[Gene Young]

The one thing that I do not like about my Neotec 2 helmet with Sena bluetooth is the sound quality coming out of the speakers. There is practically no bass. I gave up on speakers in helmets years ago and went to earbuds because of the difficulty of getting a precise installation. Cheap earbuds sounded better than the best speakers. Most helmets had/have a very limited space to place speakers. To get good sound quality, speakers need to be precisely covering the ears. It is not easy to achieve. The drop off in sound quality is dramatic with even a small misalignment or distance from the ear.

I was disappointed with the small speaker size of the Senas, because I knew that they would not do good bass just by looking at them. The customized location in the helmet also restricts moving them around. Realizing that there was an unnecessarily large space between the speakers and my ear, I decided to try to get the speakers as close to my ears as comfort would allow. I removed the speakers from their snap in spot and applied velcro to the speaker and the receptacle. The velcro moved the speaker closer to my ear by the thickness of the hook and loop combo. This made a very noticeable improvement in sound quality and volume. There was room to get the speakers even closer, so I removed the Velcro on the helmet side and used some of the thin double sticky sided foam pads used to hang stuff on a wall to the cavity that the speaker sits in. Then I attached the Velcro to that. The extra thickness moved the speakers closer still to my ear.

Ideally, you want the speakers to completely cover the ears with the foam BARELY touching the ear. There should be no pressure on the ear by the speaker. Another dramatic improvement. I could probably stand them to be a tiny bit closer, but I think that I am close enough. The improvement in bass response is 2X. This is not the most elegant of solutions, but it only took 5 minutes per ear. I can always refine my method of mounting if need be. As it is none of the things that I did is noticeable visually.

 

[laen]

I have the Neotec 2 with the SLR built in system. Is this what you are referring to or is it the OLD STYLE CLAMP ON system? Unfortunately currently no headsets have great bass.



This system is heads and shoulders above corded systems with cords stretching and coming loose etc...I might try your trick

 

[Freyr]

Gene, I found that placement, is indeed, the secret to getting good sound from helmet speakers. A trick that I use, is to take the cheek pads out of the helmet, so I can look in a mirror and see where the speakers are, in relation to my ears. What I’ve found is that the helmet cutouts in most helmets are nowhere near where my ears are located. Modifying the cutout location and using Velcro spacers really helps. When they’re in the sweet spot, all the bass response is there.

 

[Gene Young]

i have the neotec 2 with the slr built in system. Is this what you are referring to or is it the old style clamp on system? Unfortunately currently no headsets have great bass.



This system is heads and shoulders above corded systems with cords stretching and coming loose etc...i might try your trick

I should have noted that I have the SLR

 

[laen]

Thanks

 

[TnT_Tom]

Check out the iasus XSound 3 helmet speakers. When properly spaced in your helmet, you will get hight quality 'earbud' sound.
https://www.amazon.com/iASUS-XSound...ocphy=9026807&hvtargid=pla-568626223869&psc=1

 

[rmw]

My hearing is getting worse every year and I have tried all manner of re-positioning the speakers with varying degrees of success. Quite a while back I moved to earbuds for any ride longer than an hour or so. But for shorter rides or if I just don't want to mess with the earbuds I still like having speakers available.

I ran across the attached video a while back and skeptically did the modification shown. The mod is to pull a set of speakers out of a new low cost over the ear headset and replace the Sena speakers with the over the ear speakers from the headset. Combined with the correct positioning mentioned by Gene it did make a positive difference. It is still not great by any means but I think worth the minimal effort required. Sound is richer and less tinny.

An inexpensive incremental improvement to add to the list of things that help, a little.

 

[Gregsgoldwingdct]

With my hearing problems my Audiologist Dr. says I should use hearing protection while riding to save the hearing I have left. He made me some custom fitted earplugs with the "Musician" filters in them. I had Sena 20S in my HJC. They were pretty lame. At full volume they weren't very loud and there was little to no bass. I sold them on EBay and purchased a set of J&M BT04 headsets. WOW what a difference. These headsets were so much better than the Senas. I had a couple questions about the J&M's and sent them an email. The owner, John Lazzeroni responded within a couple hours each time with very helpful information. I am using the J&M set with my fitted & filtered ear plugs and they work very well.I highly recommend the J&M bluetooth set.

 

[TexWing#513]

I agree with Greg. I have J&M BT04 in an Arai Signet-X helmet that i bought from John at J&M . I use it with both earplugs and without. I'm very happy with the sound quality.

 

[hojo in SC]

My problem is I can't hear high pitch tone and you'd think that they would be able to have the software ability to modify to your liking.