I had it on my wishlist for a longer while and it just went up with notification that price was dropped by 50%
It has an optical output witch is just great for me. Additionally 3.5mm output and nfc.
All comments (93)
OrribleHarry
13 Sep 17#1
Ideal for adding Bluetooth audio to a Aux in only car.
EN1GMA to OrribleHarry
13 Sep 17#35
Thats what I wanted to know. I assume this needs charging? Just wondering how often if most of the time it was left idle in the car
Nino786
13 Sep 17#2
It's 19.99
Mersey_Steve to Nino786
13 Sep 17#3
Shows as £9.99 for me.
ellbee
13 Sep 17#4
Showing £9.99 on listings within Chrome on my iPhone but when you click on the item it's £19.99. Listing on Chrome Browser on my Mac's £19.99. When you put it into the basket it drops to £9.99 however.
amour3k to ellbee
13 Sep 17#33
Both confusing, and annoying them thing's, huh?, lol.
Nobull
13 Sep 17#5
There's loads of similar devices on Amazon which I've been looking at recently, similarly priced though. Is there anything particularly good about this one?
OGNinjaDon to Nobull
13 Sep 17#39
Not sure, I paid a little over £20 for one similar to this from Amazon which had good reviews, only had a 3.5mm jack output though, but could also be a transmitter. This has an optical output which may help a lot of people, probably got quite good sound, and for £10 is a steal. Not sure if there's anything better on Amazon for the same money.
OB1
13 Sep 17#6
What a terrible product description on the Argos website. Whoever wrote it clearly took the Ch-engish words without understanding what they were writing.....
grifo
13 Sep 17#7
how do you power it?
mrdude to grifo
13 Sep 17#9
With love
howiepaul to mrdude
13 Sep 17#36
No, I don't think it is love actually. I think it plugs into the wall.
5426angela
13 Sep 17#8
£19.99 for me :disappointed:
The reservation confirmation on phone shown £19.99 but the email shows £9.99! :thumbsup:
cosmichamster
13 Sep 17#10
I have aux in on my original car stereo, if I connect this to it and Bluetooth my phone, as well as playing music will it take the calls through the speakers?
Iesty83 to cosmichamster
13 Sep 17#28
it would but you would have no way of talking back as it has no microphone built in
i bought something along the lines of this, but the position of my Aux socket means i sound like i am speaking from a mile away to the person on the other end of the phone
Any way of adding Bluetooth to a car with no aux? No idea why but my 2008 car has no aux...
hotfinder to Vistrix
13 Sep 17#12
Tape player? Although that could be a mangle of wires and an accident waiting to happen! :astonished:
sicky_d to Vistrix
13 Sep 17#13
You need a bluetooth radio transmitter. It plugs into your cig lighter socket then you just connet to the bluetooth and tune it into your radio using an empty radio frequency
OB1 to sicky_d
13 Sep 17#16
Are any decent quality though? The last fm transmitter I tried (7dayshop) was nowhere near FM radio quality.
Very skeptical but got fed up of not having aux-in on a car that frankly cost enough it definitely should have done. Other than faint static on very quiet parts of music or silence, I would be hard pressed to tell it apart from something off the CD or the HDD jukebox - these things have come on a hell of a long way since I last used them as I thought it would sound dreadful too. It obviously depends on the speakers you have in the car and the FM antenna too though.
rufnek2kx to Vistrix
13 Sep 17#14
Search 'Bluetooth FM transmitter' on eBay. It connects into your cigarette lighter socket and broadcasts your phone's music/call over an FM frequency which you can tune into. Very short transmission range and adjustable frequencies so low risk of others tuning in.
kjfrazer to Vistrix
13 Sep 17#15
An FM transmitter powered by the cigarette lighter. It creates an FM station that you tune your car radio to and it'll play whatever you push through Bluetooth. Most have usb sockets so you can charge your phone whilst using it, too
winstonmanc to Vistrix
13 Sep 17#18
You could just get a stand alone bluetooth speaker. Even £1 ones from B&M will probably be fine for in car use.
bubsy123 to Vistrix
13 Sep 17#20
Xiaomi Roidmi 3S from gearbest. £10 and sound quality is amazing. Only problem is driving through other towns with stations on similar frequencies
drnkbeer to Vistrix
13 Sep 17#21
You can get tape to aux cables. If you so desired you could wire this unit in say below the glovebox, and and then add the tape to aux and route that into the glove box too.
The Anker one would be ideal for use in a car, long wires so can be hidden/stored easily. The Bush one from Argos is more designed for Home Cinema system or Amp I guess as there is an optical out, so probably slightly better audio quality, but honestly, i have no idea.
ollie87
13 Sep 17#22
I've always wanted to adapt my bush to Bluetooth.
mattsloft
13 Sep 17#23
My Bose in the car is notorious for CD jumping, so I use this out of the tape deck.
omneity1
13 Sep 17#24
There seems to be a mismatch on Argos' web site, if it comes up as £19.99 add it to your basket and you should see the price comes down to £9.99.
big.k
13 Sep 17#25
When buying a bluetooth sound device, there are two things you need to check. If it supports Bluetooth 4.0+ and AptX. (Apple use their own standard...of course they would which means it's not well supported, something called Airplay).
With standard bluetooth audio, the audio gets compressed too much causing poor sound quality, with AptX, it's close enough to plugging in a 3.5mm jack. Bluetooth 4.0 means the phone uses less power. Both phone and device has to support AptX which a lot of Androids and all windows phones do.
I use a iClever Himbox HB01 plus currently at £25 but I bought mine at £15 and a friend purchased his last week at £20. With such a device, wired up properly, you can take handsfree voice calls, use Cortana / Google voice thingy and skip tracks using the buttons on it.
ssc1
13 Sep 17#27
Has NFC.
mike28uk
13 Sep 17#29
Collected my reservation and already tested.
Plugged it to the USB port on the back of my sat box and keep it hidden nicely behind it. Can't hear any quality difference between 3.5mm, optical outputs. Bt quality of music streamed from spotify on my s7 is just great. Didn't notice any connection drops or anything that could be annoying.
It has nfc for easy pairing. No microphone if someone needs to know that.
And yes - THIS IS RECEIVER ONLY
For a tenner it's a steal.
Wanted to get another one for my bedroom audio but not sure whether it would interfere with each other as I would keep both on standby at all the time.
I'm more than happy to recommend it.
jackchappell to mike28uk
13 Sep 17#31
Can it be turned on/off with a button or is it always on when powered? Thinking about leaving it in my car but the USB in my fiesta is always on even when the car isn't on so don't want it draining the battery
mike28uk to jackchappell
13 Sep 17#32
It can be turned off with the button on the top but it's not completely off. It won't appear on your bt devices list any longer but it still draws some power I would say because red led light stays on at all the time.
Red light - turned off Blue light - turned on and connected. Blue flashing light- pairing mode.
Checked it and it basically uses silly amount of power.
First pic is standby with red light on Second pic is while in operation
jackchappell to mike28uk
13 Sep 17#34
Thank you for this!
jackchappell
13 Sep 17#30
Cheers OP bought this. Just wondering if anyone knows if this can be paired to my iPhone which is already paired with cars bluetooth (for calls)?
EN1GMA
13 Sep 17#37
This is perfect for me as my aux connection is in the glove box so can be hidden away
OGNinjaDon
13 Sep 17#38
Heat!
shakerstevens
13 Sep 17#41
I've had this for about 3 or 4 months, its fantastic!
I use it to connect my Amazon Echo Dot to my Hi Fi. Of course you could do this wired normally but my Echo dot is in the next room.
Its a great alternative to buying the full size Amazon Echo as my Hi-Fi speakers are higher quality.
It seems to have a standby mode, so if you have not played your connected bluetooth device for a number of hours ( I think over 24) then you have to press the circle button on the top again even if you have left it powered on)
Powers straight from a micro USB cable so unlike other bluetooth adapters I've seen there is no bulky seperate AC adapter.
shakerstevens
13 Sep 17#42
TP link, Belkin etc? Yes I saw those too but I bought this Bush one a few months ago. The Bush one I prefer because it plugs straight over USB rather than a seperate Power adapter and it also has optical out (as well as analogue audio out) which the other brands did not have.
Paste this into Amazon FM Transmitter, VicTsing Car MP3 Player FM Transmitter Bluetooth Handsfree Car Kit Wireless Radio Audio Adapter with Dual USB 5V 2.1A USB Charger, 1.44 Inch LCD Display, 3.5mm Audio Port, TF Card Slot, USB Flash Drive Port For iPhone, iPad, iPod, HTC, MP3, MP4 and Most Devices with 3.5mm Audio Jack
Works with a cigarette lighter and the FM radio. It adds Bluetooth, 3.5mm AUX even MP3 via MicroSD to your car audio.
It's a great piece of kit......you can even take it away on holidays and use it on any car with an FM radio and cigarette lighter.
jaykaygeetoo
13 Sep 17#44
I have a Yamaha YAS-101 soundbar, which I would like to go wireless / connect through to say for example Alexa or my Mobile. I was wondering if this can do that???
Yamaha YAS-101 soundbar connectors at the back in attached.
Thanks in advance.
mike28uk
13 Sep 17#45
Yes. This soundbar has optical inputs so it will work with it.
However there is no optical cable coming with this bt adapter, so it need to be purchased separately.
nigelh5
13 Sep 17#46
I have this and it works brilliantly. I have recently upgraded my Hi-Fi to one that has bluetooth built in and it is nowhere near as good. I had to move my Amazon Echo nearer.
jewelie
13 Sep 17#47
Optical too? Might have to have it then. Thanks OP.
EN1GMA
13 Sep 17#48
So how does it connect to give music from your phone, to the car speakers? With the aux connection I understand but struggling to see if this is plugged into the cigarette lighter, how would I play music through the car speakers?
jonmarz89
13 Sep 17#49
does it have auto connectivity
muckspreader1
13 Sep 17#50
Great find ordered mine today and goes to 9.99 when in basket.
Qasimm1993
13 Sep 17#51
How would you power this in the car?
mike28uk
13 Sep 17#52
It takes any standard micro usb to power it.
OGNinjaDon
13 Sep 17#53
Via a 5V USB Socket. Presumably through the 12v Charger port or cig lighter in your car, can buy a seperate adaptor for this if needs be. Not sure if it has a battery inside it, my other one similar to this did, may be able to charge it inside then take it to the car?
Phil.Fitzgerald
13 Sep 17#54
No, you have to press the button to connect, its a pain in the ass. I bought one earlier and this is the only fault I can find.
zzzzz
13 Sep 17#55
Wireless Bluetooth Car Kit FM Transmitter MP3 USB LCD Handsfree For Mobile Phone Item no 391750654906. Ebay
ssc1
13 Sep 17#56
So work with a non Bluetooth hifi?
shakerstevens
13 Sep 17#57
no, the first time you connect you have to pair it in the way most bluetooth devices are paired (I've not tried the NFC feature) After that it stays paired AND connected to the last device you used with it but only stays connected (if you don't use the source device) for 24 hours. So in my case I use an Amazon Echo dot with it, which I usually use at least once a day so in a way, yes it is "automatically" connected. But if I don't use the dot for over 24 hours, I have to re-connected by pressing the button on this device (I don't have to re - pair the devices though thankfully).
shakerstevens
13 Sep 17#58
thats the exact way I use this, so I can stream music from my iPhone, my TV or my Amazon Echo dot to my 15 year old HiFi :smile:
jonmarz89
13 Sep 17#59
it just a brought a Bluetooth receiver for echo to hifi and just wanna connect when listening to music, but when i say dissconect, it will auto re. connect, tho i found a way around by just putting smart plug on it, so to connect i just power it up and to. dissconect power down
ssc1
13 Sep 17#60
Q: Non Bluetooth hifi to a Bluetooth speaker do i need this? Thx
mrdude
13 Sep 17#61
AshMcConnell
13 Sep 17#62
Got one and it doesn't work at all unfortunately. It doesn't go into bluetooth mode (it says to press the button on the top once). The light doesn't go blue, am I doing something silly or is it broken?
Thanks!
horace
13 Sep 17#63
No - this is a receiver, you need a transmitter.
Something like this (loads of alternatives on amazon at various prices):
Geartist (TM) GB01 Wireless Bluetooth 4.0 Hands Free Calling Car Kit (no new stock on Amazon, 1 used)
or
Bluetooth FM Transmitter, TeckNet In-Car Universal Wireless FM Transmitter Radio Adapter with 5V/2.1A USB Car Charger amzn.eu/35X…viZ
I use the 1st one to get Bluetooth to my FM radio at home, the result is indistinguishable from normal FM. It uses a standard USB power source, so either car or wall-wart.
The 2nd one is in DWs car, for odd occasions when I want Bluetoooth in it. It looks just like a 1-piece USB car charger.
Both provide an extremely clear in car signal once set up right. The 1st is more hifi.
buglawton
13 Sep 17#65
I am looking for a better Bluetooth to Aux in for my own car though. Once with a big play/pause button on it so don't have to use the phone touchscreen to pause/play.
turkey
13 Sep 17#66
I would also like to know this although I have Android, the car pairs well with my phone and has good built in mic for calls. I want something that can work for music audio only.
ThePrisoner
13 Sep 17#67
Yeah except AirPlay isn't Bluetooth; it's over WiFi. All Apple devices support standard Bluetooth.
ezzer72
13 Sep 17#68
* unless you have one or more ears
jomay
13 Sep 17#69
But AptX is still a rather simple/cheap compression. I'd assume that audio quality suffers quite a bit. I thought (some) Bluetooth devices support mpeg3 audio (etc.) directly, which would clearly give the best audio quality. Whilst I understand that the latency of mpeg3 may make it unsuitable for phone calls, it is clearly not an issue for hifi applications. That said, my bluetooth headset did not use mpeg3 last time I tried.
OGNinjaDon
14 Sep 17#70
Bought it, tried it, sending it back, audio quality is massively compressed.
warby111
14 Sep 17#71
Got one for my car, works a treat and impressed with the sound quality. Only one issue I have is you need to switch it off after starting the car then restart it to get it to connect.
One issue which disappointed me is it doesn't divert calls to the Bluetooth like an aux to your phone will
buddn07
14 Sep 17#72
Great for a car with aux-in.
For home I personally would use a Chromecast Audio, as it really annoys me when my phone chimes in over Bluetooth when I get a notification.
big.k
14 Sep 17#73
Initial handshake made through bluetooth and then transferred over wifi where there is more bandwidth available. An elegant solution but it's a closed proprietary system other manufacturers aren't allowed to use causing less adoption, especially on the lower end of of the scale. Standard bluetooth is fine but A2DP is just not good enough.
Nothing is going to replace a good old 3.5mm jack. And remember, the compression used by Bluetooth is in addition to whatever compression is in the music. So if you've got MP3s on your phone, those MP3s get decoded, then recompressed with a different lossy codec (SBC / Aptx) to get sent over bluetooth.
Out of all the codecs available, Aptx is certainly at the top of the list, the only other choice is SBC over A2DP, so that list is rather short anyway. (AptxHD is available however it's rather new hence limited)
Bluetooth devices can already transfer over the MP3 file and use an onboard DAC in the receiver. This would be awesome, except...no one is doing it, apparently. It would be a great feature to have, as the less compression/recompression, the better.
For the best audio quality, you always start at the source, for example, you can have an amazing amp but if the source is crap, the amp is going to amplify those flaws. At the moment the best solution for bluetooth is AptX. AptX is still compression; it's just a different kind of compression. Where MP3 uses the psychoacoustic modeling to take out data, aptX uses "time domain ADPCM" which is a whole rabbit hole of fun research if you want to go in to that. Put it simply, aptX is a better compression algorithm.
And no, I don't work for CSR, I just love good, decent audio!
Bossworld
14 Sep 17#74
Would this (or another comparable device) be a good upgrade over a Dolry Stone?
The Dolry supports AirPlay but seems to be end of life for support. I quite like the idea of using the optical input on my HT-FS1 instead of the red/white jacks too. Thanks
MagicBoy
14 Sep 17#75
Got one so I can wirelessly stream to the old HiFi kit in the spare room.
Bargain for the money. Quality is better with Bluetooth 4 devices. Still works with a 12 year old Mac PowerBook though....
Thumbs up from me.
buglawton
14 Sep 17#76
Not as daft as it looks, I once had a Sony version of this cassette convertor and the sound was full hifi.
Bossworld
14 Sep 17#77
Just picked mine up, seems a useful bit of kit. Optical works fine.
jumpinoffthbed
15 Sep 17#78
My 3008 has aux from the armrest compartment but it's rubbish, music I play through it is quiet. The stereo has no USB either annoyingly so I'm desperate to change it but that means pissing about moving the display with the car settings to the glovebox and getting adaptors for steering wheel controls.. thanks Peugeot!
Also I tried one of the transmitter things that plug in the cigarette socket and the sound isn't great (interference and buzz)
I don't get why no one implements A2DP fully. No matter what, recompression reduces audio quality. Most sources today are MP3 or AAC, so there wouldn't be any further reduction in quality if they implemented A2DP with MP3 and AAC. Even Bose's QuietComfort 35 only supports AAC, but no MP3. Clearly, this is not complex chip development - any stupid £10 mp3 player implements that. And why didn't they extend bluetooth A2DP with an uncompressed profile? New bluetooth radios have enough bitrate (>1.4Mbit/s) to send CD quality uncompressed.
As for AptX, I don't think it is "superior" to MP3. It only compresses 4:1 and has no psychoacoustic modelling. If you give MP3 a bitrate budget targeting 4:1 compression you'd get much better audio quality than with AptX.
I guess (vaguely remember from uni?) that MP3 encoding introduces a slight lag because of the frequency transformation. And it's obviously more complex. So I understand why a headset would never _send_ phone audio via MP3. But why not receive audio as MP3/AAC?
Sorry for the rant. I'm simply annoyed that headset manufacturers don't throw in a chip implementing MP3/AAC A2DP.
big.k
15 Sep 17#80
That's your equipment, not the car. Got a 407 which has Aux in, works as expected, clear, loud sound. If you want USB, you should have specced the ipod dock.
shox1k
16 Sep 17#81
I have a pair of speakers connected to my TV via a standard 3.5mm plug. I want to play music through the speakers without having to connect the cable to my phone, so this Bluetooth receiver would be a perfect solution. However, I suppose I would then have to re-connect the cable from the Bluetooth receiver back to the TV every time I wanted to use the speakers for the TV. Would anyone out there know if there is a way to use the speakers for my TV when it's on, and occasionally use the speakers to play music via Bluetooth without having to move the cable? Thanks!
jewelie
18 Sep 17#82
I was surprised by both the sound quality and the ridiculously low electrical current usage. There was very little detail regarding the specifications, so out of curiosity I did some debug packet logging and decoding and got this information-
had another quick play with mine, just press the button once and it wakes up/auto reconnects yo iPhone without having to go into the phone's settings menu (unlike my pure pop maxi).
Must say, after some testing, the optical output is much quieter than the RCA at the same volume level on my amp
jewelie
18 Sep 17#83
Mine did this when I first got it. I'm not sure what's going on, to be honest, but after being powered up a while it now behaves itself properly. Very odd!
jewelie
18 Sep 17#84
I think I know what you mean. It seems to be music/media only (A2DP) so it won't attempt to do telephone calls etc.
buglawton to jewelie
18 Sep 17#89
Inspired by this deal I bought this one for £13
TECEVO Bluetooth 4.0 Handsfree Car Kit - Bluetooth Music Receiver , NFC Quick Pairing , AUX Jack Playing Music And Hands Free Calling Car Adapter amazon.co.uk/dp/…18D
...because it has stop/start, next/previous and receive calls buttons on it for the car. Sound quality is fine, just seeing how reliable it will be at auto pairing. Claims to able to auto pair with 2 devices.
jewelie
18 Sep 17#85
Surprisingly, it is AptX compatible. See the bluetooth packet logs I posted in a different post (yes, I'm sad, couldn't sleep and curiosity got the better of me, lol!)
Bit of a win for a tenner really. :smile:
big.k to jewelie
18 Sep 17#86
AptX is proprietary tech, companies have to licence the technology to advertise it as being compatible, which the top end manufacturers do, they have the pricing structure to allow it.
Products like this, it has unofficial support and hope CSR doesn't notice!
AshMcConnell
18 Sep 17#87
Thanks, I've tried leaving it on for a few hours, but no luck, I think it'll have to go back. The only thing is, they never gave me a receipt
jewelie
18 Sep 17#88
Some googling suggests that this manufacturer of the tech inside does actually officially work with CSR, but yeah, I guess Bush are not paying to advertise it.
Zimmy
24 Sep 17#91
The one I got has the same problem, the button does nothing, LED stays red, Bluetooth doesn't detect. Even tried an NFC phone, and while the NFC connected, the Bluetooth didn't. Going back, unfortunately no more in stock :angry:
Zimmy
24 Sep 17#92
Try the Belkin Caraudio Connect Aux, just one big button that is also a mic for calls, press once to connect, then press once for play/pause, twice for the next track. Works pretty well.
buglawton to Zimmy
27 Sep 17#93
Thanks but 3 posts above your reply I described the one I actually did buy
![Fresh Breakfast Meat Box (Using code) @ Campbells Meat [Haggis / Lorne Sausage / Bacon / Black Pudding & More]](/images/topics/208684_1.jpg)
![[Xbox One] Q. u. b. e: Director's Cut on Deals with Gold](/images/topics/208716_1.jpg)
Opening post
It has an optical output witch is just great for me.
Additionally 3.5mm output and nfc.
All comments (93)
The reservation confirmation on phone shown £19.99 but the email shows £9.99! :thumbsup:
i bought something along the lines of this, but the position of my Aux socket means i sound like i am speaking from a mile away to the person on the other end of the phone
tinydeal.com/Wir…BwE
amazon.co.uk/gp/…c=1
Very skeptical but got fed up of not having aux-in on a car that frankly cost enough it definitely should have done. Other than faint static on very quiet parts of music or silence, I would be hard pressed to tell it apart from something off the CD or the HDD jukebox - these things have come on a hell of a long way since I last used them as I thought it would sound dreadful too. It obviously depends on the speakers you have in the car and the FM antenna too though.
Most have usb sockets so you can charge your phone whilst using it, too
amazon.co.uk/Cas…c=1
With standard bluetooth audio, the audio gets compressed too much causing poor sound quality, with AptX, it's close enough to plugging in a 3.5mm jack. Bluetooth 4.0 means the phone uses less power. Both phone and device has to support AptX which a lot of Androids and all windows phones do.
I use a iClever Himbox HB01 plus currently at £25 but I bought mine at £15 and a friend purchased his last week at £20.
With such a device, wired up properly, you can take handsfree voice calls, use Cortana / Google voice thingy and skip tracks using the buttons on it.
Plugged it to the USB port on the back of my sat box and keep it hidden nicely behind it.
Can't hear any quality difference between 3.5mm, optical outputs. Bt quality of music streamed from spotify on my s7 is just great. Didn't notice any connection drops or anything that could be annoying.
It has nfc for easy pairing.
No microphone if someone needs to know that.
And yes - THIS IS RECEIVER ONLY
For a tenner it's a steal.
Wanted to get another one for my bedroom audio but not sure whether it would interfere with each other as I would keep both on standby at all the time.
I'm more than happy to recommend it.
Red light - turned off
Blue light - turned on and connected.
Blue flashing light- pairing mode.
Checked it and it basically uses silly amount of power.
First pic is standby with red light on
Second pic is while in operation
I use it to connect my Amazon Echo Dot to my Hi Fi. Of course you could do this wired normally but my Echo dot is in the next room.
Its a great alternative to buying the full size Amazon Echo as my Hi-Fi speakers are higher quality.
It seems to have a standby mode, so if you have not played your connected bluetooth device for a number of hours ( I think over 24) then you have to press the circle button on the top again even if you have left it powered on)
Powers straight from a micro USB cable so unlike other bluetooth adapters I've seen there is no bulky seperate AC adapter.
The Bush one I prefer because it plugs straight over USB rather than a seperate Power adapter and it also has optical out (as well as analogue audio out) which the other brands did not have.
amazon.co.uk/gp/…c=1
Paste this into Amazon
FM Transmitter, VicTsing Car MP3 Player FM Transmitter Bluetooth Handsfree Car Kit Wireless Radio Audio Adapter with Dual USB 5V 2.1A USB Charger, 1.44 Inch LCD Display, 3.5mm Audio Port, TF Card Slot, USB Flash Drive Port For iPhone, iPad, iPod, HTC, MP3, MP4 and Most Devices with 3.5mm Audio Jack
Works with a cigarette lighter and the FM radio.
It adds Bluetooth, 3.5mm AUX even MP3 via MicroSD to your car audio.
It's a great piece of kit......you can even take it away on holidays and use it on any car with an FM radio and cigarette lighter.
However there is no optical cable coming with this bt adapter, so it need to be purchased separately.
Item no
391750654906. Ebay
After that it stays paired AND connected to the last device you used with it but only stays connected (if you don't use the source device) for 24 hours.
So in my case I use an Amazon Echo dot with it, which I usually use at least once a day so in a way, yes it is "automatically" connected. But if I don't use the dot for over 24 hours, I have to re-connected by pressing the button on this device (I don't have to re - pair the devices though thankfully).
Thanks!
Something like this (loads of alternatives on amazon at various prices):
amazon.co.uk/Blu…ptx
Geartist (TM) GB01 Wireless Bluetooth 4.0 Hands Free Calling Car Kit
(no new stock on Amazon, 1 used)
or
Bluetooth FM Transmitter, TeckNet In-Car Universal Wireless FM Transmitter Radio Adapter with 5V/2.1A USB Car Charger
amzn.eu/35X…viZ
I use the 1st one to get Bluetooth to my FM radio at home, the result is indistinguishable from normal FM. It uses a standard USB power source, so either car or wall-wart.
The 2nd one is in DWs car, for odd occasions when I want Bluetoooth in it. It looks just like a 1-piece USB car charger.
Both provide an extremely clear in car signal once set up right. The 1st is more hifi.
I thought (some) Bluetooth devices support mpeg3 audio (etc.) directly, which would clearly give the best audio quality. Whilst I understand that the latency of mpeg3 may make it unsuitable for phone calls, it is clearly not an issue for hifi applications. That said, my bluetooth headset did not use mpeg3 last time I tried.
One issue which disappointed me is it doesn't divert calls to the Bluetooth like an aux to your phone will
For home I personally would use a Chromecast Audio, as it really annoys me when my phone chimes in over Bluetooth when I get a notification.
Nothing is going to replace a good old 3.5mm jack. And remember, the compression used by Bluetooth is in addition to whatever compression is in the music. So if you've got MP3s on your phone, those MP3s get decoded, then recompressed with a different lossy codec (SBC / Aptx) to get sent over bluetooth.
Out of all the codecs available, Aptx is certainly at the top of the list, the only other choice is SBC over A2DP, so that list is rather short anyway. (AptxHD is available however it's rather new hence limited)
Bluetooth devices can already transfer over the MP3 file and use an onboard DAC in the receiver. This would be awesome, except...no one is doing it, apparently. It would be a great feature to have, as the less compression/recompression, the better.
For the best audio quality, you always start at the source, for example, you can have an amazing amp but if the source is crap, the amp is going to amplify those flaws. At the moment the best solution for bluetooth is AptX. AptX is still compression; it's just a different kind of compression. Where MP3 uses the psychoacoustic modeling to take out data, aptX uses "time domain ADPCM" which is a whole rabbit hole of fun research if you want to go in to that. Put it simply, aptX is a better compression algorithm.
And no, I don't work for CSR, I just love good, decent audio!
The Dolry supports AirPlay but seems to be end of life for support. I quite like the idea of using the optical input on my HT-FS1 instead of the red/white jacks too.
Thanks
Bargain for the money. Quality is better with Bluetooth 4 devices. Still works with a 12 year old Mac PowerBook though....
Thumbs up from me.
Also I tried one of the transmitter things that plug in the cigarette socket and the sound isn't great (interference and buzz)
en.wikipedia.org/wik…les
I don't get why no one implements A2DP fully. No matter what, recompression reduces audio quality. Most sources today are MP3 or AAC, so there wouldn't be any further reduction in quality if they implemented A2DP with MP3 and AAC. Even Bose's QuietComfort 35 only supports AAC, but no MP3. Clearly, this is not complex chip development - any stupid £10 mp3 player implements that. And why didn't they extend bluetooth A2DP with an uncompressed profile? New bluetooth radios have enough bitrate (>1.4Mbit/s) to send CD quality uncompressed.
As for AptX, I don't think it is "superior" to MP3. It only compresses 4:1 and has no psychoacoustic modelling. If you give MP3 a bitrate budget targeting 4:1 compression you'd get much better audio quality than with AptX.
I guess (vaguely remember from uni?) that MP3 encoding introduces a slight lag because of the frequency transformation. And it's obviously more complex. So I understand why a headset would never _send_ phone audio via MP3. But why not receive audio as MP3/AAC?
Sorry for the rant. I'm simply annoyed that headset manufacturers don't throw in a chip implementing MP3/AAC A2DP.
Compatible protocols-
Bluetooth chipset-
A nice device for £10 from Argos. Well done OP. Thank you! :smile:
For the ubergeeks, these were the relevant decoded bluetooth packets-
Bluetooth
[Source: Shenzhen_xx:xx:xx (e8:07:bf:xx:xx:xx)]
[Destination: Motorola_xx:xx:xx (80:58:f8:xx:xx:xx)]
Bluetooth HCI H4
Bluetooth HCI ACL Packet
Bluetooth L2CAP Protocol
Bluetooth AVDTP Protocol
Signal: GetCapabilities (ResponseAccept)
Capabilities
Service: Media Transport
Service: Media Codec - Audio non-A2DP (APT-X - 16000 32000 44100 48000, Stereo)
Service Category: Media Codec (0x07)
Length of Service Category: 0x09
0000 .... = Media Type: Audio (0x0)
.... 0000 = RFA: 0x0
Media Codec Audio Type: non-A2DP (0xff)
Vendor ID: APT Licensing Ltd. (0x0000004f)
Codec: APT-X (0x0001)
1... .... = Sampling Frequency 16000 Hz: True
.1.. .... = Sampling Frequency 32000 Hz: True
..1. .... = Sampling Frequency 44100 Hz: True
...1 .... = Sampling Frequency 48000 Hz: True
.... 0... = Channel Mode Mono: False
.... .0.. = Channel Mode Dual Channel: False
.... ..1. = Channel Mode Stereo: True
.... ...0 = Channel Mode Joint Stereo: False
Bluetooth
[Source: Shenzhen_xx:xx:xx (e8:07:bf:xx:xx:xx)]
[Destination: Motorola_xx:xx:xx (80:58:f8:xx:xx:xx)]
Bluetooth HCI H4
Bluetooth HCI ACL Packet
Bluetooth L2CAP Protocol
Bluetooth AVDTP Protocol
Signal: GetCapabilities (ResponseAccept)
Capabilities
Service: Media Transport
Service: Media Codec - Audio SBC (16000 32000 44100 48000 | Mono DualChannel Stereo JointStereo | block: 4 8 12 16 | subbands: 4 8 | allocation: SNR Loudness | bitpool: 2..53)
Service Category: Media Codec (0x07)
Length of Service Category: 0x06
0000 .... = Media Type: Audio (0x0)
.... 0000 = RFA: 0x0
Media Codec Audio Type: SBC (0x00)
1... .... = Sampling Frequency 16000 Hz: True
.1.. .... = Sampling Frequency 32000 Hz: True
..1. .... = Sampling Frequency 44100 Hz: True
...1 .... = Sampling Frequency 48000 Hz: True
.... 1... = Channel Mode Mono: True
.... .1.. = Channel Mode Dual Channel: True
.... ..1. = Channel Mode Stereo: True
.... ...1 = Channel Mode Joint Stereo: True
1... .... = Block Length 4: True
.1.. .... = Block Length 8: True
..1. .... = Block Length 12: True
...1 .... = Block Length 16: True
.... 1... = Subbands 4: True
.... .1.. = Subbands 8: True
.... ..1. = Allocation Method SNR: True
.... ...1 = Allocation Method Loudness: True
Minumum Bitpool: 2
Maximum Bitpool: 53
Service: Content Protection - SCMS-T
Service Category: Content Protection (0x04)
Length of Service Category: 0x02
Type: SCMS-T (0x0002)
had another quick play with mine, just press the button once and it wakes up/auto reconnects yo iPhone without having to go into the phone's settings menu (unlike my pure pop maxi).
Must say, after some testing, the optical output is much quieter than the RCA at the same volume level on my amp
TECEVO Bluetooth 4.0 Handsfree Car Kit - Bluetooth Music Receiver , NFC Quick Pairing , AUX Jack Playing Music And Hands Free Calling Car Adapter amazon.co.uk/dp/…18D
...because it has stop/start, next/previous and receive calls buttons on it for the car. Sound quality is fine, just seeing how reliable it will be at auto pairing. Claims to able to auto pair with 2 devices.
Bit of a win for a tenner really. :smile:
Products like this, it has unofficial support and hope CSR doesn't notice!