You mention it uses the legacy SL 40 control protocols, but does it just slide into a SL 40 can?? Electrical pin out the same?

I suspect if it was a direct exchange without needing wiring or mounting work, it would increase sales potential.

Is the 3D audio only available if using the built-in intercom, or can this be hooked up to an external non-3D audio panel (a PMA8000 in my case) and still get the 3D separation of the active and standby frequencies?

No karaoke mode on the music input for the integrated intercom like the PM3000 has... :p

I got a chance to play with one of these yesterday - it is definitely a worthy replacement for the SL-40, even if you don't use any of the advanced features. The sound is great - wil have to see how the intercom behaves in a noisy cockpit environment, but since it is the same design as in their audio panel, I suspect it will be good as well.

Price is excellent - I will be curious to see where the street price settles. For a one-radio VFR ship, this is going to be a real contender. If it slipped wright into an ICOM tray (it doesn't), the Val might be sporting one soon....alas....

Hello Neal,

I believe by "karoke mode" you mean "music isn't muted when someone talks on the intercom". I can confirm that the GTR 200 intercom does not cause music to be muted. We recognize that this is how people actually use an intercom with music, so we made this the default behavior! Of course there is a quick softkey to manually mute music should you wish to do so.

On a related note, you can choose on the fly whether or not received comm audio will mute the music input. I often set this differently based on the type of flying I'm doing (VFR or IFR).

- Matt

Hello Scott,

This is a very good question. If you look at the installation manual you will see that the GTR 200 Receiver Audio Out to a separate audio panel is just like any other COM radio - mono.

To receive the benefits of 3D audio, you need to be using the GTR 200 internal intercom with the stereo headset(s) connected to the GTR 200.

Thanks,
Steve

Outstanding!!!!

If I were Garmin, I'd make that feature obvious and prominent in your advertisements.

Despite the fact that supposed "common sense" would try to dictate that automatically muting the music everytime someone speaks into a headset mic or an incoming transmission is received on the radio would be the bureaucratically determined "safest" way to operate music thru an intercom... in actual practice it's absolutely the worst, and most distracting way to operate, and I think having the music level erratically go up and down creates unneeded confusion when just simply leaving the music at a constant volume and letting your brain select what it wants to focus its attention upon in the auditory mix is the natural way the brain works while listening to music anyway.

SL-40 replacement
 

Hi Steve,

Can you answer the question above on whether the GTR 200 is a drop-in replacement for the SL-40? If so I am very interested....

Thanks,

Hello,

We are struggling to answer the several questions regarding drop in replacement because there are Yes and No answers.

No, because the GTR 200 is several inches shorter, doesn't plug into the same rack, and supports quite different wiring including stereo headsets and stereo music.

Yes, because it has a similar height, and especially if your SL40 is just being used as a COM radio, it would be quite easy to remove the SL40 and rack and move the wiring functions onto new pins on the GTR 200 connector. You would probably want to install stereo headphone jacks and wire those up instead of the mono jacks you were probably using with the SL40. They both use essentially the same serial interface, so even retaining the ability to remote tune the radio from an external system would still work if you just connect the wires to the right pins.

We are happy to get into as much detail as you like. Thank you for your interest.

Thanks,
Steve

:(

Doubt if I will be buying one in that case.