Will a Bluetooth connection ever offer the fidelity of a wired connection? Absolutely not. However, let’s say that you have a modern phone that doesn’t have a dedicated 3.5 mm auxiliary port. If you need to charge and use a dashboard mount for navigation, Bluetooth is likely your best option. Despite this, there is a small problem when it comes to fitting most Bluetooth receivers to cars like my BMW 325i.
However, this little Bluetooth receiver fits the bill perfectly. Instead of being a massive integrated USB dongle, it’s a plastic box with a USB cable and a 3.5 mm cable coming out of it, perfect for cars with tight clearance. Best of all, the plastic receiver casing is quite small, so it doesn’t take up much room at all in the console. Just plug. the 3.5 mm audio cable into your car’s auxiliary port, plug the USB cable into any USB power source/cigarette lighter adapter, connect your phone, and you’re set. [Editor’s Note: If you own old cars like I do, you can just plug the audio cable into a cassette adapter. -DT]
Are there annoyances? Sure. It’s not great for phone calls and the startup can be a bit uncouth, but that’s about it. Connection is seamless and sound quality on this Bluetooth receiver really isn’t bad due to its construction. By hardwiring the 3.5 mm cable to the receiver instead of having a 3.5 mm jack on a receiver dongle to accept a patch cable, the makers of this receiver have essentially eliminated one point of possible connection issues. However, it’s worth noting that a receiver will never sound as good as just running a cable. Most popular Bluetooth codecs like AptX and AAC carry a degree of harmonic distortion, but this little receiver is up to scratch with the receivers in most OEM audio systems. Perhaps best of all, there’s no pairing button on this receiver to be bumped by items in the armrest. At a cost of $18.49, it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than retrofitting a MagSafe or other wireless charger, and is a great way of getting Bluetooth audio into your older car. While I still prefer plugging in a 3.5 mm auxiliary cable, it’s nice to be able to charge my phone on long trips without worrying about cable management or the weight of a phone holder with wireless charging. Now, I know what you’re thinking, but this is more than just a fancy, hideaway version of those crappy FM transmitters that plug into a 12V socket and work mostly OK for a few months until they crap out. This is an FM modulator, and it sits in between your car’s antenna and the radio. When you tune to the magic channel, the antenna is removed from the equation and the modulator mainlines an FM signal straight down the wire into your head unit. This ensures that the audio quality is as close to perfect as the FM standard allows for, and that no stray signals are going to fuck with your music. It also doesn’t shit the bed after less than a year, and if you do it right it’s hidden inside the dash, so you can keep a stock look if that’s something that matters to you. I put one in the Miata a couple of years ago and it’s been worth every penny. One of the best mods I’ve done so far. An FM modulator is different. It’s a wired device that completely replaces the signal that would normally come from your car’s antenna. It cuts the antenna out of the circuit entirely, and just pipes an FM signal straight down the wire. That means no interference, no feedback, and no degradation in sound quality. It’s still bounded by the limits of what the analog FM standard can do, but within those limits it guarantees absolutely perfect reception. https://www.amazon.com/iSimple-Hands-Free-Calling-Streaming-Smartphones/dp/B00FRU5UNA?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A39LCRHCD8QJN3 I put one of those crappy 12V FM transmitters into my Miata about 2 years ago and it’s actually still kicking! I think it helps that I balled out for the $25 one instead of the knockoff $18 one 😉 Between the FM transmitter, upgraded door speakers, and an air screen behind me, carving canyons while playing tunes is pretty heavenly. I am from Sweden, and the two things I am most embarrassed about are Ace of Base and Bluetooth. Awful. It’s obnoxious, and not in the least because this also means I can’t use my phone in a window mount as a GPS at the same time, and long commutes to random work locations where I’ll be following Google Maps are exactly when I most want some driving music. If you can fit a double DIN you can put in a proper 7″ touchscreen system for not much more. That gives you sat nav, WiFi, Bluetooth, 32GB+ SD memory, MP3 player, back up /dash cams, satellite radio, torque and a whole lot more, plus 4x45WPC that will sound far better than the stock radio even with stock speakers. If you want you can units with a volume knob and buttons. I did that in my Mazda5 and never looked back. Those were the days indeed! Option #2, save your obsolete smartphone that DOES have a 3.5mm port and an SD slot and use it as a dedicated music player. I’ve also been looking into USB C to 3.5mm/charging adapters. This would also work in Thomas’ car, just with extra wires. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B094Z6149B/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_1?smid=A2V5UCM7705I48&psc=1 Should you have a 3.5mm jack it’s plug n play, then run off the fuse box through a 12v DC to 5v DC isolated ground buck converter (isolated grounds are very important as it eliminates loop feedback). I opted for the aptX + microphone input, added a $5 lapel mike mounted on the steering column. In my 2001 BMW 325cic, I now enjoy near hi-fi levels of automatic bluetooth connection, wireless audio, and handsfree calling, completely hidden behind the glove box for about $50. The lapel mic works so well, I can have full conversation at 70mph with the top down! My ’90 750iL is another beast all together, with a 4-channel (FR, FL, RR, RL) amp output to 10 speakers…. I’ve yet to figure out any similar solution that doesn’t require professional audio equipment. Any help would be appreciated. Right now I have some grey-market overpowered 12V Bluetooth-FM transmitter that works most everywhere but in the city. Oh and has awful ground loop noise. It would be better sound quality than Bluetooth and likely a less expensive adaptor to buy. Or, if your car has a USB-A slot, just drop all your music onto a thumb drive, and leave the phone for nav using some sort of dash or vent mount. Or not use your phone at all when you drive (this is what I do). This seems more complicated than it has to be simply because a driver can’t fathom NOT using Bluetooth or the radio for music. Me: “I don’t like this factory stereo. BRB.” (SOME TIME LATER…) “OK so I couldn’t find a good high speed CANbus to tie into so I just added a pin to the BCM. But then I realized the amp has this bandpass filter in it I don’t like, but I don’t want to cut or replace that harness so I ordered the connectors from Mouser, but you see this cable route here? No bueno, RF noise. That’s why FM’s spotty. So the GPS cable needs rer-oh, yeah, I added GPS receive-only. Anyways, at that point I realized it doesn’t tie into the BCM sufficiently…” This is really funny until I admit that aside from the CANbus (because it doesn’t have it,) this is quite literally exactly what I’m doing with the Saab. I haven’t figured out where I’m going to physically locate the OBD-II to CANbus translator yet. It needs a smidge more 12V. AND IN MY DEFENSE, the Saab 9-3 Viggen does not have a cassette or an aux cable. It does however have a MASSIVE stock stereo which I presume leaves you plenty of room for a similarly massive touchscreen SatNav. Why not just do that and put in your own amp(s) using the pre-outs? There should be bezels you can use to make it look good and adapters to get the steering wheel buttons to work. Gonna have to stick with the 12$ Bluetooth speaker duct taped to my dash. USB cable just reaches my 12 volt adapter.
