BlackBerry music gateway: works great with Lumia 822!

[bigboy29]

My wife has BT in her 2011 Subaru Legacy but only phone, not music. I looked for a good quality (manufacture as well as sound) audio gateway. Settled on the BlackBerry music gateway from Ecost, under $40 shipped:

Research In Motion Music Gateway - Bluetooth audio adapter - ACC-41596-001

Works flawlessly. Paired through an NFC tap too. No batteries in the gateway, so it turns on with the car and the phone then connects to it and the car for phone. I have it stowed away in the center console, no need to mess with it...

Note that I could not power it off the included USB port... seems like it does not have enough juice to keep the gateway powered on. So I have it plugged into the phone charger thingy in the center console, no issues. The only thing missing is the ground loop isolator as there is some electrical buzz due to ground loop issues, but that's a $10 fix...

 

[hopmedic]

My 2007 Camry Hybrid has a similar setup, where the BT works as a headset but not for streaming music. Are you saying that this setup works for both, linking to both the car for headset capabilities and the BB Music Gateway for music streaming?

Does it generate the buzz while charging the phone, or does that come from the BB device? I get a buzz when using the aux cable if I'm also charging the phone. I'd really like to get rid of that buzz, and I was thinking the other day about trying one of these BT receivers (was looking at the Belkin model), to hopefully get rid of the buzz, thinking it was a problem with ground between the charging and the audio. What's the fix for that?

 

[bigboy29]

This setup allows her to keep using the car's BT integrated solution for calls and uses the BlackBerry for streaming music. Essentially, what you see when the car runs is that the phone is connected to two different BT devices; the car for phone and the BB gateway for music. So if she wants to play music, she needs to put the car console to AUX mode. While the music is playing, if a call comes in, the music gets muted and the car phone profile takes over. At the end of the call, the music resumes playing.

What you have (buzz when phone is charging) IS the ground loop issue. You need the ground loop isolator, there are plenty on Amazon etc. to get. It'll get rid of the buzz. Going BT by itself in the way I did does not guarantee the buzz will go away due to the BT gateway being plugged into car power and charging at all times.

Note that if you go with the Belkin, you will effectively have two devices in the car that can do Bluetooth phone profile. Due to the fact that our phones (Windows Phone) does NOT give you the ability to set priority of BT operation, I would suggest you stay away from that and simply get a device that does a2dp profile only, not the phone profile. that way, our phones can be connected to both with no conflicts.

 

[hopmedic]

Thanks for the great information. The particular Belkin device I was looking at wasn't the car hands free kit, so I think it was only A2DP, but based on reviews I ended up ordering this Logitech adapter, which only has A2DP. It should arrive tomorrow. I'll have to make an adapter for it. I'm hoping it's 5v, because I have a USB to 5V adapter I think will fit, and an extra USB jack in the cigarette lighter adapter in my car. I could go with a cigarette lighter to the jack adapter, but it just takes up more space.

 

[hopmedic]

I picked just got the Logitech linked above, and it works exactly as you describe yours working. No ground loop feedback, hands free works right, and the sound quality is great.

 

[hopmedic]

Update: There is ground loop feedback but it is far softer than through the aux cable. I'll get an isolator.

 

[bigboy29]

Yeah it's interesting how this works; my 05 Accord has a pretty annoying buzz but on my wife's 11 Subaru, it is also quite "softer" but still there. I was puzzled why I never get any feedback on my motorcycle, even if I charge my phone during BT use, but then I realized that it is because I use helmet mounted battery operated BT headset. So no "common ground" involved.