Discount Kinivo BTC450 Bluetooth Hands-Free Car Kit for Cars with Aux Input

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List Price: $59.99
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I do have some criticism of the BTC450, but I also love it.

I bought the product to use in my car with an iPhone 5. My car already has Bluetooth, but it only supports HFP and not A2DP for music. I use the BTC450 for audio streaming and for a siri button on my dashboard. Although the BTC450 HFP works better than my car's stock bluetooth, I would rather use my car's bluetooth because it displays the caller's name on the navigation screen.

I did extensive research on similar products, and for the price this is the best product I found. Belkin, Gogroove, Scosche, and Griffin all make bluetooth products but they all have their shortcomings. The only product I found that seems better than the BTC450 is Parrot's Mki9000 series lineup. Parrot's lineup seems to outperform the Kinivo, but at a starting price of $150.

Pros

1. The BTC450 auto connects. This is huge...especially if you are traveling from place to place. Having to remember to press a button to auto connect every time would be extremely annoying. The only other product that did this was the Griffin Bluetrip, but it lacks accessible buttons.

2. Music sounds amazing. After reading reviews of bluetooth technology and the not so good audio quality this product puts all those worries to rest. I cannot tell the difference between audio quality from a wired connection or bluetooth. The only difference that comes into play is the bass. For some reason the BTC450 overcompensates for the bass which makes it louder. Not a problem because you can always turn it down.

3. Phone quality is superb and outperforms my expectations. Although I rarely use it, but when I do use it I am placing a call with siri. The quality of the call outperforms my car's stock bluetooth.

4. It works great with siri. I read reviews of bluetooth devices not being able to communicate with siri because of microphone quality. Not a problem. The BTC450 handles siri with ease.

5. The design is elegant and simple to use. It looks great in your car. The mounting strip is very strong. I remounted the same strip more than five times. The buttons are easily accessible and seem to be able to hold the test of time. The length of the cord and the car charger were designed meticulously.

6. The last and a deal maker for me is being able to use my car's bluetooth and the BTC450 simultaneously. Initially, I was having problems using both at the same time. Siri wouldn't work, music would skip, and sometimes it wouldn't play. However, I think it had to do with trying to use two devices with the BTC450 at the same time. Unfortunately, you can only use one device at a time and it only auto connects to the last paired device. Fortunately, over the last two days my iphone, the BTC450, and my car's bluetooth have been all working flawlessly together. I can switch between devices while still being connected to both. If music is streaming I can receive or place a call with my car's bluetooth, and when the call is done music will resume playing. I can place a call with siri and transfer it to my car's bluetooth with no problem while music is playing. Once the call is done, music resumes playing.

Cons

1. The BTC450 only connects to one device. I read a review in which you could connect two devices simultaneously using different profiles, but after consulting with Kinivo support and trying haplessly myself I could not get it to work. The only other product I found that can do this is Parrot's Mki9100 and 9200 devices. Bummer!

2. As stated before, I was having problems using my car's bluetooth and the BTC450 with my iPhone 5 at the same time. Even after I removed the second device from the equation, for a couple of days it was not working, but over the last two days it has been working great. I am glad it is working because I would have returned the product.

In concluding my review, the BTC450 exceeds expectations and I highly recommend buying this product.

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I am very pleased with this purchase. Originally I was going to purchase the Belkin model, but the price of it was increased. I decided to purchase this one since it was cheaper and just hope for the best. I am pleased to say that I have been using this for a week now with out any issues. Audio quality is great. The device has a forward and backward track buttons on the top and comes with 2 adhesive pads to mount it to your dash (1 is an extra). The center of the device acts as a large play/stop/call button. Press the center button once to play or stop music, or to answer a call. Press it twice to call the last person you talked to. Pairing the device with my android phones was really easy (just hold the center button down for a couple of seconds). The device is charged through your cigarette lighter, but has a usb input in the back of the charger so you can still charge your phone with a micro usb to usb cable (assuming Droid phone). The microphone on the device seems to work great (I have had no complaints from people regarding the quality of the call on their side). The only minor problem with this device is that only one device can be paired with it at a time.

This device coupled with a Bluetooth Autoconnect app, means I can literally just sit in my car and begin to play music from my Phone without taking it out. This has significantly reduced the cable clutter that used to be required for me to connect my phone. If you have an aux jack in your car and are looking for bluetooth adapter I would definitely suggest this one.

Pros:

Forward/Backward track buttons on top

Easy set up

Very litter effort to connect to the device each time

Good Microphone phone

Excellent Quality and no skipping

Cheaper than alternative

Ability to charge your phone and the device at same time

Relatively small and non-intrusive to add to dash

Cons:

Can only pair one device at a time

Best Deals for Kinivo BTC450 Bluetooth Hands-Free Car Kit for Cars with Aux Input

I plugged the device into my car, told me Samsung Galaxy S4 to connect to it and it was working instantly without needing a manual.

No one will ever read this because there are so many better reviews, just want to say I love it, and you probably will too.

Honest reviews on Kinivo BTC450 Bluetooth Hands-Free Car Kit for Cars with Aux Input

I have purchased this based on an extensive review by B. Berkowitz, so I will only add/clarify a couple of points to that great in-depth review.

I have a similar situation, i.e. a car with Bluetooth support, but only for phone calls, with no way of streaming music from my Android smartphone. I wanted to get rid of clumsy audio cabling and listen to music via Bluetooth using the Kinivo adapter, but at the same time continue using the original car BT connection to receive/make phone calls. This dual setup is important, because that way the phone connection works in ALL Radio modes, not only in the AUX mode.

PRO No. 1: The device is fully compliant with this dual-mode configuration.

It is important to emphasize that a BT-enabled smartphone CAN be connected to multiple Blutooth devices simultaneously, and this will be causing no conflicts as far as each device provides a different SERVICE (in Bluetooth lingo each separate service is called a PROFILE). One can easily check all services the device provides going to Settings Bluetooth (Android) and clicking on the Settings icon (looks like a pinion) located to the right of each device. There are TWO PROFILES available for BTC450: Phone Audio (used for initiating or receiving phone calls) and Media Audio (used for listening to music via Bluetooth). By default BOTH of them are enabled. If one wants to use the adapter for both phone calls and music streaming, both check boxes should be left checked. But if one wants to use car Bluetooth for calls and BTC450 only for music streaming, then it is highly recommended to UNCHECK the first Profile (Phone Audio), so that there are no conflicts among Bluetooth devices. In this case the original car Bluetooth will be the only device servicing phone calls, and BTC450 will only be used for streaming music. As mentioned by B. Berkowitz, both BTC450 and car BT phone connectivity module coexist nicely, but the key here is to disable Phone Audio for BTC450.

PRO No. 2: The device is compact, has no redundant components, and has useful Prev/Next Track buttons. Personally, I think that this simple design is a huge advantage. One really doesn't need a separate display on an aftermarket part which should be as small as possible, and you can always clip your smartphone to the windshield and see all required song-related info there. Also, some people criticize BTC450 for having no backup battery, but in my view it is absolutely redundant in case of car audio, where one always has power when listening to music through the car audio system. While the display or a backup battery are just not needed in real-life situations (just adding weight/cost to the system), the Prev/Next buttons are useful, because it is easier to press one of these compared to reaching for a tiny onscreen button on the smartphone.

In my case the device got connected and started working immediately and effortlessly, and everything is working as expected.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. In my car the power socket is always on, so I expected the device to be always on, that could potentially result in a quicker battery discharge over time if left plugged in.

In reality the device stayed on while my phone was within reach (including overnight at home, where it was within the reliable connection distance), but when I spent an hour away from the car, the BTC450 actually went to sleep. It didn't create any problems, I just pressed the main button once, and got reconnected immediately.

But this probably means that the device does NOT stay on endlessly when the phone is removed, but rather goes into an energy-saving sleep mode. So one still needs to activate/reconnect it when returning to the car (which is very easy).

For cars where 12V plugs are only switched on together with the ignition this should not be a problem at all, as far as they should be auto-connecting to the phone when powered on.

2. My only minor suggestion is to provide a removable power connector plugged into a separate USB socket. At the moment one has no other choice but to use the 12V connector included, and the BTC450 power connector is attached directly to the 12V adapter. In case smth. happens to the adapter, or one needs an adapter supporting a higher current, this would complicate things. If a standard USB detachable power cable was used for BTC450, any dual-USB car adapter would work...

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Kinivo BTC450 Bluetooth Hands-Free Car Kit for Cars with Aux Input

I have to agree with other comments posted before. This is a great product. The controls are easy and intuitive, with the one big button for the main control being easy to use and obvious. I have a 2007 Prius and plugged this into my auxiliary input and 12V port in the center arm rest area. It had terrible electrical noise that wasn't obviously associated with the engine (it didn't change with the engine's RPMs etc.) I had read about how others had experienced electrical noise, but not all, including someone else with a 2007 Prius. So I didn't know if the noise was from defects with the unit or from the unit picking up electrical noise from the car. I took a chance and bought the PAC Ground Loop Isolator for 3.5 MM Applications as others had in the past to get rid of the electrical noise and found that now my sound was crystal clear. This combination is wonderful. I reduced it by one star because I wish that Kinivo would put a ground loop isolator into the unit and you wouldn't have the problem that does plague quite a few of the users of their product. But, it was a good price and great product in all other aspects, so 4 stars still.