audio like 450B
Can manually adjust squelch for each seat if required (might be good when you have a quiet wife and loud kids)

450B benefits:
Great to support the well run small company that makes it
Great customer service
Two Bluetooth inputs, so fewer wires to come unplugged as the kids watch movies on an iPad and the wife listens to music
USB charger on front end
Modern look (wife is a big fan of something that looks modern when you are about to drop several thousand dollars on it)
User friendly interface
Great audio
wife (who knows nothing about avionics or aviation) likes the looks and features of the 450B
Click to expand...
 
Bw OP, does you wife know that AFTER her explicit approval (read command) you came here to ask for opinion, which means you are secretly thinking of not abiding by the said command?

And if Garmin didn’t have that promo going on and my dealer didn’t give me a sweet rate, I would have gotten 450B. Mark is a gentleman and great to talk to. Give him a call.
 
If you don’t mind, I’d like to make you aware of flightmate(R).

I started a thread today on Beechtalk in hopes to generate a discussion on audio panels. It sure did the trick, lots of interest and frankly, great accolades about the PMA450B.

My biggest surprise was when several pilot suggested that we consider offering a built-in audio alert system. I thought everyone new about our flightmate(R)!

All of our PMA450B (and the PMA8000G) have 4 inputs to trigger audio alerts. One of these inputs is designed to operate in parallel with a Sonalert, the other three will trigger on either a falling or rising edge.

The canned messages are “Master Caution”, “Check Fuel”, “Check Oil Pressure”, and a chime. But what is really cool is that by speaking into the pilot’s headset mic while holding the record button, you can store whatever you want the alert to say.

And while I know this has been brought up before, ask yourself what is more useful for your mission, pressing a button to say a command that eliminates pushing button and your radio or having the ability to pair two independent Bluetooth devices simultaneously?

What’s the big deal about that? It allows an unprecedented amount of flexibility to what the pilot, copilot, and passengers will hear. The pilot and copilot can select multiple sources. For example, Music 1 (hardwired XM music?) and BT2 connected to an iPad for audio alert from ForeFlight. Maybe BT1 is connected to your phone and BT2 to listen to your music on your iPod or iPad. Lots of combinations. The passengers can decide to hear Music 1, Music 2, BT1, or BT2.

We even provide a very easy to use count down timer that gives you audio alerts at “One minute” and “Timer at zero”. I was able to eliminate one of my two egg times in my airplane!

The display gives you a wealth of useful information. When you play back a message, the display shows what Com that is being played back and what message number. It will provide caller ID and even allows you create your own labeling for switch inputs. They are labeled at the factory as ADF and DME, but you can change those labels with up to 9 alphanumerical names.

Our IntelliAudio(R), true dimension sound, has been implemented through the cooperation with the USAF. The Wright Patterson Research Lab gave us the opportunity to work with their scientists to put their system they developed for USAF pilots and provide it to GA pilots. Thanks USAF.

Anyway, I just had to chime in. There is so much the 450B can do. And bY using our three Softkey approach along with the OLED display, it is very intuitive and easy use. You can make it do practically anything you want it to do. You can even set it up so that it remembers how you set up the music muting! That’s something that you can’t do with other audio panels. So when you power down and power us, all of the music mute modes are recalled automatically.

Finally, does anyone know how to place the GMA35c in true Pilot Isolate mode? You might see how that functions in the GMA35c.

We do audio panels and we are hyper-focused on developing the best in audi control. I believe this has given us the edge when it comes to entire audio package and the vast majority of the product innovations we have brought to the market..

Thanks everyone for all the years of your support. You’ll notice we don’t advertise (except for AOPA). Our sales mostly from pilot’s word of mouth.

Sincerely,
Mark
 
I went with the G650 and 350C. I’m very happy with it. I too am a professional pilot but have never used the PTT voice commands. I love the auto squelch as it works perfect with six headsets with two different manufacturers.

I also bought it because if I upgrade to the GTN 750 it would have the remote audio control from the 750 where does not have it with a 650. I looked at the PS 8000 and found the Garman product a better deal. Also, it’s just best to keep Garmin with Garmin.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Timothy Burchett said:
How have you found the voice commands? Those are the only reason I would choose the 350C. Thanks.
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I have the 350c, paired with a GTN 750.

I like the voice commands a lot, and they really make up for the major shortcoming of the GTN UI, which is that you have to go from wherever you are to the Home screen and then to wherever it was you actually wanted to go.

But, IMO there are only two reasons to get the 350c: One is the voice commands.

The other is if you want to have your audio panel remote mounted and control it through a GTN 750. Frankly, I like having physical buttons on a separate box and have plenty of panel space for it and thus no reason to remote mount anything.

There isn't any "Garmin integration" beyond those two things. If you won't use those two things, it does not matter one whit whose audio panel you use.

So, if you don't want the voice commands or the remote mounted version of the 350c (I think that'd be the 35c), then get the PMA 450B. PS Engineering makes a fantastic audio panel - They do one thing, and they do it exceedingly well, and they've been doing it for a long time.
 
WannFly said:
Bw OP, does you wife know that AFTER her explicit approval (read command) you came here to ask for opinion, which means you are secretly thinking of not abiding by the said command?

And if Garmin didn’t have that promo going on and my dealer didn’t give me a sweet rate, I would have gotten 450B. Mark is a gentleman and great to talk to. Give him a call.
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Haha, yes. We actually have been reading all the posts together. She is very pragmatic, and likes to know we are getting the best thing for that much money.
 
Timothy Burchett said:
Haha, yes. We actually have been reading all the posts together. She is very pragmatic, and likes to know we are getting the best thing for that much money.
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Timothy, your wife probably would like to know that my wife has been our voice for all of our audio annunciations! It's a family business. :)
 
PMA-450B all day. The context driven soft-keys are worth it alone, besides the fact of a customer 1 company and superior sound. The Garmin makes sense if you're 100% Garmin for the extra integration across their system.

Sad how many pilots never really exercise the depth of their modern audio panel capability, due the crazy multi-button presses to access features. When flying, it's great to adjust and access audio panel feature depth without a cheat sheet.
 
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NordicDave said:
Sad how many pilots never really exercise the depth of their audio panel capability, due the crazy multi-button presses to access features. When flying it's great to adjust the audio panel without a cheat sheet.
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this is true. just by looking at the face plate of 350C is not intuitive at all. i havent used it yet, but i feel even GMA 345 was far more intuitive from the face plate perspective. you will have to remember a bunch of commands and combination of button presses that would take up some CPU while flying
 
NordicDave said:
PMA-450B all day. The context driven soft-keys are worth it alone, besides the fact of a customer 1 company and superior sound. The Garmin makes sense if you're 100% Garmin for the extra integration across their system.

Sad how many pilots never really exercise the depth of their modern audio panel capability, due the crazy multi-button presses to access features. When flying, it's great to adjust and access audio panel feature depth without a cheat sheet.
Click to expand...

I am considering the same two alternatives for a center stack upgrade on the Aztruck. And I have the same impression from playing around with both of them...the 450B is just a whole lot more intuitive to use (For me. I recognize for others YMMV) and that's the way I am currently leaning.
 
WannFly said:
this is true. just by looking at the face plate of 350C is not intuitive at all. i havent used it yet, but i feel even GMA 345 was far more intuitive from the face plate perspective. you will have to remember a bunch of commands and combination of button presses that would take up some CPU while flying
Click to expand...
FYI- the GMA345 has 10 “Secret Clubhouse Handshakes”. A laminated card is included with the purchase of the GMA345. Also, to the best of my knowledge, it does not have music distribution but only music source selection (BT, Music 1, and Music 2) that is heard by all.
 
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