finless
New member
Hey folks, so lots of talk about Bluetooth lately so I thought I would provide some information about my experience so far.
So you know I have had Sena SMH5-FM units for almost 2 years now. Two weeks ago I upgraded to the dual pack 20S. Thanks Motorcycle Dave for getting them for me! Dave is the man!
So first just to be 100% open and honest. When I got the set I did have one base unit that had a problem with the MIC connection. I got it to work by wedging a tooth pick in the bracket but felt for the price I should not need to do that. Contacted Dave and he got me a replacement set right away and RMA to return the other set. Again Dave is the man and I recommend to buy from him especially because he is a sponsor here and customer service is top notch!
OK so I really had no desire to upgrade from my SMH5-FM units. I was pretty happy with these. But when I read some of the features of the 20S units, me being a techno nerd, I had to have it. In the end the new features made it worth it and I do use them. So for me, the cost was worth it for a few features below specifically audio quality, multiple volumes, and multi-audio/sharing.
So first of was audio quality:
My SMH5 units did have the larger ear speakers like the SMH10. Prior SMH5 and other less expensive units had smaller speakers. So I was pretty happy there. However the 20S ear speakers are far superior! Both my Wife and I could immediately tell the difference. They are louder, have more bass, etc.
Features that impressed me:
Volume levels per paired device..... THIS is an ear saver and one of the best features!!!
On my SMH5 if I forgot to turn my phone down and had my headset volume set for a good level with say the music, or with a comm session with the wife, when I would switch to the phone it would BLAST my ears out. I constantly had to remember to turn my phone volume down to about mid-level. If I didn’t and hit the phone button to ask SIRI to make a call, the DING and SIRI's voice was way too high.
Now with the 20S you adjust the volume levels separately for Comms, Music, Phone, etc.... It then remembers these volume levels.
Helmet to helmet communication WITHOUT interrupting anything!
This is sweet honestly and worth the price of admission. With the SMH5 sets when my wife and I would enter into a communication, music and everything else is turned off. If your GPS or phone does something you would get a beep in the headset and to take the call or listen to something else, you had to end the communications.
Not anymore. Now my wife and I can keep an 100% open communication (she likes to talk a lot
) and hear the music or whatever in the background. The volume of the background music is also adjustable! AND it is adjustable per headset!
Sharing is pretty neat! Prior to this feature if my wife and I wanted to hear the same music it had to come from the Spyder's radio with the BT dongle (Sena SM10). While we still have that for many other reasons, if you don't have that setup now you can play music from your phone and share it to another headset! In fact you can share it to multiple headsets! So if you don't have the SM10 you now can listen to the same music.
Now you might say.... aaaa big deal. Well the other thing sharing does is you can both be on the same phone call! If I get a call and turn on sharing, we now have a conference call. We both liked this feature for sure.
Common MIC to other devices while in a helmet to helmet comm session.
So this may not be important to some but I liked it. I have a GoPro with the Sena MIC backpack. This allows me to shoot video and pick up my voice from my helmet's MIC. Now before on the SMH5 if I entered into a comm session with the wife, it cut off the MIC to the camera. Thus no one could be heard if the camera is still recording.
Not anymore! Now while the camera is recording if I open a comm session with the wife the camera picks up BOTH of us talking.... This was not in the manual I just discovered it by accident... So a hidden feature
The Sena APP for Smart Phones. THIS IS A GOD SEND! Remembering button sequences to turn on and off features or even how to pair was impossible to remember. Now with the APP you can change all your settings right from your phone. Yes the 20S can also do that via buttons and knobs but read the manual on doing it that way. Most would never figure it out or even begin to remember it. The APP makes all this easy. Oh and forgot how to pair a device? The APP has help and a quick setup instructions built right in.
Ambient mode. So in the past if I parked and someone wanted to talk to me, I would have to pull of my helmet to hear them well. Now you can press a button and turn on ambient mode. The 20S has another MIC in the case that allows you to hear outside of the helmet. Believe it or not this works well even if you have music playing. No need to turn off your music first but depending on how loud you have your music, you may still need to.
There are a couple other features I have not really needed yet and probably won’t.
Shaking the unit to pair with another helmet. This is an option instead of having to remember what button to push.
Taping on the case instead of a button to enable "voice commands". While very cool I have not used or really needed voice commands.
Anyway, I thought I would share my experiences with the new 20S system. I am very happy I upgraded!
Oh and just to close, I will be selling my dual pack SMH5-FM headsets at a really good price so stay tuned for an ad in the for sale section when I get the time to take PICs etc.
Bob
So you know I have had Sena SMH5-FM units for almost 2 years now. Two weeks ago I upgraded to the dual pack 20S. Thanks Motorcycle Dave for getting them for me! Dave is the man!
So first just to be 100% open and honest. When I got the set I did have one base unit that had a problem with the MIC connection. I got it to work by wedging a tooth pick in the bracket but felt for the price I should not need to do that. Contacted Dave and he got me a replacement set right away and RMA to return the other set. Again Dave is the man and I recommend to buy from him especially because he is a sponsor here and customer service is top notch!
OK so I really had no desire to upgrade from my SMH5-FM units. I was pretty happy with these. But when I read some of the features of the 20S units, me being a techno nerd, I had to have it. In the end the new features made it worth it and I do use them. So for me, the cost was worth it for a few features below specifically audio quality, multiple volumes, and multi-audio/sharing.
So first of was audio quality:
My SMH5 units did have the larger ear speakers like the SMH10. Prior SMH5 and other less expensive units had smaller speakers. So I was pretty happy there. However the 20S ear speakers are far superior! Both my Wife and I could immediately tell the difference. They are louder, have more bass, etc.
Features that impressed me:
Volume levels per paired device..... THIS is an ear saver and one of the best features!!!
On my SMH5 if I forgot to turn my phone down and had my headset volume set for a good level with say the music, or with a comm session with the wife, when I would switch to the phone it would BLAST my ears out. I constantly had to remember to turn my phone volume down to about mid-level. If I didn’t and hit the phone button to ask SIRI to make a call, the DING and SIRI's voice was way too high.
Now with the 20S you adjust the volume levels separately for Comms, Music, Phone, etc.... It then remembers these volume levels.
Helmet to helmet communication WITHOUT interrupting anything!
This is sweet honestly and worth the price of admission. With the SMH5 sets when my wife and I would enter into a communication, music and everything else is turned off. If your GPS or phone does something you would get a beep in the headset and to take the call or listen to something else, you had to end the communications.
Not anymore. Now my wife and I can keep an 100% open communication (she likes to talk a lot
) and hear the music or whatever in the background. The volume of the background music is also adjustable! AND it is adjustable per headset!Sharing is pretty neat! Prior to this feature if my wife and I wanted to hear the same music it had to come from the Spyder's radio with the BT dongle (Sena SM10). While we still have that for many other reasons, if you don't have that setup now you can play music from your phone and share it to another headset! In fact you can share it to multiple headsets! So if you don't have the SM10 you now can listen to the same music.
Now you might say.... aaaa big deal. Well the other thing sharing does is you can both be on the same phone call! If I get a call and turn on sharing, we now have a conference call. We both liked this feature for sure.
Common MIC to other devices while in a helmet to helmet comm session.
So this may not be important to some but I liked it. I have a GoPro with the Sena MIC backpack. This allows me to shoot video and pick up my voice from my helmet's MIC. Now before on the SMH5 if I entered into a comm session with the wife, it cut off the MIC to the camera. Thus no one could be heard if the camera is still recording.
Not anymore! Now while the camera is recording if I open a comm session with the wife the camera picks up BOTH of us talking.... This was not in the manual I just discovered it by accident... So a hidden feature
The Sena APP for Smart Phones. THIS IS A GOD SEND! Remembering button sequences to turn on and off features or even how to pair was impossible to remember. Now with the APP you can change all your settings right from your phone. Yes the 20S can also do that via buttons and knobs but read the manual on doing it that way. Most would never figure it out or even begin to remember it. The APP makes all this easy. Oh and forgot how to pair a device? The APP has help and a quick setup instructions built right in.
Ambient mode. So in the past if I parked and someone wanted to talk to me, I would have to pull of my helmet to hear them well. Now you can press a button and turn on ambient mode. The 20S has another MIC in the case that allows you to hear outside of the helmet. Believe it or not this works well even if you have music playing. No need to turn off your music first but depending on how loud you have your music, you may still need to.
There are a couple other features I have not really needed yet and probably won’t.
Shaking the unit to pair with another helmet. This is an option instead of having to remember what button to push.
Taping on the case instead of a button to enable "voice commands". While very cool I have not used or really needed voice commands.
Anyway, I thought I would share my experiences with the new 20S system. I am very happy I upgraded!
Oh and just to close, I will be selling my dual pack SMH5-FM headsets at a really good price so stay tuned for an ad in the for sale section when I get the time to take PICs etc.
Bob
hyea:
