Motorcycle audio (head fi)

Equipment / Electronics / Gear / Accessories Headphone Amps
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I pose a question to this wonderful community help me out… while headphones are indeed awesome and hifi setups to make a room sing… there is a group of us audiophiles that are kind neglected and some feedback.

While I am on some of my motorcycles, friends motorcycles, demo bikes, you name it on two wheels… I’m constantly listening to audio music, podcasts, or podcasts of music (Noisia Radio <3 you guys). In the motorcycle world is the great debate of Sena vs Cardo for the kings of audio. If you don’t know, basically $200-$300 bluetooth that have spearkers in helmet or a headphone bypass. I do take phone calls on the road (interviewed for my current job years ago while riding my motorcycle on Route 1 to 95 around Philly) and the systems work great… but on longer trips batteries die and such.

So my question, I have both a Sena 30k and the Cardo Packtalk Bold JBL on two separate helmets. What other options should I be looking at? For back up bluetooth DACs on the road, besides the Fiio Btr5, what else should I consider? Maybe in this post or another, looking at noise isolation since I normally wear Plugfones… but since properly getting a taste of head fi world I tried the KZ ZS10pro’s that don’t have the same noise isolation.

Regardless, truth is with motorcycles is that a lot of us are listening to music constantly on the road… and most people listen to garbage. When you recommend something, think of battery life, mounting options, and usability with gloves. For me, this all got started with a set of Plugfones and the god awful Jumbl off of Amazon. Also if anyone can recommend or need tests between my Sena and Cardo units, let me know and I’ll be happy to test when weather/life allows me.

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I used to ride my bike to escape from all the normal day stuff, phone, music, people and people…years ago I bought an intercom system when I was with my ex and that lasted about a week lol…
Here’s a couple of pics of my last bikes before my partner and I bought the barge we now live on (she also used to ride too)

PS we’ve both have the I.O.M TT on our must attend bucket list :+1:

6D61FA3C-FE20-4558-9140-4FB65A31A251
6D61FA3C-FE20-4558-9140-4FB65A31A2512592×1944 1.06 MB

E9404AC3-53AC-4A78-8E47-A7EACA047BF4
E9404AC3-53AC-4A78-8E47-A7EACA047BF43456×2304 3.32 MB

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Isle of Mann is cancelled this year so plan for next year! Are you a sena or cardo person?

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No we weren’t planning on the TT this year you usually need to book your Steam packet tickets a year in advance…If I remember the intercom’s were Cardos, but as I found out I like the sound of my exhaust over anything else lol.

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While I don’t blame you on enjoying the exhaust sound, if you’re on a trip for 1000 miles and crushing it mostly in 1 day… you want some music at some point. So far I’ve mostly been using my sena because it’s set up on my favorite helmet. Nice thing about the Sena is that the speakers pick up if the headphones get disconnected while riding. Where as on a Cardo unit, the 3.5 mm jack is used both for headphones or the speakers in helmet.

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