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Problems with Belkin TuneBase FM

M

MaxwellEdison

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 26, 2010
20
1
I have a TuneBase FM and an iPhone 4.

The sound quality is pretty good, if I crank the car stereo volume.

The problem i have been having lately is that the volume suddenly drops to like 1/4 for a second or so at random times, for no apparent reason. I'm listening to music, and zap, almost silence, then it comes back. Extremely annoying. I can actually see the volume bar go down on the screen... so it's actually lowering the phone.

The other problem I have, which I can work around using the on-screen controls, is that the "multi-function button" rarely works. I can click in several times and maybe one click will register. I cannot reliably answer phone, and forget using it to skip tracks.

Sometimes it DOES work, though... just not reliably. Anyone else see this, have any ideas?
 
I have a Belkin Tunebase too, but not sure if it's the same model (I think there are two models). I'm not overly pleased with mine. I have it hooked up to my car stereo via the aux port. When playing music in iPod mode, I hear a low wheezing feedback noise between songs and even when the song is at a low volume segment.

When I'm in iPhone mode, it's supposed to use my Bluetooth device automatically. But, no, I have select it by navigating on my iPhone touchscreen. Annoying when driving.

I like it for two reasons: I get to use my GPS app, and it's a handy charger.

EVP
 
Same problem (and others)

I'm having the same problem with the volume visibly dropping while using this tunebase. Not sure if it's coincidence but it seems to happen far more frequently when listening to louder dance/trance type music (as I listen to this most often) and almost never when listening to spoken word/podcasts.

I'm not sure what the root cause of the issue is and have tried various thing's from selecting different fm frequency's, turning soundcheck on/off, adjusting the EQ, and setting the various different volume controls to max (phone, ringer, speaker etc.).

I wondered if the dock connector on this device is just a little flaky and causing it to switch between the different phone "modes" (phone/ipod etc.) as it obviously knows when its connected and bumps the volume to full so perhaps that also works against it when it's not working perfectly??

Whatever it is it's bloody annoying for sure! If anyone has found a solution I'd love to hear it :)

I agree that the multi-function button should probably be called the no-function button... and the device is utterly useless as a phone hands-free as the person on the other end can't hear a thing and I have found it better to simply select "Speaker" on the phone screen and use the built in iphone mic and speaker.

On the whole I've been pretty disapointed with the TuneBaseFM but as my car doesn't have an aux-in on the stereo my options are limited.
 
conceptfusion said:
I'm having the same problem with the volume visibly dropping while using this tunebase. Not sure if it's coincidence but it seems to happen far more frequently when listening to louder dance/trance type music (as I listen to this most often) and almost never when listening to spoken word/podcasts.

I'm not sure what the root cause of the issue is and have tried various thing's from selecting different fm frequency's, turning soundcheck on/off, adjusting the EQ, and setting the various different volume controls to max (phone, ringer, speaker etc.).

I wondered if the dock connector on this device is just a little flaky and causing it to switch between the different phone "modes" (phone/ipod etc.) as it obviously knows when its connected and bumps the volume to full so perhaps that also works against it when it's not working perfectly??

Whatever it is it's bloody annoying for sure! If anyone has found a solution I'd love to hear it :)

I agree that the multi-function button should probably be called the no-function button... and the device is utterly useless as a phone hands-free as the person on the other end can't hear a thing and I have found it better to simply select "Speaker" on the phone screen and use the built in iphone mic and speaker.

On the whole I've been pretty disapointed with the TuneBaseFM but as my car doesn't have an aux-in on the stereo my options are limited.
Click to expand...


I don't know how this connects to the iPhone, but the problem with the sound 'dipping' sounds like the actions of a volume-limiter cutting in on volume peaks. A sort of auto-volume control. Like the input volume to the device peaks at too high a level. Is it possible to reduce the level you put into it by reducing the volume on the iPhone? or is it taking a fixed level output from the iPhone?
 
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