fhaze
Well-known member
Ever since I started riding a street bike, I have been plagued with an issue most of us encounter: How to enjoy hi fidelity music on the bike and cut down on the wind noise from the helmet.
I have an Autocom setup that I run my Zumo and Passport into, then I Bluetooth my Blackberry to the Zump (not to talk, but to see who is calling to determine if I need to call them back sooner rather than later.) This setup works, but the provided helmet speakers only sounded decent without any earplugs in, and to overcome any wind noise I would need to increase volume to a point that was waay too loud for practical purposes. I started experimenting using the foam earplugs to attenuate the noise. This worked OK, but it was too muffled and I had to really crank up the tunes and the fidelity was awful. I knew there must be a better way, so I began research.
I soon discovered that there was a solution to my problem: Custom Molded In-Ear Monitors. Nirvana!...but they are expensive. I saved up a few dollars and bit the bullet. I went to local audiologist and had pink goop crammed into my ears, and then 2 weeks later they arrived.
https://www.westone.com/content/221.html
The call came today, and was so excited I jumped on the bike in shorts and sneakers. I paid the guy, and fitted them in my ear holes and plugged everything in.
Fit was awesome, as you would expect from a custom mold, The rated sound reduction is 25db. This is a good rating IMO because you can still hear stuff around you. Unlike the 33-35 db foamies I was using that blocked out all sound pretty much.
Turned on the Zumo and the MP3 started playing. Vintage Aerosmith..and holy mother of god was it loud! I cranked down the volume to about 60% on the Zumo and things were a bit more normal. Still kinda loud, but bearable. The sound quality is excellent so far. My Mp3 collection is ripped at many bit rates, so I don't care how good your stuff is, if it's ripped at 64k its gonna sounds like ass. I will find some higher bit rate stuff and give a report, but I have feeling it will be positive.
If you are serious about your hearing, and enjoy riding with music, and having that music be good quality, I quote Ferris Bueller "If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up".
...oh I also fly alot for business, so these will also work extremely well on the plane for iPod or DVD use. This one one of the major factor in the decision to purchase. ( I wonder if they can be a business expense write off smile )
I have an Autocom setup that I run my Zumo and Passport into, then I Bluetooth my Blackberry to the Zump (not to talk, but to see who is calling to determine if I need to call them back sooner rather than later.) This setup works, but the provided helmet speakers only sounded decent without any earplugs in, and to overcome any wind noise I would need to increase volume to a point that was waay too loud for practical purposes. I started experimenting using the foam earplugs to attenuate the noise. This worked OK, but it was too muffled and I had to really crank up the tunes and the fidelity was awful. I knew there must be a better way, so I began research.
I soon discovered that there was a solution to my problem: Custom Molded In-Ear Monitors. Nirvana!...but they are expensive. I saved up a few dollars and bit the bullet. I went to local audiologist and had pink goop crammed into my ears, and then 2 weeks later they arrived.
https://www.westone.com/content/221.html
The call came today, and was so excited I jumped on the bike in shorts and sneakers. I paid the guy, and fitted them in my ear holes and plugged everything in.
Fit was awesome, as you would expect from a custom mold, The rated sound reduction is 25db. This is a good rating IMO because you can still hear stuff around you. Unlike the 33-35 db foamies I was using that blocked out all sound pretty much.
Turned on the Zumo and the MP3 started playing. Vintage Aerosmith..and holy mother of god was it loud! I cranked down the volume to about 60% on the Zumo and things were a bit more normal. Still kinda loud, but bearable. The sound quality is excellent so far. My Mp3 collection is ripped at many bit rates, so I don't care how good your stuff is, if it's ripped at 64k its gonna sounds like ass. I will find some higher bit rate stuff and give a report, but I have feeling it will be positive.
If you are serious about your hearing, and enjoy riding with music, and having that music be good quality, I quote Ferris Bueller "If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up".
...oh I also fly alot for business, so these will also work extremely well on the plane for iPod or DVD use. This one one of the major factor in the decision to purchase. ( I wonder if they can be a business expense write off smile )
