zakazak

Hello everyone,

I am thinking about getting either the "GROM-BT3" or the "GTA Car Kits Bluetooth" device for my Honda S2000 2004 (with CD-Radio Unit).

Can anyone tell me which one would be better and why?

From what I read the GROM should have the upper hand due to:
1. Support of songtexts + caller ID displayed on the radio-unit (not sure if the stock radio unit supports this?)
2. Firmware updates (and they do them quite frequently)

Thanks !

gptoyz

I have extensive experience with numerous bluetooth / iPod adapters across various platforms:
2002 Toyota Tundra USA Spec iPod adapter, eBay Bluetooth Adapter
2006 Prius USA Spec Bluetooth BT35
2005 S2000 USA Spec PA15, eBay Bluetooth Adapter
2009 S2000 USA Spec PA15, USA spec bt35
2005 Mini Cooper S Grom USB2+Bluetooth, Grom BT3
2005 BMW M3 USB2+bluetooth

Here's my experience:
USA Spec
The most robust and well designed units with dependable functionality are ones made by USA Spec.
Avoid the BT35 like the plague, whatever bluetooth chipset they used is seriously shit in terms of sound quality. The BT45 series is much better!
Best bluetooth phone call quality in terms of echo and noise cancellation (including the BT35)

Grom:
With the BMW/Mini, I had no choice to use the Grom units. They are fairly well constructed but there software and reliability is not quite as good as the USA Spec. One key area that annoyed me was on road trips switching between multiple phones. At points it would lock up when switching DJs. If you are single and no one else is going to be messing with your bluetooth, it's fine. Music quality is great with whatever bluetooth chipset they went with, however, phone call quality and balance was not great - sounded overly baffled. What is really awesome about the Grom unit is that all the units are the same and the user can flash the firmware (frequent updates too) so let's say you have a primary car and a secondary car you don't drive often, you can easily switch the units around while leaving the harness in place. This was easy to do between the M3 and Mini - didn't even require a software reflash and BMW makes accessing the installation location a breeze. Oh I also hate the announcement voice. They should have multiple voice profiles available because let me tell you - I can detect a hint of mainland chinese fobbish accent - this to me has to be one of my most detested accents (i'm chinese).

eBay Brand:
WORD of warning:
The wiring harness suckkkkkkskskkssssss. Like everything from china, looks good on the outside, but the devil is in the details. The wires are the crappiest gauge and are some what delicate with suspect soldering. I'm an engineer and the soldering is shit. The harness while it looks like a good plastic clip type molex connector, is impossible to disconnect once connected to the unit. So route everything first before you connected, otherwise you are going to have to depin, solder and fix harnesses. But again, I'm weird, I don't like taps or splices or any other rinky dink way of wiring stuff up. I want everything to be properly lineman spliced, heat shrinked and pinned. You can probably hang a 5 lbs weight from the Grom and USA spec harnesses - whereas I wouldn't hang a shirt with the Flea Bay one.
....but there is a silver lining. It's actually a very good reliable unit and really inexpensive.

Here's the eBay chinese one:
Bluetooth Music & Hands-Free Car Adapter Interface Fit Honda Accord Civic CRV | eBay

As far as Text, it's an overaged feature on the s2000 because of the position of the radio and how small the display is. however, as long as you have a satellite capable radio and the adapter emulates an XM function it will display text information.

zakazak

Thank you for you replay.
What bothers me is that none of those bluetooth devices seem to support aptX or aptX-HD but instead transfer music in the low quality codec SBC.

With the GROM you mentioned some voice announcment? When and what does it say?

The USA SPEC is nearly twice the price of the GROM and I am not even sire if I can get it somewhere in Europe.

Any info on the GTA Car Kit?
​​

gptoyz

I have, I installed a GTA car kit for a friend in his Mazda 3, it was uninspiring, basically it was a more expensive version of the eBay one. Nothing to write home about

So the announcements at least on the BMW/Mini said like "Bluetooth" or "iPod" or "connected" when you were switching modes from radio/cd to the GROM unit - only it had an irritating accent. If I could have not heard anything or shut it off - it would have made me considerably happier. I'm fine with a California/collegiate or english accent - but I don't want my bluetooth/car to sound like an ESL student.

As far as SBC vs Aptx - it's actually negligible. Read this analysis by an audio engineer:
how good is bluetooth audio at its best?

More important than the codec - is how they are balancing the sound.

The s2000s sounds system is pretty shitty out of the box, my prius C sounds infinitely better - so for me it was about having acceptable convenience. The best one for that would be the USA spec BT45. But, I wouldn't knock the $48 shipped one from china - it does the job brilliantly in my tundra.

zakazak

The USA Spec sounds decent but is 250$ + shipping to europe.
The GROM is 140$ (including shipping)

One last question:
Do any of your BT Adapter have a problem with not working after a certain amount of time? I once had a Yatour adapter and if I wouldn't connect AUX or BT within the first 5 minutes then eventually I couldn't do so again until I would turn off/on the incognition?

gptoyz

The USA spec no, I did a Portland road trip so definitely no problem ~ 10 hrs.

Ebay ones also don't have this issue that I witnessed. It's really good bang for your buck. If you like it and can live with its a win for $45

The grom unit I had was from at least 3 years ago and yes it did have this issue from time to time, but grom has a reset you can trigger by using the mod switch.

zakazak

Hmm I might still go for the GROM:

1. It is the cheapest for me to get (besides the cheap ebay ones).
2. Has quick bluetooth reset button sequence in case it is "stuck"
3. Firmware updates (although I will probably never update as it means I have to remove the radio unit every time)

Just curious how well phone callings will work with top down. I kinda want to hide the mic but will people then still be able to hear me?

gptoyz

I wouldn't hold a business call or hit on some girl with it, but if you need to tell someone you are running late or have a quick conversation - it's acceptable

electricmarauder

I have the Grom installed, you can read more here:
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-el...dunit-1159869/

I don't have "songtext" displayed on mine, unless there's been some firmware update to change that.