Customer Reviews

Kensington LiquidAUX Deluxe Auxiliary Car Kit with Remote for iPod; iPhone 1G, 3G

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I really wanted to like this product. I actually bought both the LiquidAUX kit and the Deluxe kit. One to use in my car and one on my motorcycle with my iPhone.

I think they worked once or twice with some adjustments. I know people don't like one star reviews and usually mark them as 'not helpful'. Often times they are right because people rate them with one star because the weren't shipped fast enough or some complaint not related to the product. Or they got the one unit that happened to be DOA.

Not the case here. Here's the problems:

When the iPhone firmware was updated recently, it caused problems with the remote operating and the message that the product was not iPhone compatible. Okay, I checked the manufacturer's website and found their workaround. The message did indeed go away, but the remotes still didn't work.

I decided to try my iPod to see if the problem could be caused by the iPhone, but the remotes didn't work with it either. Called Kensington tech support and they told me (in IndiaEnglish) to try replacing the batteries in remote. This after providing them with the serial number (written in illegible microscopic print inside the remote).

To their credit, they told me they would send me two new remotes (or complete units. I really don't understand IndiaEnglish very well). I should have them in 10 to 12 business days. I didn't have to return the old ones, just trash them. This makes me think they probably have had a lot of problems with these products.

My next gripes have to do with the different models:

The standard LiquidAUX kit:

They must be poorly assembled since the first time I used it it would cut out intermittently. If I just touched the wires going into the power plug they would crackle and pop and had to be delicately positioned to work. The extension cable (which you need unless your cigarette lighter is right next to your mini plug socket) has the same problem, but not as bad.

The Deluxe LiquidAUX kit:

This unit relies on a tight fit in your lighter socket, or you won't be able to keep the thing upright. The clamps holding your phone are not very sturdy and difficult to unlatch to get your iPxxxx out. After a short time most of the physical connections loosen up and you need to prop the business end of the adapter against something to keep it from falling.

I bought both units in Lightning Deals so the price wasn't as bad as it could be. But I'd rather pay more and have something that actually works properly. If I was within the 30 day window, I would have returned them buth.

I am not happy with this purchase.

I was eagerly awaiting this dock for my iPhone in order to use it in my 2005 Nissan Armada. Previously, I had just been using cables running from an iPhone dock to supply power (via the accessory jack in the Armada's console) and for sound output (1/8" mini stereo cable to aux input on the console). This worked fine, although the dock and phone would fall over on sharp turns.

I connected the LiquidAUX Deluxe to the accessory jack without difficulty, although in the Armada, the jack is recessed about 1.5" deeper than the rest of the console, so that the back of the cradle was actually close to touching some of the console control knobs (like climate control). I noted that the cradle was a bit top heavy, and driving around, particularly over some bumps, caused the power connection in the accessory jack to intermittently disconnect, so that music stopped playing, and the iPhone stopped charging, until I jiggled the connection to restore power. Occasionally, the whole dock would pivot 90 degrees due to the weight at the top.

I do like the ability to adjust the gooseneck and the overall compactness of the dock, which by the way, accommodates both the original iPhone and the new iPhone 3G, although it takes a bit of finagling to get the 3G to seat on the dock connector.

I think I will return the item, and get the LiquidAUX non-Deluxe version, which is the same thing without the gooseneck and dock. I will connect the iPhone and just rest it in the console - I don't necessarily need to see the screen while driving.

This cradle can charge both 2g and 3g iPhones. It sits securely and is not too difficult to dock the iPhone with Apple's proprietary USB connector. Kensington made the USB dock mount adjustable/slide-able. Essentially, when you mount the iPhone/iPod, the USB dock can slide (or stay in place) to an appropriate mount position; hope that didn't sound too confusing. The auxiliary input (as well as the provided extended wire) works well and the wire is lined with a nice "mountain climbing rope" fabric; feels like it was made with high quality materials. It's not made with that cheap rubbery plastic molding that most auxiliary wires come with. The remote works well and mounts well with the steering wheel. However, your hands will need to readjust the new additional peripheral added to your steering wheel.

I love using this mount for the GPS "google" maps mode. I personally think its a great buy for car charging and iphone usage! Now, my car crash percentages have jumped 400%; a bit of sarcasm!

This seems like a great idea for your iPhone, and Kensington seems like a great company with quality products, but WOW ... they really missed the mark on this device! I loved this device when I first bought it, but then ran into problem after problem. Please read...

List of Problems (Kensington LiquidAUX)

1) Cradle Arms use a ratchet mechanism that is very brittle. The first one I had broke. I took it back to Best Buy and got a new one. Broke in the parking lot. Took it back. The Best Buy associate brought out three more units and he broke two of them himself. Seriously four broken, or stuck, WTF!

2) Unlock Button that you push to unlock the ratchet mechanism rattles. You'll hear this thing rattling from Day 1. It is extremely noisy. Hello Kensington, did you test this out in an actual car?

3) Cigarette Adapter arm is too flexible. The arm should be stiff to hold your iPhone in place. Instead it rotates often while driving (hey look its the back of my iPhone) and droops to one side or the other (like a wet banana).

4) Plug at the base poorly designed. It shorts out, or becomes disconnected. Hit a bump and you can hear your iPhone becoming unplugged, and plugged in again (ie the sound you hear when you plug it into your computer). Over time this plug wears out from use, and starts disconnecting ALOT. Like 20 times in a row! WTF?

5) Music interruptions galore! Because of #4 above, this also means that you can be in the middle of your favorite song, rocking out, and bam. Its stops playing, or worse one speaker will stop working (mono sound), or various electrical interferences from shorts in the electronics. Horrible!

6) Battery in the remote unit lasted about two weeks. Nuff said.

In summary, I think this is a GREAT idea, but very poorly executed. The quality is the worst I've ever seen! Be forewarned! I know there are better devices of this type available.

Been using this for three months. Looked great and a good size but I have had major issues not related to how it fits in my car (06 Honda Civic). First the rear pivot loosens over time and now there is no position other thatn flat facing up that will stay fixed. Second is the side clamp stopped working so it is not seucured in the cradle.

I have been gentle with this thing and it is clearly not wery well made. Its a shame becuase it is a giid size and design, just crappy components, except I might add, for the 3.5mm cable and the long 3.5mm extender cable that came with it. Both of these are well made.

My impression is this was made for the iTouch and they are remarketing it for the iPhone. I have both devices and the weight difference is considerable when you affix them to this unit. The iPhone just seems heavy in this cardle. One more thing to note is when you plug your iPhone on this thing a message pops up on the phone saying it is not intended for the iphone do you want to go into airplane mode or use anyway. That has been a pesky thing as well.

The remote is only good for starting and restarting songs and audio books. Takes to the end or full rewind. I was hoping to be able to scan or go back to points in audio books if I missed something. Not funtional for me, maybe beter for someoone else.

So... this unit started out ok but got progressivly worse. As I write this my unit is unusable. Let me say I am on a tight budget so I take care of my stuff, but care did not matter with my unit -- it failed due to poor craftmenship in in my opinion.

Buy something else, you wont be sorry.

Because I use Pandora while I drive, the 3G function drains my battery like no tomorrow. I purchased this car kit to mount, charge, and connect to my aux input so I can listen to streaming internet radio. Setup was a breeze. The remote control does not allow you to control the audio function of 3rd party applications such as AOL Radio or Pandora, but it works very well with the iPod function on the iPhone 3G. Slightly expensive, but worth the money.

I bought this to use my iPhone 3G with my 2004 G35 that doesn't have a line-in jack. At first I thought I could just get the female to female stereo coupler and hook it up to the cassette adaptor. But it turns out that this arrangement produces blown out sound. Being very disappointed at this point, I plugged the cassette adaptor directly into the headphone jack on the iPhone, and to my surprise, this turns out to produce pretty good sound, way better than using the coupler...

So, if your car does not have a line-in jack but you do have a cassette adaptor, don't bother getting a female to female adaptor. Instead, just plug in your cassette adaptor to the headphone jack on your iPhone/iPod. Everything else (remote control and charger) works as advertised.

One thing with the G35, though, is that its cigarette plug is too far under the dash and I ended up having to get a cigarette adaptor extender from RadioShack so that I can mount the iPhone in a usable location.

Overall, if you are trying to use this with a pre-line-in version of G35, you'll need to improvise a little bit, but once you get it the way you like it, it's the best iPhone mount/charger that I seen that makes the iPhone really useful in the car (for using with Google Map & GPS and iPod).

I needed a product that would work with the iPhone 3G. I tried a cheap-o version off eBay that said it was compatible. It was not. This one is. The goose neck adjustability along with a swivel makes it easy to find a position that works well in the car. I have a tape deck so I plugged my 3.5 jack into one of the old-school fake tapes for Disk Mans. ($6 on eBay, no shipping). I did need a simple Radio Shack 3.5 female-female adapter ($4). It charges the phone well and sounds great! There are no warnings, errors, things you have to plug in or anything. The iPhone 3G slides into the holder and the big plug goes into the base. That's it. I didn't try the steering wheel mounted remote yet. I found it got in the way of my ability to steer. However, with the position I have the phone in the car it makes it easy to use the touch screen to switch songs.

After reading the mixed reviews on this unit, I took a leap of faith, and it met or exceeded my every wish.

I needed a solution for listening to an iPod Touch in my Acura RDX (non-tech). I was mostly concerned with sound and looks.

As for the sound, it sounds the EXACT same as CDs playing through the car's CD player. I have mainly lossless tracks, but I do have some 320 kbps tracks, and they sound fine as well...sorry I don't have anything with more compression, but I bet it would sound the same as it would if you were listening to an MP3 CD at the same compression rate. I get no feedback sounds from the engine, the ac unit, or anything else. I control the volume using the car's steering wheel controls, and find I need to crank it up about 5 ticks to get the volume output to match the volume of a similiar CD.

In the looks department, it couldn't be better for me. I place it in the cigarette lighter so that the gooseneck extends straight out to the right, and this leaves me complete access to the climate controls, etc. Nothing is blocked, yet at the same time it doesn't extend so far out as to interfere with the passenger's knees. This setup also allows for me to close the cover for the drink holders, which is a big plus- I had tried 2 different chargers for my mobile phone before I found one that had a long enough profile to allow me to close the cup holder cover while the charger was plugged in. Also, the wire is the exact length that I need to plug it into the aux port, plus its completely hidden by the unit itself, so it is very sleek looking.

One downside for me is that the steering wheel remote bugged me, so I attached it to an unobtrusive part of the driver's side door handle, which works well for me.

I only wish they would come out with a model that had an input on the side that would allow me to charge my cell phone at the same time, but I don't know enough about these things to know if that's even possible.

I got my LiquidAUX Deluxe two weeks ago, and I'm really happy with my purchase. Remote control works with no problems. I was a little worried about how this will fit with my electric socket, but it is solid and stays on place.

My kids love to see their movies on my Touch and ear audio around the car. Nice job Kensington!