Customer Ratings & Reviews

I love gadgets. But, I’m writing this from the viewpoint of someone just trying to solve some typical audio distribution problems. And, this Aluratek BT audio receiver/transmitter can solve a lot of them. I’ll start right off with the initial issue you might have: “Getting at the audio I want to send (to my headphones, speakers).” TVs, radios, or AV equipment may use a variety of ways they provide audio connectivity, but NOT BlueTooth. Looking at the backside of your equipment can offer surprises. Will your TV, or radio, or AV equipment provide a RCA, or Optical (SPDIF) or 3.5mm Aux OUTPUTS for you to use? It’s likely to be one of these, but which one can be pretty random. This newest device from Aluratek has the broadest flexibility to attach to your current devices. It can connect to any of them, and even has the cables in the box to save you another trip to the specialty store. 1- Solving your “My TV doesn’t have a headphone jack, but I need to listen privately” problem. My still wonderful plasma TV doesn’t have a headphone out jack. It does have an Optical (SPDIF) OUT. Aluratek even provides the cable. Out from TV into the device. Switch to TX (Transmit mode). Link my headphones. (Power Aluratek on. Push power button twice more. Go engage BT on headphones.) Worked for me. (Do you have RCA audio outs, instead? Use the RCA cable.) Aluratek has a less expensive receiver if you have both this problem and the next problem, wired headphones. Add that device to adapt your wired headphones to BT. 2- Solving your “How do I use my expensive WIRED headphone with a BT phone that has no headphone jack?” problem. Just plugged my headphones into the headphone jack on my Aluratek device. I linked the device to my iPhone via BT, and the device drove my headphones to a satisfactory level. The sound is clean, noise free, and high quality. It’s hard to tell I’m not wired. 3- Solving your “I’d love to put surround speakers in our family room, but I don’t want wires everywhere” problem. To solve this problem, you need an extra amplifier or powered speakers PLUS you need another Alurateck device (This 2nd device doesn’t need as many connection features and only has to RECEIVE). We also need our master AVR to provide those surround channels at output jacks where you can get to them. I’ll stop here, because this can get complicated, but this is the device you use to solve this problem. Geek Squad folks can help with details. 4- Solving your “How can a put another subwoofer in this room,, but waaaay over there in the corner” problem. Every home theater AVR has (one or two) subwoofer outputs. If needed, a splitter cable can divide a single subwoofer output into two. This Aluratek Audio Receiver/Transmitter can take that audio signal and deliver it to a subwoofer that has one of Alurateks receivers connected to an audio input. Complaints: I’d prefer to have a permanently wired power brick, but that's because my problems don’t involve mobile phones or car audio. The USB connector gives the Aluratek even more flexibility. I’d also prefer a more explicit BT initiation procedure. The current sequence of button pushes leaves you wondering and the light signals aren’t as helpful as they think. Ultimately it all works reliably and sounds transparent. This is a very flexible device with the ability to solve a variety of problems. Sound transmittal is completely transparent. You don’t realize the Aluratek is there. That’s the real compliment.

Quite satisfied with the quality. The product was okay.

I have a great receiver but unfortunately, it does not support Bluetooth. This Aluratek solved that problem easily. I can now connect my iPhone to it and listen to my music the way it should be: good quality and no wires. Pairing with the phone was very easy I really love the fact that I can also use my headphones to watch TV without disrupting anybody and it is much better than those As-Seen-On-TV ones. And because it supports two headphones, you can enjoy it with your partner without disrupting the kids. Totally worth it. The range is superb too. I am able to walk around the house with my iPhone without experiencing any disconnection. That is very rare for most Bluetooth devices. Usually, they can hardly reach 60 feet and with lots of connectivity issues. Not this device. The only thing missing is HDMI support but for the price and size, I am completely satisfied without that option.

I received this device over a month ago through Best Buy's Tech Insider Network in exchange for a fair and impartial review. After evaluating two of these devices (the original and a replacement from the manufacturer), my review has ended up being a neutral, three-star review, with no recommendation one way or the other. I wrote my first-ever, hopefully neutral review because I want to be fair to Aluratek by giving them the benefit of the doubt that no company could ever sell a product as maddening to work with and have such bad audio transmission as the two ABC53F devices I evaluated. I offer that there may or may not be something in my home's environment causing the connection and audio problems. After spending nearly a week fighting with the first ABC53F, I called Aluratek's tech support for assistance, thinking maybe I was doing something wrong, even though I was following their Quick Start Guide to the letter. During the call we were able to easily duplicate the problems and the tech support person declared the device defective. I returned that one and they shipped me a replacement. Unfortunately, the four days I've spent working with the replacement ABC53F have been just as fruitless as the first. The problems are identical. I want to mention that the six wireless Bluetooth (BT) headphones I used in my evaluation are a mixture of high quality Sony, B&O, and Beats headphones. All are A2DP connection capable, less than three years old, and their MSRPs were all in the $300-$500 price range. They are very good headphones. The audio signal was fed to the ABC53F from a Samsung Smart TV using the optical SPDIF cable. Being a retired engineer and IT consultant I am knowledgeable of and was concerned about the possibility of interference and unwanted BT connections from other nearby devices. Despite my best efforts to eliminate any interference from other BT devices in my home, I allow that there may still be something in my home's environment that renders both Aluratek ABC53F devices that I evaluated unusable due to horrible sound quality and inability to reconnect reliably to any two BT headphones. One headphone by itself normally connects with no problem, will sometimes reconnect but only as a single headphone, and always has good sound until I attempt to connect a second headphone. Then the audio becomes garbled and suffers intermittent cut-outs. It's worth mentioning that my single-family home is in a semi-rural setting on a full acre lot, well-separated from neighboring homes. So I do not think I suffer electromagnetic interference or BT interference from my neighbors as you might encounter in a higher-density, apartment living situation. Also, I am very familiar with these dual connection transmitters as I already own two other brand transmitting devices that are capable of simultaneously transmitting an audio link to two receiver devices like headphones. One device is a BT link transmitter like the Aluratek. The other is a non-BT, proprietary linked, Sennheiser system. Over the last couple years, in the same home environment, I've never experienced these problems with the other two brand systems. Over the last month, I've devoted many, many days to working with two Aluratek's ABC53F devices including allowing for a replacement, which is something we almost never do in the Tech Insider Network. I've spent more time evaluating this $70 device than any of the three dozen other Tech Insider Network products I've reviewed over the last three years. But, I've now reached the end of my patience and decided to call it a draw, write a neutral review, and not recommend it one way or the other. If you are considering purchasing on Aluratek ABC53F, please look to other reviews for guidance. Please do not interpret my review as a negative review as it is entirely possible there could be something in my home's environment causing these problems.

Bought to use with Sony blue tooth heads phones $200 bucks and another non name brand. would not pair with either one. No updates or support from manufacture/ company. There being closed out for a reason it is JUNK.

So we all have bluetooth headphones; but we use them with our phones and tablets... With this device, you can now use them with your TV, older stereo, DVD player, etc.... So I used these by adding them to my DIRECTV receiver in my workout room. By adding them, I am able to use my bluetooth headphones, while on my exercise machines. So I don't have to crank the TV up to hear it over the machines, and wake up the house. Connects via Optical connections or RCA.. I used the Optical, and it works very well. The range is very good too, I was able to get it to go 50 ft... because I ran out of basement to go further. Easy addition for anyone's bedroom, exercise room, office, or even outside on a deck.

I ordered this to replace a cheaper model. This item works as described. I get good Bluetooth connection with a decent range. I have a cheaper model and this has better range and seems a bit more solid. Pairing is easy. It does create a slight delay which I thought would be improved with this model but it is the same as others. It is nice to have portable speakers around.

Good solution for devices that don't have Bluetooth built in. I have an older Harmon Kardon receiver which I'm using it with. I can play music from my phone to it in receiver mode and listen on my headphones in transmit mode. There's a slide switch to pick which mode you want to use so it won't do both at the same time. Good range and easy pairing. A little hard to tell if it's in receive or transmit but the light colors indicate which it's in. Good inputs/outputs and cables included.

I attempted to get this product to pair with my TV and then headphones, but could not get it to work. Its being returned

Very hard to set the 2nd Bluetooth device... not a very friendly device to set up and very poor documentation

Soon as I step out from the garage this thing start cutting off THIS IS NOT 200/300 feet range

does not worked returned we try evrything possible and nothing

I have used this for a few days now. I have a tv in my office that is newer but has no Bluetooth, and I wanted to be able to use my Bluetooth speaker or earbuds. The TX/RX box comes with everything needed and easy to follow instructions to get you up and running, except for an AC Adapter. But if your like most people you probably have several laying around, so really not an issue. My only issue with this device is that it really is not designed as a permanent solution as it is rechargeable. But again if you have an adapter it’s really not an issue. Once connected and paired to my Sony speaker it worked perfect. For me I’ll just leave it plugged into power and leave it where it is and it will become a permanent fixture on my tv. If you need to make a device into a Bluetooth transmitter or receiver, I really can’t see any reason why this wouldn’t work for you. So I will certainly recommend this device to gain Bluetooth function on those non Bluetooth devices you have.

Extremely difficult to set up, quit less than 24 hours later.

It seems others have had good experience with this, but though I have been using Bluetooth devices since the advent of the technology I've never had so much trouble as I am having with this device. It worked when I first paired it and set it up, and after that I have had to re-pair my headset every single time I use it. The first strike though is the design -- this is a boring metal box and about as completely non-tech-sexy as you can get. It looks and feels like something I’d find at Radio Shack back in the 80's. Second strike is technical implementation -- everything seemed fine when I paired my first headset, but after I paired a second headset -- per the instructions -- things went squirrel and never recovered. Both headsets worked until after I powered off the Aluratek, and after that it no longer remembers either headset and I have to constantly re-pair my headset every time I turn it on. Sequence doesn't matter, it's re-pair every single time or nothing at all. It's really too bad because the sound and latency, when it worked, were impressive… I couldn’t detect any audio delay between listening to audio through these vs directly from my TV speakers so it was promising so I was initially pretty excited because I’m an early riser and like to watch TV before the rest of the family is awake and this would’ve been perfect. I’d give it a 3rd strike but it does “kinda sorta” continue to work, and it does sound good, it’s just now a needlessly manual process every time I want to use it. I can’t find any way to factory reset it but I’m hoping I can work something out with their tech support -- firmware update or something -- but all I can say is that my initial out of box experience is pretty frustrating and has wasted a lot of my time feeling like I’m beta-testing somebody’s not-quite-ready design.

This is a great product, and in using this on my TV I've found that I do like having the ability to connect Bluetooth headphones to the TV and this product does that well. I've also found that it has other use cases as well as you can turn it from being a transmitter to being a receiver for Bluetooth as well! The Bluetooth 5.0 offers lower latency, more distance and dual audio streams so you can have it transmit to more than one pair of headphones. I was impressed to see that inside the box, cables are included for the various different audio sources that you might plug it in into, be that RCA, 3.5 mm audio cable or optical cable so it should be able to plug in to most TVs that have audio out. In terms of distance, I was able to use my Bluetooth headphones all around the house without having them cut out, pretty awesome! I did try out the ability to use it as a receiver for Bluetooth for my old stereo system and that worked quite well too. The built in battery does enable you to take it on the go to plug in and use in many other scenarios. Overall, this is a great receiver as it has many different uses for different scenarios and it does it well!!!

In a short time I've come to really appreciate how versatile this little guy is for wireless audio. It transmits, it receives, it has almost every kind of input, it supports AptX audio! My original thought was to use this on my component stereo setup so I can send my phone audio, but the more I started playing with the transmit feature the more I appreciated it. I can now use my nice Bose wireless headphones to listen to vinyl! Or I can send my music to the next room to bluetooth speakers. It even supports sending to two separate bluetooth devices at the same time! And with the optical digital audio input you can send the sound from your TV to headphones if you don't want to wake up the house at night. Eventually I may get around to using it for my intended use as a receiver, but I'm enjoying it too much as a transmitter at the moment. I am interested to see how it sounds with AptX audio sources like my Samsung S9 It looks nice with real aluminum trim and a gloss black finish and comes with just about every cable you would possibly need for setup. The only missing feature is coaxial digital in and out, but that's kind of a niche feature.

Did not work with Bose wireless headphones. Never paired

This is a very good Bluetooth transmitter. I've been using it almost daily since my purchase a couple of months ago. I've never connected two devices, though, only my Google Home. However, there are two frustrating issues that I wish I had the fix for when I was experiencing them. So I'm hoping this will help someone else. The caveat here is maybe this only applies to my model ABC53F used with Google Home, but perhaps not. First, when I tried to pair in TX mode with my Google Home, I tried over and over, following the instructions in the manual exactly with no luck. The fix is to switch the unit into RX mode, do a pair (it will fail, that's OK), and them move the switch back to TX mode and Voila!, it will now pair on the first try. Must be some logic glitch somewhere, but this works for me like a charm! The second issue is occasionally, when I first turn the unit on, no audio is being transmitted, even though it's connected. Not sure if this is the Aluratek or Google Home. The fix is to turn off the ABC53F and turn it back on. This works 99% of the time. If not, just turn it off and on again once more. I hope this helps someone else to help prevent some needless aggravation

I went to Best Buy needing to solve a problem of having bluetooth Sony WH-1000XM3 Wireless Noise-Canceling Headphones and Boose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones II connect to an older Samsung Smart TV and SoundBar that did not have Bluetooth connection. The sales rep recommended this product. At first I had difficulty in getting to connect both headphones the first night. Went to bed and tried it the next day. The pairing worked to both devices and unknowingly, Alexa,too. So be sure to disconnect Alexa before you pair if ya don’t want her to connect. It states there is 5.0 Bluetooth connection. The headphones mentioned above are not 5.0. Thus that feature is not needed yet for the devices I have, but good to have as technology advances in future devices. Easy set up by putting the headphone jack into the TV. I would like to have listened through my Samsung soundbar, but not able to figure out how to do that yet with the only one audio port available with optic connections. I tried it, but it did not work. The wires in the package were long enough to connect to the TV and to have the device set down on the entertainment system. I wish the wire with the USB connection was just as long as the others to use for charging because of the different location compared to the headphone jack. I found that my Sony Heaphones work best with this product. Bose there is some interruptions at times listening to the TV. There is some issue with my NBC station sound since installing this device of the sound going in and out. Not sure yet if this because of this product or a cable or TV issue. Will need to investigate further on that issue