Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What is the best bluetooth car kit for audio

G

gianthobbit

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 20, 2010
332
0
My car has an aux. port but it would be great to have a way to just sit down in my car and leave my phone in my pocket and listen to music and make/receive calls. What is the best device to to that? Is the quality (mainly for audio) good or is a direct connect the only way to go?

I found this after doing some research. It however was completely out of stock every where I looked. I liked the idea of having a steering wheel mount as well.
 
I've been looking into this is as well. I'd like to do it for my girlfriend's car and to have one that I use for rental cars on trips. (My own car has bluetooth and it IS extremely convenient for both calls and bluetooth audio)

The liquid aux bluetooth looked good but was discontinued. The only one I've found so far that does what we want and gets good reviews is the clarion bluetooth receiver

Having found and read the manual, I'm quite clear that it works with any receiver with an aux in. It comes with raw power leads which might be a negative for some, so (as an alternative to wiring it to your fuse box) I've found this cigarette lighter power adapter which provides raw leads that you can connect to the clarion. The adapter would then plug into your car's cigarette lighter. (Which is good for a portable solution, and might be less trouble than connecting to the fuse box)

I'm still looking, but this appears to be the best I've found so far. Let me know what you find as well.

Pete
 
Hmm that does look like the best choice at the moment. However there are not many images of the actual device and I only found a couple reviews...

With Ford Sync being so popular you would think there would be more push/competition in there realm. I also think I am going to hold off to see what AirPlay brings to the table, perhaps this will spawn a whole new generation of input devices...

Thanks again!
 
I don't believe that the first generation AirPlay, itself, will have phone call capability such as bluetooth does. Also, I believe bluetooth chips, such as the one in the iphone, use much less power (because of the shorter range requirements, and greater simplicity in general) than wifi chips.

I'll be very surprised if we get an Airplay device that does what we want

Pete
 
MichelleAK said:
Would the Scosche Motormouth II work for your situation? It's the one I've been keeping my eye on, and it's finally been released. I'm waiting for some "in the field" reviews before buying though, since I'm not familiar with the manufacturer.

Link: http://scosche.com/products/sfID1/217/sfID2/220/productID/1919
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that. It really looks very good and I'm anxious to hear about people's experience with it. Unfortunately scosche had some very poor reviews for their last generation motorMouth bluetooth receiver. Let's hope they get their act together this time.

Assuming it works well (we can hope) I see some trade offs between this one and the clarion.

I definitely like that it has a rechargeable battery, that it comes with a cigarette lighter charging adapter, and that it has very nice temporary and permanent mounting options. These things make it great as a take anywhere device.

The one plus IMO for the clarion is that a single cable to the mic handles both power and audio. These are split up at the end of the cable. so if you have the mic mounted higher up (on the dash or elsewhere), that single cable to the mic (rather than scosche's two cables to the mic, for audio and charging), makes for a better looking permanent hookup in those circumstances. That will not be an issue for the scosche if you're mounting it at the middle of the dash by plugging directly into a centrally located aux-in jack (and thus not using the audio cable at all).

Pete
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
I am using a Jabra Cruiser, which works amazingly well. Although I don't think it plays music through your stereo, just voice calls tuned into an fm station but I could be wrong.

I know this may not be exactly what your looking for, but for me it is. This is because my audio deck has a built in iPod connection, for music only. So I needed something that was bluetooth that took care of the calls, while my iPod connector went directly to my stereo deck. The only issue with this, is I am not sure how I'll be able to listen to music, if I want my calls to play through my truck speakers.

Oh well, I guess I'll be stuck using the jabra's speaker until I figure out another method.
 
I've just installed the MotorMouth II in my girlfriend's car. So far we're very, very happy with the unit.

It seems to shut off automatically when she leaves the car, and when first getting in the car, one click on the button will quickly get it reconnected to the iPhone. One more click will quickly answer a call, and another click to hang up. (A nice surprise: Two clicks to answer a second call when already in a call, and two clicks swap calls back and forth.)

She'll keep it mounted all the time, plugged directly into the aux-in at the center of the dash, with charging cable always plugged in as well. The car's charging port is a few inches below the aux-in, so it's a very clean mount.

The noise cancellation seems to work very very well. When I'm talking on my own iphone to my friend, (she's the one using the MotorMouth II with HER iphone), she hears me perfectly well through her car speakers, with no feedback whatsoever, and I hear her perfectly through my iphone. At my end (using my iphone as a standard headset, no device attached) her phone sounds as though she's not even using a speaker phone. And this is despite the the fact that with the MotorMouth II mounted to the center of her dash, the Mic placement is far from what would be considered ideal.

Audio quality through Bluetooth is excellent as well. She's been using it with Pandora and is very happy.

The only feature I'd love to see added is a button sequence to begin playing audio, so the phone would never have to leave her purse. This might be accomplished with iphone voice command (which IS accessible directly from the MotorMouth II). We need to play some more, and I haven't yet found an iphone voice command for launching and playing Pandora. Still looking.



UPDATE:
I have discovered that the iPhone's Voice command does work with the MotorMouth II. You click the MotorMouth multifunction button once when its in standby, and you can dial by voice, or play or pause music, using commands such as "Call John Smith", "Play", "Pause", or "Play SongName"

However, I still haven't found a way to start playing Pandora without putting my hand on the phone. If Pandora was the last music app you were listening to, and you left it on Pause, when you say Play, it begins playing the iPod app. Despite the fact the the music control buttons in the MultiTasking bar show the Pandora icon (when its in that pause state).

Pete
 
Last edited:
gianthobbit said:
Today before your response I saw this:

http://www.scosche.com/products/productID/2049
http://www.scosche.com/products/productID/1919

Any ideas what the difference between the two units are? Where did you end up buying it?
Click to expand...

The second one (which is more expensive) does audio streaming as well as handling phone calls. The other one only handles phone calls. It won't stream audio (such as music from the iPhone's Pandora or iPod app) from your phone to the car. I got the one that does both, and given your first message, that's the one you want too.

Make sure it says both "Hands Free" AND "Streaming Audio"

I bought it directly from Scosche. I've seen a message from someone who got the wrong MotorMouth from amazon, so buying direct seems safer in in this case.

Pete
 
Last edited:
bluetooth can you hear music from your iphone

can you hear music from your iphone on your bluetooth or strictly for just phone calls
 
sliver899 said:
can you hear music from your iphone on your bluetooth or strictly for just phone calls
Click to expand...

Yes, you can hear any of your iPhone music (from the iPhone's iPod app, or from any other iPhone music app or audio app) through the cars speaker system using bluetooth audio, and you handle phone calls as well. (Provided, of course that your car supports both bluetooth audio, and Bluetooth phone calls)

That's exactly what I meant, immediately above, when I wrote "The second one does audio streaming as well as handling phone calls."

BTW, my girlfriend has been absolutely thrilled with this product, ever since I got it for her.

Pete
 
I know this is an old thread but I had it marked down for when I installed an iPhone 4 compatible system.

I want to say that the Clarion CX501 is a great headunit, with total bluetooth and usb support for the iP4(and 3gs etc...). I can stream pandora, the mlb at bat app, slacker, netflix and much more. It really is just a great headunit. Got it from Amazon for $190, easy intall in my corolla and camry. (i purchased 2)

Anyway, anyone looking for a product that is ideal for an iPhone 4.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back