Bluetooth in ONLY-- does it exist?
 

Please excuse my rather naive question. I stopped paying attention to car audio sometime in the 2000s. I have a 1990 964 3.8 build with RS cams that is very loud. My future plans include headers and Gt3 center-exist exhaust, so it will get louder. The previous owner installed a mid-2000 alpine stereo, sub-woofers, tweeters, etc. that are just extra weight to me. Even with the volume up, the quality is lost over the noise from the engine. I don't want to replace with a heavy, multi-speaker system. In my other cars, I use the radio sometimes, and mostly just play music or podcasts over bluetooth.

So, in the interest of light weight and simplicity, I have a notion of replacing everything with just a bluetooth input. No headunit. Instead, I'll run a blanking plate. I may even run just a single speaker in the middle of the car to minimize the amount of wire I'd have to run.

Does such a system exist? If so, where could I find it? What should I be searching for? My lack of knowledge in car audio means my googling has been pretty clumsy.

Lastly, if possible, I'd like to run a bluetooth mic to make calls from the car, with a mic that run up the A-pillar and set up close to my face. Is that possible? I know I'd only be able to make calls while cruising at low rpm or parked, but I'm ok with that.

With appreciation for the wisdom of the collective.

Cheers,
B

Bluetooth streaming without a head unit is more than possible – it's a technique that's used on a lot of classic builds. Pieces like this one from JL Audio are something we use quite a bit for that job. With that approach, you're better off not worrying about having hands-free calling in the car. An aftermarket head unit is going to be the right solution if that a feature you need. As for having one speaker in the center, I don't think that's a good idea. If the extensive sound system you have now gets drowned out by the engine and ambient noise, I'm not sure that single speaker would do anything but piss you off.

My recommendation would be a bluetooth module like the one I linked above attached to a compact power amplifier to drive a "good quality" set of component speakers. The weight from a sound system like that is negligible and you'll get a good experience when you do listen to tunes. If you need some help navigation that whole process feel free to reach out – happy to help!

– Nick