View Full Version : Sena SMH5 intercom, any good?
As per the subject line. I'm toying with buying these for an upcoming trip. I don't want to spend a fortune on an intercom, so I'm interested in getting opinions.
Tia
John
Nutsinatin
05-01-17, 06:43 PM
For a reasonably cheap headset for phone/satnav/radio/music/pillion it's fine, for group riding it's not the best as the range is short, you can only remember three other head sets (and be connected to one at a time - quite often it takes a few goes to connect so you don't really want to keep trying to connect to more than one person, you also need to update the firmware to connect to any other brand).
Battery life is several days if you're just using it for satnav or even that and pillion. If you're playing music constantly I normally get less that 4 hours.
Basically - Just for phone/sat nav or pillion - Buy it.
For music or group riding look for something else.
chris8886
07-01-17, 08:27 PM
how do these things work if you wear earplugs?
Nutsinatin
07-01-17, 08:46 PM
I wear filtered plugs and it's just fine, have used it with normal plugs and it was audiable up to around 70/80 for satnav but it was more like 60/70 for pillion coms with my Shoei GT Air II.
chris8886
07-01-17, 10:30 PM
filtered plugs? I wear custom ones....
carelesschucca
08-01-17, 12:49 AM
John I'd need to go check, I think I've got a sena intercom. The charge lasts about 5/6 hours. It's great but you need to make sure the speaker is aligned properly to make it work...
I'll check in the morning when I'm slightly less inebriated...
maviczap
08-01-17, 02:02 PM
filtered plugs? I wear custom ones....
Filtered ones have a ceramic filter which cuts out the harmful levels, but lets you hear normal levels, so speech & voice.
You can get custom plugs with these ceramic filters
chris8886
09-01-17, 09:36 PM
Filtered ones have a ceramic filter which cuts out the harmful levels, but lets you hear normal levels, so speech & voice.
You can get custom plugs with these ceramic filters
so I would need to buy new ear plugs for this sort of thing to work properly?
maviczap
09-01-17, 09:48 PM
I would try it with your current ear plugs first, and if you can;t hear well enough, then buy some with filters.
Seems false economy to buy new custom ear plugs if you can hear what you need to hear?
chris8886
09-01-17, 09:55 PM
true, so these things are like flat speaker jobbies then?
maviczap
09-01-17, 10:05 PM
Yes mate. Depending on your budget, there are cheaper bluetooth intercoms on Ebay which someone on here tried and they were pretty good for the money about £30 i think. But i haven't tried any
We have some of the cheap eBay one, about £50 for 2 and cant fault them. Sound quality is good, range is acceptable and Bluetooth connection is spot on. For the money theyre well worth a look.
john i'd need to go check, i think i've got a sena intercom. The charge lasts about 5/6 hours. It's great but you need to make sure the speaker is aligned properly to make it work...
I'll check in the morning when i'm slightly less inebriated...
👍
daktulos
10-01-17, 02:43 PM
Slightly off topic, but I thought I'd try out voice-only sat nav from my phone using wired in-ear noise-isolating earbuds.
It worked very well - a lovely quiet ride with a gentle voice telling me where to go, and the occasional bong when I went over the speed limit ...
... until I looked over my shoulder, caught the 'play' button and had Meat Loaf singing in my ears at full volume. :-D Seriously considering something wireless now!
I tried voice only via my android phone. It didn't work for me. It was too late calling out the direction changes so i kept missing them. I like to see a rolling map in front of me and an indicator showing the next instruction.
daktulos
10-01-17, 04:24 PM
I tried voice only via my android phone. It didn't work for me. It was too late calling out the direction changes so i kept missing them. I like to see a rolling map in front of me and an indicator showing the next instruction.
I was using Waze, which seemed OK, although had a habit of switching distance units (thankfully no furlongs yet) which has the side-effect of making me think about distance.
In the car, I have a map and I rely on it quite heavily even if not navigating for things like seeing if a side-road is a short-cut or a dead-end. On a bike, I'm not sure if this wouldn't be too distracting, I'm definitely in two minds.
I'm using a car tomtom in a Garmin case. It can be distracting but i just look at the next instruction icon, say turn left in 2 miles or straight across on the next island and drive to that. I tend to look at the map when stopped at junctions or on long boring bits of road
waynesdfell
10-01-17, 07:11 PM
I can't recommend navmii enough as a satnav, it's free, doesn't use your data allowance as the map is downloaded onto your device. It works well and you can adjust the routes to suit you
Ride safe
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