Hands on: Logitech Bluetooth Audio Adapter

Back in the day, music meant round spinning things that played just over an hour of music if you were lucky. The trouble with old school media was that records and CDs were not all that portable.

Sure you could cram 45 minutes onto each side of a cassette, but audio quality wasn't great and tapes could also be temperamental.

Back in the present I have a 64GB micro SD card in my phone which has become my favourite go to solution for music on the move. The fact that a whopping 64GB of data can fit into a doodad that's a fraction of the size of a postage stamp is just astonishing.

Consider this, 64GB can store 20,000 songs or about 55 days of non-stop music.

The only real fly in the digital music ointment happens when I want to listen to music at home. While I could run an RCA to 3.5mm audio cable from my phone to my amp, it's a pretty clumsy option.

I say clumsy because I tried it. It didn't work out that well. If my phone rang while I was listening to some music, the household got blasted by whichever obnoxious ringtone I'd chosen (I have a real knack for choosing particularly obnoxious ringtones).

Worse still, I still had to get up to grab my phone and unplug the cable. Changing tracks, etc. also required a march from the sofa to the phone and amp.

Colour me lazy, but Logitech have remedied these issues with an elegant, affordable matchbox-sized gizmo that receives streamed audio over Bluetooth from a smartphone or other Bluetooth equipped gadget (it also works like a charm with my 5th gen iPod).

My phone stays where it should be - in my hands. Skipping tracks, taking or making calls can happen with minimal exertion - I no longer have to haul my lazy carcass off the sofa.

Another side benefit is that I don't have a dock or cable to clutter things up. I can move about the room and the music keeps happening.

In Use

Getting set up was pretty straightforward. Plugging the Bluetooth adapter into my A/V receiver, I hooked up the power adapter, and paired my phone with the adapter. I dread pairing as I've always found it to be a frustrating affair.

Turns out that getting the Bluetooth adapter connected was a hassle-free process.
After hitting a button on top of the adapter, I scanned for Bluetooth widgets with my phone and connected. The adapter's blinking blue LED stopped went steady and I was wireless for sound.

Best of all, the total set up time was a mere 3 minutes.

Sound quality was also surprisingly good - I'm not a huge fan of Bluetooth audio, but the Logitech adapter surprised me.

Mp3s encoded in 128Kbps sounded okay. Those encoded at a higher bitrate and/or in a lossless audio format sounded fantastic. My ears struggled to tell the difference between Bluetooth and a CD.

The working range of the adapter also impressed. Using a Galaxy 5 I was able to wander throughout the house and still have music blasting out of my amp.

This may be to do with the Bluetooth radio on my phone as well as the Logitech adapter (Logitech say that the effective range is 10m).

Verdict

Logitech have a real knack for crafting clever gadgets that solve real problems. Getting set up was so idiot-proof that even I managed it. I was also surprised at how versatile the Bluetooth adapter was.

Visiting friends could stream tracks from their phones. Also having my entire music library in my shirt pocket proved to be dead handy.

If you want to get music from your smartphone to a set of PC speakers or an amp, the Logitech Bluetooth adapter is a great choice. Priced at right around $69.90, its an affordable option for anyone wanting wireless music.