Customer Reviews

Clarion BLT370 Bluetooth Audio/Cellular Phone Transceiver for Auxiliary Input

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The main problem with this product for me is that when there is no phone paired to it it makes a soft, but really high pitched beeping noise every 15 seconds or so. Its not noticeable if you have the music turned up, but if you have the music low (having a conversation with passenger, using gps, etc) it is very, VERY annoying. I keep the bluetooth off when I have passengers in my car or using the navigation system on my phone because I don't really like the whole car hearing my phone conversations and if the phone is paired while using turn-by-turn directions on it, it will cut the music every time it needs to give a new direction, which is more irritating than the beeping. Also, sound quality is lousy on both ends, but its useable for phone conversations. I would never use it to stream music though. As other reviewers have mentioned, the LED on it is super bright and way too distracting to have anywhere near you while driving. I had to cover the light with electrical tape, which looks kludgy. Works fine besides the points I mentioned, but NOT worth the $75 they want for it.

I have this hooked up to a clarion head unit so no issues with compatibility however, for the price I don't get this item at all- it's voice quality is terrible, the controls haven't worked for any phone or mp3 player I've tried and the interface is both unintuitive and intrusive all at the same time.

The unit uses BOTH of your RCA auxillary inputs plus a 12v switched source. It's easy to hook up but you'll need an adapter if your headunit doesn't have free RCA inputs. There's no provision for bridging or adding to an existing RCA input device. The cord provided seems to be long enough but when you actually get to threading it around the dash bits of your car it's not long enough to reach up into the roof lining or sun visors where the mic could adequately pick up your voice. The mic is horrible- the noise suppression basically doesn't work and you'll sound like you're in a tin can regardless of how loud you turn this up. Fortunately, on the output side the unit works well and includes a switch which lets you route signal to your left or right car speakers. It doesn't seem to have a provision to route it to both so you're likely to have to turn up your stereo quite loud to hear the other person.

The controls don't work for my android phone or my wifes nor with my daughter's nokia so don't think you'll be able to answer or hang up with the interface on the mic unit. It also doesn't seem to control any digital music players we've tried. The unit only works for one bluetooth device at a time so if it's hooked up to a passenger's phone or computer you won't be able to use it for your phone. Also, it has to be paired whenever you switch bluetooth devices; it doesn't seem to remember units it's paired with previously.

The head unit has an incredibly bright blue led that's so obnoxious I've had to face the unit against the headliner to prevent it from being distracting at night. The led will literally light up the inside of your car; it's that bright and blinking. You can't turn it off or change the color- it just blinks and annoys.

So, for this rather amazingly high price you get a unit which doesn't work very well at it's basic tasks (picking up speech, playing music or letting you listen to callers) and doesn't have any special features- like multiple pairing, memory or a connection which allows you to have other auxillary devices on your headunit. Basically- I see it as a bust. I have it and I use it but I wouldn't buy another one and I'll tend to steer clear of any clarion headunit which needs to use this thing.

My equipment:

iPod Touch (4th Gen) as Bluetooth Source

Alpine CDA-9815 as AUX in Receiver

Intentions:

Save on Connector Wear and Hassle by Going Wireless

Make Hands Free calls on Skype using wireless hotspot device

This is the only product of it kind that I could locate

-Bluetooth Music Receiver with a Standard AUX output (Works with ANY car stereo with a AUX in option!. Go Clarion!)

-Combines many BLuetooth standards HFP, HSP, A2DP, and AVRCP protocols

-Very promising if this is their first attempt at such a device!!!

Cosmetics and Concept:

-Nice device from an aesthetics point of view

-Well lit

-Responsive

-Compact

-Full featured

-Installation was a joy, less the 1" long power lead for +12V, arghhhh

-Connected easy and fast to my iPod Touch

Audio Quality (NOT Phone, but for Music):

-Manual specs freq resp as 30 to 20Khz. The roll off is not offerd (3dB points??) 30Hz in not acceptible for a quality system.

-Gross distortions that anyone could pickout. If you are into quality music in the car environment, forget this device!

-High Frequency distortion in the form if digital "swishing". Sounds alot like a 96kbps MP3 encode.

Skype experience:

-The device did not qualify as a "head-set", so the mic on the BLT370 failed to work. Up-side is the audio was avail through both left and right.

-NOT a headset solution for the iPod thorugh SKYPE!!! Still must plug in a MIC to the iPod.

-NOTE: This is probably a limitaion of SKYPEs APP and not a failing of either the iPod or the BLT370!!!! Maybe there is a better phone app out there for iPod??

Observations:

-Annoying status LED most of the time. The feedback is good, but hella annoying at night indeed. Black tape!

-Short power lead for +12V (1", no joke)

-Left and Right, but not both for phone audio through the car stereo. Why would they do this?

-Cost would be right if it didn't fail so badly in the sound quality department

-Could I have a defective unit? Doubt it..... This was a refurbished unit off Amazon. Either way, if Clarion failed to repair a refurb , than this feddback and review is still fair.

-As a Cell-Phone headset\control solutions, this little device appears perfect.

Selling the little guy. If someone has a need for a handsfree headset\control solutions for your Cell-Phone, this little device is awesome!!! If you like music and want to impliment a iPod Touch, find another solution or continue to use the dock connector. :)

RocketRanger

Installation was pretty easy. Has simple to connect power and ground connections. RCA's plugged right into my stereo. Couldn't use phone control lead as my head unit only has a "TEL MUTE" function; it needed to use the signal to switch to AUX. No problem, I do 99% of my listening from media from my phone.

A bigger problem was the velcro fastening. The car side velcro's glue was of such poor quality that it wouldn't stick well enough to stay on when separating the two velcro strips. The unit side wasn't any better. The fastening between the two strips was stronger than the strip itself on the unit side! I pulled on the car side velcro and the unit side came apart. Absolute rubbish. Use a razor to remove the remains, and used contact cement to glue the unit to dash. Contact cement is applied to both sides, allowed to cure for 10-15 minutes, then bonds instantly when the two touch. Bond is like glue on doublesided tape but a bit stronger.

Another serious problem was a super bright LED on the unit. It is bright enough to leave trails on your vision and endanger everybody during night driving. Clearly nobody at clarion had a functioning brain cell when that LED was spec'd. Maybe it can be dimmed? I put black tape over it.

Unit works well. Took call and it muted the a2dp and switched over. For some reason the call was entirely on the right channel. Person I talked to said I sounded like I was in a tunnel, but conversion was completely intelligible.

Unit gets attention of my phone every time I enter car and connects without hassle. I have a dash mount for the phone, so I don't need any kind of display other than the phone's.

Would have given 5 stars, but took off a point for the superbright LED.

Worked great with iphone3 and NZ-409 but does not work with iphone4... No updates available so useless...

Moving to NZ-500 unit with built in bluetooth and iphone4 certification....

The title says it all. I was incredibly easy to install and the sound quality is great using bluetooth audio. If you have a clarion receiver, then you definitely need this. I have an iPhone 3g and it was very simple to pair.

This was easy to install and works great. Every time you turn on the power to your car this bluetooth automatically connects to your cell phone. I purchased this from Barney's electronics on Amazon.com. Very clear and even pauses the music so that you can listen to your phone calls thru your front speaker- user select which one you want to hear out of- the left or the right speaker. Two ways to connect this to your Clarion radio. Any Clarion with a Z in the model numbers it will fit. Plug into AUX channel with supplied Y- connectors or plug into the Pre-amp AUX wires (if you have them behind your deck- some dont if you are a 4 channel deck instead of a 6 channel) then tap into the power wire and ground wire. That is it. Easy to install if you know how to take your car apart. If not have it professionally installed. It is loud and clear even while driving highspeed with road and wind noise- has noise canceling technology built in. It said it would not work well with my Sony Ericsson W480i as it will not hang up using the hangup button in the manual, but I experienced no such thing. The pick up and hang up buttons work great with my phone.

I actually used this item to hack bluetooth into my factory stereo in my 2000 Accord. I wanted a tape player and bluetooth for my phone. There were some extra required parts needed off digikey, but this was the perfect interface for my needs. It is loud, the sound is very clear, and it effortlessly worked with equipment it wasn't designed for. Leave a comment if you want a howto for your factory stereo too...

Hello,

I HIGHLY suggest that you check your phone compatibility with this BLT370 "Bluetooth" transceiver before you click buy it. Here is the direct link to go to;

http://www.clarion.com/us/en/support/compatibility/bluetooth/BLT370/

There was no mention on doing so during the sales process here on Amazon. ALSO, here is a link to the manual;

http://www.clarion.com/us/en/support/product_manuals_2/index.html?pdf=%27../../../../../MungoBlobs/325/41/BLT370_ENG.pdf%27

This link would not work sometimes and had it done so before, I would not have bought it as the wiring is way too intrusive. I would rather swap out my stereo for a fully Bluetooth compatible model that would actually work with my phone and iPod, and any other Bluetooth device.

For the novice out there reading my review, please take my advice to heart. Do a LOT more research on your own before you buy this Bluetooth thing, or anything that you think you want to work like this. If you 'just want it to all work together,' I suggest that you let an audio installer with experience buy the right things and do the job for you. I work on my own audio electronics like this, and even I don't want to rip apart my dash just for a 'small' increase in usability.

Good luck.

I've had my eye on this for a while after it was recommended by a friend. I was not disappointed. The ease of use is superb once it's installed correctly. This allows me to easily stream all the the crystal clear music my smartphone can generate right through my car stereo. No need for XM, CDs, or the radio. I love it!