What to do?

[aussie88]

I have a chance of a lifetime to upgrade to a merlin legend R6 with mlx sets. Right now, I am dealing with a merlin 820D2 wit BIS sets. Which is more reliable? We are very happy with the classic. I always thought that the mlx sets and the legends had many board problems.


Advice is appreciated

Austin

 

[GoKings]

If you upgrade to the Merlin Legend R6 you can still use your BIS sets, so you may still have the reliability that you've come to appreciate with those sets, plus the technological advantages of the Legend over your Merlin 820.

 

[Ghostin]

GoKings is right. Moving to a Legend will open up a lot of new features, especially things like voice mail and T-1 access. The boards themselves have never really had any issues. Some of the MLX-10 and MLX-10D had some issues, but most of them will work just fine. THE MLX-10DP series seem to be the most reliable.

You will need to have 408 or 008 analog boards, sometimes refrred to as ATL boards, to run the classic Merlin phones.

 

[jlshelton]

Among the big improvements (from Plus R2 to Legend) include the ability to do programming from a PC (WinSPM), the larger system size, and the ease of handling single-line phones. Caller ID support is good, but not great. MLX phones have a nicer feel and standard handset, and used ones are much cleaner than used ATL phones. MLX phones are easier to label. The cheesy base stand is adjustable, compared to the cheesy plastic base stands on ATL phones which were not.

Some things you will miss:
** Compact system size
** metal base stands for phones, adjustable angle and can be used for personal defense.
** Busy Buster
** alternating red-green light pattern indicating someone else is on your call. (Legend shows a quick message in the display phones only)
** ringing sounds (if you use MLX phones, the ringing sounds are much more annoying.)
** 2nd voice channel on ATL phones - Legend requires you to dedicate two ports to each ATL phone to enable the 2nd voice channel - used for voice announce while on a call. (I enjoy this feature - I can answer an intercom call via HFAI while covering mouthpiece of a phone call in progress.) MLX phones support this natively.
** Recall button on MLX is missing; need to program a button to get that feature
** Headset operation on MLX phones is worse than on ATL phones; less integration.
** MLX phones support far fewer adjunct devices; the MFM module, built in, allows for an independent single-line phone, but is expensive


Having upgraded from Merlin Plus R2, there are times when I consider going back.

Anyone out there care to comment about whether Magix and the 4400 series of phones addresses any of these issues?

 

[TouchToneTommy]

Digital 44XX phones do not have Off Hook Voice Announce at all. Redial is a fixed button on the set; HFAI, FEATURE, and INSPECT are now soft keys. No MFMs, although they are still in the software to exploit as phantom extensions. Headset adapter is built into the set, so the headset plugs directly into the headset jack on the bottom. Personally, I think headsets on the MLX and 44XX work great, all you need is the Headset Status and Headset Hangup buttons to operate.

 

[aussie88]

Well,

I upgraded to the 820 from a 3070 with fm4. I hated that services module and never could get that moh to work. As far as ring tones, I hate all of the avaya rings. But it could be worse, remember those awful "Buzzes" that the old 1a2 phones had?? I finally got rid of the 3070 when the power modules failed because someone put the winter coats on top of the control units. I have always hated menu driven administration. This is in a home, so I think that the MLX phones are bigger and uglier than the BIS sets. The membrane sets are every bit as ugly as the MLX's. I love those adjustible metal stands, those things are solid, and are smalle and more discreet than the MLX ones. Busy buster is great, but it is at the expense of one VT port. I think that I will sstick to the 820 for now. Oh, and one more question!! What happens If I try to use Merlin mail R3 with the 820?? What If I program a jack for ASA and plug VM in there??


Thanks for the replys!!

Austin

 

[ken07734]

I believe there is a bug with 6.1 legend that causes problems when using the ATL consoles. Calls will not transfer to correct extensions, I may be wrong, but I do recall having this problem. Also with 6.0 6.1 PRI has bugs when using authorization codes, you will need to go up to a release 7 at least, r7 v10.x or better.

 

[jinxs]

I had a problem with ATL phones on a key legend where someone would put a call on hold on ext A, someone picks up the line directly on ext b. The call is still flashing like it is on hold on ext a. Funny little quirk, as well as the big difference between the 820/3070 and legend, you can have vm on the legend. Unless and god bless you if you do, install the voysys on the vintage merlin.