Kinivo BTC450 Bluetooth Car Kit (Hands-Free, AUX Bluetooth Adapter for Cars with Ground Loop Noise Isolator, 3.5mm Aux Input, Apt-X)

I've recently started a mission to reduce wire clutter in my car and decided to look for the perfect Bluetooth receiver to meet my specific needs. I should note that I drive a 2003 Honda Accord and my phone is a LG G2. When I refer to the car being ON or OFF, I don't necessarily mean if the engine is actually running but the state of the car's electrical system (i.e. which includes the ON/ACCESSORY key ignition position when the car's electrical system is active but the engine isn't running yet).I had the following requirements:1. Has to turn ON when the car turns on and ALWAYS REMAIN ON regardless of the activity/inactivity of the phone (i.e. it should NOT fall asleep after 20 minutes of inactivity then requires re-connecting).2. Will turn OFF when the car turns off.3. Will automatically find my phone and connect when I start the engine. No fiddling of any kind should be required.4. Will have enough bandwidth/speed to stream high quality audio.5. Will have a microphone and will also function as a hands free phone kit.6. Will look nice (not cheap) and can be mounted easilyAfter scrutinizing a ton of different Bluetooth receivers/kits, I purchased the BTC450. It pretty much meets every one of my requirements. Some important findings:1. The device does indeed turn on when the car starts and remains ON. So far, it hasn't fallen asleep during periods of inactivity. Absolutely perfect. (I still need to field test this more to see if this holds true for longer periods of inactivity.)2. The device does indeed turn OFF when the car turns off. Again, perfect. The device being ON or OFF is directly linked to if its currently receiving power from the car. This is BY DESIGN and I purposefully chose this product because it wasn't battery-powered.ON/OFF behavior was a big dealbreaker for all the battery-powered Bluetooth adapters/receivers I looked at, as they would all go to sleep during inactivity (which then requires manual re-connecting). I should emphasize that you should test how your car's electrical system works before buying this product. As my car cuts off power to the power socket once you remove the key, I could leave this plugged in all the time and not worry about battery drainage at all. Some cars do have an "always-on" power socket for some reason, so please do your research first before complaining this product "silently drains your battery".3. As long as my phone already has Bluetooth enabled, turning on my car will turn the BTC450 on and automatically find and connect with my phone. Perfect yet again. If you turn on the car and your phone does NOT have Bluetooth turned on, it will not connect (obviously). If you then turn Bluetooth on your phone (with the car already on), it won't connect automatically (needs further testing). Luckily the re-connection process is easy (just hit the big middle button on the BTC450). This behavior isn't ideal but is by far the best so far i've seen for Bluetooth car kits. I can live with either having Bluetooth always enabled on my phone (it has a negligible effect on my phones battery life) or remembering to turn it on.4. I had some reservations about Bluetooth 2.1+EDR having enough speed/bandwidth to stream quality audio, and it was a huge relief to find that all my music and phone calls sound great. I believe that most of the audio quality problems reported are not related to this device, but are problems with your car itself. Most commonly reported issues are hearing a high pitched whine/humming/hiss that would be present regardless of what you plug in. This isn't the BTC450's fault and is likely an issue with how your car's stereo system is grounded. You can remove this noise by searching for "ground loop isolator" on Amazon, but a well known side effect of those products is a reduction in volume and sound quality. I do experience some audio whine at near max volume (especially when I hit the accelerator/gas pedal), but this is always present regardless of what is plugged in (phone, laptop, tablet, BTC450, etc). Since I never listen to anything even near max volume, this is a non-issue for me. Sound strength/loudness is the same as if I have my phone directly plugged in (make sure your phone's Bluetooth volume is set to max/high if you have problems).5. Microphone works well enough. Though the microphone picks up a decent amount of ambient noise, the person on the other end of the call can hear me fine. Picking up a call or hanging up is super easy, just hit the big middle button. If you have a Bluetooth profile set up to use the BTC450 for phone calls, there will be a little chime/song that plays through the car speakers (NOT your phone's ringtone) if your stereo is set to the AUX input setting. When listening to the regular radio or CD, the stereo will NOT automatically switch to AUX when a phone call comes in (obviously, unless your stereo has that capability for some reason). Your phone will still play its ringtone through its own phone speakers simultaneously, as long as its not set to vibrate or silent. I think if you only have the Bluetooth media profile enabled (with the Phone Call profile DISABLED), the normal ringtone will play through the speakers but you will have to talk into your phone's microphone once you pick up (still need to test this).6. Unit is fairly small, blends in with my car decor, and is pretty minimalistic.Special note: There seems to be some bugs with the pairing not working quite correctly when using Google Navigation and Spotify. I've only run across this once so far and haven't been able to replicate it since. I'll update if I ever find out what causes this issue.

This device is marketed for hands-free calling and audio, which seems to fulfill both roles pretty well. Been using it for a few weeks now and have a few thoughts. The button/unit itself has a short length of single cord coming from it, about two feet long. It then splits into two separate cords, one for audio and one for the automobile plugin, each one about a foot long. Total is approximately 3 feet for overall cord length, which may be a /little/ bit short for some users. I found it fit the best near the middle of the center stack of my car (Mazda 6 sedan), driver side, close to the audio controls. It left just enough wire to run down along the center console, past the shifter, and to the center-box to keep the 3.5mm audio jack and power plug to hide away. Would be nice if it came with an additional foot of cord for easier placement.Pairing with a phone is extremely simple. When you turn your car on/turn the key to the first position, it automatically starts the unit. Just make sure the bluetooth is enabled for your phone and accept it as a device, paired no problems, no password or special tricks required. Nice to use this unit and not have to fuss with settings. Works reliably, turn car on, pairs with phone, good to go.Audio quality is pretty good, not %100 as good as directly plugged in with an audio cord, but close enough that the difference doesn't bother me. The benefit of this unit is largely convenience, don't need to plug/unplug the audio cable every time you enter/leave your vehicle. Besides that, it has a microphone built into the unit, so you /can/ use it as a hands-free type of unit. The microphone (as reported by my friends and family) is of acceptable quality, the only minor problem being slightly reduced volume. So I tend to need to turn my volume up and speak clearly and a bit more loudly when using this. Not a big deal and not a deal breaker.Might be nice in a revision/different version if they had an AUX input port on the unit, so you could run your own microphone closer to the steering wheel. Doubtful that every user would want to utilize that, but I'd be willing to pay a few bucks more to get an AUX jack for a slightly better microphone option. Not a complain though, /for the money/ this unit does a perfectly acceptable job of playing audio, microphone, and phone calls. 5 out of 5 considering the minor flaws.