Kensington LiquidAUX Bluetooth stereo quality on iPhone 3G

[acribb]

Can anyone that owns this chime in on the Bluetooth stereo quality of this on an iPhone 3G? Does it sound as good as a direct connection to an aux input?

http://us.kensington.com/html/14484.html


The reviews I have read seem mixed. Some say it sounds great with the iPhone 3G, others say it lacks bass or has a lot of static...Still others say any issues they had were remedied by a 'free' ground loop isolator that Kensington sent them after complaining of sound quality issues.

I recently bought a Blackberry Bluetooth stereo gateway that sounded like complete crap - it had a lot of static and the highs were crackly...I returned that POS.

I'd like to find a decent Bluetooth audio solution that I can hardwire into our new QX56 to provide Bluetooth stereo streaming that the factory stereo does not have.

 

[acribb]

Well, I took the big plunge and dropped 25 bones (shipped) on this...

I'll let you know how the sound quality stacks up.

 

[acribb]

Well, I took the big plunge and dropped 25 bones (shipped) on this...

I'll let you know how the sound quality stacks up.

Ok, I just got it today and I tried the unit out in our 2010 QX56 (not sure why this brand new vehicle doesn't have it!) and the sound quality on this is not too great. It has, what I would consider, a lot of distortion on the highs and it has a real low volume and in general the audio sounds like it was downgraded in bitrate. I tested this with the engine off so I don't think it's a ground loop interference problem.

I also previously tried the Blackberry Remote Stereo Gateway and I found that it sounded very clear but that it added a rattle to the highs. I tested this one on 2 home stereos and in the Q. Same thing-rattling highs.

I guess I am expecting too much out of these Bluetooth stereo receivers- I expect them to sound the same as when connected via wire from the headphone output.

I thought that good stereo bluetooth sound was possible since when I test drove a 2010 Sequoia, the factory stereo bluetooth DID sound exactly the same as wired directly into the Aux.

I guess 'good' sound from A2DP bluetooth is only possible on receivers with built-in bluetooth- not from these add-ons...

 

[joseluis.17]

does your remote works? in mine the next/previous botons does not work

 

[milk242]

does your remote works? in mine the next/previous botons does not work

Next/Previous buttons won't work because of a gimped bluetooth profile that Apple doesn't feel like incorporating (AVRCP).

 

[labman]

I'd recommend these instead

none of them are going to sound as good as a direct connection! this is what I use and I love it!

mine cost about $50 off ebay!
http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-MOTOROKR-T505-Bluetooth-Speakerphone/dp/B000WTM552

or i think Satechi is another good one Parrot also make a nice one, nothing is going to sound as good as direct connection. my Motorola also works great for calls.

 

[milk242]

I received my kensington Bluetooth thing and I think it works fairly decent. The sound quality is on par with listening to pandora over 3g (w/ high quality nitrate turned on). It sounds basically the same as if I played a cd in my car, but this could be affected by my crappy civic speakers not being able to reproduce very high quality sound therefore 3g streaming audio and cd quality audio would all sound the same on my system.

All in all I'm satisfied, the Bluetooth speaker phone feature works and people have said that it sounds fairly clear even though the mic is far from me. Also voice control works pretty well, but sometimes road noise distorts (around 50mph) what I'm trying to say. Only thing I hate is not being able to use the next/previous buttons and having avrcp control in pandora (apple's fault). Also you might get the gsm distortion when the iPhone is on edge instead of 3g and the volume for calls through the speaker is fairly weak. I might buy a inline volume amplifier to fix the volume issue, they should just build in an amplifier sort of like the motorola s9-HD headphones.