Sena SMH10 and earplugs

[Aasland]

I ask because my wife and my buddy do that and complain that they can't hear anything. So I tried it, and sure enough, I can barely hear the music playing. If the phone wasn't telling me what it was, I wouldn't know Metallica from Mahler.

It's not a big deal for me, as I use the baseplate with earphone plug and customized Etymotic's. But it sure would be nice to have enough volume such that I wouldn't need any wires at all.

 

[Burnspot]

When I have my SMH10 mounted in my helmet and use foamy ear plugs, I can hear everything just fine. I would suggest adjusting the speaker placement...I had to fiddle with mine a bit before I found the "sweet spot". Unfortunately though, my X11's ear pockets aren't deep enough to accommodate the Sena's bigger speakers without creating extremely painful pressure points on my ears (feels very comfortable at first, but then ears are burning after a couple of hours), so I've relegated the Sena to the bench until I get a new helmet with deeper pockets (my X11 is very long in the tooth).

 

[raitchison]

I don't use earplugs but I've found speaker placement is key, here is what I did to get it right:

1. Place your helmet on your head as you would when riding.

2. Place your finger in your helmet to find the entrance to your ear canal

3. Keeping your finger in place (relative to the helmet) remove the helmet.

4. Mark the point of your finger inside the helmet with a sharpie or other marking implement.

5. Affix velcro discs (those provided or ones you can buy at a hardware store) centered over the marked point

6. Mount speakers onto velcro discs, test fit and adjust speaker placement as desired.

7. Repeat steps 1-6 for other ear.

 

[Harald]

I used to wear the Howard Leight MAX earplugs and they worked too good to use with my Sena. Switched to the yellow foam EAR Classic plugs that have less attenuation and all is well.

 

[Aasland]

Thanks for the advice. I did a little test today.

Sitting at my desk I inserted a custom plug in one ear - I'd say it blocks about 32-34 NRR, as I have the Max Leight's too and they are comparable. The other ear gets a no-roll 22db earplug.

Then I just hold the Sena speaker up to my ears - first left, then right, and see how it sounds. They aren't mounted in the helmet .. I have the bracket on my desk.

Sure enough ... I can find a "sweet spot". But with the custom plugs it isn't enough to listen to podcasts or anything requiring understanding. The other plug (NRR 22) is better, but I know it won't be enough to overcome wind noise. With the NRR 22's the wind noise is barely tolerable at speed which is why I rarely use them.

If more of you chime in and say "not a problem" I'll leave Sena customer service alone and just chalk it up being too picky, knowing how nice it is with podcasts/music piped directly in.

 

[blkredlinedrvr]

I hear fine using typical disposable ear plugs. I have to have the unit turned up as far as it goes but I hear just fine with them in. If the speaker is out of alignment with your ear canal by even a quarter of an inch it can make a huge difference in how much of that volume reaches your ear.

I probably will wind up switching to the in-ear phone baseplate in the future though because I really liked my SURE earbuds.

 

[JET]

I have the SENA unit also. I think the sound quality is crappola. So I'm trying to find a headphone set that I can cannibalize the speakers out of. I bought the Sena accesory unit that allowes you to plug earbuds in and I will use that 3.5mm port for my speakers, once I find some. Then if it works I'm going to outfit my passengers helmet the same. I'm getting tired of hearing "I can't hear you" because the speakers are not aligned properly in the helmet....

 

[Aasland]

I have the SENA unit also. I think the sound quality is crappola. So I'm trying to find a headphone set that I can cannibalize the speakers out of. I bought the Sena accesory unit that allowes you to plug earbuds in and I will use that 3.5mm port for my speakers, once I find some. Then if it works I'm going to outfit my passengers helmet the same. I'm getting tired of hearing "I can't hear you" because the speakers are not aligned properly in the helmet....

I'm guessing that the baseplate with 3.5mm jack doesn't amplify nearly enough to drive full on speakers.

 

[Enn]

I also use Sena and can not complain about the loudness of the sound, more than enough. But the quality of the sound for music is crap, no basses and misses many other frequencies as well. However, I am too lazy to start using in-ear plugs, it would add one more operation is setting myself up for a drive. So if anybody knows any really good loudspeakers for helmet, I would be grateful.

By the way, my wife also complained about not hearing me, but it always turned out she had turned the volume down. And sometimes she managed to get the mic out of the helmet, in front of it, so that the wind noise killed all the speech. Took some time to train her ...

 

[JET]

Aasland

Yeah, right on about the amplification. I might have to do a separate amplifier to handle it.

+1 on the passenger training Enn!

 

[Geno]

I just got the Sena unit the other day. I mounted it ( with the speakers) in my Scorpion Exo-1000 . It paired easily with my Zumo 665 and phone, but the sound quality, IMHO, just wasn't cutting it at highway speeds. Listening to XM and MP3 was barely tolerable. I had been using Etymotic ER6 in-ear monitors with my IPod and like the fact that they block most of the wind/road/bike noise plus sound very good for music. I had ordered the Sena accessory mount for earphones, and that was the ticket for me. I still have to put the earbuds in, but the noise isolation and sound quality are very good, and my wife can talk to me...( is that a plus?...Not so sure)

 

[russperry]

I ask because my wife and my buddy do that and complain that they can't hear anything. So I tried it, and sure enough, I can barely hear the music playing. If the phone wasn't telling me what it was, I wouldn't know Metallica from Mahler.

It's not a big deal for me, as I use the baseplate with earphone plug and customized Etymotic's. But it sure would be nice to have enough volume such that I wouldn't need any wires at all.

I use the Howard Leight 33's and with everything turned up max (iPod and Sena) I can hear most music OK even at freeway speeds inside of my Bell Star helmet. The Star has pretty deep pockets so the speaker fit in fine without pressing in on my ears.

The only trouble I have is with some of my tracks which were recorded at lower levels making them difficult to hear. Most however are fine. If I was really inclined, I'd find some software that would open mp3's then allow level adjustments to those that are currently too low then everything would be fine.

Of course everything is better when I'm on my FJR and there's less wind noise to deal with overall.

 

[Harald]

The only trouble I have is with some of my tracks which were recorded at lower levels making them difficult to hear. Most however are fine. If I was really inclined, I'd find some software that would open mp3's then allow level adjustments to those that are currently too low then everything would be fine.

I had the same issue when I started using my Sena with earplugs in my ears. I found a great freeware program called Mp3 Gain that easily adjusts the gain on all your songs in the Zumo to the same level (or you can adjust all songs in a folder to the same level). It takes a little while to adjust, but requires no user interaction so just set it up and walk away. You can download it HERE .