Bluetooth or In-Ear?

I'm planning to get a Garmin 590LM and want to do either Bluetooth device in my helmet such as the Sena products, OR have In-Ear monitors fitted and made for me. I realize I would have a cable with the In-Ear device. I don't really care about talking on my phone, pretty much want to use it for hearing the GPS directions and music. Kind of leaning toward the In-Ear's but I see the many benefits of the Sena product as well.

Would like to hear thoughts from y'all that have experience with one or the other, or both.

Thanks!

You will have better sound with the ear buds.

If the concern of the Sena option is the outside-of-the-ear speakers, they have a base plate/mount option that allows you to plug in a standard 3.5mm jack so you can use whatever in-ear headphones you want. And yet you're still wireless from the bike itself.

I would go Bluetooth, the Sena has a jack for ear buds if you have a hard time hearing over the wind noise.

I used to use speakers with my Sena - Great for around town, great for throw the helmet on and go. Not so great for highway speeds - I was running at full volume all the time. I switched to the head phone base and now wear some run of the mill buds. The sound is better but is takes a few more minutes to put on the helmet. I wouldn't go back the sound is much better and less volume is required.

I have the Sena. Depending on your helmet and how it fits you, you can put foam spacers behind the speakers in your helmet to position the speakers closer to your ears...even touching them if you like.

Even at highway speeds the music has always been plenty loud enough and I can still hear what is going on around me fairly well.

I tried riding with earbuds years ago and didn't like it at all. Seemed to throw my balance off. I know lots of other people that have no problems using them tho. Depends on your ears I guess.

As others have mentioned, the Sena system does have an earphone jack so you could try it both ways.

The sena sm10 requires an additional base to plug the earbuds into. The 20s comes with a ear port. I only use the speakers in town and short trips.

I use in-ear monitors. Better for my hearing, great sound, and it kills the roar while allowing regular traffic sounds. Part of why I ride is to be off comms. I can see texts or missed calls on the iPhone mounted up high, but I don't want to talk to anyone while I'm riding.

I use Big Ear earspeakers plugged into a Motorola S705 SoundPilot Bluetooth receiver that I pair with my Garmin 665LM and drop into my inside jacket pocket. Works great and an alternative to Sena with nothing hanging off your helmet.

I also use a Sena SMH10, and have used the ear buds. When I very first got mine, the ear bud base didn't work, so I rode from Albuquerque to North Carolina using ear plugs and the speakers. That was ok, but not good. I got the ear bud base in NC, and have used only that ever since.

If you go this route, make absolutely sure you isolate the Sena base plug from tension created by your ear buds. If you dont, you will break that cheesy connector off every couple months. The picture below shows how mine is connected. With this set up, I never touch the Sena base. I just plug my buds into the dangly. The coil plug is Sena's and gives plenty of extra for taking the helmet off and messing around. I have had this base for a couple years, thanks to the way the cord is set up.

I'll echo mikeames, Bill Lumberg, and HotRodZilla: I use the Sena in-helmet speakers for in-town and quick trips. Road and engine noise call for the EarFuze DIY fitted earbuds inserted into the 20S earphone jack -- meaning it's still bluetoothed and you can dismount without yanking your head around or breaking your cabling.

Audio quality is fabulous; external noise is significantly reduced, although you can still hear horns and sirens.

My issue is with the Garmin audio quality. The Sena plays music from my iPhone that's equal to the stereo in my living room. The Garmin audio quality is total crap. Wouldn't be a problem, except longer trips (6 hours or more) require the larger song library stored on the Garmin. (660 model) Somebody tell me how I'm doing it wrong, please.

Sena 20S is the better setup for this use. It's very easy to use and switch back and forth between the ear buds or the in helmet speakers. And unlike the Sena SMH10 that I had, I don't have to worry about messing up the ear buds cord.

I have not had a chance to use the Garmin 590 so I'm no help there.

Bill Lumberg said:

I use in-ear monitors. Better for my hearing, great sound, and it kills the roar while allowing regular traffic sounds.

Click to expand...

Actually, somewhat counter-intuitively, in ear monitors are not better for your hearing, at least not as compared to using good earplugs and the helmet speakers, for a couple of reasons:

One is that the attenuation of the in-ear monitors, even the custom form fitted ones, is less than what you can get with properly fitted earplugs. Even foam disposable earplugs can deliver -30 to -33 dB (equivalent to 1000 to 2000:1) of attenuation. Ear monitors are lucky to deliver -20 dB (100:1) if they are rated at all. So right off the bat you are looking at having up to 10 times more road noise get through to your ear drums.

Yes, when you try to listen to the helmet speakers you do have to crank up the volume of the amplifiers to hear the music, but remember that the music is also being attenuated 1000:1 or more by the ear plugs, so the power level of the audio reaching your ear drum is small.

In the case of an in ear monitor the sound is being shot , and ducted by your ear canal, directly at your sensitive ear drum with no attenuation at all. Since the noise attenuation is less it actually takes a higher level of acoustic sound pressure delivered to the eardrum just to hear the audio at the same signal to noise ratio as when using the ear plugs and speakers.

There is no question that the in ear monitor delivers far better quality of sound. The distortion picked up by horribly over-driving the helmet speakers is considerable. Plus the earplugs do not attenuate all frequencies perfectly equally, so the sound fidelity suffers. But from strictly a hearing safety standpoint you are better protected by using earplugs and helmet speakers.

I already have some occupational hearing loss from back when I was young and foolish and didn't wear earplugs around the noisy machines we work on, so I try to protect what's left vs. getting the best in sound quality. The sound quality may be poor, but it can be entertaining at certain times. Other times I just listen to the bike. If I want to listen to some high fidelity music I do that in the living room, not on the bike.

As with most other things, YMMV

Hi,

I have the Sena SMH- A303 base that allows the use of In-Ear monitors.

I use Earmolds, a real good hi quality speaker system.

The Earmolds are made for each ear, reduces any ambient noise so you do not have to listen to loud music.

Friggin fantastic.

Uncle Hud said:

My issue is with the Garmin audio quality. The Sena plays music from my iPhone that's equal to the stereo in my living room. The Garmin audio quality is total crap. Wouldn't be a problem, except longer trips (6 hours or more) require the larger song library stored on the Garmin. (660 model) Somebody tell me how I'm doing it wrong, please.

Click to expand...

Hud,

I'm still a huge fan of the 20S, but that is one of the cons of this unit. I had a lengthy conversation with a Sena rep at the BMW MOA Nat'l in Billings this past year about that very subject. The 20S only has one A2DP circuit (stereo) and 2 mono circuits, so whichever device you pair to first will be in stereo and any devices you pair to with "2nd pairing" will only be in mono. I had a similar situation where I wanted to pair my phone first for the A2DP stereo since I have 4000 songs on my I-phone but I also pay for a subscription to XM through my Zumo 665, so it was get stereo from one or the other but not both. The rep said, Just pair your phone first & then play your XM through the I-phone XM app, and I said OK that makes sense, but then later realized you have to have unlimited streaming for the XM app, which I don't. So now on long trips I just listen to my I-phone music in stereo with mono Garmin directions and skip using XM. I use the XM while commuting to work (20 miles each way) by using earbuds directly to the Zumo without using my Sena.

Hopefully Sena will step up in the future and create multiple A2DP circuits to alleviate this problem.

I Ok with the 590 and sena 10 with speakers. To many years of guns,loud machines and not wearing earplugs while riding so sound quality isn't that important to me. I really don't know enough to know what I don't know anyway.

Having tried both options, I agree with FredW.

Currently using Moldex M6604-200 Spark Disposable Earplugs which are the best foamies I've ever used. You can buy a box of 200 on Amazon for about $21 shipped.

If you're not going to need to connect with a bunch of other headsets in a group, the Sena 3S is a nice option for $89. I've got the boom version in my modular Neotec and like it. I can hear music/nav directions just fine with the earplugs installed (fully seated in the ear canal). Mounting the speakers in the helmet so that they line up correctly with your ears makes a big difference.

Mudslide Miller said:

Uncle Hud said:

My issue is with the Garmin audio quality. The Sena plays music from my iPhone that's equal to the stereo in my living room. The Garmin audio quality is total crap. Wouldn't be a problem, except longer trips (6 hours or more) require the larger song library stored on the Garmin. (660 model) Somebody tell me how I'm doing it wrong, please.

Click to expand...

Hud,

I'm still a huge fan of the 20S, but that is one of the cons of this unit. I had a lengthy conversation with a Sena rep at the BMW MOA Nat'l in Billings this past year about that very subject. The 20S only has one A2DP circuit (stereo) and 2 mono circuits, so whichever device you pair to first will be in stereo and any devices you pair to with "2nd pairing" will only be in mono. I had a similar situation where I wanted to pair my phone first for the A2DP stereo since I have 4000 songs on my I-phone but I also pay for a subscription to XM through my Zumo 665, so it was get stereo from one or the other but not both. The rep said, Just pair your phone first & then play your XM through the I-phone XM app, and I said OK that makes sense, but then later realized you have to have unlimited streaming for the XM app, which I don't. So now on long trips I just listen to my I-phone music in stereo with mono Garmin directions and skip using XM. I use the XM while commuting to work (20 miles each way) by using earbuds directly to the Zumo without using my Sena.

Hopefully Sena will step up in the future and create multiple A2DP circuits to alleviate this problem.

Click to expand...

On another post I was reading that there are 2 A2DP circuits. Perhaps I did not read it correctly...see here...

https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/166327-sena-20s-version-16-provides-second-a2dp-channel/

Mudslide Miller posted: ..... The 20S only has one A2DP circuit (stereo) and 2 mono circuits, so whichever device you pair to first will be in stereo and any devices you pair to with "2nd pairing" will only be in mono. <trimmed>
Hopefully Sena will step up in the future and create multiple A2DP circuits to alleviate this problem.

Click to expand...

I noticed the A2DP and HFP protocols, too, and tried to force my Garmin into the A2DP connection by waiting to pair the phone. It didn't work, but I think that's because I had not deleted both devices from my Sena "pairing history" and the Garmin just kept pairing as an HFP device. Should get a little free time this week to experiment with a Sena reset and re-pairing.

<edit after Iris's post> ... and will double-check that I have the latest software on the headset.

As for the earbuds/monitors versus in-helmet speakers and earplugs: If you turn up the music loud enough to hear your speakers through sound-deadening earplugs, how can that NOT be as damaging as other noise, like rotating machinery or an FJR engine? I mean, if the noise is loud enough to reach my eardrums through sound-deadening earplugs, won't it still be damaging?

BY THE WAY, Mr. Original Poster, either choice (earbud vs in-helmet speaker) is a Bluetooth connection on my bike.