Sena SMH10 - Inmate's Special GROUP BUY!

[jsa]

I ordered a dual set from an online company on the recommendation of a friend. I also ordered the wired mic kit.

Installation in my helmet was pretty straight forward. Bluetooth connectivity was a no-brainer. The sound quality when connected to my Blackberry Storm was nice and clear, and plenty loud. My caller could hardly hear me though. Said I sounded very far away from the mic. Also complained of a buzzing sound that came across every time I talked.

So I relocated the wired mic closer to my pie hole, to know avail. Still had to yell to be heard...while indoors. I replaced the wired mike with the boom mic option. The sound volume improved a bit, but I still had to speak quite loudly, and there was zero ambient sound around me. The buzzing persisted.

I switched to the second base unit, but the same issues remained.

I then tested out the intercom system. No perceivable volume issues, but we both heard a constant electronic buzzing that was very irritating after a minute or two.

In the end, I packed up the entire set and sent it back for a replacement.

EDIT: I called Rocket Moto, and even though I did not buy this system from them, Dave spent 20 minutes with me talking through the issues I had experienced. I wish I had found them before ordering. Anyway, what a great guy!

[RocketMoto]

Originally Posted by DayTrippin

Finally had a chance to play with it for a while.

{{snip}}

First of what a PITA to get the boom mic snaked under the chin bar each time. I have the XL version of the helmet and I don't think the boom is long enough. It always ends up not directly in front of my mouth.

{{snip}}


Sorry about the long post but I wanted to be as thorough as possible.

DT - Awesome review - thanks for taking the time to post!

The A0302 clamp unit has two mics - a mic that can mount on the chin bar - good for full face helmet, and a boom mic on a long lead that affixes to the shell of the helmet, behind the liner - great for flip helmets. Give us a call and we can set you up with one.

[DayTrippin]

Originally Posted by RocketMoto

DT - Awesome review - thanks for taking the time to post!

The A0302 clamp unit has two mics - a mic that can mount on the chin bar - good for full face helmet, and a boom mic on a long lead that affixes to the shell of the helmet, behind the liner - great for flip helmets. Give us a call and we can set you up with one.

That sounds like it might be just the ticket. I'll give you a call shortly. That is why I am glad I bought from great folks like you! Do they make this with an earbud option too?

I hope they'll come out with an option where it has the little speakers that you can unplug and use earphones when you want. They could easily add a little mini jack for an output assuming of course their little amp wouldn't overdrive the earphones.

[RocketMoto]

Originally Posted by DayTrippin

That sounds like it might be just the ticket. I'll give you a call shortly. That is why I am glad I bought from great folks like you! Do they make this with an earbud option too?

I hope they'll come out with an option where it has the little speakers that you can unplug and use earphones when you want. They could easily add a little mini jack for an output assuming of course their little amp wouldn't overdrive the earphones.

Tim:

The package is on da' way. We'll work on a sanitary way to add the earbuds over the winter.. Let's see now, that's how many winter projects I've committed to ???

[RocketMoto]

Just in time for the holidays...

AWESOME LOWER PRICES on all Sena headsets and clamp units!

Check out our first posting in this thread!

[airheadpenguin]

Great news!

[soph9]

how much for the dual set and how would you compare this to the Cardo G4?

[RocketMoto]

Originally Posted by soph9

how much for the dual set and how would you compare this to the Cardo G4?

Dual kits are now just $239... Yup - the best price on the planet.

The Sena and Scala G4 are both good choices - but if you read the reviews here, on other forums, and on WebBikeWorld.com, I think you find the sentiment is nearly unanimous, that the Sena SMH10 is *the* Bluetooth system headset to top.

[soph9]

we have the G4 and like them but they need to fix a few things like the VOX and the volume between phone calls and then back to music or radio....too loud even though you can lower the volume one needs to adjust big time in between...I have read the reviews....but from real life experience....why would I change? That is a hell of a deal.

[DayTrippin]

I had a chance to do a lot of high speed running today. By that I mean triple digit speeds (mph). My fiancee and I tried using VOX and PTT modes on the headsets. All I can say is the more I use them the happier I am.

First half of the day she used them without earplugs and I had my earplugs in. After midday she put in her earplugs as there was a vicious crosswind. We were able to converse quite well even at triple digit speeds. The earplugs definitely helped both of us. While they of course muted the volume a bit they blocked out a lot of ambient noise.

Only issue has been the VOX was getting triggered sometimes on its own when running over 90 mph. A gusty wind could trigger it on her helmet but never on mine. The VOX is actually pretty tough to activate and there is about a half second delay. Speaking loudly didn’t work too well for me. I found just a puff of air like you are spitting on the mic without the spit and that seem to work best. My fiancee got the hang of it pretty well. At first I heard her screaming in her helmet trying to activate VOX and they I showed her the “puff” technique and she was much happier. Then I realized I created a monster as she wouldn’t be quiet…

All in all she was thrilled with how well they worked and how it enhanced the intimacy of our ride together. The music was pretty close to the volume of our conversation so that was a nice plus. Battery was great as we (she) talked almost non-stop for about 7 hours on the road. I can tell you her headset was transmitting almost continuously the entire time.


One big plus is how quickly they recharge. I don't think I've ever needed to charge them over 2 hours. It seems about a 5:1 ratio with respect to charging and talk time. In other words if they are totally dead, each minute I can charge gives me about 5 minutes of talk time. One day I hadn't recharged the night before the ride and they had exhausted their batteries. I happened to have the charger with me and plugged each unit in for about 20 minutes a piece while we stopped for lunch. We had enough juice left for the balance of our ride which was about 90 minutes but the low battery light came right at the end of our ride.


We encountered absolutely no interference at all on our ride. Even in and around LA which has quite a few possible sources of interference we had no issues. There were only 2 instances where we couldn't get them to talk when trying to initiate a call. A quick restart of my unit and it was fine. One time it was possible my lady was trying to initiate a call to me at the same time. In the past that has resulted in us not being able to connect. The other time I am not sure what happened.


Now if can find an easy way to patch in my radar detector I'll be very happy. I thought about using a splitter and pairing it in with my wired mp3 connection. That wouldn't help though if we are using the intercom function. By myself it would be great but with my fiancee and her propensity to want to talk all the time, not so good.


The pairing still works great with my Blackberry and the bluetooth audio is very good from it as well. The mic does a pretty good job of noise canceling. Not perfect but very good under the vast majority of circumstances. I am pretty happy with the VOX now that I have it figured out how to make it work and once I factor in the slight delay that almost all VOX systems seem to have. Much easier than using PTT all the time. For a first gen product I am very pleased and look forward to what the next version will bring.

[soph9]

this set does not have a radio correct?

[g®eg]

Originally Posted by soph9

this set does not have a radio correct?

correct

[DayTrippin]

It does have a way to easily plug in via a 3.5 mm mini jack almost any mp3 player or radio. I use a little Sandisk Clip which has a built-in FM tuner. I use it to play the radio.

It would be cool in the next generation if they had a mic output to patch into a CB or other type of 2-way radio.

[jsa]

Using a first-generation Storm with the Sena SMH10. I received my replacement and all is working fine now. Very nice unit!

One thing with this combination is that the phone ringer volume is inaudibly low when the conversation volume is comfortable, but with the ringer volume at an audible (when riding) level, one is certain to be flirting with ear damage when the call connects. I cannot determine whether these volumes are independently adjustable (seems not) or whether they really should just automatically be transmitted at similar volumes.

A 90 minute call to Verizon tech support found no available adjustments within the phone software. Anybody else have a similar issue???

[Dorzok]

Originally Posted by DayTrippin

It does have a way to easily plug in via a 3.5 mm mini jack almost any mp3 player or radio. I use a little Sandisk Clip which has a built-in FM tuner. I use it to play the radio.

It would be cool in the next generation if they had a mic output to patch into a CB or other type of 2-way radio.

volume is quite a bit lower through the jack than a bluetooth connection though. what's nice is if you have a bluetooth MP3 player, the jack doesn't interfere with player's bluetooth connection. so passenger can plug into the player and the rider can stream via bluetooth. or visa-versa