Stonker
Registered user
I'm going to buy a Zumo 660 and a new helmet soon. What is the best system for music sound quality?
Best Bluetooth system to work with Garmin?
- Thread starter Stonker
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Grey Beard
Registered user
I don't have any comparative experience of different systems but will give you my experiences so far.
I have the Zumo 660 and a Schuberth C3 Helmet with the Schuberth (Schuberth Rider Communications) SRC System. I like the wireless system and the Schuberth SRC System sits flush into the helmet and so should minimise air turbulence.
So far so good! I have a 1200 GSA and am 6'4" tall. I get a lot of wind noise from the screen, which has been reduced by approximately 50% by fitting a Touratech Screen Extension.
I think the music sound quality is OK when testing stationary, but particularly music (MP3) is not really loud enough to compete with the wind noise (despite the automatic gain feature on the volume).
I have now bought a pair of Logitech Ultimate Ear 700 ear buds and will fit 3.5mm jacks to the Schuberth SRC System to allow me to use the ear buds. These give 26 dBA noise reduction and will give superior sound quality. You can get sound reducing ear buds with good quality speakers from Ultimate Ear Systems (PM Judge of this parish) for the SoundEar model. These give better sound attenuation (30-31 dBA quoted) but require your ears to be fitted with silicone moulds to ensure a good fit. This makes things a little more expensive. It will depend how much biking you do and how much you want to spend.
I think others will recommend you a wired system using an Autocom, etc. but I prefer the BlueTooth route and no wires.
Your choice of helmet will of course, likely be governed by the fit of the helmet on your head, so Schuberth may not be suitable. There are several other communications systems you can use however.
Grey Beard
I have the Zumo 660 and a Schuberth C3 Helmet with the Schuberth (Schuberth Rider Communications) SRC System. I like the wireless system and the Schuberth SRC System sits flush into the helmet and so should minimise air turbulence.
So far so good! I have a 1200 GSA and am 6'4" tall. I get a lot of wind noise from the screen, which has been reduced by approximately 50% by fitting a Touratech Screen Extension.
I think the music sound quality is OK when testing stationary, but particularly music (MP3) is not really loud enough to compete with the wind noise (despite the automatic gain feature on the volume).
I have now bought a pair of Logitech Ultimate Ear 700 ear buds and will fit 3.5mm jacks to the Schuberth SRC System to allow me to use the ear buds. These give 26 dBA noise reduction and will give superior sound quality. You can get sound reducing ear buds with good quality speakers from Ultimate Ear Systems (PM Judge of this parish) for the SoundEar model. These give better sound attenuation (30-31 dBA quoted) but require your ears to be fitted with silicone moulds to ensure a good fit. This makes things a little more expensive. It will depend how much biking you do and how much you want to spend.
I think others will recommend you a wired system using an Autocom, etc. but I prefer the BlueTooth route and no wires.
Your choice of helmet will of course, likely be governed by the fit of the helmet on your head, so Schuberth may not be suitable. There are several other communications systems you can use however.
Grey Beard
stephen.stallebrass
Registered user
I have the zumo 660 and the interphone f4 with a cheap flip front Nitro helmet and the sound is good even with ear plugs. Of course quality would be improved with a better helmet (by better I mean less wind noise - its a loud helmet without ear plugs, but I always wear them unless I'm just going through town). The sound would be even better with a dedicated pair of Ultimate Soundear customised plugs but I aint got round to getting them yet... WebBikeWorld have done some good reviews on bluetooth devices. I went with the F4 over the cardo g4 in the end because of the better sound volume, probably due to the thickness of the ear piece?
Stonker
Registered user
Thanks guys. I do already have some moulded ultimate ear phones. If I just use them with my mp3 player sound is acceptable but I do find inferior to half decent headphones
tried all the cheap ones carberg etc but the best ive found so fat with a flip is a system 5 and bmw own bluetooth. even had a c3 with bluetooth and i think except the sun shield the system 5 is better
Stonker
Registered user
Sadly, anything BWM isn't an option for me.....
what bike is it for?
Stonker
Registered user
I want it to interface with a zumo 660 so it can be any bike
I'm using a jabra bt3030 with moulded monitors and a zumo 660. Fine for music and prompts, have to stop and shout at the thing to make a call.
See http://www.jabra.com/sites/mobile/ee-uk/products/pages/jabrabt3030.aspx
See http://www.jabra.com/sites/mobile/ee-uk/products/pages/jabrabt3030.aspx
the viper lids are very good bluetooth but very noisy without a big screen in front of you, music is good and microphone in the chinbar for the phone is great upto 70, however wouldnt want to test it in a spill
Stonker
Registered user
Is the jabra stereo?
The viper lids aren't very expensive. Are they any good?
As I have the Scubeth C2 at the mo, I am tempted be the C3 integrated solution
The viper lids aren't very expensive. Are they any good?
As I have the Scubeth C2 at the mo, I am tempted be the C3 integrated solution
For £150 the vipers are very good value try one. Good fit but as I said noisy and wouldn't want to test in a spill
Grey Beard
I am also 6' 4'' and ride a GSA, (what else) and wear a C3 that I have fitted with the SRC system, that as you say is very convenient.
I had a fair bit of buffeting and noise from the screen so I tried the Touratech screen extension which improved things but was a little unsightly and I was always worried about it getting nicked. I bought an extra large GSA screen from Z tecknik and it has reduced the wind noise and turbulence far better than the extension and also improved the weather protection.
The quality is as good as the original, if not better and all the holes lined up perfect.
http://shop.ztechnik.com/cgi-bin/ztech/Z2418.html?search_model=bm-062
http://www.fechter.de/
Grey Beard
Registered user
Hello Big Red
Thanks for that link. I have never heard of that particular screen. I don't see the GSA 2008 version listed there and I thought the GS and GSA mountings are different. I am a little (pleasantly) surprised at the price if it is circa €189. Most of these screens seem to run circa €500 or so.
I will give these people a call on Monday. Never seem to stop adding bits & pieces to this bike, but I thought I now had everything finalised!!
Cheers for the links and info
Just a question- Do you notice any difference in fuel consumption with this bigger screen fitted? I thought I noticed a difference, even with the Touratech small extension on the original GSA screen.
Grey Beard
Shipwreck
Registered user
I have the Sena SMH10 and use that with my Zumo 550. Crystal clear and issues with pairing. 
Grey Beard
Registered user
PM for Big Red
Big Red
You have a PM
Grey Beard
Big Red
You have a PM
Grey Beard
Re: jabra, yep a2dp stereo... Cheap off amazon, for some reason the black one was more expensive, so went white, it's hidden under jacket anyway.
andyclift
Registered user
Just come back from trip to Croatia and Bosnia. Before we left we bought a pair of Scala G4 headsets as it was almost impossible to find a way of fitting the Autocom and PMR radio in the limited space on my wife's new F650GS. WOW.
I have a 660 on my bike (GSA) and my wife has a 550 on hers.
We had always been very happy with the Autocom system but the G4 blows it out of the water. Even at 130 mph on autobahn (my bike going downhill not hers) I could have a clear conversation with my wife and the nav instructions were very clear. The music is a little tinny but on a noisy bike that is no big deal and I think the speakers are designed for clear speech which will adversly affect music.
My wife had no problems pairing the G4s with her 550 BUT if the MP3 player is used it completely blocks bike to bike comms as the 550 output will take priority. This is not the case with the 660 though. The instructions take priority over chat but on the 660 the mp3 player uses a different channel and chat overrides the mp3. I did initially have a problem getting the 660 set up properly to get the music on a lower priority and the manual is a bit of a dogs breakfast. An email to Scala brought a long and detailed reply on how to reset everything and pair it all in the right order and no problems since.
The only problems we had while away were having both headsets paired to their respective satnavs as the satnavs tended to give their instructions at slightly different times. Satnav comms takes priority over everything so we could not talk when either satnav was talking. This resulted in long periods in towns when the instructions closely followed on when we could not talk. A bit of a sod when the different units wanted to go different ways. In Belgium we both finished up disabling the Garmin speed camera warnings as their were so many of them the satnavs were constantly pinging and we could never get a clear channel. This is not really a Scala problem but it would be nice if the channel priority was user definable. I think I may prefer to have chat take the priority and if it means it butts in over a satnav instruction I will just have to look at the screen.
I have a 660 on my bike (GSA) and my wife has a 550 on hers.
We had always been very happy with the Autocom system but the G4 blows it out of the water. Even at 130 mph on autobahn (my bike going downhill not hers) I could have a clear conversation with my wife and the nav instructions were very clear. The music is a little tinny but on a noisy bike that is no big deal and I think the speakers are designed for clear speech which will adversly affect music.
My wife had no problems pairing the G4s with her 550 BUT if the MP3 player is used it completely blocks bike to bike comms as the 550 output will take priority. This is not the case with the 660 though. The instructions take priority over chat but on the 660 the mp3 player uses a different channel and chat overrides the mp3. I did initially have a problem getting the 660 set up properly to get the music on a lower priority and the manual is a bit of a dogs breakfast. An email to Scala brought a long and detailed reply on how to reset everything and pair it all in the right order and no problems since.
The only problems we had while away were having both headsets paired to their respective satnavs as the satnavs tended to give their instructions at slightly different times. Satnav comms takes priority over everything so we could not talk when either satnav was talking. This resulted in long periods in towns when the instructions closely followed on when we could not talk. A bit of a sod when the different units wanted to go different ways. In Belgium we both finished up disabling the Garmin speed camera warnings as their were so many of them the satnavs were constantly pinging and we could never get a clear channel. This is not really a Scala problem but it would be nice if the channel priority was user definable. I think I may prefer to have chat take the priority and if it means it butts in over a satnav instruction I will just have to look at the screen.
zimzimmer
Registered user
SENA SMH10 / Interphone
Apparently the SENA SMH10 or Interphone F4 are the only ones to consider and if using the BMW Navigator IV SENA.
Both apparently superb quality with the exception of the F4's mounts which can break, SENA sell custom mounts and you can buy one for earbuds.
I've had a look around the forums and ordered one from www.sportsrider.co.uk this afternoon, cheapest price at £149 solo / £289 dual.
Apparently the SENA SMH10 or Interphone F4 are the only ones to consider and if using the BMW Navigator IV SENA.
Both apparently superb quality with the exception of the F4's mounts which can break, SENA sell custom mounts and you can buy one for earbuds.
I've had a look around the forums and ordered one from www.sportsrider.co.uk this afternoon, cheapest price at £149 solo / £289 dual.
andyclift
Registered user
Following up last post, not sure who suggested that the SENA SMH10 or Interphone F4 are the only ones to consider. I found the Scala G4 absolutely brilliant
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