{"id":23076,"date":"2018-10-12T15:48:20","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T19:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=23076"},"modified":"2018-10-12T16:10:42","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T20:10:42","slug":"anker-soundsync-drive-bluetooth-car-receiver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/12\/anker-soundsync-drive-bluetooth-car-receiver\/","title":{"rendered":"Anker SoundSync Drive Bluetooth Car Receiver"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been using an Anker SoundSync Drive<\/a> to play audio from my iPhone on my car’s speakers without needing a headphone jack (on the phone).<\/p>\n\n

It’s pretty typical of Bluetooth devices in that it basically works but never feels fully reliable. After you turn on the engine, the SoundSync gets power, and you have to press a button to connect it to your phone. Press the button too quickly and nothing happens. You have to hold it down a bit in order for it to work. The required time is not consisent. Some days, you need to hold it longer than others. Some days, it doesn’t work no matter how long you press it or how many times you try, and you have to reboot the phone.<\/p>\n\n

Once Bluetooth has connected, though, it works very well. I’ve never found Siri to be reliable at pausing or resuming audio, so it’s nice to have a physical button to do this. There are also buttons for switching to the next or previous track.<\/p>\n\n

Initially there was a lot of static\/buzzing\/whistling interference noise, which was especially noticeable during quiet periods. Apparently this happens because the SoundSync and phone are plugged into the same power source. This went away when I added an Mpow Ground Loop Noise Isolator<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Compared with using a combination Lightning charge\/audio dongle<\/a>, the SoundSync requires an extra USB port in the car and an extra cable to manage. It also takes an extra step each time you get in the car, because you have to plug in the phone and turn on the SoundSync, rather than just plug the phone into both audio and power simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n

On the other hand, for a short trip where the phone doesn’t need power and you don’t need to put it in a mount<\/a> for navigation, the SoundSync lets you keep the phone in your pocket. (But good luck using Siri that way.)<\/p>\n\n

Overall, I find the SoundSync more reliable than third-party Lightning dongles—Apple doesn’t make one, alas. Nothing is as reliable as using a headphone jack on the phone, though that isn’t particularly convenient. Nothing is as convenient as AirPods, though those have other limitations.<\/p>\n\n

The tiny TUNAI Firefly<\/a> also looks interesting, though I don’t think it would fit properly in my car.<\/p>\n\n

Previously: Lightning vs. USB-C for Headphones<\/a>, Removing the iPhone’s Headphone Jack<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Update (2018-10-12): See also: Isaac Halvorson<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been using an Anker SoundSync Drive to play audio from my iPhone on my car’s speakers without needing a headphone jack (on the phone). It’s pretty typical of Bluetooth devices in that it basically works but never feels fully reliable. After you turn on the engine, the SoundSync gets power, and you have to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2018-10-12T19:48:22Z","apple_news_api_id":"aa47ead8-9a91-4d21-85e2-7cc3d016b0e7","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2018-10-12T20:10:44Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAw==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Aqkfq2JqRTSGF4nzD0Baw5w","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1422,1530,95,422,1167,31,1610,85,247],"class_list":["post-23076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-airpods","tag-anker","tag-audio","tag-bluetooth","tag-car","tag-ios","tag-ios-12","tag-iphone","tag-siri"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23076"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23081,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23076\/revisions\/23081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}