Advice sought on Bluetooth communication systems

[MIKE R]

Hi All

I'm basically looking to tap into the vast pool of knowledge out there (creep) regarding which communication system to buy

I intend to replace my old Cardo Q1 set which has served me well for a few years

This is what I am looking for

1 Better audio and music quality (music stored on a SD card in the sat nav) than the Q1. when communicating through my sat nav I also use the sat nav to make and receive telephone calls As technology has progressed I assume that this will apply to all the major manufacturers. My current sat nav is a BMW Nav V (which I may upgrade to Nav VI) which is used on the S10 via a Garmin Zumo 660 cradle)

2 I don't need to connect to numerous bikes/people. I always ride solo and riding friends have different systems which may or may not be compatible, or no communications at all

I am considering the Cardo Freecom or the Freecom 1+ but these have very small buttons to control the sound (like the Q1) which I find difficult to use on the move (although I very rarely need this function) so I am being drawn to Sena with the large wheel volume control

What would you suggest?

Many thanks for any help/advice

Mike

 

[RIDEMYST]

I have always used the Sena products. I use it for communications, GPS voice, music & a rare phone call. I was never impressed with group (more than 3 riders) Bluetooth communications but now with the Sena 30 & 50 units MESH communications it works great! I can still communicate with other riders with Bluetooth which adds them to the Mesh. The quality with Mesh is excellent and my GPS and especially music is also excellent. I use custom audio earplugs which improves the quality and reduces wind noise (Plugup.com).
Just my experience, hope this helps. -JEP-

 

[fac191]

Personally i think the music from satnavs over blutooth is poor quality. Much better from phone and you can control the sound.

 

[RCinNC]

Here's a good place to start. He provides some helpful information.

I'm still using a relatively ancient Sena SMH10; I'm very satisfied with it, but it's bluetooth-only with no mesh capability. That's not a factor if you don't want to connect to a lot of other riders,.

I did have the chance to use a Cardo Packtalk Slim recently, and to be honest, I didn't like it at all. I felt the audio quality wasn't up to what I had on my SMH10, and for me, the controls were a nightmare to operate while riding and wearing gloves. The big "jog dial" on the SMH10 might make it a little larger than other units, but it also makes it easy to manipulate. If I was shopping for a new unit to do what you're looking for, I would still buy another SMH10, in spite of it's older design. They're still available in the secondary market, and the updated but still very similar SMH10S is still available directly from Sena.

 

[fac191]

I have the 10s and the sound quality is improved from SMH10

 

[Cycledude]

Been using Sena 20s EVO for about 3 years on the Tenere mostly trouble free. They claim a range of 1.2 miles but mine has never reached that far, it’s lucky to reach 1/2 mile. It sounds fine to me but I’m no sound freak and I’m sure there are better sounding Bluetooth devices available. My main use is for listening to GPS directions and it does work excellent for that. Having to mess with charging the battery every day is annoying but not difficult. One of my friends has a lot of trouble with his jacket collar messing with the Sena control buttons, so do I once in awhile but not very often.
As far as for phone use I have NEVER used mine hooked up to a phone because I hear about way to many stupid accidents being caused by cellphone use . One of my friends with a 20s EVO practically lives on the phone while riding, he claims it works great.

 

[MIKE R]

Many thanks for all your help

Seem to have narrowed the field down to:-

1 Cardo Freecom 1+

2 Sena 10S (thanks for those who have already commented on this unit)

Anybody got any experience with either of these systems?

Mike

 

[Saint rob]

I use a Freecom 2+ mostly just for sat nag instructions but audio quality is very good, I can stream music from my phone if I want to but never tried sticking music onto sat nag (Garmin 660) and doing it that way, I prefer making my own engine music especially when on my MT01
Phone calls work well if you want them to, but I tend to leave bluetooth off on the phone so I don't get them. The 2+ allows you to connect to 1 other rider/pillion which is just about all the additional connectivity I'm ever going to need as it's not often that I ride with anyone.
Easily the best headset I've used over the years and it will last at least 14 hours on a charge, it looks like you're quite local to me if you want to try before you buy sometime!

 

[gunslinger_006]

I got a packtalk slim recently. It has the 45mm jbl sound system. It sounds amazing. Fwiw i ride without plugs and my helmet is quiet.

I got the slim specifically because i ride with a leatt gpx neck brace and i wanted as much clearance as possible. Its great.

 

[Dirt_Dad]

I've been through a number of Sena units.

SMH-10: Significant improvement in convience vs the FRS radios we had been using. Good range, sound quality acceptable, volume inadequate at high speed. That volume thing is with a good pair of ear plugs and a fairly noisy Arai XDxxx helmet.

20S: Improved sound quality, decreased range if using the better sound quality, volume inadequate.

50S: Improved speakers, range similar to 20S, improved sound quality, volume adequate...I actually can hear now at 80 MPH...or even at 60 MPH.

Bought a dual pack of the 50S. My wife's set was lasting much longer than mine. I was on the charger cable after 2 hours. She could go all day. Got a hold of Sena, they had me try something that didn't work. After some mild persuasion about how the exchange would work, the replacement arrived yesterday. Hoping that issue is behind me now.

 

[Checkswrecks]

After he spoke of how much better his audio was when he went to the 50S, I popped Dirt Dad's 50S onto my helmet which has the 20S mount & speakers. The sound was not much improved so I suspected the speakers alone would make a big improvement.

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www.buysena.com

Unfortunately, that may not be the case so has anybody else already tried this?

Are the speakers for the 50S compatible with the clamp kit for the 30K, 20S or 20S EVO?

Yes, the speakers for the 50S are compatible with the clamp kit for the 30K, 20S, and 20S EVO. However, the speakers on the clamp kit for the 50S will provide louder, clearer and better bass audio ...

community.sena.com

 

[regder]

My use case is very similar to yours, except I stream music from my phone instead of the GPS. I've had the Sena 20S for about 5 years now/~80k-ish km's, and it's been solid. Phone calls on the highway are fine, music is nice and clear. Sound quality from the speakers could be louder and better, not that it's bad, just could be better. At this point, I have zero intent to upgrade until it breaks.

My next upgrade will likely be a Pactalk variant. The Fortnine videos convinced on the audio quality from the JBL speakers.

Personally i think the music from satnavs over blutooth is poor quality. Much better from phone and you can control the sound.

When you're cruising on the highway at 70-80mph/110-130kmh sound quality doesn't really mean much, as long as the music is loud and clear is good enough. Saying that, my setup is iPhone paired to Zumo 595, Sena 20S paired to iPhone. Not for sound quality, but because I can't activate Siri from the Sena when connected directly to the Zumo. This way I can control my music library/Spotify from the Zumo, and activate Siri from the Sena. I do lose the phone app feature on the Zumo, but this setup works best for me.

 

[Sierra1]

And, I'm with regder. I have the 20s, because I was wanting the ability to talk to more people at once. It didn't work well for that, but it is fantastic for two. Music drops when somebody speaks. My kid with the stupid loud R6 has the 10s, and I can hardly tell he's on his bike when I talk to him on the phone. Not going to get replaced until it breaks. And, unless there's something much better for the money, I'll just stick with the 10s. Like he said, decent volume, sound, and easy to operate going down the road.

 

[MIKE R]

All good advice.

Many thanks and keep it coming

Mike

 

[JJTJ2]

I have the Cardo Pactalk Slim. I really like it. I don't use it to communicate with other riders yet. I mainly listen to pod casts and music. I have the Bose speaker and sound quality is excellent. When I have talked on the phone to people, they have all reported that they couldn't tell that I was riding on a motorcycle because I sounded the same as if I were in my house on the phone. It synced perfectly with my iPhone and was easy to set up.

 

[fac191]

I use ear buds for the sound straight into the 10S. Bluetooth from phone. Haven't tried the Zumo XT yet for music. Don't like the boom Mic so use the flat round one works great and you can't see it.

 

[Dirt_Dad]

For me I found i had to press my helmet against my shoulder to get the speaker as close as possible to hear it even at moderate speeds. Endless attempts to reposition the speakers never helped much.

The 50s is the first time I'm not straining to hear DM. That's both good and bad.

 

[gunslinger_006]

The other thing about the packtalk slim is that is has basically zero wind drag. Hanging a big sena off the side of the helmet messed my neck up on long rides.

Any slim or low profile model from sena or cardo with mesh net and upgraded speakers will be amazing compared to the original smh10 experience.

 

[WJBertrand]

I picked up a Cardo SmartPack on clearance from Amazon last year, it’s essentially a Packtalk Bold with fewer voice control features and does not have the JBL sound features, but it runs the same software as the Bold. It meshes perfectly with the Bolds and I’m pretty well pleased with the performance. I have my GPS set to send all audio (except the phone) to the audio out jack. I use a Sena SM-10 dongle that is bluetooth linked to one of the two BT channels on my Cardo. The SM-10 dongle has two hard wire inputs, one for the music and GPS instructions from the zumo and the other input from my radar detector. Radar has priority over audio in the SM-10, so radar alerts will mute the music to about 1/2 volume. The second Bluetooth channel on the cardo is paired to the GPS. My phone is paired only to the GPS.

Everything works well and the Cardo dynamic mesh works seamlessly. On this latest trip we only had four riders but last year we ran with up to 8 riders with no issues.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Dirt_Dad]

After he spoke of how much better his audio was when he went to the 50S, I popped Dirt Dad's 50S onto my helmet which has the 20S mount & speakers. The sound was not much improved so I suspected the speakers alone would make a big improvement.

Sign In

www.buysena.com

Unfortunately, that may not be the case so has anybody else already tried this?

Are the speakers for the 50S compatible with the clamp kit for the 30K, 20S or 20S EVO?

Yes, the speakers for the 50S are compatible with the clamp kit for the 30K, 20S, and 20S EVO. However, the speakers on the clamp kit for the 50S will provide louder, clearer and better bass audio ...

community.sena.com

Got this announcement from Sena today:

Premium HD Speakers are coming soon for your Sena device! In just a few weeks, Sena will be launching HD Speaker accessory kits for the 10C Pro, 10C EVO, 20S, 20S EVO, and 30K. Users will be able to upgrade to the same premium Sena HD Speakers first seen with Sena’s flagship 50R and 50S devices. The updated speaker kits offer a marked increase in volume, bass boost, and clarity for a noticeably enhanced audio experience while riding. Sena will also be rolling out upgrades for each device’s firmware to ensure HD Speaker audio quality is maximized. In addition to the revised hardware of the HD Speakers and updated device firmware, users will also see a new audio equalizer function within the Sena Utility App (or 30K Utility App) for custom adjustments on device audio levels. Stay tuned for more details closer to the release of the HD speaker kits.