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Michael in Oxford, Mississippi listens on SuperTalk Mississippi and asked: “What’s the best way to get good quality Bluetooth sound in a vehicle that does not have Bluetooth currently in it?”
Michael, the easiest way is a dongle that you plug into your AUX port and typically power from 12 volts, doing that and then pairing your phone to the dongle itself will get you a Bluetooth connection without too much trouble.
The same dongle is probably also the cheapest way to go, you can find them for very little money these days.
Unfortunately, it’s not really the best way to go, for that you’ll probably have to look for a new stereo. Dongles tend to be lowered quality and very often come with dropped connections and worse quality, a new Bluetooth enabled radio will probably give you more reliability for a higher price tag, but still a fairly reasonable one.
If you don’t mind a harder install, you can look for a system that includes microphones and get yourself some hands-free calling in the process too.
Gloria in Mt. Clemens, Michigan listens on AM800 CKLW and asked: “This is a beginning. I am now widowed and I have the use of my money. I have no electronics in the home at all. I have an AM/FM radio. Not taking me up to the sky’s the limit, but what would you recommend for an 80 year-old lady to do as “beginning electronics” and where do I get it?”
Gloria, the answer to your question is really “whatever device lets you do something you enjoy”.
A streaming stick of some kind is a good first device, it will let you stream movies and TV shows on demand right on your TV whenever you want.
If you like reading, ereaders like Amazon’s Kindle will let you access many thousands of books in a single small device and it will let you set the font to a larger size if it’s more comfortable for you.
A Chromebook will give you an easy way to access just about any website and requires next to no maintenance, most can be connected to a TV as well.
Smartphones can do pretty much everything, but they may be overkill as a starter device and they’re less focused on a single thing you enjoy are multi-use devices instead. Still, if you want to give them a try, they can do just about everything you’d need and they’re intuitive enough to be able to learn to use relatively easily given their very limited options on screen at any given time.
Whatever you get, you should also get a super huge brick of a cellphone and go on and on about how amazing this modern technology is just to prank your friends.
Dustin in Woodbine, Georgia listens on 93.7 FM WBQO “When you need to know” and asked: “What is the greatest sound bar out there right now? Looking for a nice cost-efficient one that provides great quality. Or do you prefer buying a sound base or a stereo surround sound system?”
Dustin, “greatest” and “cost-effective” are both subjective.
The Denon HEOS HomeCinema HS2 and the Vizio SB365I2-F6 are both well reviewed. The Vizio will cost you around $500, the Denon closer to $900.
The Harman Kardon Enchant 1300 Soundbar may beat them both, but it also costs just under the price of both of them combined.
If those prices seem too steep, Yamaha YAS-108 comes with a wireless subwoofer and will cost you closer to $200. While you probably can’t expect the same sound quality, it may be good enough for the vast majority of consumers, so you may not need to go with any of the more expensive options above unless you’re an audiophile.
You can also go with surround sound speakers, that does mean a more complicated set up that may not be worth the effort, but some audiophiles do prefer them.
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