Today at Atelier Kaz - ex-Honda R&D, F1, Indy/CART engineer

Following on from my last post regarding the HomePlug, another topic that asked many times is the usage of iPod adaptor USA Spec PA11-HON.

I don't listen to the music so often while driving as I prefer listening to the engine sound but for the passenger with no interest in car, I need to keep her entertained especially in the traffic jam.

So, long-long time ago, I installed USA Spec PA11-HON on my NSX and connected ancient iPod mini in the upper compartment of my arm rest glove box and it served really well.

However, sometimes the passenger wanted to listen to her own music library, use streaming service while on the go but keep the mobile devices on the dash for satnav, etc so decided to get one of the blutooth receiver.


For your reference, if you want to have good quality reasonably priced bluetooth speaker for home usage, Cambridge Audio offers great product called 'GO' so you may want to try it. I thought about using it inside the MX-5 as I couldn't find equivalent of PA11-HON for MX-5 but that's another story.


For the bluetooth receiver, while you can make permanent installation, I wanted something that can be used not only inside the car but also in the house, gym, on the go, etc and there are lots of products available.

Based on my past experience, I was not impressed with the audio quality and the time lag of some of the bluetooth devices.
Also, when used inside the crowded train, it was easy to accidentally hit the wrong switches or the output power was not powerful enough that it couldn't drive the earphone to the desired level.





So, the must have features for me are aptX, built-in AMP, long battery life plus ideally 'Hold' switch and RF amp for greater transmission range inside the house.
After long research, went for the one very popular in Japan. The Elecom LBT-PAR500. Please check your local regulation for the suitability of usage in your country.

You can find similar devices on amazon UK as well.


It comes with NFC tag but most of the times, I don't use it even on other devices because quite often, depending on the spec of your mobile devices, as soon as you power up the bluetooth receiver, it will automatically establish the link once it was paired previously so not much use for the NFC.

It also has the feature to make phone call as it has built-in mic but based on the test carried out in the past, I'm against making phone call while driving even with the hands free mode so I disabled it in the bluetooth setup on my phone. Even within the top F1 drivers, there are only a few who can clock the same lap time while using the radio as to the one measured while not using it. I'm nowhere near to them and if you hop into the simulator and test yourself, you will be surprised to see how far your ordinary driving skill is further reduced by simply talking over the phone even using the hands free devices. I can't believe some drivers try to send text while driving..... Hope driving recorder devices will catch them eventually.




The ancient iPod mini. I can't even remember what the generation is....

I don't need to invest into the cable for in-car usage so just 0.5m cheap one from amazon.
Although it doesn't have any marking for the R & L channel, the red coloured text connector was not assigned to the R channel so just swapped the outer metal housing using the jewellery driver.




I could have ran the cable to the upper compartment but for now, I'll just leave it inside the centre glove box.
If you want, you can run long cable to the dash to connect the 3.5mm jack directly into the mobile device without the bluetooth receiver but because the jack on my phone is at the top and when using in portrait mode, it doesn't look nice especially with the extra cable. Also, you need specific shape of 3.5mm jack if you use any covers on your mobile devices as the jack won't plug in far enough.






Disc #6 is for the AUX input for the PA11-HON.

Nice sound through the bluetooth receiver and of course you can use the streaming service.


Most of the latest bluetooth devices can recognise and pair different devices so if your passenger want to use one's own library, you can pair one's device once and it will automatically establish the link there after.


If you select the suitable sat nav application, you can keep playing the music through the OEM head unit via bluetooth receiver/PA11-HON and feed the sat nav voice guidance through the mobile device's own speaker to prevent frequent interruption of the music.


Kaz