Sena 20S Dual

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We've managed with a budget bluetooth helmet to helmet intercom for the past couple of years and it's been ok for chatting with pillion two-up or bike to bike if you stay close, it has struggled to connect to bike audio and sat nav. It needed to be paired to the bike manually each time I used it, which was a pain in the arse. Also, it has to be used with helmet speakers which struggle to be loud enough with earplugs in.

The Sena 20S has a socket to plug in-ear monitors into, which resolves the speaker issue. I'm told, by the man at the London bike show, that they are very effective at connecting to, and prioritising, multiple sources - bike (for radio, MP3 and sat nav), other unit (for conversations) and iPhone (though I doubt I'll ever need that). Also comes with an "app" on your phone to do all the settings, which is appealing.

Has anyone got experience with the Sena? Is it as easy to set up as I hope it will be? And, once paired to the bike, will it automatically pair and connect every time?

Bike is a K1600GT with the integrated Garmin sat nav, but I'm guessing all BMW systems are the same.

(I bought it from Adventure Bike Shop, who sponsor this bit of the site. Best price I could find via Ebay. £120 less than I was quoted at the London bike show...)
 
Got the Sena 202 dual , use it for both pillion and bike to bike.
Fully impressed with Sena for sound and pairing and multi function bluetooth can listen to uninterrupted music or sat nav and still hear intercom.
Speakers in headsets provided are 100% better sound than autocom/starcom units I was using before, but purchased a pair of moulded personal ear plugs with built in speakers that simply plug in to the headset base unit on the side of the helmet and automatically turn off the speakers in the helmet.
The benefit of the in ear plugs are that the sound stays constant level weather traveling at 30mph or 80mph and is very clear , with the in helmet speakers at higher speeds (unless behind a good screen) I have to turn the volume up so sound get slightly distorted. ((also cannot do you hearing any good playing at high volume )
Hope this helps
 
Got the Sena 202 dual , use it for both pillion and bike to bike.
Fully impressed with Sena for sound and pairing and multi function bluetooth can listen to uninterrupted music or sat nav and still hear intercom.
Speakers in headsets provided are 100% better sound than autocom/starcom units I was using before, but purchased a pair of moulded personal ear plugs with built in speakers that simply plug in to the headset base unit on the side of the helmet and automatically turn off the speakers in the helmet.
The benefit of the in ear plugs are that the sound stays constant level weather traveling at 30mph or 80mph and is very clear , with the in helmet speakers at higher speeds (unless behind a good screen) I have to turn the volume up so sound get slightly distorted. ((also cannot do you hearing any good playing at high volume )
Hope this helps

That's great to hear and exactly what I wanted to hear! Thanks.

I already have tinnitus so would never ride without earplugs. Having really loud speakers to outdo wind noise isn't a sensible set up, in my view, hence the preference for in-ear monitors like yours.

I'm still a bit confused over whether I need to pair with the bike and with the satnav, or just with the bike (which already outputs into the speakers when the speakers are on). I will need to experiment. Also, my pillion and I have different musical tastes, so she will want to pair with her phone to listen to her music while I pair to the bike with my MP3 plugged in or FM radio, but then still have the intercom working. So many things to play about with!

But it will be a vast improvement over existing set-up - intercom that works but isn't great at speed, no music, sat nav over bike speakers that is not really audible at high speed but then blares out instructions around town, scaring the natives!
 
+ 1 for the SENA had mine for three years, also with ear buds, have Shoei Neotec can cruise at 80 with either Sat Nav music, or IPhone digital Radio, great kit enjoy
 
I use Sena (albeit the 10U) and they're very good pieces of kit.
With regard to the in-ear buds vs speakers discussion, I've used both, Ultimate Ears with an Autocom SPA then when I swapped to Sena Bluetooth I reverted back to earplugs and speakers due to there being no input on the 10U for the earbuds. I was amazed that the sound quality for voice intercom and music was equally as good if not better using the Sena helmet speakers/earplugs than I previously had with the Ultimate ears, definitely a fuller more natural sound and less high end biased. Also less faff using earplugs than messing about with cabled ear buds.
Turning the volume up with speakers as opposed to using earbuds will make no difference to damage to hearing, it's the decibels that the eardrum receives that's important. It's much more important that unwanted noise from wind or the bike are reduced so earbuds need to be a noise attenuating type (custom fit or noise cancelling) or use earplugs.

Stu.
 
I use moulded earplugs all the time, and moulded earplugs with monitiors to listen to music intercom etc.

If you’re not using earplugs, then Turning up music to drown out the wind noise is subjecting your ears to a lot of decibels. Definitely at the ‘potential harm’ level. If the wind noise is (say) 80 dB and you have the speakers at the same level, total volume is 83 dB. To drown out the wind noise you probably need the music imuch louder than that and you’re going to be up around 90 dB before too long. That IS going to damage your hearing.

Put earplugs in to quieten the noise and while you’ll still need the music louder than wind noise to be heard the whole lot will be damped to a safe level.
 
The initial issue is the pairing choices you need to make and the sena manual can be complicated!
I choose to pair with a separate MP3 player and then pair my phone to my zumo 590 with the 590 paired to sena
This is because I rarely use phone on bike
Once paired zumo and mp3 always re connect when needed automatically
Sena finds ok
Bike to bike has been less good connecting even when properly paired to another 20s
I have never managed to pair or connect wit a mates Bmw system by that could be his fault!
With 3 other 20s it all works fine but the daisy chain issue can be a problem if one link goes out of range
Clarity is excellent range no more than half mile max
There is facility to use phones to increase range but not used it yet
Hth
 
Arrived yesterday and all seems to be working ok. Paired to each other and separate iPhones with no trouble, and mine connected to bike after a couple of goes.

I MIGHT be caught between two stools over volume though. With the Sena volume turned right down it is still very loud using in-ear monitors. But with normal moulded earplugs, I’m not sure speakers will be loud enough. I’ve been working away most of this week so haven’t had chance to try it properly.
 
I use Sena (albeit the 10U) and they're very good pieces of kit.
With regard to the in-ear buds vs speakers discussion, I've used both, Ultimate Ears with an Autocom SPA then when I swapped to Sena Bluetooth I reverted back to earplugs and speakers due to there being no input on the 10U for the earbuds. I was amazed that the sound quality for voice intercom and music was equally as good if not better using the Sena helmet speakers/earplugs than I previously had with the Ultimate ears, definitely a fuller more natural sound and less high end biased. Also less faff using earplugs than messing about with cabled ear buds.
Turning the volume up with speakers as opposed to using earbuds will make no difference to damage to hearing, it's the decibels that the eardrum receives that's important. It's much more important that unwanted noise from wind or the bike are reduced so earbuds need to be a noise attenuating type (custom fit or noise cancelling) or use earplugs.

Stu.

Hi.
So are you saying that you could hear the helmet speakers at speed even when wearing ear plugs ?

I only ask as I previously had UE in ear monitors with a Scala Packtalk.The UEs kept breaking so I then bought a Schuberth C4 with built in Comms/speakers etc but I couldn’t hear the music etc at anything over 50ish mph when wearing custom moulder ear plugs.

I’ve just bought a new Neotec 2 as didn’t like the C4.I’d like to get the Sena SRL kit for it when available which is integrated ,but doesn’t have the option to plug in custom monitors so would have to use the speakers/ear plugs.

The other option is to get the 20S or similar which will sit outside the helmet but let me plug in monitors.Also,I no longer have my UEs and wouldn’t touch them again as shite build quality,and there doesn’t seem to be much about.

I’m surprised if the Sena 20S speakers goes loud enough to hear at speed with ear plugs in as I believe the C4 SC1 kits are also made by Sena so would have assumed very similar if not identical speakers.
 
Hi.
So are you saying that you could hear the helmet speakers at speed even when wearing ear plugs ?

I only ask as I previously had UE in ear monitors with a Scala Packtalk.The UEs kept breaking so I then bought a Schuberth C4 with built in Comms/speakers etc but I couldn’t hear the music etc at anything over 50ish mph when wearing custom moulder ear plugs.

I’ve just bought a new Neotec 2 as didn’t like the C4.I’d like to get the Sena SRL kit for it when available which is integrated ,but doesn’t have the option to plug in custom monitors so would have to use the speakers/ear plugs.

The other option is to get the 20S or similar which will sit outside the helmet but let me plug in monitors.Also,I no longer have my UEs and wouldn’t touch them again as shite build quality,and there doesn’t seem to be much about.

I’m surprised if the Sena 20S speakers goes loud enough to hear at speed with ear plugs in as I believe the C4 SC1 kits are also made by Sena so would have assumed very similar if not identical speakers.

Yes. I'd originally used an Autocom SPA with my UE in-ear monitors and had held off going BT because I really wanted an integrated system not something stuck on the side of my helmet. I got a good price on a Sena 10U so decided if necessary I'd butcher it to be able to use the UE monitors. I set it all up to try it before attacking it with the soldering iron and to my surprise the volume and sound quality has been great, if anything music quality is better because there's better mid and bass. Also my disposable Howard Leight earplugs are much comfier on long days and do actually attenuate outside/wind noise better than the Ultimate Ears, my noise exposure is therefore reduced over the UE in ear monitors despite using higher volume from the Sena. The Sena 10U has the same speakers as the 20S and also the handlebar remote and I don't use it at full volume.

The only downside has been that although acceptable, nav instructions are not the same sound quality as my old Zumo/Autocom setup but I think it's due to the Zumo output being bluetooth rather than the wired setup I had with the Autocom, music is great quality though ... go figure!!

Stu.
 
Re speaker sound quality
My experience is that speakers are ok for sat nav instructions the quality is rubbish if you want to listen to music at anything over 15 mph!!
At touring speeds in ear speakers by UE mean sound quality for all inputs is excellent and allows volume to be kept down to less ear damaging levels
I can’t bring myself to believe music can be heard thru helmet speakers and earplugs with any decent sound quality at any volume level!!
 
BT sound quality of the Garmin instructions is poor, whatever means of hearing them. I’m surprised because music played ftom my old Zumo was really good.
 
I hope I’ll get the chance this weekend to go for a trial ride to see if the speakers are loud enough to be heard through moulded earplugs. I’ll let you know.
 
Re speaker sound quality
My experience is that speakers are ok for sat nav instructions the quality is rubbish if you want to listen to music at anything over 15 mph!!
At touring speeds in ear speakers by UE mean sound quality for all inputs is excellent and allows volume to be kept down to less ear damaging levels
I can’t bring myself to believe music can be heard thru helmet speakers and earplugs with any decent sound quality at any volume level!!

I have really shit hearing (I wear hearing aids but not when I’m on the bike). I have a Schuberth C3PRO with the SRC system and have covered thousands of miles from Denmark to Italy using it. I wear the squishy ear plugs but can easily hear my sat nav and music through the helmet speakers. Even at silly speeds on the autobahn. In fact I feel that sound is better when wearing ear plugs (I have often wondered if they are set up for exactly this purpose) as without ear plugs the sound is a bit tinny but with ear plugs the sound is just right. I did have to play with the positioning of the speakers a bit at first. I used the Velcro spacers provided to get them closer to my ears but once in the right place they are brilliant. Don’t just stick them in the recess of your helmet and expect them to work best straight away. Our ears are all in slightly different places (but generally on the side of our head) so experiment until you get the best result .

Just my opinion......
 


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