Best Car Multichannel Amplifiers
Color: Silver. Wider Compatibility: This Bluetooth car kit is ideal for turning wired stereos and headphones into a Bluetooth-equipped system to receive signals from most audio output devices like smartphones, tablets, and even TVs / computers / MP3 players connected to TaoTronics transmitters.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The short version: If you need a BT receiver, buy this TaoTronics product. I bought a Tao BT receiver some time ago, and it worked well. Same price, $13 and changes, similar good, numerous Amazon reviews. Let me just say that if Amazon does not do anything, this will be to their disadvantage, because if I get a product that not as good as the reviews suggest, I'd just return it."
"I bought this for my 25' pontoon boat, which does not have a bluetooth head unit."
"Excellent product."
"Only small complaints would be that the unit feels very light and flimsy and the middle button often clicks as next or previous track instead of pause; but for only costing as much as it does and otherwise performing well, those are minor issues to me."
"So I decided to give this a try, and it is just the thing I needed for my older model car that didn't come with Bluetooth and I didn't want to. spend the extra $$$ to replace the in-dash stereo just to add that functionality."
"This little receiver is a great way to add bluetooth to cars that don't already come with bluetooth connectivity."
"The Bluetooth automatically reconnects where my other device did not. I do believe the sound is better but that may just be in my head."
"I really recommend buying if you need to just to serve in place of an aux chord! However, if you need to make lots of calls in the car I do not think this is a good device as the microphone cannot pick up sound well. It is very difficult to know whether or not the device is turned on as when the power button is pressed one cannot see the flashing led light because it is covered by a finger."
Note: Please do not pair the receiver with Bluetooth speakers / headphones, as they can already receive signals from Bluetooth audio output devices wirelessly. To quickly switch between currently connected devices, simply pause the first device and play music from the second. Wider Compatibility: This Bluetooth car kit is ideal for turning wired stereos and headphones into a Bluetooth-equipped system to receive signals from most audio output devices like smartphones, tablets, and even TVs / computers / MP3 players connected to TaoTronics transmitters.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The short version: If you need a BT receiver, buy this TaoTronics product. I bought a Tao BT receiver some time ago, and it worked well. Same price, $13 and changes, similar good, numerous Amazon reviews. Let me just say that if Amazon does not do anything, this will be to their disadvantage, because if I get a product that not as good as the reviews suggest, I'd just return it."
"I bought this for my 25' pontoon boat, which does not have a bluetooth head unit."
"Excellent product."
"Only small complaints would be that the unit feels very light and flimsy and the middle button often clicks as next or previous track instead of pause; but for only costing as much as it does and otherwise performing well, those are minor issues to me."
"So I decided to give this a try, and it is just the thing I needed for my older model car that didn't come with Bluetooth and I didn't want to. spend the extra $$$ to replace the in-dash stereo just to add that functionality."
"This little receiver is a great way to add bluetooth to cars that don't already come with bluetooth connectivity."
"The Bluetooth automatically reconnects where my other device did not. I do believe the sound is better but that may just be in my head."
"I really recommend buying if you need to just to serve in place of an aux chord! However, if you need to make lots of calls in the car I do not think this is a good device as the microphone cannot pick up sound well. It is very difficult to know whether or not the device is turned on as when the power button is pressed one cannot see the flashing led light because it is covered by a finger."
New Rockford Fosgate Prime 400 Watt Class D 4 channel Amplifier. Tri-stage protection covers thermal, over-current and short circuits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"My only complaint is that I don't like the Allen screws that hold the wires, they work but i noticed on my 325is it would shake loose."
"Second best amp I've ever had I like this compact size since my hi phonics takes up 90% of the room in my trunk and has good power it's really good we just have to be real careful of the wires you have to make sure your speaker wires are with speaker wires and your power and grounds are with power and ground don't mix them up you'll get interference I make sure you mounted somewhere very sturdy and and keep it away from any power source Lije a capacitor I found a few mounted to a piece of plywood it tends to sound a lot better because there's less interference from the body and what not definitely I've never had another app that is so sensitive."
"Have two 8" bazooka marine speakers 2 way, and a pair of boss 2 way 6.5, rated at 100 rms and 150 rms respectively according to crutchfield and amazon, and this thing crushes them both."
"Small size but a powerful amp."
"Excellent!"
"This badboy puts out some serious audio that my Pioneer head unit has needed and just didn't realize it."
"Works well, powering some alpine type-r 6x9 in the rear and some DD components in the front, very clear."
"Rockford fosgate never disappoints!"
Best Wireless Audio Receivers & Adapters
The SONOS CONNECT brings streaming music to your stereo or home theater. Wirelessly stream services like Prime Music Unlimited, Pandora, Spotify and Apple music on the equipment you already own.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"So while I certainly want a good sounding setup, I'm not obsessed with it and am happy with "mid-level" sound quality. That being said, the Sonos:Connect was a delight in terms of setup and ease of use (5 stars for these areas alone), but a real disappointment in terms of sound quality (2 stars). I bought a Sonos:Connect to plug into my home stereo, and a Sonos Bridge to wirelessly stream the music on my computer to it. So you won't see album artwork on your controller unless you bought the files from the iTunes or another online store that embeds the artwork, or go through a process to copy the artwork into the files themselves via iTunes (Sonos has a good description of how to do this on their support website).]. Once I connected everything and streamed my first song, I noticed that the sound quality was off. I plugged the Connect into the DAC via the optical connecter, plugged the DAC into my stereo ... and problem solved. At any rate, I now have both great sound and the great ease of use that comes with the Sonos."
"Like all Sonos it is a great quality product but expensive."
"Another nice benefit of this product is that it has internet radio built in so you can control it from any and all of your devices or computers. I have since bought a Sonos Play 3 wireless speaker to replace a second stereo receiver in my bedroom."
"This sonos connect is actually my third- I had started with one to control music in my living room, and another outside in my backyard, and now this for my kitchen."
"I've hooked it up to our existing in house speakers and whole house intercom system to play music inside and also to Sonos speakers to play music outside."
"I've only had it for a week, this thing has fixed my home house stereo system."
"I plugged the Sonos Connect in as a source and now I can control all of my music through my phone."
"This unit is super easy to setup and works great."
Best Car Audio & Video
SanDisk High Endurance Video Monitoring Micro SD Card (pictured above) Transcend Information High Endurance Micro SD Card. Optional Accessories Rexing GPS Logger Suction Cup Mount for V1 Rexing Hardwire Kit Rexing QC2.0 Car Charger 3M adhesive mounts. Firmware Updates. In order to meet your feedback, we are constantly improving our products through firmware updates. The camera will record these files one by one onto the SD card until it runs out of space. When space on the SD card runs out, the camera will start from the first files recorded, and delete the files from oldest to newest, one by one. ACCIDENT AUTO DETECTION FEATURE (G-SENSOR) will automatically lock and save any video file that was recorded when the camera detected abrupt displacement or drastic change of position.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Love the wedge shape."
"✯✯✯ Pros ✯✯✯. • stealth like appearance behind my rearview mirror. • high quality daytime 1080p recording. • ability to take photos @ push of a button. • loop recording. • very secure mount with easy dash cam attach & detach mechanism. • ability to turn off audio. • easy to navigate menu. • automatically comes off & on when hardwired to the vehicle. • display can auto turn off after 15 sec, 1min or 3min. ✯✯✯ Cons ✯✯✯. • night time recording is okay (most around this price point perform the same). • internal battery last at most 1min (but as I hardwired mine this is okay with me). *** UPDATE (July 2016) ***. I recently had audio recording issues with the dash cam where the audio cuts in and out randomly but re-downloading the firmware took care of that."
"I'd suggest hardwiring a USB port to turn on and off with the car so it's a set and forget it type device until you need it."
"I installed this dash cam myself back in December when I purchased my car and wired it myself."
"The only exception is if your in a well lit area such as a gas station or a street flooded with lights. Two, the adhesive mount that keeps the camera secure to your windshield does not hold up very well in the hot sun."
"Since I have this camera mounted behind my rear view mirror and I keep the monitor off — I can't see or hear when it randomly shuts off. I guess I'll see if there is a firmware issue or update, but I'm really feeling like there is a physical cause inside the unit. Despite liking this camera, I can't give it a positive review at this time until I can figure out if this is a correctable problem or not. I would have felt really dumb if I told a peace officer that I have dash-cam video, and then find out my camera wasn't even turned on."
Best Bluetooth Car Kits
Kinivo BTC450 Bluetooth car kit. Provides audio through your 3.5mm input in Car Stereo when playing music and answering phone calls.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I bought the product to use in my car with an iPhone 5. My car already has Bluetooth, but it only supports HFP and not A2DP for music. Although the BTC450 HFP works better than my car's stock bluetooth, I would rather use my car's bluetooth because it displays the caller's name on the navigation screen. The quality of the call outperforms my car's stock bluetooth. I read reviews of bluetooth devices not being able to communicate with siri because of microphone quality. Unfortunately, you can only use one device at a time and it only auto connects to the last paired device. Fortunately, over the last two days my iphone, the BTC450, and my car's bluetooth have been all working flawlessly together. If music is streaming I can receive or place a call with my car's bluetooth, and when the call is done music will resume playing. I can place a call with siri and transfer it to my car's bluetooth with no problem while music is playing. I read a review in which you could connect two devices simultaneously using different profiles, but after consulting with Kinivo support and trying haplessly myself I could not get it to work. The only other product I found that can do this is Parrot's Mki9100 and 9200 devices. As stated before, I was having problems using my car's bluetooth and the BTC450 with my iPhone 5 at the same time. Even after I removed the second device from the equation, for a couple of days it was not working, but over the last two days it has been working great."
"The device has a forward and backward track buttons on the top and comes with 2 adhesive pads to mount it to your dash (1 is an extra). The only minor problem with this device is that only one device can be paired with it at a time. Pros: - Forward/Backward track buttons on top. - Easy set up. - Very litter effort to connect to the device each time. - Good Microphone phone. - Excellent Quality and no skipping. - Cheaper than alternative. - Ability to charge your phone and the device at same time. - Relatively small and non-intrusive to add to dash. Cons: - Can only pair one device at a time. Update 12/4/13: I've been using one in my car and one in my wife's for almost a year now and they are both still working fine."
"I plugged the device into my car, told me Samsung Galaxy S4 to connect to it and it was working instantly without needing a manual."
"(having to unplug the device every time). Also this doesn't have a magnetic base, it permanently adheres to the dashboard and is not removable like others. (The new 480 model has a 2.1 amp charger). The good news: Super easy to connect. Comparing the built in stock radio Sirius/XM to the S/XM app on my phone using this adapter and the sound quality is excellent."
Best Car Audio & Video Mono Amplifiers
Rockford Fosgate performance in a small package - this Prime Series R500X1D mono amp can drive a sub with up to 500 watts RMS, so you can really feel your bass rockin'. Input Sensitivity: 150 mV to 4 V. Cast Aluminum Heatsink with Stealth top mounted control panel.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Got this amp to hook up to my Ford truck got it hook up with some planet audio px-10 shallow woofers with a ground shaker box got to say this little amp pushes them HARD I'm impressed how this amp sounds and woofers don't cost much still breaking in speakers and kicks very hard, happy with the Amp, speakers bought somewhere else but can get in Amazon good price for anyone looking for good price shallow 10"s and this amp good combination."
"I found a good ground and used thick 4awg wire, and I love the output of this thing!"
"I blew up the BOSS amp, which I picked up for $10 from a friend, and decided to pull the trigger on something more reliable and trustworthy. Let me also mention I was greeted by a paper showing that my particular amp was rated at 656 watts RMS while in QC testing."
"This amp is amazing, it performs well above what it's intended for to be honest and is designed so well that install is easier and looks better than with a competitor (like Kicker) amp."
"Great little amp!"
"RF has the best quality amps and wiring kits."
"Bought to replace an off brand 600 watt amp that wasn't cutting it."
"Had to return due to blowing three different Kicker Comps."
Best Car Audio & Video Stereo Amplifiers
The XLS Drive Core 2 assures that you will be heard as you deliver a powerful, pure sound experience for any venue. Class D amp with Crown's ultra-efficient Drive Core technology weighs less than 11 lb.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This is a great amp."
"This amp does a great job of powering my old AR-2ax speakers which are known to have a difficult to drive low impedance woofer."
"This thing is great."
"Features, options, tweakable to your hearts content."
"There is a slight hiss coming from the speakers if you get right up on them, but it is too slight to be noticed during movies which is all I use rears for."
"I am running a pair of JL Audio 10" Subwoofers and it really drives them well."