Kinivo BTC450 Bluetooth Hands-Free Car Kit for Music Streaming and Phone Calls

Ghostman: Recently I was reluctantly forced to realize that after 16 years and untold hours of use my Classic 160gb iPod was on its last legs. I upgraded to an Astell&Kern SR25 MKII and decided to make the leap to Bluetooth from hardwired connections for my car.
I received the Kinivo BTC450 today and couldn’t be happier. Set up was a piece of cake – less than 5 minutes to open the package, read the guide, and then connect in the car. I took a lengthy drive around town for errands and am pleasantly pleased with both the quality of fidelity and improved volume control. No problems with buzzing, whistling, or whine. No plans to use the unit for phone, as I don’t phone while driving.
It’s only the first day, but so far I’m delighted.

United States on Sep 16, 2023

Christian Hokenson: I've owned Kinvo products before (two earlier models of this device) and time and time again, it works great right out of the box. After my last Kinivo adapter gave up the ghost (after getting too many things spilled on it due to bad placement... my bad), I tried out other, newer, and supposedly better devices to get my iPhone to play music in my 2007 RAV4 (which, luckily has an AUX jack and good speakers). I tried other inline AUX dongles and those that play directly through a static FM signal, but they usually lack in the sound quality department, are rather large, and let's face it, if you don't live in the hinterlands, the FM transmitter must fight for signal space on the FM spectrum. Even then most devices have terrible ground loop feedback problems (lots of high-pitched whine), and you lose most of the mid-range and bass, making music sound awfully tinny and annoyingly "bright." Ground loop isolator devices help with the high whine issue, but you lose even more mid and bass. Even with some models offering "bass boost" options, they just plain suck and you're left with lows, intense highs, and no mid. On older car stereos that max out the volume, you get no oomph in your...

United States on Sep 06, 2023

Amazon Customer: Installed it in my Mercedes 2004 SLK & it works really well

United Kingdom on Aug 25, 2023

Seth Wilker: I’ve got an older car that has an aux port and was using a Bluetooth adapter that I had to manually turn on every time I got in to go somewhere if I wanted music or GPS guidance. That, of course, feels really lame in 2023, so I started looking for an adapter that would turn itself on and off with the car.

Then I found this one. And it has been doing that without issue. I get in, start up the car, this beeps at me, and when I turn the car off, it immediately shuts itself off and I can switch over to some other Bluetooth device quickly. And if you’re worried about it taking up the spot where you plugged in your charger, it has a USB port in the plug.

My only gripe with this is that the buttons can be a tad unresponsive sometimes. Like when I’m trying to fast forward through an ad in a podcast, it might take an extra button press to get it to respond sometimes. Worth taking a star off but absolutely not a deal breaker in my opinion.

If you’ve been missing this sort of functionality with your current Bluetooth adapter in your older car that you don’t want to get rid of, get this thing.

United States on Aug 23, 2023

Marco ConzatoMarco Conzato: Quando ho collegato il "Kit viva voce Bluetooth per auto Kinivo BTC450" all'ingresso aux della mia Ford Focus SW del 2006 sono rimasto molto deluso dalla qualità dell'audio. Un fruscio insopportabile, tranne a basso volume, ma a dire il vero a quel volume il motore dell'automobile copriva troppo il sonoro degli altoparlanti, così per un pò sono tornato a usare il cavetto al posto del Bluetooth per ascoltare la musica.
Sapendo cosa mi serviva in termini circuitali per usare l'auricolare bluetooth senza distorsioni mi son messo a cercare e ho trovato questo oggetto in vendita a 17.90 € (in data 09/09/2015) : "FGA-35 Filtro di separazione di massa, SNI-1/3.5 Filtro anti rumore con Jack 3.5mm (Ground Loop Isolator) "
Molto perplesso per l'elevato costo sapendo cosa c'è dentro la scatolina nera (4.5cm x 3.5cm x 2.0cm), e parlo del separatore di massa, all'inizio non volevo prenderla ma avendo già affrontato il costo del Kit viva voce che sennò sarebbe rimasto inutilizzato ho voluto provare.
Ora posso dire con estrema soddisfazione che la qualità audio è identica a quella del cavo, attenua un po', circa 5%, ma la distorsione non è più presente. L'ho usato anche per...

Italy on Jul 16, 2016

Ronny Stöcker: Bei Amazon-Rezessionen soll man ja vorsichtig sein. Dementsprechend hab ich lese ich die Rezessionen immer mit Vorsicht. Dennoch entschied ich mich für diese Freisprecheinrichtung, nachdem ich auf der Suche nach einem Autoradio für mein Zweitwagen war.
Ich habe mich damals beim Kauf meines Autos für ein Kenwood BT32u entschieden, da es eine Bluetooth-Freisprecheinrichtung versprach. Da meine Freundin es gleich beim Händler einbauen lies fiel mir erst im Anschluss auf, dass keinerlei Möglichkeit für ein externes Mikrofon bestand. Die eingebaute Freisprecheinrichtung ist bei dem ansonsten sehr guten Autoradio aber nicht überzeugend. Nun suchte ich halt gleich gezielt nach einem Radio mit Mikrofon. Bei der Suche sties ich dann auf diese Freisprecheinrichtung und dachte mir, dass ich bei 30€ nicht allzuviel falsch machen könne. Also bestellt und 2 Tage später in den Händen gehalten.

Als erstes fiel mir positiv ein, dass das Kabel für den Aux-Anschluss und dem Stromanschluss in einem dünnen Kabel von der Freisprecheinrichtung abging und nicht in zwei getrennten. Erst gegen Ende des relativ langen Kabels (die Länge weiß ich ehrlich nicht, musste es aber nach...

Germany on Aug 15, 2014

Thomas JP: Obwohl ich Aufgrund des günstigen Preises und der anderen Rezensionen etwas kritisch gegenüber dem Kinivo war, musste ich mich zwischen ihm und dem Belkin Aircast entscheiden. Und diese hab ich nun nach dem ersten Test nicht bereut. Deswegen möchte ich hier meinen ersten Eindruck reflektieren und im Laufe der Zeit auch Updaten.

Ausgangsbasis:
3er BMW e90 mit Radio Proffesional mit Aux in
iPhone 5

Der Einbau war denkbar einfach. Anschließen im Zigarettenanzünder des Fahrzeugs und im Aux in des Radios. Die Status LED des Kinivo blinkt dann rot blau was das Signal zur Bereitschaft zum Pairing mit dem Smartphone bedeutet. Die anschließende Kopplung mit dem iPhone 5 fand ohne Probleme statt. Die Kabel des Kinivo sind sehr dünn, deshalb sollte beim Einbau darauf geachtet werden, dass diese nicht abknicken. Das Kabel zwischen der Steuereinheit und dem Stromanschluss ist vielleicht etwas kurz geraten, ca. 1m Länge. Wer wie ich seinen Strom und Aux in in der Mittelarmlehne hat, dass Bedienteil aber oben am Amaturenbrett anbringen will wird hier auf Probleme stoßen.

Die Qualität der Musikwiedergabe empfinde ich als ausgezeichnet. Ich konnte keinen...

Germany on Jul 24, 2014

Steven Wong: I purchased the Kinivo BTC450 Bluetooth car kit from Amazon.ca. Delivery from the third party Bluerigger site was quick and the box was well-packed and protected.

Installation was pretty straightforward. My car has a 12V power and the Aux-In input inside the driver's armrest console (VW Tiguan), so I was a little worried that the cable would be too short to mount the Kinivo on the dashboard. My fears were correct, but instead, it's worked out very well, as I've mounted the Kinivo upside-down on the front of the armrest, where my hand would normally be if I'm using the armrest.

Tip: Put your phone in Bluetooth discovery mode before you plug the Kinivo into the 12V power source. I think the Kinivo starts up looking for a device to connect to, if it doesn't already have a profile, so having your phone ready makes things super easy.

I tested it out with just the cables plugged in, before i used the stickers to affix the device to my car. The Kinivo picked up my phone automatically, and has auto-connected each time I've gotten into my car with the phone's Bluetooth turned on. The microphone can pick up my voice and only once has a caller said that they couldn't...

Canada on Oct 05, 2013

G33kman: Since my Mazda3 does not have Bluetooth support built-in to it, this Kinivo device was the next best thing for me to hook up my Android phone wirelessly over Bluetooth to my car's AUX 3.5mm input, and then to playback music/podcasts and take calls over it. Other than the power connection to my phone (as needed), it stays completely wire-free, and eliminates the pain of trying to conceal/route an audio cable to where my phone is mounted on the dash.
On the negative side, it does attempt to mess with the original audio levels a bit, has no apparent noise reduction, has a very small audio lag, and a limited cable length. Still, for the $35 price tag and the simplicity of the design, it does very well and the negatives are not enough of a problem for me to knock off a full star for. I'd give it a 4.5 if possible. Truthfully I was a bit leery of this no-name-brand at first, but it looks like they make a good product. Details below.

Requirements:
1) This BTC450 is an AUX-based unit, which means your car's stereo must have a 3.5mm female input jack on the front faceplate, in the glovebox, in the armrest, ... somewhere. Most cars started having them either by default or as an...

United States on Jan 25, 2013