Sena 30K Not as loud as expected

Does anyone else have issues with the Sena's not being nearly as loud as they advertise? With mine cranked all the way up, they are pathetically quiet, and for the cost of the darn thing they should be crystal clear and with plenty of volume.

Could it be the position of the speakers or the helmet padding? Or is this just the way they are? Earplugs do make them easier to hear, but it's still not nearly what I've expected.

flypacnw said:

Does anyone else have issues with the Sena's not being nearly as loud as they advertise? With mine cranked all the way up, they are pathetically quiet, and for the cost of the darn thing they should be crystal clear and with plenty of volume.

Could it be the position of the speakers or the helmet padding? Or is this just the way they are? Earplugs do make them easier to hear, but it's still not nearly what I've expected.

Click to expand...

Same here. I've seen threads about louder speakers, different earplugs, and so on.

I've opted to go with Etymotic headphones with foam eartips. For me, having a wire attached to the Sena headphone jack is a minor hassle compared with having wind noise wash out the audio at anything over 45MPH.

Our Schuberth C4s have built in Sena communicators and they could stand to have more volume.
I had to revert the firmware back to 1.0 to have enough volume to hear music at highway speeds.

It's interesting the latest 30K system is also having a volume problem.

My sena 10u had plenty of volume, even with ear plugs.
Speaker placement is important.

More important is to make sure volume is maxed out on the source input, not just the sena. On Android phones there is a warning at a certain volume level. Gotta tap past that warning to max out the volume. I do this before every ride.

Speaker placement has something to do with it, but what are your settings in the device itself? Here's mine for my Sena 10C. With the 30K being much newer, I'd expect you have even more options than I get.



Chris

Beware that the audio boost function reduces fidelity! In my experience with Sena over the past several years, speaker placement and distance to your ear is critical in obtaining enough volume. Even a small adjustment can make a big change. I use earbuds exclusively now as this provides unmatched wind noise isolation and also the volume required for any audio source (music, GPS, intercom) is much less than with speakers. I recently found that these J-bud earbuds work really well in that they have good bass, are comfortable, and provide good volume. Recommended.

If you can't hear...does it matter about the fidelity?

I don't have a problem with fidelity and I hear just fine...with 33 db earplugs. If I want concert hall quality, I'll play the music in my man cave, not inside my helmet with road noise and wind noise so loud it would damage my hearing without earplugs.

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azgman said:

" speaker placement and distance to your ear is critical in obtaining enough volume. Even a small adjustment can make a big change...

Click to expand...

+1
speaker being slightly off center of ear will make a noticeable difference in volume. I had to adjust speaker location on my wife's C3/10U this spring after pads were taken out for cleaning. She could barely hear output at max volume, moved speakers directly opposite ear opening, half volume or lower works well

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I had a problem hearing music only. The problem was I had the volume on my I phone set very low. Be sure to check the source volume setting. I have been very pleased with the Sena otherwise

Same problem with Cardo--bought Splugs

I had the identical problem with the Cardo Packtalk. Never could quite hear riding buddy really well, or enjoy music. I tried a lot of things over about 18 months to hear better, but eventually bought some Splugs, about $125 <http://www.plugup.com/the_S_plug_stereo_earbuds_s/67.htm> corded ear plugs. Problem solved. These in-ear plugs/speakers block much more noise than the helmet alone. Splugs plug directly into my Packtalk speaker wiring (and probably Sena, too, I would guess.)

Of course, plugging in these things each time you put the helmet on is an extra nuisance and step. But you CAN HEAR. I plug in the original speakers occasionally--when I don't want to hassle with the Splugs--but can really notice the degradation in audio quality compared to the Splugs.

The other things I tried were: 1) Tried to make my Schuberth C3 Pro quieter by adding additional insulation, plugging obvious sources of air noise--but that didn't make a noticeable difference, 2) do-it-yourself molded ear plugs, Ear Fuze brand, about $40--never worked well, difficult to mold well. True custom molded plugs would be even better than Splugs, but they would be more costly than Splugs.

I was on a helicopter flight crew in the military for a while and we had over-the-ear headphones inside our helmets. There were some bulges outside the helmet to leave room for the giant ears, but they blocked a lot of noise. I wish the moto helmet manufacturers would offer that option.