Lenntek`s The Hookup - It's my bag, baby
(Page 5 of 6 )
Included within the box along with the transmitters were two neoprene bags. One of them was designed to hold your iPod and the transmitter, while the other one holds the receiver.
With the connection between the iPod and the transmitter being so delicate, the included bag to hold both of them is quite welcome. But, to be honest, I would have felt better if this holder was a bit more rigid. If you have this thing in your backpack, it would still be possible for the iPod and transmitter to bend at just the wrong angle and ruin your transmitter and/or your iPod completely.
Above are the two bags with the corresponding pieces being added to them. Don't let the apparent sizes fool you, the one of the left is much larger than the one on the right.
Testing The Hookup was pretty simple. You plug in the transmitter and hit play on your iPod. You then turn on the receiver (by pressing the center button for a few seconds). After a couple seconds, both lights flash blue indicating that they are paired.
To be honest, I found this to be the easiest Bluetooth pairing I have ever endured. Lenntek apparently went the extra mile to make the transmitter and receiver pair nearly automatically.
The music quality is very good. I've listened to a number of wireless audio devices ranging from IR to RF to Bluetooth, and this configuration didn't let me down. I was actually a little surprised at how much sound depth was being played by the receiver. With the headphones I had on hand, I honestly couldn't tell a difference between listening wirelessly, and plugging the headphones directly into the iPod.
The specifications said the range of the transmitter was approximately 30 feet. In my tests, anything past around 18 feet (in clear line of sight) began to distort and get fuzzy. For someone like me who likes his music clear, this is a nono.
I actually wore The Hookup for several hours this weekend, to try and determine the lifetime of the rechargeable battery. I kept the music at a moderate level as I did chores around the house. It was somewhere around the 4 ½ hour mark when I finally lost the connection to my iPod, and could no longer hear my music. A second test put me closer to 5 hours, but with a slightly reduced volume.
The final test was pairing the device with my Bluetooth cellphone. Now, Lenntek gives a list of phones that work well with the Hookup, and mine wasn't one of them. My phone is also a few years old, so it is using an older Bluetooth specification. Lenntek also goes on to say that phones manufactured in 2006 or later are the most compatible.
It took a little redundant trying, but after about five minutes, I got the phone to connect to The Hookup. Switching between music and telephone worked as promised, but the quality of the phone connection wasn't so good. When I disconnected the headset and used the phone directly, the connection was fine.
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