Customer Reviews

Kensington LiquidAUX Bluetooth Car Kit with Remote for Music Phones

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I purchased this product with the intent of playing music wirelessly from my iPhone through my car stereo. If this is your intention, this product is amazing. The sound quality is pretty good, and it is a breeze to use. Once you have paired your phone for the first time with the device there is no input required ever again. All I do is start my car, and push play on the remote, and whatever was playing on my iPhone is now playing through my stereo speakers. I have never had the device not pair, it works perfectly.

That being said, if you are planning to use this device in your car for handsfree calls, forget it. The microphone is built into the unit, so it is always positioned in your lighter outlet. For me, this is located in my center console by my shifter about 2-3 feet from my mouth. This translates to poor call quality for the person on the other end. I have never completed an entire phone conversation using this device. Not only does the person on the other end sound quiet, but to them I sound like a mess of static, especially when the car is running. I can't imagine what this would be like if my lighter outlet was in my armrest box like I know a lot of cars have.

Overal, I am happy with this product because I did not really plan to use it for handsfree calling. If this is not your situation, I strongly recommend that you pursue another solution. That being said, $25 is tough to beat considering higher end (actually functioning) solutions can cost in the hundreds of dollars range.

Note: If you are planning to use this product with an iPhone be warned that the Previous and Next buttons do not work on the included remote. I think this is Apple not supporting the full A2DP protocol, but I am not sure. I have learned to deal with this, it doesn't really bother me too much.

July 16 Update: With the iOS 4 update to 4.1 on July 15, '10, you are now able to skip forward, skip back and increase/decrease volume over bluetooth. I've updated the review below with new information to support this iOS update.

---

You'll need to update your iPhone to version 4.1 (July 15 release) so your iPhone can fully support Kensington LiquidAUX Bluetooth Car Kit otherwise you will only be able to "pause, play, and stop" your music over bluetooth. When you update iPhone to the latest free version, you then be able to skip tracks and change the volume.

This device will allow you to do the following:

- skip tracks, change volume, play, pause, stop music with the remote

- answer phone calls with the remote

- hang up calls with the remote

- switch to using your hands with the remote

- listen to phone calls through your car speakers

- listen to music through your car speakers

- speak into the noise canceling mic found in the charging device

what it doesn't do

- your custom ring tones will not play in your speakers instead there's a new ringtone custom to the kensington device that will play instead

The remote control is easy to attach to your steering wheel and I like the extra chrome around the edge of the unit. The audio quality of music through the speakers streams great to the device. I'm very impressed with it and I'm sure you will as well.

The additional USB input is a nice feature so you can charge your phone while it's connected. The attachment does NOT come with a cable, so you need your own to charge your iPhone.

The bluetooth connection to the iPhone 4 is quick and painless to connect and disconnect. If your car supplies power to the charger even when the car is turned off, like my car, it's important if you walk away from the car with your phone still connected via bluetooth and you're still close enough to it, the phone will not ring in your pocket and will try to ring in the car. It's important to click the "power" button on the charging device to shut the bluetooth off if you have a car like mine otherwise the charger is designed to turn itself off when the phone becomes disconnected or power is removed from the charger.

The charging side comes built in with an advanced noise/echo canceling filter for clear conversations and I'm told it sounds really good when I talk. It's clear and loud enough for the listener to hear me considering how far away the device is away from my voice. I'm going to play with this a bit to see what the experience is over time, but so far I'm impressed with this feature the most!

Unfortunately, there is one draw back using music from your iPhone to your car stereo. You will unfortunately, depending on where you live, when your phone switches out of the 3G network to the GSM (Edge) network, your car speakers will go "crazy" with what is dubbed as GSM buzz. I would describe the sound as popping/buzz sound that vibrate from your car stereo. It's not the fault of the Kensington LiquidAUX Bluetooth Car Kit. It's NOT heard when your phone is in range of ATT's 3G network (WCDMA). I found online why this occurs and it's described due to the way GSM, which uses TDMA, splits the frequency up into time slots. IIRC TDMA uses 1/8th sec slots - so a broadcast network of 1800 or such is going to have a pulse rate of around 217Hz which is in the audible range and is picked up up by poorly shielded speakers. It's essentially your phone saying to the tower - 'Give me slot Give me slot Give me slot Give me slot and now We're connected' or "ready to receive ready to receive ready to receive ready to receive and now We're connected'.

Overall, this is the best tool to listen to your music, movies and make phone calls within your car now that Apple supports full AVRCP.

I have been looking for an inexpensive device to connect to via Bluetooth for wireless streaming music for a while now. I saw this on an Amazon "Lightning Deal" and bought it with much hesitation since I couldn't find any reviews on it. I am glad I did. I pair it with a Nokia N95. My car is quite old. It is equipped with a factory radio but I previously installed an AUX adapter that plugs directly into the CD changer harness. The LiquidAUX, in turn, plugs into the adapter. Obviously, newer factory or aftermarket stereos with a 1/8" jack are ideal but regardless an analog input of some sort is a requirement for this product. Hence, it won't work with every car stereo out there. Installation is simple. You just need access to a cigarette lighter or power port. Aside from the already mentioned audio input, you are already done. Once you get it set up and paired though, it works as advertised. Initial pairing works by holding down the Bluetooth symbol key. The passcode is the usual "0000" and there is no option to change it. The unit also has a power button. It must be held for a couple of seconds to get it disconnect from the phone. If I hold it too long, it will disconnect and then reconnect to the phone. Annoying. Out of the box, the unit may also need to be paired with the remote. Same process as with phone, but you hold the "middle" button on the remote to allow it be discovered. I initially thought something was wrong with my remote. Don't make the same mistake I did (reinserting battery several times) and read the instructions.

The output through my system is a little soft, so I have to turn up the volume at higher level than normal (versus listening to the radio or a CD). This may be due to the phone or the input adapter on the car stereo. It is still quite acceptable. The remote attaches to the steering wheel via a Velcro strap. The remote doesn't appear particularly durable, but once attached it really does stay in place solidly (in my case anyways). I like the fact you can transport everything to another vehicle in just seconds, nothing is permanent. The remote controls play/pause, forward, backward, and answer/dial. As for the hands free portion of the device, this was not a priority for me. I have used it a few times and it works well enough. No problems with echo, but at least one person said I sounded audible but a little muffled. I think the location has a lot to with that. In my case, I have the LiquidAUX located in the center console. Better put, it is well below the driver and off to the side. I have nowhere else to plug it in. I am sure somewhere on the dash in front of the driver would allow the microphone to pick up the speech more clearly. It would also make it easier for me to attempt voice dialing someone off my contact list. I have to speak more loudly and clearly than I would if I were using the phone's microphone to make it work. Like stated above, I bought this mainly for the streaming of high quality music. I don't notice any loss of audio quality nor have I experienced problems with drop outs.

If you have a particular use for this type of device, it works as advertised. I have bought lots of devices that have lots of promise but fail miserably in usage. I am happy to say this simple device does everything it should.

This product is exactly what I was looking for in order to pair my iPhone 3G and later 3GS with my 2007 Civic's sound system. It's very non-descript and shouldn't attract too much attention.

One thing I was worried about was the audio quality of streaming over Bluetooth. After doing a bit of research I found out that the streaming audio protocol, A2DP, seems to be capable of streaming at bitrates equal to or greater than the vast majority of my mp3 collection. Still, I notice that the sound is bit thin when playing through this device. The difference is quite noticeable when you do a back to back comparison with a standard auxilliary in cable. I think the quality reduction is not so much in the bluetooth streaming, but rather the conversion from digital back to analog to pump the music into the AUX jack on the stereo. The added convenience, however, is well worth the small loss in quality, IMO.

The other problem I had with this device was that the remote control would not pair with the cigarette adapter. It turns out the battery compartment positive terminal contact was making poor contact with the edge of the battery. I simply bent the contact down a little and the problem was solved. Now the remote works fine and I have to wait for Apple to implement the AVRCP profile in software to get access to the Previous and Next button functionality.

Finally I now have wireless audio streaming from my phone to my car. I will say that if you have the option an aftermarket radio with built in bluetooth support would probably do a better job, but if you can't or don't want to buy a new radio this is a great solution.

I have used this device with two phones, a HTC Touch Pro (Windows mobile) and a Nexus one (Android) with very different results.

# The Nexus One works extremely well with this device. Both music and navigation both play over the speakers with very high quality, you can even stream Pandora with it. I would assume calls will play over it and the remote works because they are both in the device specs, but I have not used those features.

# The Touch Pro was a completely different story. The dynamic range of the audio from the Touch Pro was absolutely horrible, if I had to compare it to something I would say try listening to a 28kb/s mp3. After hearing the quality I gave up with this device, other users with the same or similar phone might have varied results.

I would say this device is made extremely well, it can receive high quality audio and it has a convent USB port for charging your phone. It has a very short (about 3 or 4 inches if memory serves me correctly) audio cable with a nice woven exterior and a matching extender, in case you need a longer cord. If your cigarette lighter port turns off with the car when you turn the car back on it will automatically turn back on and sync with the phone in 2 or 3 seconds. And it is very easy to set up and use.

But, you should be warned that depending on what phone or device you have the audio quality could be anywhere between amazing and horrendous. For every review you read about the device having poor audio quality I would note what device they were using, most likely that device has problems with audio quality over bluetooth. I have personally seen how two different devices (both good quality devices) can have extremely different audio quality while streaming to the LiquidAux, and I would imagine that the problem would apply to any bluetooth receiver.

All in all, if you need an external bluetooth audio adapter for your car, look no further. I highly recommend this device.

A solidly built, multifunctional device with an ingenious interface... Too bad the whine of electronic interference from your car will most likely destroy the sound quality. A ground loop adapter can eliminate this noise on your end (what you hear from the stereo), but only at the cost of eliminating the bass from your music. As for the person you are trying to have a phone conversation with; they're just completely out of luck. This would easily get 5 stars were it not for this problem, but due to this issue, I can only give it 3. I've since replaced it with an Acoustic Research ARWH1 unit, which does a better job in terms of both call and music quality despite not even being designed as a car kit, and doesn't suffer from ground loop issues even when plugged into the car's power outlet.

What I have noticed is that the sound quality is not the greatest. You are able to hear a crackling through the speakers in the car. So far, I have only used it for playing Pandora, I will test it with music from my SD card later on today.

Also, the sound quality on the speaker phone is so so. people are able to understand you, but it sounds a little like you were in a tunnel..

Update:

The Speaker phone is useless at high speeds. I drive a Maxima, pretty well insulated, but the road noise is so much that it sucks when over 45 MPH.

The sound quality issue on the Pandora is caused by my Blackberry Pearl. On my friend's iPhone the quality is great! I guess it is time for a new phone....

I purchased this device to use with an EVO 4G in my 2009 Mazda 3. It paired with my phone without any problems. Music transmission sounds great. Unfortunately I have been unable to get the remote to work with my phone. However, this is not a huge problem for me. I purchased the device so I could stream Pandora, Last.FM, MP3s, etc into my car's stereo system without having any exposed wires. This works just fine for that purpose. I should also mention that when I first got the device there was considerable background noise. I learned that this is caused by your car's electrical system not the device itself. If you have this problem don't think there is something wrong with the Liquid Aux. Instead get a ground loop isolator and it should fix the problem.

The LiquidAUX is a mixed bag. It works well enough but depending on the car it's plugged into it can add a lot of hiss and static to the audio stream. My two Honda's are terrible but my Ford was fine.

As a result I can only really use it for spoken-word audio since music sounds terrible with all the extra hiss and crackle.

I bought that Kensington LiquidAUX unit over a year ago, I don't think Kensington's even making it anymore... I tried to find it again recently and couldn't find it for a decent price. I bought it for right around $40 as well, I think the MSRP was no more than $50. Now that I've found it again I'm almost tempted to pick it up from Amazon in case mine ever breaks or as a future gift.

The Kensington unit has a couple of advantages over similar units, besides just being way cheaper than some of them. Did you notice that remote pictured on the product page? Yep, it's a wireless remote with Play, Forward, Rewind, and call buttons. The whole unit got a lot of bad reviews when it launched because of the iPhone/iPod's crappy Bluetooth stack (no support for skip/rw BT buttons) but they work very well w/any phone with proper A2DP support. I used the kit with a Sony Ericsson dumbphone before upgrading to my HTC EVO.

Initially the call button didn't do anything when paired with my EVO but after the Froyo update (which brought a wealth of Bluetooth stack improvements) it now works like any standard Bluetooth hands-free dialing button. The remote uses a small watch battery and I've only replaced it once in over a year of use (cost me $0.50). The main Bluetooth receiver unit plugs into your 12V adapter obviously so you never have to worry about recharging it, that's another advantage over the Scosche.

The mic isn't that great though... I drive a fairly small and fairly quiet car (2-door '07 Civic) and I still struggle sometimes when speaking over it, if you speak loudly it's fine for brief calls but for any call that's gonna take more than 5 min. I just pick up my phone... Or I put it on speaker so I can slip the phone into my shirt pocket and use it's microphone, the EVO's speaker is loud enough.

The sheer convenience for music playback is great though, it remembers my device (whether it be the EVO, an iPod touch, or my old phone) just fine so I never have to re-pair it, and it can remember multiple devices as well. It can even pair to multiple devices at once, when I had the SE phone I'd pair it up for phone functions and I'd simultaneously pair the iPod for music playback.

I used to have a dock and use a standard 3.5mm cable to the aux-in and whatnot but the convenience of just getting in the car and hitting Play on the remote is just awesome. It comes with a lil' strap/holder so you can mount the remote on your steering wheel if you want btw (I velcro'd it down so it looked sleeker and less aftermarket tho).

It also comes with an extension cable for the 3.5mm cord (tho the port is right below the 12V port in my car), AND a 5V USB port in case you want to charge any device, so you don't have to unplug the unit, it basically doubles as a car charger. Audio quality is great, I compared it to a straight wired connection and I could only detect a slight dropoff in bass, no skipping or hiss and volume is loud enough and can be independently controlled on the phone or your stereo (except w/an iPhone/iPod which locks the volume, again, crappy BT stack/implementation on Apple's part).

All in all, I highly recommend it, for music playback primarily (in a car that lacks built-in BT obviously). For having long convos thru the built-in mic, not so much.