Generally, this is just a few personal observations about my Bluetooth headlump and I have made some comparisons hither and yon, with the Autocom system it replaces. Having read the general hysterical level of praise on here, I thought I’d give the Sena SMH20 a go, so I did.
The reader will notice that the ‘cons’ are longer paragraphs. The reason is because I reckon criticism requires explanation or perhaps, justification where praise really tends not to. Why write a hundred words that simply say, “Yup. Does what Sena says it should”.
The set up…
Sena SMH20
Shoei Neotec
Garmin 590 (satnav and MP3)
Samsung Note 2 (phone, MP3 & Satnave if reqd)
(The Autocom replaced, is the old Super AVi Pro)
PROS
The Sena works out of the box.
Even charging seems well sorted My phone is BT'd to the satnav and the satnav to the Sena. This means that I have the phone and music on a screen in front of me and the satnav commands break in at just the right time. I also (optimistically) hope that by having a single BT connection live on the Sena for day-to-day use rather than two, it may ease life for the battery.
The sound is clear (up to a point) and a pleasure to listen to.
Free FM radio which works well. If radio's your thing whilst riding, you'll love it.
There is no question of electrical interference with this set up.
This is a biggie for me. The real bane of Autocom ownership is sorting out ground loop interference from having so many units sharing the same power and earth points. It’s a git until you get it bottomed.
No extra wires or cables are required
...to fit it up and make it work (which saves money… maybe?) and the BT connections were effortless. All you need is in the box you buy.
There's no wire to your helmet
...which seems to have revolutionised some people's lives (if not particularly mine) and prevented them from serious self-inflicted injury and/or death.
You can talk to a group of other riders via BT (as many as 9 with this system) without the need for 2 way radios (PMR’s).
Satnav instructions, MP3 and phone are clear to hear and, set up via the Garmin, the headset automatically prioritises satnav over all functions. In other words if you’re talking to the passenger, on the phone or listening to music/radio, talking to other riders or whatever really, it cuts in with satnav audible directions… perfect! I can’t recall how many times I asked Kay to ‘Hang on luv’ because she was talking over the satnav.
CONS
It's battery operated and the battery isn't replaceable.
Right there at the top of the charts pop fans!! It has an inbuilt redundancy of unknown (but not completely incomparable) duration. Consequently, you don't really buy the unit, you rent it until the battery life is so poor, it's of no real use anymore and then you bin it and buy a new one. This is why I’m not too sure it’s actually cheaper than an Autocom in the long term.
PS When I say ‘not completely incomparable’ I’m just comparing it to a mobile phone battery which will usually last a year or so, but is much more frequently charged and discharged. My guess therefore, would be 2-3 years life expectancy before I’m at 4 or 5 hours battery life and a lot less if you do a lot more mileage (errr obviously)
It's battery operated and needs charging.
There is the ability to charge whilst riding with a USB socket on the unit and it definitely works. The Garmin 590 has a USB charging port built into its harness, so putting the two together is a match made in heaven. One possible caveat though… I haven't tried riding whilst charging the Sena in the rain (I know, I know, it never ever rains in summer) and I don't get the urge to want to either. A nifty MK1 one eyeball of the USB socket in the Sena, shows it to be a standard item, with no apparent waterproofing other than the rubber cover you have to take off to use it. I also noted that the socket was situated at the rear underside of the unit, where the water will rush when it's being blown over and under the unit by a 20- 80mph wind. Perhaps no big deal… I really don’t know.
Sound quality (clarity)
… is about the same on the Autocom and Sena up to about 70mph or so (I say ‘about’ because if it’s windy or on a motorway, it’s less, given the surrounding noise). After that though, I want the Autocom back. Depending on how much ambient noise there is and of course, how fast you’re going, the Sena volume needs the volume adjusted up and back down again with differences in speed. For the record, this is a manual process, that means hand off the bar and start twiddling around with a dial behind your left ear. The Autocom automatically turns the volume up so I could still hear the phone and satnav and turned it back down again when speed decreased. I can certify the Autocom up to 130mph at which speed, I was still being told by Kay to slow down. The Sena becomes inaudible to me at speeds in excess of 70mph WITHOUT having me turning the volume up/down as appropriate or in the alternative, having it set too loud in the first place.
Group chat is vox only.
So I left that switched off. Singing, shouting, whooping and an array of irritating noises whilst I’m concentrating and the wife (if applicable) having to listen to a running commentary on female pedestrian’s arses and tits are a switch off and there's no control other than the off switch. No worries, so be it.
Also a small thing that might be worth a mention, if you happen to scream like a school girl at a Suga Babes gig, in the event of a near miss are or when you run wide at an ‘hot’ bend or, worse still, as you slide down the road at 30mph… then do remember that the whole group get to hear you shouting “Oh fook, oh fook, oh fook, I’m too young to die!” before saying “fook, that was close. Wonder if anybody noticed? Just so you know… they did notice, you just told them aaaall about it.
Anyway, PTT for me please, or the off switch as a fine alternative.
The sena units are small and fiddly.
It’s one thing setting this up in front of the TV with your feet up and a beer. Put bike gloves on and (other than the volume control) doing things with it on the move, is like trying to remove a Swan Vesta from a box, light it with your eyes shut and fire up a fag that’s behind your left ear, whilst riding a motorcycle on a country road.
[b]These things have so many features… but really?
Press the telephone button for more than 6 seconds whilst tapping the volume control 5 times… and rubbing your tummy in an anticlockwise direction and falling off by means of a port down lowside… I mean fook off, don’t be so stupid!! I’m trying to ride a motorbike FFS.
The voice activation system works ok (…ish)
Subject to wind and outside noise when on the move and clarity of voice, but purely from my perspective, if I had to skip MP3 tracks and make/take calls from the Sena unit with voice control alone, it would be going back. The Garmin header makes it work for me, they’ve become a single unit, with the Sena being reliant of the Garmin to make sense.
My own conclusions…
The Sena’s great for a day out or a weekend away or if having a wire to your helmet, is just too much to bear! It’s plug ‘n’ play and without frills, but clip it on and away you go in the safe knowledge that the basics work at basic speeds and in basic conditions (as long as the battery is good and charged).
Am I keeping it?
Yes I think so, unless something silly happens and it fails (and no, I’m not expecting it to, it feels tightly made but for the charging/data port). If it does fail, it’ll be a refund rather than a replacement. Barring that though, it’s fine for me. Mainly nowadays I ride alone or with a couple of other bikes both locally and abroad, all I really need for that is clear, reliable satnav audio and the phone facility has always been really very useful, just for hotel ringing at the end of the day and for collecting ‘lost souls’ and/or meeting up with latecomers for a meet, without getting off the bike and ‘kitting down’ to use the mobile.
For the record…
... the Autocom isn’t for sale. When this unit gets too annoying to live with (in other words, all the downsides above without the advantage of being ‘wireless’ because the power cord is plugged in more often than not) it’ll be re-installed unless something better has come out in the meantime, that’s worth the, not inconsiderable price tag.