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Sena S20 w/ 1200RT

kenfrancois

New member
I have a Sena S20 that I am trying to use with my new 2014 1200RT. It will link like normal but the audio quality from the radio and nav is very bad. Have I missed something or doing something wrong.

Thanks
 
SENA 20S pairing-2014 R1200RTW

I have a Sena S20 that I am trying to use with my new 2014 1200RT. It will link like normal but the audio quality from the radio and nav is very bad. Have I missed something or doing something wrong.

Thanks
We have be using SENA products at Streetmasters Motorcycle Workshopswww.Streetmasters.info For several years now.

They work well and perform many tasks.

It is important to pair your music audio and phone GPS audio separately.

Pair in this order: Pair your Smart phone to your GPS. ( not your SENA Headset)

Pair your SENA headset to your bikes radio sound system using the rotating dial on the left handlebar. Go into the menus the scroll thru till you see the audio.

Select Audio, then Helmet 1 push the wheel to the right to make it search for the SENA headset. It will find the SENA 20s-push the wheel towards the right ( don't rotate it, just push it and let it search.
On the SENA- push the phone button in and hold until you hear phone pairing, immediately push and release the jog dial- you will here selective media pairing. wait for the SENA and your bike to pair up. You will see the bike show it's done and the SENA will suddenly go Blue and you will here music ( if you have it on Sirius or radio channel-I would)

Once you have done this. Turn off the radio. Turn on the GPS and go to settings, then blue tooth. Push scan- push the phone button on the SENA again while it's powered up, until it says phone pairing, release and tap the phone button once more and you will hear it say selective audio pairing. Look for the GPS to find the SENA 20S select it and allow it to pair.

You are now. Done. You can now turn on everything phone, radio-sirius x-m etc. and GPS.
Your GPS or your phone may ask you if it can access your address book phone history. Say yes or allow. This will allow your gps to have access to your phones connections-address-phone numbers-call history etc.
I usually test this by putting my helmet on and call my home number from the gps.
simply touch the phone icon on the home page it will show phone or call home. Touch that icon,
The first time it may ask you to imput the phone number ( w/ area code) do so, then click on it and you will hear it ring in your headset and your home phone will ring. Talk to your wife, or someone at home and or leave a message on your home answering machine. Touch the small telephone on the screen and it should hangup or it may open a screen that says end call in red.
Touch that and you have completed the call. Have someone call you while you are listening to your bikes stereo music. You hear a phone ring noise and a screen will appear on your gps saying answer or ignore. Touch the answer button and wait a moment for it to connect. Your music should be muted out while you complete your call. Have the caller hangup Your phone-gps should hang up and then go back to your music.
All very cool the way it all seems to work.

You should set the phone Blue tooth to discoverable only to paired devices in the phones Blue tooth settings menu.

You should see the home page of the gps w/ a blue phone Icon, the SENA will say phone paired, media paired etc.

Play w/ it a bit till you get it down. You can also load up the free SENA/app.com on your phone ( play store or google play) which will give you the ability to reset all the basic settings on the SENA and a quick reference user guide can be viewed on you phone to do all this.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to see the settings on your SENA 20S you must pair the phone directly to the SENA using the phone button. Simply hold it down until you hear phone pairing and let go, while scanning in blue tooth until you see the SENA 20S Select the 20S on your phone and it is paired. Once I have done this and adjust the settings on my 20S on my phone, I usually go back into the phone and unpaid the SENA 20S and phone so it doesn't interfere w/ phone calls on the GPS.

Hope this helps. LIke most IT stuff there is a bit of a learning curve w/ it but once you get the hang of it, this unit is the best I have seen. It also allows intercom pairing w/ up to 9 SENA's and several other brands of devices w/ a Universal pairing feature. Also has a built in FM radio which I love to use when I am riding my GSA.

Load up the : Users guide on line at SENA.com and read through the entire thing and save it on your home computer for future reference. You will want to go back to it from time to time.

Have fun and ride safe,

Steve
 
This is great info!

We have be using SENA products at Streetmasters Motorcycle Workshopswww.Streetmasters.info For several years now.

They work well and perform many tasks.

It is important to pair your music audio and phone GPS audio separately.

Pair in this order: Pair your Smart phone to your GPS. ( not your SENA Headset)

Pair your SENA headset to your bikes radio sound system using the rotating dial on the left handlebar. Go into the menus the scroll thru till you see the audio.

Select Audio, then Helmet 1 push the wheel to the right to make it search for the SENA headset. It will find the SENA 20s-push the wheel towards the right ( don't rotate it, just push it and let it search.
On the SENA- push the phone button in and hold until you hear phone pairing, immediately push and release the jog dial- you will here selective media pairing. wait for the SENA and your bike to pair up. You will see the bike show it's done and the SENA will suddenly go Blue and you will here music ( if you have it on Sirius or radio channel-I would)

Once you have done this. Turn off the radio. Turn on the GPS and go to settings, then blue tooth. Push scan- push the phone button on the SENA again while it's powered up, until it says phone pairing, release and tap the phone button once more and you will hear it say selective audio pairing. Look for the GPS to find the SENA 20S select it and allow it to pair.

You are now. Done. You can now turn on everything phone, radio-sirius x-m etc. and GPS.
Your GPS or your phone may ask you if it can access your address book phone history. Say yes or allow. This will allow your gps to have access to your phones connections-address-phone numbers-call history etc.
I usually test this by putting my helmet on and call my home number from the gps.
simply touch the phone icon on the home page it will show phone or call home. Touch that icon,
The first time it may ask you to imput the phone number ( w/ area code) do so, then click on it and you will hear it ring in your headset and your home phone will ring. Talk to your wife, or someone at home and or leave a message on your home answering machine. Touch the small telephone on the screen and it should hangup or it may open a screen that says end call in red.
Touch that and you have completed the call. Have someone call you while you are listening to your bikes stereo music. You hear a phone ring noise and a screen will appear on your gps saying answer or ignore. Touch the answer button and wait a moment for it to connect. Your music should be muted out while you complete your call. Have the caller hangup Your phone-gps should hang up and then go back to your music.
All very cool the way it all seems to work.

You should set the phone Blue tooth to discoverable only to paired devices in the phones Blue tooth settings menu.

You should see the home page of the gps w/ a blue phone Icon, the SENA will say phone paired, media paired etc.

Play w/ it a bit till you get it down. You can also load up the free SENA/app.com on your phone ( play store or google play) which will give you the ability to reset all the basic settings on the SENA and a quick reference user guide can be viewed on you phone to do all this.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to see the settings on your SENA 20S you must pair the phone directly to the SENA using the phone button. Simply hold it down until you hear phone pairing and let go, while scanning in blue tooth until you see the SENA 20S Select the 20S on your phone and it is paired. Once I have done this and adjust the settings on my 20S on my phone, I usually go back into the phone and unpaid the SENA 20S and phone so it doesn't interfere w/ phone calls on the GPS.

Hope this helps. LIke most IT stuff there is a bit of a learning curve w/ it but once you get the hang of it, this unit is the best I have seen. It also allows intercom pairing w/ up to 9 SENA's and several other brands of devices w/ a Universal pairing feature. Also has a built in FM radio which I love to use when I am riding my GSA.

Load up the : Users guide on line at SENA.com and read through the entire thing and save it on your home computer for future reference. You will want to go back to it from time to time.

Have fun and ride safe,

Steve

I found your post extremely informative and helpful. Thank you for posting!
One question I have is...I have ordered my RT without the factory radio, which I believe in turn has factory bluetooth built into it. My question is, with the 20S can I just directly connect to my Nav V for GPS and to my Samsung Galaxy S5 for music, via bluetooth for each to the 20S? Or did I make a mistake by not ordering the BMW radio?

Thanks again,

AB
 
....

Load up the : Users guide on line at SENA.com and read through the entire thing and save it on your home computer for future reference. You will want to go back to it from time to time.

Have fun and ride safe,

Steve

Put it on your smartphone, too. You'll be on the road when you need it.
Ditto for your RT owner's manual.
 
We have be using SENA products at Streetmasters Motorcycle Workshopswww.Streetmasters.info For several years now.

They work well and perform many tasks.

It is important to pair your music audio and phone GPS audio separately.

Pair in this order: Pair your Smart phone to your GPS. ( not your SENA Headset)

Pair your SENA headset to your bikes radio sound system using the rotating dial on the left handlebar. Go into the menus the scroll thru till you see the audio.

Select Audio, then Helmet 1 push the wheel to the right to make it search for the SENA headset. It will find the SENA 20s-push the wheel towards the right ( don't rotate it, just push it and let it search.
On the SENA- push the phone button in and hold until you hear phone pairing, immediately push and release the jog dial- you will here selective media pairing. wait for the SENA and your bike to pair up. You will see the bike show it's done and the SENA will suddenly go Blue and you will here music ( if you have it on Sirius or radio channel-I would)

Once you have done this. Turn off the radio. Turn on the GPS and go to settings, then blue tooth. Push scan- push the phone button on the SENA again while it's powered up, until it says phone pairing, release and tap the phone button once more and you will hear it say selective audio pairing. Look for the GPS to find the SENA 20S select it and allow it to pair.

You are now. Done. You can now turn on everything phone, radio-sirius x-m etc. and GPS.
Your GPS or your phone may ask you if it can access your address book phone history. Say yes or allow. This will allow your gps to have access to your phones connections-address-phone numbers-call history etc.
I usually test this by putting my helmet on and call my home number from the gps.
simply touch the phone icon on the home page it will show phone or call home. Touch that icon,
The first time it may ask you to imput the phone number ( w/ area code) do so, then click on it and you will hear it ring in your headset and your home phone will ring. Talk to your wife, or someone at home and or leave a message on your home answering machine. Touch the small telephone on the screen and it should hangup or it may open a screen that says end call in red.
Touch that and you have completed the call. Have someone call you while you are listening to your bikes stereo music. You hear a phone ring noise and a screen will appear on your gps saying answer or ignore. Touch the answer button and wait a moment for it to connect. Your music should be muted out while you complete your call. Have the caller hangup Your phone-gps should hang up and then go back to your music.
All very cool the way it all seems to work.

You should set the phone Blue tooth to discoverable only to paired devices in the phones Blue tooth settings menu.

You should see the home page of the gps w/ a blue phone Icon, the SENA will say phone paired, media paired etc.

Play w/ it a bit till you get it down. You can also load up the free SENA/app.com on your phone ( play store or google play) which will give you the ability to reset all the basic settings on the SENA and a quick reference user guide can be viewed on you phone to do all this.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to see the settings on your SENA 20S you must pair the phone directly to the SENA using the phone button. Simply hold it down until you hear phone pairing and let go, while scanning in blue tooth until you see the SENA 20S Select the 20S on your phone and it is paired. Once I have done this and adjust the settings on my 20S on my phone, I usually go back into the phone and unpaid the SENA 20S and phone so it doesn't interfere w/ phone calls on the GPS.

Hope this helps. LIke most IT stuff there is a bit of a learning curve w/ it but once you get the hang of it, this unit is the best I have seen. It also allows intercom pairing w/ up to 9 SENA's and several other brands of devices w/ a Universal pairing feature. Also has a built in FM radio which I love to use when I am riding my GSA.

Load up the : Users guide on line at SENA.com and read through the entire thing and save it on your home computer for future reference. You will want to go back to it from time to time.

Have fun and ride safe,

Steve

Thank you so much. I am not interested in pairing my phone just the audio from the RT. I paired it to the bike using "Media selective pairing" and I still get very poor audio.
Any other suggestions.
Thanks,
Ken
 
Not a problem. You can still listen to music.

I found your post extremely informative and helpful. Thank you for posting!
One question I have is...I have ordered my RT without the factory radio, which I believe in turn has factory bluetooth built into it. My question is, with the 20S can I just directly connect to my Nav V for GPS and to my Samsung Galaxy S5 for music, via bluetooth for each to the 20S? Or did I make a mistake by not ordering the BMW radio?

Thanks again,

AB

Not having the radio still allows you to use your Media player in the Nav V GPS. Put a good size Micro SD card into your Nav and you can load music directly to it. You can also use the USB plug in the right locking pocket to the right side of the fuel tank to plug in other devices directly like an mp3 player, iPod, or thumb drive of your choosing.

The headset will work blue tooth to the bike. You just need to go into audio on the menu dial and scroll through to the imput you want and select it. I believe you have a USB selection on it.

The Media Player is built in to the Nav unit so just go to it and you can select it in apps.

Play w/ it a bit until you are comfortable using it w/ the 20S. Refer back to the USERS guide for the 20S for any unanswered questions.

All this high Tect IT stuff is great once you figure it all out. And it works very well without a bunch of cords draped across your bike.

You can also listen to FM radio built in to the SENA 20S if you want radio stations.
Just power it up. Then hold the phone button down until you hear two beeps and let go.

You will hear FM radio on. ( do the same to turn it off) You can now scroll thru available stations by holding the Jog dial down and just turning and letting go. It will say number of station and then you will hear that station unless the signal is too weak. If you don't like that channel simply hold it down and rotate again and release to hear the next one, until you find something you like?

I use this on my GSA as it has no radio but it's still nice to have music.

Hope this is helpful. If you get a chance to go to one of the Cycle world Motorcycle Bike shows around the country. Look for the SENA booth and drop by and talk w/ the guys at SENA they can answer any further questions you might have about using your headset.
 
SENA headsets- Poor audio quality

Thank you so much. I am not interested in pairing my phone just the audio from the RT. I paired it to the bike using "Media selective pairing" and I still get very poor audio.
Any other suggestions.
Thanks,
Ken

I forgot to ask. Are you wearing ear plugs? IF NOT you will have a hard time hearing the audio at speed. The quality is acutally better w/ a good set of ear plugs. I use the orange 33 db disposable ones. But any kind of ear plugs will do.

I also noticed the quality of the Blue Tooth on the 2014 R1200RTW is improved over the old, 2012-13 bikes. The Audio coming through the USB directly in the right pocket will give you the best audio quality on any year bike.

Remember, the Germans don't find a need for the Stereo, audio music like we do here in the USA. So the audio quality, is what it is!
 
I forgot to ask. Are you wearing ear plugs? IF NOT you will have a hard time hearing the audio at speed. The quality is acutally better w/ a good set of ear plugs. I use the orange 33 db disposable ones. But any kind of ear plugs will do.

I also noticed the quality of the Blue Tooth on the 2014 R1200RTW is improved over the old, 2012-13 bikes. The Audio coming through the USB directly in the right pocket will give you the best audio quality on any year bike.

Remember, the Germans don't find a need for the Stereo, audio music like we do here in the USA. So the audio quality, is what it is!

I need to wear ear plugs to hear the audio? Please. The Germans have some very good high end audio systems and it appears they will not let us use it unless we spend $1200.00 on their system.
 
I forgot to ask. Are you wearing ear plugs? IF NOT you will have a hard time hearing the audio at speed. The quality is acutally better w/ a good set of ear plugs. I use the orange 33 db disposable ones. But any kind of ear plugs will do.

I also noticed the quality of the Blue Tooth on the 2014 R1200RTW is improved over the old, 2012-13 bikes. The Audio coming through the USB directly in the right pocket will give you the best audio quality on any year bike.

Remember, the Germans don't find a need for the Stereo, audio music like we do here in the USA. So the audio quality, is what it is!

I find the same thing. The earplugs block out the noise and when you turn the headset up enough to be able to hear it the sound quality is improved.
 
I have a Sena S20 that I am trying to use with my new 2014 1200RT. It will link like normal but the audio quality from the radio and nav is very bad. Have I missed something or doing something wrong.

Thanks

There are headphones on the market that do improve the quality over the Sena headphones, but the most critical aspect of improving the quality of the sound is to be sure the headphones are directly over your ears. The helmet's built-in ear pockets may not be the best position for the phones. On my Arai I had to move the phones down and forward about 3/4 inch to orient them properly to my earholes. Hope this helps.
 
Like experience with like set up improved greatly with bass and treble settings at their lowest...believe that was a -4 to -6 on both. Much high than that and distortion made it impossible to hear whatever was streaming.
 
Anyone mounted this to a Shuberth or Nolan helmet?

My wife has a 10S mounted to her Shuberth C3 Womens helmet. No problems. Need to use the boom mine. The mounting plate for the 20S is slightly but not significantly different.
 
Anyone mounted this to a Shuberth or Nolan helmet?

My wife has a 10S mounted to a Shuberth C3 Pro Womens helmet. Attachment plate is slightly, but not significantly different, and it works well, although need to use the adhesive back rather than the clamp. Works well. Has stayed on for over a year. Need to use the boom mike.
 
Installed 20S Intercom - Sat Radio - Music Sharing

Installed my 20S on my 2013 R1200RT this weekend.

I followed Steve's (Vegasbeemerguy) instructions along with watching a few videos from the Sena site. I did quite a bit of reading on the blogs, and I must admit I didn't have any problems, everything paired up just as I expected. Music sounds great in the rider as well as the passenger headsets. The music and the intercom sound way better than my old Scala Rider PRO set-up.

I didn't want to pair up my phone and GPS, but if I do I will use Steve's prcedure on that also.

One thing I learned from Sena is that the order in which you pair devices is critical, and the order in which you power up is also critical, i.e., the way I am set up is that the radio on the beemer has to be on first and then power up the headsets.. Has to do with the order in which things are paired. Since I am only listening to the Sat. Radio and using the intercom I don't think it matters as much, but if the GPS/phone is paired with the headset along with the Bluetooth from the bike then it may make a difference.

Thanks to everybody on the blogs, especially steve
 
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