Bluetooth Receiver

Background - I have a Bose Wave Radio (Bose Wave® Music System III - Graphite Gray) and had been using, until now, the dedicated iPod Dock. With the changing of the connectors on the iPod and iPhone, plus the fact that the iPad (which I use mostly) did not fit into the dock, I needed a solution that used Bluetooth rather than having to plug my devices in. I have a Pioneer Elite Stereo (Pioneer Elite Sc-79 Sc79 9.2 Channel Multi Zone Network Receiver) for which I purchased the Pioneer Bluetooth solution (Pioneer AS-BT200 Bluetooth Adapter for Compatible Pioneer Products, Black), so I new what to expect.Decision Process- I looked at the Bose IPod dock to see if I could save a few dollars by just upgrading the connector. The result was disappointing in cost. I know Bose is overpriced, but I did not want to spend a $100 on a dock (Wave® Connect Kit). I also looked at the Bose Bluetooth module (Wave® Bluetooth® Music Adapter). Again, too much at $100. I also looked at the Logitech solution (Logitech Wireless Speaker Adapter for Bluetooth Audio Devices), a brand that I trust for other electronics such as remotes, but found the reviews were not as positive and it was larger and more expensive by about $5. Lastly, Amazon showed this one as selected a lot, so I decided to go with the reviews, price, and masses.Out of the box - Or should I say out of the plastic bag. It was packed in a high quality plastic bag that was easy to open. BIG PLUS! Everything was there and neatly organized. I was glad or this Greenish packaging and no clam shell that you can't ever get open without a box cutter!Size - This unit is not that large and fits in the palm of my hand. It is very light because of it's plastic housing and external power supply. The power uppy is a small, standard USB power supply. The power cord is 6 feet long and the audio cords are three feet long.Install - I had read some complaints about cord lengths in reviews, so I was a bit worried. What I received ad plenty of cord length, so I am not sure what the issue was (maybe they fixed the problem??). The power cord is micro USB to USB and is six feet in length. The 3.5mm audio cable (common plug for many AUX ports, etc. on smaller radios like the Bose) was 3 feet in length. the 3.5mm to RCA audio cable (for stereos) was also three feet in length. Total of nine feet of cord length (since the unit does not need to be accessed once it is installed you can put it almost anywhere). I plugged in in using the dual 3.5mm audio cords, hooked up power, and was done in way under five minutes (opening the package included).Set-Up - Could not have been easier! On the iPad, I simply turned on the Bluetooth in the Settings menu, selected the HomeSpot, and within a minute was linked. I then went to Music, selected Apple Radio, and was streaming some nice piano music into my bedroom. The instructions say you have to push a pairing button on the back of the device to pair. I did not do this, and it paired just fine.Sound - This is a Bose Wave Radio, so if you are hooking up to a more advanced system, your results may vary. For the Bose, it sounded as good, if not better, than the dedicated iPod dock from Bose.Quality - The finish on the parts and material was good. This is plastic construction, very light, so do not expect a high end case. All the parts, pieces, instructions, etc. were also of good quality and, after I actually read them, could take someone who is not as comfortable with electronics as me through the install.What I did not test - This unit has NFC (Near Field Communication) to make pairing easier. I did not test this, so if this is what you are buying the unit for, I can not tell you how well (or not) it works. If I try it with my phone, I will update this post.Summary - You could pay more, but I am not sure what you are going to get for the expense. This unit does everything that the more expensive units do and is of good quality. I am very satisfied with my purchase so far and kind no fault with this solution. I will update my post if anything changes my opinion. I would recommended this to a fried or family member.

The HomeSpot Bluetooth Receiver is one of those rare products that is amazingly simple, straight-forward, and extremely functional. Just plug it in, connect up the cable to your stereo, pair your phone (or whatever) to it just like your Bluetooth hands free ear piece, and you're all set.I'm using it in my computer room/office. The unit is small enough that I just stuck it behind the wireless charging stand for my Nokia Icon cell phone. I never intended to care that much about range. I just wanted to get rid of the need to plug and unplug wires all the time. Since the phone has wireless charging, it's a luxury just plopping the phone down on its wireless charging stand and also have it play music through my audio system without fiddling with any wires.The HomeSpot amazed me the other night. I took my cell phone halfway across the house just to listen to a quick podcast using my phone's speaker while brushing my teeth. Turned out, the phone was still paired to the HomeSpot. I didn't realize that Bluetooth supported that kind of range.I'm a bit of an audiophile and I listen to a very broad range of music. Classic rock (hard and soft), some pop C&W, classical, Broadway musicals, etc. I did some testing of various big name low-to-mid priced Bluetooth speakers and rejected them. I expected to reject the low-price ones, but I was very disappointed in the garbage companies like Sony were putting out at even the mid-price range. It was necessary to get into the high-priced stuff to start getting decent quality.The audio quality on the mid-priced units was probably good enough to mislead the average consumer, but an audiophile could easily tell they were lousy. If you've already got a good sound system at home and listen to quality full spectrum music, don't waste your ears on Bluetooth speakers. This HomeSpot will drive your home audio system at whatever quality you have for source material. (If you've compressed your music, it'll give you lousy compressed music quality. Don't get carried away compressing your music and then make the mistake of blaming your audio system.)I only have one complaint I've found with the HomeSpot. I (personally) wish it had a shorter Bluetooth range. I'd rather be able to walk out of my computer room with my cell phone and have the pairing automatically break, than to be halfway across the house and discover that my podcast is playing through the HomeSpot back in my computer room. :-) But hey, somehow I suspect other people would probably prefer the HomeSpot working over a long range.A note for people who may not have experience with multiple Bluetooth devices paired to their cell phone. Your phone should have some setting location where you can manually tell your phone to break the connection with a Bluetooth device while you're still within range of the device. It's probably the same place on your phone you go to establish the original pairing with the device. It's also probably the same place you would go to tell your phone to reconnect with the device later. You normally shouldn't have to go through the pairing procedure again just because you broke the connection. That should normally only be necessary if you told your phone to "forget" the device or if you "deleted" the device from the list of devices your phone knows about.Quick comment about Mogeeks, through whom I purchased the HomeSpot. I used just normal cheap shipping, and the product was in my mailbox in either two or three business days (forget which). Mogeeks fulfilled the order promptly, accurately, and didn't dally around. There was actually a cell phone case that I ordered from a different company at the same time, and it took a day longer to arrive. The delivery time for the case was "fine" and about as long as I'd typically expect, so I was very happy with the faster delivery time from Mogeeks.A final note of humor... if your phone seems to be paired just fine with the HomeSpot, your phone appears to be playing your music, and the HomeSpot appears to be properly powered and connected to your audio system, but you're not hearing anything from either your audio system or your phone, check the volume on your phone as well as on your audio system. I spent a few minutes one morning thinking my setup had broken until I finally realized the volume on my phone was turned all the way down.