Autocom Volume withor without mic.

Hi All
Just a quicky. Have just installed an autocom but with ultimate ear plugs the volume isnt great.
I know the mic will reduce the volume when noise/talking but if i remove the mic altogether will this have any effect on the volume......
ie it sees an open circuit therefore adjusts volume to a standaed vox setting ???
cheers

1) Check that the speakers are positioned correctly over your ears as per the instructions. It should be "deafening" without any earplugs in.
2) If you turn the VOX control fully anticlockwise ("hardest") setting that should be enough to stop the microphone cutting the volume.
3) The other thing is to disconnect all the other inputs apart from the music to see whether any other input is reducing the volume.

Autocom went from a 5- to a 7-pin connection some years ago in order to maximise the volume from their units to cater for earplug wearers.
In-ear monitors are also a possibility.

beemerboy9 said:

In-ear monitors are also a possibility.

Click to expand...

Bazza - am I right in thinking that what you are saying here is that the earplugs are blocking out more noise than you want?

If that's the case I'd suggest doing what beemerboy9 has said and make sure you've got the Autocom set up 'just right'.

If you're still not hearing what you want then there are a couple of options. One is the In-ear monitor option.

Pros are that you block out the noise you don't want to hear and pump the noise you do want to hear straight into your ear. This means you don't need to crank up the Autocom volume so high that the sound is distorted.
Cons are that it's not a cheap option (Green Leopard ones with air tubes for durability RRP £110 don't know about UE) and that you have extra cabling all the time (even when you're not using comms, unless you buy a second set of solid plugs but that's more expense)

The other route is to have continuous noise filters added. These allow directional noise from the helmet speakers in while blocking out background noise and are available at different attenuation levels (block out more or less noise)

Pros: no cabling or moving parts. You should be able to add these to your existing plugs (GL RRP £35)
Cons: It's a compromise between sound quality and 'useability' You'll hear less clearly than with in-ear monitors but you don't need to mess around with cables.

Conclusion:
If you want the best sound quality (esp if you listen to a lot of music) or if your hearing is already poor and your budget allows get a set of in ear monitors.

If you want the practicality of plugs without cabling or don't listen to music you may be better off with filters.

But the first thing you should do is make sure you've got the Autocom working properly or you'll spend a lot of money on earplugs you don't need

Hope that helps

Disclaimer I am a Green Leopard agent and so I'm not impartial. However Cumbria isn't my 'patch' so I'm not going to sell you anything you should also ask what UE's options are and what they would cost. Other earplug manufacturers are available etc etc...

Not sure I've understood, what good is an outcom without a mic?
If your autocom is a newish one (e.g. active plus etc) then turn the pillion vol to zero and it helps a bit. Not sure why this is the case and of course it's useless if you want to talk to a pillion (but you were suggesting removing the mike). If you are just using the autocom for GPS/MP3 etc then turn up their volume. I have my autocom on max volume and it's OK at 100 + so maybe youhave another problem cos I also use taylor made earplugs with high attenuation (35Db).

JayGee said:

Not sure I've understood, what good is an outcom without a mic?

Click to expand...

I use one without a mic. You answered the question yourself, satnav and MP3.

There is another and fairly cheap way to improve the sound and that's a small amp.

Like this.......



From here......

http://www.electric-avenues.com/amplirider.html

I've been using one for a while, easy to fit and gives you added volume control. Not expensive either.

Cheers boys. I have tried adjusting the speakers as much as i can..... i have a system V so not much room for moving. But still seems to quiet.

looks like ill have to try something else.......

Did not..

Bazza said:

Hi All
Just a quicky. Have just installed an autocom but with ultimate ear plugs the volume isnt great.
I know the mic will reduce the volume when noise/talking but if i remove the mic altogether will this have any effect on the volume......
ie it sees an open circuit therefore adjusts volume to a standaed vox setting ???
cheers

Click to expand...

take much notice of this thread as you said you were using Ultimate ear plugs, then in you last post you said you were using speakers in a system 5, I have the same problem with mine, I found it was caused by the speakers not being positioned correctly to the ears. I did think about cutting out the helmet ear pieces to move the speakers to the best position. But have not yet got round to doing it......

what model is it, my model has socket where I plug a 3.5mm dummy plug in and it ups the volume by 150%

I have..

terayon said:

what model is it, my model has socket where I plug a 3.5mm dummy plug in and it ups the volume by 150%

Click to expand...

one of those and it did not appear to make any differnce wether in or out.....

active rider

terayon said:

what model is it, my model has socket where I plug a 3.5mm dummy plug in and it ups the volume by 150%

Click to expand...

that sounds like the "old" 5 pin system which has pathetic volume compared with the newer 7 pin models. I could never get enough volume out of my old 5 pin systen to use with earplugs and the little 3.5mm plug didn't seem to make much difference. The Smart 7 had plenty of volume and the newer Active plus has nearly as much and is much better sound quality, upgrade to a 7 pin system would be my advice.

Not strictly true, he could be running a Pro-7 which used a jack plug to raise the speech levels between the headsets. So this will be running the same volume levels as all of current systems.

The hi/lo jack plug is for speech levels on only it will not improve the volumes for any parts plugged in like a GPS or phone etc.

Rich @ Autocom

GS RICH.
Do you have any advice other than what has already been said?
I have sent an email to autocom but never got a response.
Is it just a matter of speaker placement in the system Vs?

GSrich said:

Not strictly true, he could be running a Pro-7 which used a jack plug to raise the speech levels between the headsets. So this will be running the same volume levels as all of current systems.

The hi/lo jack plug is for speech levels on only it will not improve the volumes for any parts plugged in like a GPS or phone etc.

Rich @ Autocom

Click to expand...

exact model, I just turn up the volume on everything else where I normally turn them down