Ok, so those of you that are wanting a SHOEI Helmet or if you have any of the above helmets I may be able to get us all a nice deal or at the very least inform you of the new product drop. I personally have the Neotech 2 and did not but the headset designed for it due to the poor quality sound. For some reason all other models used Harmon Kardon except the one made for my helmet! Until Now!!!! They just released the new SRL-MESH for the helmet. I want to see if anyone is interested in any SHOEI but particularly the SRL-MESH as I am gunning for a group buy possibly but will likely be able to pull off any product from them. Just coordinating shipping for a smaller item is far easier than a giant helmet lol. I have a pretty good reputation from a previous group buy for the NNOVV dash cameras and a recent buyer of some used parts.
Frank White
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My SRL Mesh got here today - Thanks @Frank White
I also got my Shoei J Cruze2 helmet in a timely manner. Cant wait to give it a try.
Give a review here please, I am thinking of going to this for a comm device.
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ive got part of my reveiw of it done, but wont have riding section for a bit - ill post what i have shortly - but its 24 deg outside with snow on ground now, so my pillion definitely wont be helping me test ride for a bit
SRL Mesh came today! Hats off to @Frank White 🥃! Thank you for all your efforts…..
Did you try out the mesh yet. We want some reviews lol.
Yeah, great big kudos to @Frank White for organizing an awesome group buy! I did 80 miles in my new helmet today.
I'm expecting the SRL-EXT sometime tomorrow. Hopefully I can get it out on the road by the weekend.
Thanks again for all the effort and the great deal!
I'm expecting the SRL-EXT sometime tomorrow. Hopefully I can get it out on the road by the weekend.Thanks again for all the effort and the great deal!
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I just got mine working and it’s a big difference from the SRL 2. I now think I’ll have music when I ride. It may be another month or so before I actually test ride it though. SENA should not have put that old system into production with the sound so lousy. I turned mine off after about 30 seconds of riding and didn’t turn it on again.
I will do a full review in the Spring for the Shoei SRL-Mesh with the Neotec 2 helmet but for now I will give a quick preliminary. Took like 15 minutes or less to install the system, download the application, and test. I did not update or check for firmware updates and skipped over them temporarily. This is in a quiet house with zero ambient noise. Music from a decent quality youtube 90's hip hop music mix (mainly for bass testing). Note I did not ever hear the SRL-2 so I cannot compare but have heard reviews complaining about audio quality. I am an audiophile, home theater guru so I actually know what quality headphones are supposed to sound like ie. Sennheiser are my favorite! I would rate these as a "decent" quality sound. Not overly bassy but have enough to satisfy. Not overly crisp, but not too tinny. They have a decent midrange and are dynamically wide enough covering all important frequencies. I have good hearing but do poorly with ambient noises while trying to have a conversation say in a crowded restaurant, but have a keen ability to hear things within soundtracks others may miss. With that said I think loudness was about at maximum these speakers could handle without getting too distorted using a mediocre music source (YouTube). Will it be loud enough while on the bike with wind noise and exhaust? Not too sure but I will tell you that if the audio was louder it would not be good for your hearing. Any louder and it will slowly harm your hearing which is probably why they cannot get any louder. At their highest volume they sound a bit distorted while sending out the voice prompts a tiny bit. 1 clicks down from max is preferred. I tried a simple bluetooth call with a friend once again in a quiet home. They stated I sounded perfect with the modular helmet up, ok with the visor up and modular down, and a bit more muffled with the helmet all sealed up. Mind you I also hear my own voice muffled as well from within the helmet from my own ears as the soundwaves have nowhere to go so I would suppose this is normal for all units with a sealed hemet no matter what. I personally think none will loud enough to overcome a loud exhaust, helmet wind noise, no windshield wind noise, etc. without being so loud it will severely cause long term damage to your hearing. Nothing will come close to a full review but so far I am please with the ease of installation, general quality of hardware, sound quality, and connectivity with my iPhone 13 Max Pro. Hope this helps anyone on the fence.
I did about 100 miles over the weekend on my naked Scout with the SRL-EXT in an RF-1400. I think Frank White sums it up nice about the overall quality of sound. I really think the overall experience is highly dependent on helmet, fit of helmet and placement of headphones over and to the ear, as well as, quietness of helmet. I have no experience for comparison with other comm systems.
My experience of listening to music and phone calls sitting in my house was significantly different than on the bike. Something is lost in overall quality of sound when on the bike while volume is more than adequate (for me). Why that is will take some troubleshooting. It could be as simple as the placement of the headphones in proximity to the ear was different sitting in my recliner compared to riding on the bike. Perhaps it has something to do with the noise cancelling feature filtering out some of the frequencies giving depth to music as the ambient sound pressures increase. Again, volume is more than adequate as I found myself turning it down. It was the depth of music that was altered (using Apple Music app). I will say the difference was negligible with phone calls which made me think it has more to do with noise cancelling, filtering out certain frequencies. If so, that could mean that ones' experience could be drastically effected by the type of bike they are riding (fairing, windshield, naked, exhaust, etc.).
I talked over 30 minutes while on the bike and the experience was crisp and clear at 50-60% volume. The person I was talking to said that I sounded like I was just on my phone and could not hear the bike or wind noise with the face shield shut. That was up to 75mph. With the face shield open, they could still hear me fine but with whistiling from the face shield which I was hearing too. More bike noise (likely exhaust) was heard when slowing to stop, downshifting or accelerating in the lower gears but it was not distracting to them and if they didn't know I was on a bike, they wouldn't know the source or pay attention to the background noise. I talked with two people and neither of them could hear any bike or wind noise at higher speeds with my voice being clear as if I was just talking on my phone.
Before my next ride, I plan to make some adjustments to the headphone placement and am even going to try it with the Surefire EP3 earplugs with the filter cap open. I did not try the intercom mesh features or FM radio. Overall, I'm pleased and would install the system just for the hands-free phone features. For those of you that own multiple bikes in different configurations, I would be very interested in a side by side comparison of the system using the same helmet to see if the depth of music changes according to the mic's interaction with environmental noise. I guess a better way of doing this may just be to unplug the mic assuming of course that the noise cancellation features are working for the headphones, as well as, what is being transmitted.
My experience of listening to music and phone calls sitting in my house was significantly different than on the bike. Something is lost in overall quality of sound when on the bike while volume is more than adequate (for me). Why that is will take some troubleshooting. It could be as simple as the placement of the headphones in proximity to the ear was different sitting in my recliner compared to riding on the bike. Perhaps it has something to do with the noise cancelling feature filtering out some of the frequencies giving depth to music as the ambient sound pressures increase. Again, volume is more than adequate as I found myself turning it down. It was the depth of music that was altered (using Apple Music app). I will say the difference was negligible with phone calls which made me think it has more to do with noise cancelling, filtering out certain frequencies. If so, that could mean that ones' experience could be drastically effected by the type of bike they are riding (fairing, windshield, naked, exhaust, etc.).
I talked over 30 minutes while on the bike and the experience was crisp and clear at 50-60% volume. The person I was talking to said that I sounded like I was just on my phone and could not hear the bike or wind noise with the face shield shut. That was up to 75mph. With the face shield open, they could still hear me fine but with whistiling from the face shield which I was hearing too. More bike noise (likely exhaust) was heard when slowing to stop, downshifting or accelerating in the lower gears but it was not distracting to them and if they didn't know I was on a bike, they wouldn't know the source or pay attention to the background noise. I talked with two people and neither of them could hear any bike or wind noise at higher speeds with my voice being clear as if I was just talking on my phone.
Before my next ride, I plan to make some adjustments to the headphone placement and am even going to try it with the Surefire EP3 earplugs with the filter cap open. I did not try the intercom mesh features or FM radio. Overall, I'm pleased and would install the system just for the hands-free phone features. For those of you that own multiple bikes in different configurations, I would be very interested in a side by side comparison of the system using the same helmet to see if the depth of music changes according to the mic's interaction with environmental noise. I guess a better way of doing this may just be to unplug the mic assuming of course that the noise cancellation features are working for the headphones, as well as, what is being transmitted.
Not sure if you tried adjusting the settings and such. Certain features are able to be shut off and sensitivity can be adjusted as well.
Thank you @Frank White. I did not adjust the app settings. Phone was in my pocket the entire ride. I checked the app and the default settings look to have a good bit of noise cancellation. That may have been it. I’ll adjust settings and report back if there is any difference. It was an obvious difference between inside the house and on the bike so I would imagine the mic was just doing its job of filtering environmental noise.
Either way, I don’t want to give the impression that it was unusable for music. There was just an absence of certain frequencies. As previously stated, it does not lack for volume either.
I find that my Sena system (with HD speakers) sounds much better when I am wearing earplugs (cheap Howard Leight / Laser Lite) than when riding without. Of course the DB's are impacted, but I still have plenty of volume. For reference, I have a Shoei RF1200 full face and ride a Chieftain.
Well, glad you approve and like your setup as a lot of others do not like the original standard speakers in the Sena systems and prefer the much improved (from what I read) newer SRL-Mesh/SRL-EXT as well as others with the JBL/Harman Kardon speakers. Their standard speakers for most seem to be a disappointment for the price they charge. If you are happy that is a good thing for you!
Mine are NOT the original speakers, and are the upgraded speakers as found in the 50 series which are an improvement, and are the same speakers found in the SRL-Mesh comm system. But, regardless how good speakers are, and how quite your helmet is, the wind and road noise will deteriorate any comms speakers. I just mentioned that I find these speakers to produce a more natural sound when used with earplugs which cancel out alot of the ambient sounds.
Awesome. Didn't realize you had the Harman Kardon. Yes they are plenty loud and 1-2 notches down from max seems to be nice. I do not use earplugs but I can see what you mean. They have new headphones out that are on the ear lobes and they project the sound to the ear canal. Insane technology. I have transducer speakers that transmit sound clearly underwater. So the eardrum can certainly get ample sound with plugs in. The sudden pressures and harm is certainly reduced as well. Good stuff. Glad you are rocking the better stuff by Sena. They really dropped the ball releasing the previous models with the lower quality speakers. A lot of folks were unhappy! They should have an easy upgrade for those folks at a fair price! Or free! lol
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Still in process of testing these, its winter here so cant get on the road yet, but putting helmet on inside, the music does seem to sound richer on the new speakers, vs the srl2 i took out. Speakers seem thicker. actual volume when measured on app appears very close, but i noticed its at top of safe area, so more might be harmful to hearing. Old srl2 avg 52 max 87. Srl mesh avg 70 max 88. Motley Crue on the radio. 90-95 decibles looks like its entering the harmful range. From a web search - Noise above 70 dB over a prolonged period of time may start to damage your hearing. Loud noise above 120 dB can cause immediate harm to your ears. These didnt come with extra mounting options to bring closer to your ear, so I hope they are real world loud enough on a bike at interstate speed. i generally try to use earplugs with sound hole as well, i will post if i can hear that when i can get on bike. Mounting was easy enough just follow online directions, as there are two extra pieces vs old srl2 for antenna. Voice commands are not 100%, but much better than previous model.
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I made some adjustments and did a quick 40 miles this evening with much better results. Equalizer settings in the app do make a difference. Also, I backed the speaker off the ear a bit so that it’s just touching the outer ear but not pressing the ear.
I rode half with ear plugs and half without. There is definitely more volume without ear plugs but I preferred the experience with ear plugs (with filter plug out). Music seemed “cleaner” since much of the environmental noise was being filtered out. Also, there is enough ceiling to just add volume with plugs to reach those dB levels that I would set without plugs. I won’t max it out in either case.
The only remaining issue for me is I’m batting about 50% with voice commands. I’ve moved the mic around and that doesn’t seem to help. Next trip out I will adjust the VOX sensitivity and gauge results.
I still think overall experience will vary according to helmet, bike and of course individual physiology. For me, this is a pretty nice upgrade. 👍🏻
I rode half with ear plugs and half without. There is definitely more volume without ear plugs but I preferred the experience with ear plugs (with filter plug out). Music seemed “cleaner” since much of the environmental noise was being filtered out. Also, there is enough ceiling to just add volume with plugs to reach those dB levels that I would set without plugs. I won’t max it out in either case.
The only remaining issue for me is I’m batting about 50% with voice commands. I’ve moved the mic around and that doesn’t seem to help. Next trip out I will adjust the VOX sensitivity and gauge results.
I still think overall experience will vary according to helmet, bike and of course individual physiology. For me, this is a pretty nice upgrade. 👍🏻
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265 Posts
So it warmed up enough today to take the bike out and try the srl mesh. I have Rineharts currently installed and the speakers definitely sound great until I start the bike Lol. The low end instantly gets drowned out. I ride with the Shoei full face but with no face shield. I don’t think it’s possible to get audiophile sound in a motorcycle helmet at speed without making it so loud that you’re damaging your ears. That being said I actually really liked having a soundtrack while I ride and am glad I bought these. I also have a set of Indian Stage 1 mufflers that I recently bought used and have been waiting to try out. I have a feeling they’ll be quieter and allow me to hear more music
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