Review on Cassette Deck Bluetooth Adapter: ION Audio Cassette Adapter with Bluetooth Music Receiver by Mark Perry

I installed a bluetooth cassette adapter on my 2003 Lexus LS430. Before inserting the cassette into the deck, I carefully peeled off the clear plastic protective sheet with a utility knife, as I learned from some reviewers who reported problems with the sound quality. The sound quality of this Bluetooth adapter is very impressive - it's much better than the Bluetooth radio adapter I previously owned as well as the wired cassette adapter [only the left speakers work]. The downside is that you can hear the cartridge's rotating parts when it's on, but you can crank the volume up. Pairing with my iPhone 6+ is very easy - it connects automatically when you turn on the cartridge and a beep confirms the connection [Note: I had a manual on/off switch on the adapter]. Also, I noticed that the Bluetooth adapter turns itself off automatically when the cassette deck is turned off. I haven't tested the battery life but it looks like I'll need to charge the adapter when not in use as my Lexus loads cassettes. Mark Levinson. In my opinion, this is by no means a disadvantage of a Bluetooth cassette adapter. Update #1: I removed all 7 screws, opened up the cassette adapter and added lithium grease to all gears and rotating parts (2 main gears, 1 drive gear and 2 small gears). Put it back on and tighten the screws. This effectively minimizes the noise when the Bluetooth adapter is on. In addition, lithium grease extends the life of rotating parts. Update #2: There was a problem and now the cassette deck is ejecting the adapter for no apparent reason. Did some research but not specifically for ION. Removing the 2 small gears [see red box in photo] seems to have helped (problem solved) and left the 3 main gears intact. Update #3: One day the adapter stopped working, opened up the adapter and noticed the auxiliary gear. (highest/middle gear) moved up a bit. Add a washer to keep the gear from moving. Put it back together but the washer feels a little thick so it takes some pressure to turn the gears. The cassette deck has detected an adapter problem and will not play. I removed all the gears but the cassette deck didn't like it either. So I've come to the conclusion that my Mark Levinson cassette deck needs at least 3 main gears on the adapter to work. The last resort was to replace the gears on my old Philips wired cassette adapter with an ION adapter. Luckily all the gears matched and swapped them out; coat with lithium grease and a washer [couldn't find a thin washer to hold the sub gear so I made a washer out of laptop spring wire]; Put it back together and make sure the gears spin freely. Plug the ION adapter into your cassette deck and you're done! I noticed that Philips gears don't make any audible noise when powered on compared to ION gears. Update #4. The cassette adapter works fine since I replaced its gears from my old wired Philips cassette adapter. Also, I get at least 4 hours of battery life provided I remove the cassette adapter before turning off the car ignition. It turned out that the "Auto Power Off" feature didn't work on my car due to the construction of the cassette deck.