Mpow Bluetooth Receiver, Portable Bluetooth 4.0 Car Kits & Noise Isolator with Gesture-Sensing & Hands-Free Calling for Home/Car Audio System

Okay, so I do not usually Five Star anyone or anything unless it just WOWs me. The reason for my 5 star here is for the unit and the seller Patozon..First the device, Mpow Streambot Bluetooth 4.0 Receiver, Car Music Audio Receiver with Hands-Free Calling for Car Stereo Audio Systems, it is the round one with the magnetic base and has the dual power USB car adapter, power for the receiver as well as 2.4A for a phone or tablet. This device works great, so much better than my previous buy in Jan. 2016 which was a small rectangular one, Mpow Streambot Bluetooth 4.0 Receiver, Hands-Free Car Kit, Mini Wireless Adapter for Home Audio System. This first unit dropped Bluetooth volume by 30-40%. I tried it at home, in the car, with power attached and without. It worked ok (sound was acceptable) but only with the volume maxed out. I lived with it this way cause I was too busy to return it. Finally I stopped using it and wired my phone directly into the car system with the 1/8th in. stereo cable.Then this past month I bought this unit (because I really wanted to be cable free). It works perfectly, no volume loss and the sound is as good as it was with the phone directly cabled in. So, 4.5 stars for product performance.Now the reason for the 5 stars is that when it came to Patozon's attention a month ago that I wrote a 2 star review for the issues I experienced on the first device (I never asked for a return or repair, I rated it as I experienced it), they reached out to me and apologized for my troubles and offered me a refund though under no obligation to do so. So thank you Patozon, you set a good example of what it means to value customer satisfaction.

So, with all the fun little gadgets in our cars today, why on earth would I need one of these. 2 words: Fiat 500e. Seriously. What's up with that Blue&Me crap and the totally worthless TomTom? My fellow 500e drivers know the pain of not having A2DP streaming directly to the car, the useless mapping that can't find any charge stations, and the free of charge capability of blocking the view out of your windshield. Thank's Chrystler/Fiat!On with the review... If you own a 500e. Get. This. Now. AptX is AMAZING if your phone supports it and there is absolutely ZERO LAG when streaming audio over Blue Tooth while playing videos for the kiddies in the back seat. Yes, that means when Elsa sings "Let it go..." the words actually sync up with the woman's lips. Woot!I have a Galaxy Note Edge and it supports A2DP and AptX. The sound quality is crisp and clean. I dare to say, the quality is on par with my BMW with the added bonus of zero latency streaming. Nice job Mpow!.Pairing was simple. Plug it into a spare USB port, plug the audio connector into your aux port and press the button to start pairing. Moments later, enter in 0000 on your phone and {M}pow! you've got streaming audio at your fingertips.Honestly, I should really give this 4.5 stars because the back button doesn't go back a track in MxPlayer on android but, heck, I'm freakin' streaming audio over a2dp in a 500e. I'm too happy not having to rely on blue and me from now on! No more stupid TomTom blinding me with it's ugly maps at night, too!I did try this with the android stock music player and the buttons went back and forward in the play list just fine so it's probably just the third party media player I'm using. Your mileage may vary.On to calls. I had the TomTom paired to the car and my phone paired to Blue and Me. I also had the phone paired to the Mpow and calls worked just fine. I could still pick up and hang up through the steering wheel button. next, I disconnected the TomTom and just used the Mpow to handle calls. The phone rang a couple of times then it transferred to Bluetooth. I didn't expect the steering wheel button to work since the TomTom was diconnected but to my surprise, it worked like a charm! hands free via the car worked just fine! Audio quality was still pretty good but if you have the controller/mic in a windy spot, you WILL get noise.Mounting was also very easy. Unlike others, this unit uses a magnetic mount. I found it was enough to just remove a little of the backing on the metal plate to stick it to the dash. The magnet is strong enough to handle some rough pulling on the cord. Overall, a very nice, clean mounting system.By looking a the pictures, you'll probaby think it's pretty big. In actuality, it's really small. In fact, when I opened up the box, I was really kind of surprised at how small it really was. Think a 50c piece small. Just a tad bigger than your drive buttons on the 500e small.Overall, i'm very happy with this!

This item does not support AptX. I purchased the item from Patozon (fulfilled by Amazon) and they told me point blank after the fact that it did not support AptX (I have a Galaxy S5). Note the listing does not indicate AptX support anywhere - I trusted the reviews! The re-seller was extremely helpful and even granted me a discount b/c xmpow's website says it does support AptX & links to this Amazon page! This Mpow Streambot One is also listed as a device supporting AptX on AptX's website; yet another misleading site.Patozon replied to my inquiry immediately, apologized for the confusion & gave me a discount saying this unit does not support AptX. The manufacturer only responded after a second contact attempt via their online warranty request section & also said AptX wasn't supported. Patozon is directly affiliated with xmpow, but they seem to be different divisions with different levels of service.Quality of the unit is good - I do get "pops & cracks" occasionally with 2 phones connected, but I can't tell the difference in quality with Pandora via this unit vs. a direct connection to my Aux input jack. High-Quality MP3s do show a little degradation on my factory head unit (it's not very good). I also have a Bluetooth ODB-II reader so that could be interfering a bit. The unit doesn't always auto-reconnect with 2 phones, but it seems to catch 1 just fine. Also, the play button doesn't always work even with just one phone. Skip forward & pause seem to always work, just not play - that could be a Pandora issue though. I did get a stronger magnet to use inside my headliner - but that's my preference rather than sticking something to the outside.Update 1: After just a few days of use the car charger tuckered out - the unit was still working find though. Patozon was extremely helpful and agreed to send me a replacement immediately.Update 2: The unit suddenly developed a very loud buzzing & popping noise (very electronic) after a few months use. The cord is very thin, so it is possible that the ground wire is damaged. I've contacted Patazon and will report back when they contact me.Update 3: Well 10 months later & the unit unexpectedly dropped in volume signficantly. After some testing it looks like the ground wire was not making contact anymore even though it was installed in a fixed location (car headliner). I contacted the vendor to ask if their other units had more robust cords - they simply refunded the original purchase without answering my question.Overall: 3-Stars b/c it's a 1-star unit (died after 3 mos, doesn't have AptX, replacement died in 10 mos), 0-star manufacturer service & 5-star service from Patozon