Home > Consumer Reviews > Phase Linear BT1611i AM/FM/CD/MP3/WMA/USB/SD Card Receiver with Bluetooth (Black)

I just had this receiver installed in my 1997 Lincoln Town Car. I love it. The versatility of being able to play a variety of media is great. The feature of syncing with my bluetooth phone is a great addition. When I was setting up the phone features I actually got a call from my mom and was quite surprised at the clarity on both ends of the call. Well worth the cost. The only negative (but not worth losing a star over) is that the remote control is a little bit finicky (sometimes it doesn't respond very well). But, otherwise I am really enjoying this new car stereo.

I was looking for a car stereo to replace a non-functioning stock radio in my Eclipse. I needed to keep the price low, but I wanted something that could play CDs, MP3s, and had an iPod dock. When I found this, I was a bit skeptical that it would be any good, based on the small cost for the large feature-set. The price was right, so I bought it. Shipped on time, I installed it the day after it came myself. Installation was easy (I recommend buying a wire harness and install kit!). I turned it on, paired up the bluetooth on my phone to the radio. No sooner had I popped in an MP3 CD and it started playing, the radio muted. Then it started playing a tone, and I looked at the radio to see caller ID for my cell phone! Answered the call with a push of a button, and had my first experience talking on the phone through my car stereo. Awesome quality! The iPod dock works great, hidden in my glove box. As a bonus, also has another wire to connect non-iPod mp3 devices. Very cool! I recommend this one!

First love the products features, bluetooth, mp3, usb, ipod....The only problem I have had the power on button stuck in. Found that the plastic button underneath is quite fragile, bad design. I fixed it, but use the remote control for power on and off. Rest of buttons are fine. the Bluetooth surprised me as it works extremely well, at least on my end, so far no complaints. the unit comes with all cables (ipod, and Mp3) so you dont have to buy one. I found installation really simple however I bought an interface wiring kit, and went from a double din to single din on this unit. (Ford F150) Overall I recommend this unit, would have given 5 stars except for the funky power button.

This unit does so much, and the price is so low, that I was wary. But I decided to take a chance, and I hit the motherlode! Aside from basic FM/AM, the only other car stereo features I care about are built-in bluetooth and the ability to play SD cards. And I'm happy to say this unit performs both of those tasks very well! The sound quality is good, albeit not great, although I should mention that my factory speakers are mid-quality at best.

Regarding bluetooth, I live in California where hands-free cell usage is the law, so the unit's bluetooth feature is great for me. I can hear people fine, sometimes they say I sound muffled, but still better than the earpiece that I used previously. When a call comes in, unit automatically switches to phone mode and shows caller id on its display!

What I've mentioned so far is enough for me, but the unit also boasts iPod control and and auxiliary connection! To test the aux, I plugged it into a portable satellite radio. Worked, although didn't sound totally clear, and I had to turn the volume way up to hear. Amazingly, unit also boasts a USB port for a flash drive, which I haven't tried.

I haven't tried the iPod connection, because NO NEED! Why fuss with an iPod when SD cards are so small and so inexpensive? I no longer keep CD's in my car! The unit plays CD's, and I did play one just to test it, but CD's are DEAD!

For the price, or even DOUBLE the price, you won't find a better car stereo!

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This is my first receiver purchase since I purchased an iPod a couple years ago. I had just been using a Monster FM transmitter and was getting tired of all the static and high pitched noise coming through. So when I set out looking for a receiver my main goals was to find one with ipod connectivity and built in bluetooth. The price for the amount of features on this receiver is outstanding. But, like all things, you get what you pay for. Don't get me wrong this is a nice little receiver. The built in bluetooth is excellent. I drive a Miata and was worried that it would be difficult for people to understand me and me to understand them because of the road noise, but that isn't a problem. Everything comes through perfectly. Also, the sound is excellent. I can't believe how much of a difference this receiver makes over my factory deck. So what's the problem you ask?? Why only 3 stars??? Well there is only one problem and it is a HUGE one, for me anyway. That is you can only control your iPod through the receiver. The iPod's interface is locked once it is hooked up to the receiver. I have 3500 songs on my iPod with tons of different artists and some artists with over 10 albums each. Navigating to find the song you want to listen to is a nightmare, especially going down the road. And that wouldn't even be so bad if you could just spin the knob and quickly go through artists, but you can't. It is sluggish. If you spin it too fast it will just sit on the artist you are currently on. You also can't go backwards. So if you want to hear an artist that starts with a 'Z' and you have as many artists on your iPod as I do get ready for about a 15 minute ordeal. Let's say you finally get to artist 'Z' and click the button to go into their folder(assuming the sluggish controls don't fly forward at the last second causing you to choose the wrong artist and yell obscenities because you have to start back at 'A') and you want to hear an album of their's that also starts with 'Z'. You have to scroll through every song under that artists name to get to the 'Z' album. You don't pick /Artist/Album/Song, you have to pick the artist then scroll through everyone of their songs to find the one you want, and the same sluggish controls apply. They are all grouped together, so you don't have any idea what album they are from. I have some artists that have the same name of a song on different albums, a live album for instance, and the only way to know which one it is is to figure out which album comes first in alphabetical order, in your head. And, if you choose the wrong version, and the version you want is on a different album, guess what? You have to start all the way back over at artist 'A'. I do not understand why they wouldn't just let you use the simple iPod interface(and they don't, I emailed their support and asked). Other than that one hugely annoying problem this is a good receiver with lot's of features for 90 bucks, but I wish I would of done a little more research and picked a receiver with much better iPod controls.