Accessories Best Car Bluetooth Setup for EVO under $100

[kayawire]

Hey guys,

Can anyone recommend a Bluetooth device (with a FM transmitter) so that I can
make/receive calls and stream Pandora through my car stereo speakers?

Is Motorokr t505 any good? Are there better alternatives to this? Under $100?

Thanks for any replies,

K

 

[dbpaddler]

Kensington liquidaux is the cheapest. Amazon or eBay. Not the best speakerphone, but great for tunes.

 

[jtemple42000]

I just received a Motorola T505 today actually.

I paid $45 dollars for it on ebay and it works great.

The speaker get REALLY loud and sounds nice and clear. It is a little tinny, but for the size of the speaker it sounds great.

The best part is the FM modulator that is in it. The Motorola T505 streams phone calls and music, Sprint tv (audio) directly to the car radio. Set up was simple turn it on, wait for it to connect to the phone, then push the FM button on the back and it tells you what channel to tune your radio in the car to. Thats it...done! Also, as long as there is something actually streaming to it from the phone it sounds really good on the car radio, but if it's just dead air, then there is some static.

I would highly recommend...

 

[dbpaddler]

oh...you're looking at those types.....

I have the Jabra SP700. That and their Cruiser both get reviewed very well. I've been happy using the SP700 as a speakerphone. The Cruiser is supposed to be better with a dual mic so you sound better to the caller.

All of them (including the T505) are just ok when it comes to the FM transmitter. If you care more about music and less about the speaker phone (ie...not a lot of work/client oriented calls) I would seriously check out the

Kensington LiquidAux. You can do a wired audio connection to your head unit if you have an aux input or you can drop an extra $20 or so and pick up a wired FM modulator that plugs inline with the FM antenna and gives a way better signal with almost no interference compared to the cheap and not very powerful FM transmitters in the little speakerphone units. The Liquidaux comes with a wireless remote that clips to your steering wheel as well. Check out this thread at PreCentral for a lot of information on it. And there was also a thread started here too, but the PreCentral one is quite extensive.

 

[colnago]

I just received a Motorola T505 today actually.

I paid $45 dollars for it on ebay and it works great.

The speaker get REALLY loud and sounds nice and clear. It is a little tinny, but for the size of the speaker it sounds great.

The best part is the FM modulator that is in it. The Motorola T505 streams phone calls and music, Sprint tv (audio) directly to the car radio. Set up was simple turn it on, wait for it to connect to the phone, then push the FM button on the back and it tells you what channel to tune your radio in the car to. Thats it...done! Also, as long as there is something actually streaming to it from the phone it sounds really good on the car radio, but if it's just dead air, then there is some static.

I would highly recommend...

I bought my buddy a 505 as well, I've never seen/heard it in action, but he basically says the same.

 

[kayawire]

oh...you're looking at those types.....

I have the Jabra SP700. That and their Cruiser both get reviewed very well. I've been happy using the SP700 as a speakerphone. The Cruiser is supposed to be better with a dual mic so you sound better to the caller.

All of them (including the T505) are just ok when it comes to the FM transmitter. If you care more about music and less about the speaker phone (ie...not a lot of work/client oriented calls) I would seriously check out the

Kensington LiquidAux. You can do a wired audio connection to your head unit if you have an aux input or you can drop an extra $20 or so and pick up a wired FM modulator that plugs inline with the FM antenna and gives a way better signal with almost no interference compared to the cheap and not very powerful FM transmitters in the little speakerphone units. The Liquidaux comes with a wireless remote that clips to your steering wheel as well. Check out this thread at PreCentral for a lot of information on it. And there was also a thread started here too, but the PreCentral one is quite extensive.

Thanks ...it looks good but the problem is that it requires your car to have a aux jack (which I don't have )! So I guess I will be going with the Motorola unless anyone else has other recommendations...

 

[dbpaddler]

no, you get the wired fm modulator for that plugs inline with your fm antenna. Gives you a much cleaner signal than going with a wireless FM transmitter. But if you don't want to go through that extra step, then the best you can do is one of the visor units above. I just don't think they do music justice.

 

[fr4nk1yn]

I have the T505. It's pretty good. The automatic station chooser can be a hassle. It often picks a station next to a good powerful station.
It works better in some cars with some radios than others.
Another fault is it doesn't auto power on. It has to be turned on each time and each time the FM transmitter has to be turned as well.
It's really the only game in town though.

My wife has a Schosce(sp?) FM transmitter that plugs in with a 3.5mm cord and also has a USB for charging. Stations can be chosen and come through quite a bit louder and clearer than the T505. Using it as a speaker phone has issues because the phone, at least My Pre and her Pixi, would use the Phones mic so it still had to be close to talk.

 

[dbpaddler]

that's odd. those little visor speakerphones should have a built in mic. Kind of the point of them is they make for a better speakerphone than what's on the phone. My Pre and Pixi both worked properly with both my Jabras (SP700 and Cruiser).

But yes, they are manually operated. They do work off of a battery. If they were 12v powered, it might be a different story. One reason why things like the Parrot, LiquidAux and similar units can be preferable, especially if music is a main selling point.

 

[L8AGIN]

I've had the motorola t501 (same as the t505) for a over a year and it always worked great with my blackberry. However I just paired it with my evo yesterday and all the music is skipping, including those songs played from pandora. I then paired the evo with a motorola s9 headset and it still skips, so I'm guessing it's the evo and not any of the devices. Is anybody else having this issue?

 

[fr4nk1yn]

Oh.. Now you show up /:

I'll give you the short version, turn off Wifi while listening to music over bluetooth.

 

[L8AGIN]

Oh.. More you show up /:

I'll give you the short version, turn off Wifi while listening to music over bluetooth.

I'll try that. It wasn't skipping earlier today but I'm not sure if I had wifi on or not. Either way thanks for the info.

 

[fr4nk1yn]

I'll try that. It wasn't skipping earlier today but I'm not sure if I had wifi on or not. Either way thanks for the info.

The skipping is intermittent. Apparently not many people are having it.
I wasn't able to figure it out. Somebody at XDA with a post count of 1 told me about it.
I can confirm from this morning that
1: it's intermittent. Ididn't skip until I turned on wifi notifications to test.
2: the only fix is to turn off wifi, notifications don't, or may not, have anything to do with it since turning it back off made no difference once it started skipping.
3: it's annoying
4: it's a bug somewhere

 

[polkadots]

Another vote for the Motorola T505. I used it on a road trip this weekend, and it was awesome. Streamed Pandora and used Google Navigation and it went without a hitch. Paused Pandora when turns came up, and restarted. Great device, well worth it.

 

[RoboMonkey]

Hey guys,

Can anyone recommend a Bluetooth device (with a FM transmitter) so that I can
make/receive calls and stream Pandora through my car stereo speakers?

Is Motorokr t505 any good? Are there better alternatives to this? Under $100?

Thanks for any replies,

K

It's a little more than $100, but I love it.

 

[L8AGIN]

The skipping is intermittent. Apparently not many people are having it.
I wasn't able to figure it out. Somebody at XDA with a post count of 1 told me about it.
I can confirm from this morning that
1: it's intermittent. Ididn't skip until I turned on wifi notifications to test.
2: the only fix is to turn off wifi, notifications don't, or may not, have anything to do with it since turning it back off made no difference once it started skipping.
3: it's annoying
4: it's a bug somewhere

I tested it this morning with wifi on and it did skip. I turned wifi off and the skipping stopped, even after starting with wifi on. Thanks again.

Hey op, get the t501/505, it works well with the evo and is fairly inexpensive on ebay.

 

[BoomerFZ1]

I notice some music skipping with my Moto and Evo set up. Not sure why but every minute or so, it'll skip like 2 seconds worth of podcast/music. Tried it with BeyondPod, the HTC music player and Doggcatcher...same issues. Not sure if anyone else has this problem but I thought I'd mention it here.

 

[Caloy]

Another vote for the Motorola T505. I used it on a road trip this weekend, and it was awesome. Streamed Pandora and used Google Navigation and it went without a hitch. Paused Pandora when turns came up, and restarted. Great device, well worth it.

Aubrey, I never tried playing music and using the navigation at the same time. Does it play the music and interrupt it when navigation says something?

 

[Dracostian]

Hey guys,

Can anyone recommend a Bluetooth device (with a FM transmitter) so that I can
make/receive calls and stream Pandora through my car stereo speakers?

Is Motorokr t505 any good? Are there better alternatives to this? Under $100?

Thanks for any replies,

K

Yes, the T505 is good. I outfitted our salespeople with that for a wide variety of phones, and in general it works out (except for completely technologically illiterate people -- it does take a little bit of learning).

Make sure, whatever you get, you put it near you. It may sound stupid, but if you put your device in your glove compartment, or attach it to something on the passenger side or back seat of your car, it will not work as well as it would if you put it where you're supposed to.

/yes, I've dealt with people doing this regularly

 

[Dracostian]

Aubrey, I never tried playing music and using the navigation at the same time. Does it play the music and interrupt it when navigation says something?

Yes, it will do that. I'm assuming it works the same on the Evo; it definitely does it on the HTC Touch Pro 2 and a wide variety of Blackberries.

The only issue I ever saw on the T505 was with the Pre, where it would cut off the last few seconds of any navigation commands when it was cutting into something else. This appeared to occur no matter what Bluetooth device was used, though.

 

[MrPassion]

I've had the motorola t501 (same as the t505) for a over a year and it always worked great with my blackberry. However I just paired it with my evo yesterday and all the music is skipping, including those songs played from pandora. I then paired the evo with a motorola s9 headset and it still skips, so I'm guessing it's the evo and not any of the devices. Is anybody else having this issue?

Try turning off Wi-fi, it causes this on mine.

 

[kayawire]

Thanks guys for all the recommendations for Motorokr T505.... I just received it today ( from Amazon $56) and I was totally blown away !!!

Made calls through my car stereo and streamed Pandora also....nice and clear quality, so thanks again to all.

K

 

[Grev]

Folks, this thread has helped me too.. just ordered the t505 on amazon..

Thanks