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Sena 20s

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mitchntx

mitchntx

Follower of Rev. Doug
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Mitch
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Warren
Not great at writing reviews like many are, but I'll give it a shot.

Read many forum posts around the net and watched hours of youtube videos and finally decided the Sena 20S was worth the chance.

UPS delivered it around 4. The unit was put on charge immediately. Weather cleared enough to go for a ride and I stopped at the Green Pickle in Glen Rose for a greasy hamburger.

Go home in time for Survivor and began the installation process.

Updated the firmware
DLed and installed the mobile app
DLed and installed the utility on my PC
Paired the unit with my phone a Samsung S3
Tested it before installation and everything checked out.

Began installing the pod, mic and earphones in a Shoei RF1000

Installation was completed and was making my first call with it before the first tribal council.

The person I called said it sounded no different than when I call normally.

I was amazed at the clarity of the music.

Voice commands worked fine.

All this was was while sitting in my air conditioned office. The test will come when I try it while riding.

At any rate, installation and setup was crazy easy.

:rider:
 
Looking forward to hearing more about this. I have the SMH10 and was considering a potential upgrade due to the speakers not fitting my new helmet speaker cutouts. I think it has smaller speakers than my current setup.
 
I was an early adopter of the SMH10 (the non-firmware upgradable one) which I jumped on Sena's cheap upgrade to the firmware upgradeable one. I'm just now starting to have issues with it. So I've gotten many years of good use out of it. So I'm thinking about upgrading to a 20s also. Or I may just snag the wife's SMH10 and use it. It isn't as old and has had far less use. I do like having the same mounts on all our helmets though, so that would change.

Hmm. Maybe a double upgrade is in order.
 
What is there to the mounts and changing between helmets for the 10? I have one now but want to be able to swap to a different helmet now that I have the GS.
 
I had the 10 and it was great. Upgraded to the 20s and it is just a great. The mount is a little larger on the 20 and sticks down below the base of the helmet more than the 10 did. But that I can deal with. Personally I liked the larger jog dial on the 10, but the 20 is still just as easy to use. I've taken a call on the highway at 80 before, and from what I could tell, the person calling me couldn't tell any difference.
 
willk675 said:
I've taken a call on the highway at 80 before, and from what I could tell, the person calling me couldn't tell any difference.
Click to expand...

Do you use a boom mic or the small button mic velcroed to a chin guard?

I have the pod mounted almost under my ear.
I can already tell I need to move it forward a couple inches, closer to my cheek.
Those of us with lobster claw hands, it will make it much easier to tap the unit for voice commands.
 
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I use the wired mic. On the 10s we could hear wind noise so we would tape a piece of foam over the mic with painters tape and that would really help.

I haven't had a chance to use it as comms yet, so I'm unsure of the amount of background noise it's picking up. So my first comment was just speculation.

But over all the vox and voice commands seem to work better than the 10s did. It's been a good upgrade IMHO.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
With my 10 I have different mounts on different helmets. On the flip up I use the remote boom (wire to boom which mounts near the flip up hing). On the other two, I think I have the boom that is part of the mount. There is a chance my wife's has the remote mic (just a mic with a wire). That is probably one of the things holding me back on getting the 20s. I'd need a couple of new mounts.
 
My wife wants us to pop for these bike to bike communicators as well. I've resisted so far, but it may be a requirement for our next ride to the northern states, you know, (British Columbia, Alberta). I tend to prefer peaceful focus on my riding with wind noise rather than chatter while on a bike, but maybe she has gotten less communicative since we owned original version chatterboxes :-)
 
Just turn the VOX off. Then you can tap the jog dial to connect and disconnect. She can chatter along to herself and press the button when you need to talk.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
i just bought one of these a week ago and finally got to test it out earlier this morning. I was going down I10 to San Felipe, TX and speed dialed my wife. She said it sounded like I was in a coffee shop! I was like nope Im moving at a good clip through traffic down I10! I am using the small MIC not the boom one. The only thing I don't like is the speakers, I installed them in my shoei and with earplugs in I can barely hear the music. I rather have earbuds installed which I am going to swap them out later tonight. Haven't had a chance to use the rider to rider comms yet though....
 
I had that happen as well. Not hearing the music well. I found that my iPhone volume needed to be up all the way or it limited the max volume the the Sena could put out. I could hear it well with ear plugs in my GTAir with the little foam pads over the speakers. Then again, I'm on a fared bike so maybe that's a difference. Thanks for the review.
 
Xdriver said:
I had that happen as well. Not hearing the music well. I found that my iPhone volume needed to be up all the way or it limited the max volume the the Sena could put out. I could hear it well with ear plugs in my GTAir with the little foam pads over the speakers. Then again, I'm on a fared bike so maybe that's a difference. Thanks for the review.
Click to expand...

my volume was maxed out on the iPhone and Sena as it would make the beep beep letting me know thats all it could go. U can hear the speakers were very distorted once you slowed down so I had to adjust the volume a lot. Im one of those guys how has to have the music very loud and crisp anyway because of being around jet engines for 10 years:eek2:

My speed triple has 0 wind protection so yea if you have good wind protection I would imagine you wouldn't have those issues....its a great little gadget...
 
I have noticed in that the sound with phone calls is not that loud with earplugs in. Same with the speech for the voice commands. Although part of it may have been as stated, the dual volume controls (iPhone & Sena). Part of it as well could be my helmets. My shoei has been retired and my other two helmets (7zero7 & Scorpion) do have a bit of noise to them. Even more when I'm on the versys sitting upright than when I'm on the Daytona675. I'm planning on getting a GT-Air next month (when funds allow), and looking forward to seeing how it fairs on the noise level, and ability to hear the Sena.
 
byrdman said:
my volume was maxed out on the iPhone and Sena as it would make the beep beep letting me know thats all it could go. U can hear the speakers were very distorted once you slowed down so I had to adjust the volume a lot. Im one of those guys how has to have the music very loud and crisp anyway because of being around jet engines for 10 years:eek2:

My speed triple has 0 wind protection so yea if you have good wind protection I would imagine you wouldn't have those issues....its a great little gadget...
Click to expand...

good info ya'all. I always wear earplugs and it seems I'd still be able to hear/talk on it, so that is great news. I spent too much time with electric guitars as well as motorcycles with expansion chambers in my life...
 
On the earplugs note.. I got a pair of custom molded earplugs. Ones that have a channel and flap in them, so that you can still hear normal sounds... these to be exact...http://shooterplugs.com/Products.html -- BigShot "S"

I could hear the Sena even less. The wind noise was more prevalent, as well as my ungodly loud exhaust on the 675. I found I could hear the Sena better with standard foam earplugs.

I unfortunately lost the custom molded plugs, but will be getting another pair (their great at the gun range). But now that I have the Versys and am looking at a quieter helmet, I will be looking forward to seeing how that setup fairs with getting more volume out of the Sena while cutting down on damaging sounds. I've also considered trying the NoNoise earplugs, as they are the same concept of cutting damaging sounds and still allowing low decibel to be heard.
 
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Well the 675 Daytona is a busy exhaust note for sure as are the piped street triples. My 800 Tiger is barely noticeable at 75mph with plugs and the shuberth C3pro I finally popped for. I buy the big cases of earplugs about once every 2 years and am happy with any of em claiming over 32db reductions.
 
With the smh10, the speakers need to be very close to your ears and aimed right at your ear canal. If you do that then they are very loud. Just a little off and big difference.
 
Ok, don't have any option on moving the speakers much but will try that later. My new AFX41 is definitely noise than the 39. It is much better on the r1200gs over the F650.
Will love to find an arai on sale .
 
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One of my Sena mounts came with little velco disks things. They work like spacers and let me offset the speakers slightly from the helmet speaker pockets. Worked great on my Neotec to get them close and lined up with my ears. Basically they are hook on one side and loop on the other with a little bit of filler between.
 
I had the older Q2 sets for a while. Found that speaker placement was crucial for having enough volume to overcome hearing protection. Are the newer speakers still as directional? I had to shift the Q2s around a couple of time to get adequate sound in both sides.
 
SENA sells an earbud base. You can even get a base now that has both inhelmet speakers and an earbud connection. I use the earbud base. With the lower volume needed to drive the speakers I also noticed an increase in battery life.
 
Update ...

Sena specific voice commands work very well, once the cadence and exact words in the exact order are learned.

Folks on the other end of my call tell me its as clear as when I used the hands free in my truck. But at speed, its tough to hear the caller.

I have a Shoei RF and wish the speakers were set back into the skin a bit more.

But, it's still better than anything else I've used.
 
I haven't learned the sena voice commands yet. Which is ok. The only one I need and use is to turn on the FM Radio.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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