After being completely frustrated with Cardo Packtalk Bold and the Edge and not being able to get the Sena 50R Harmon Kardon series (no idea why, Sena says they are being released later in the year but do not know when) I ordered a set of the Midland BT Rush's from the UK (They do not have the BT Rush RCF out yet but I was told it was really just the FM reception that was different). I will say they are a great unit. Long lasting battery, waterproof (talking to you Sena), low profile design. Where they do lack is voice commands, however they are quite a few $$ less than Cardo or Sena.
- Sounded great, RCF speakers are right on par with Harmon Kardon or JBL.
- Having separate up/down volume switches on top of the units is a great idea, wish they could be held down instead of tapped repeatedly though.
- Magnetic mount is great, much lower profile than the Cardo Edge.
- More importantly everything worked, and customer service responds to emails within 24 hrs with actual helpful information (talking to Cardo and Sena, of course they will not read this anymore than they read my inquiries for tech support).
- Where this unit fails for me is have three modes, Intercom, Phone, FM. The three main buttons change what they do according to the mode one is in. During Intercom mode the buttons do one thing, if you want to get to Siri you have to change to the phone mode 1st. I understand why they did this but its a PIA especially if you don't remember what mode it was in last.
- The other issue and why I returned these was when music sharing the quality of the Intercom was awful. I only had 15 days to try these because of international shipping so I did not have time to go thru tech support once I figured out where the problem was coming in. I noticed sometimes I just could not understand what my passenger was saying, assumed it was wind noise or she wasn't talking into the mic. Finally after realizing when sharing music the intercom was full of static and garbled I tried changing ever setting I could think of with no effect. What did happen was off, when changing intercom to private mesh from open the music would skip and stutter. I then reached out to tech support which did not know what to do but would check with engineering. I heard back several days later with a statement to turn bridging on, both units. This made no sense because we ride were riding alone and did not need to bridge anyone in, upon my questioning this they told me it cuts the Bluetooth intercom power which they think was interfering with the mesh quality. I had already sent the units back so I do not know if it would fix anything or not. However this does explain why when using a Sena unit the mesh antenna needs to be up or the intercom often sounds garbled as well. (I didn't think it needed to be raised when my passenger is only 2 feet away, now I know better).
All in all these Midlands are a great unit and I wish Sena and Cardo would learn a few things from them, mostly customer service.
I ended up purchasing and old set of Sena 50R's that were a leftover at Cycle Gear because they were marked down extensively. Sena also had upgraded all the 50R's to Mesh 2.0 and Harmon Kardon software via firmware updates. So once purchasing the upgraded speakers and Mics the old 1.0 versions will be the same as the upcoming units that are not being released yet. I assume they are holding off to help BMW sell their newly released Com U1 versions and then they can sell all those folks the Harmon Kardon upgrades as well. These are not a perfect design by any means but they are in my opinion the best option available right now for my wants (intercom, sharing music at the same time) Although if you have a Garmin they will not work either because of volume management issues (I got rid of my Garmin because of this and other issues and just use the Scenic app). The voice commands work great for Siri and Sena although one needs to drag the "e" in Sena saying "Seena" instead. I do wish they were waterproof but until I have an issue I cannot really complain about that.
The low profile mount was a big deal, I hated the Cardo edge mount because of how thick it was and the Sena 50 because how mush it stuck down below the helmet, this unit is non removable without some major effort but we never take them off our helmets anyways. Music quality and volume are great with just the HD speakers that came with them, I am only going to upgrade to the Harmon because they are slightly thinner and fit better in the helmet but are also a bit crisper sounding with sharper and cleaner highs which makes the intercom much clearer when there is a lot of wind noise. I also use Earpiece earplugs full time so perhaps they just work well together.
- Sounded great, RCF speakers are right on par with Harmon Kardon or JBL.
- Having separate up/down volume switches on top of the units is a great idea, wish they could be held down instead of tapped repeatedly though.
- Magnetic mount is great, much lower profile than the Cardo Edge.
- More importantly everything worked, and customer service responds to emails within 24 hrs with actual helpful information (talking to Cardo and Sena, of course they will not read this anymore than they read my inquiries for tech support).
- Where this unit fails for me is have three modes, Intercom, Phone, FM. The three main buttons change what they do according to the mode one is in. During Intercom mode the buttons do one thing, if you want to get to Siri you have to change to the phone mode 1st. I understand why they did this but its a PIA especially if you don't remember what mode it was in last.
- The other issue and why I returned these was when music sharing the quality of the Intercom was awful. I only had 15 days to try these because of international shipping so I did not have time to go thru tech support once I figured out where the problem was coming in. I noticed sometimes I just could not understand what my passenger was saying, assumed it was wind noise or she wasn't talking into the mic. Finally after realizing when sharing music the intercom was full of static and garbled I tried changing ever setting I could think of with no effect. What did happen was off, when changing intercom to private mesh from open the music would skip and stutter. I then reached out to tech support which did not know what to do but would check with engineering. I heard back several days later with a statement to turn bridging on, both units. This made no sense because we ride were riding alone and did not need to bridge anyone in, upon my questioning this they told me it cuts the Bluetooth intercom power which they think was interfering with the mesh quality. I had already sent the units back so I do not know if it would fix anything or not. However this does explain why when using a Sena unit the mesh antenna needs to be up or the intercom often sounds garbled as well. (I didn't think it needed to be raised when my passenger is only 2 feet away, now I know better).
All in all these Midlands are a great unit and I wish Sena and Cardo would learn a few things from them, mostly customer service.
I ended up purchasing and old set of Sena 50R's that were a leftover at Cycle Gear because they were marked down extensively. Sena also had upgraded all the 50R's to Mesh 2.0 and Harmon Kardon software via firmware updates. So once purchasing the upgraded speakers and Mics the old 1.0 versions will be the same as the upcoming units that are not being released yet. I assume they are holding off to help BMW sell their newly released Com U1 versions and then they can sell all those folks the Harmon Kardon upgrades as well. These are not a perfect design by any means but they are in my opinion the best option available right now for my wants (intercom, sharing music at the same time) Although if you have a Garmin they will not work either because of volume management issues (I got rid of my Garmin because of this and other issues and just use the Scenic app). The voice commands work great for Siri and Sena although one needs to drag the "e" in Sena saying "Seena" instead. I do wish they were waterproof but until I have an issue I cannot really complain about that.
The low profile mount was a big deal, I hated the Cardo edge mount because of how thick it was and the Sena 50 because how mush it stuck down below the helmet, this unit is non removable without some major effort but we never take them off our helmets anyways. Music quality and volume are great with just the HD speakers that came with them, I am only going to upgrade to the Harmon because they are slightly thinner and fit better in the helmet but are also a bit crisper sounding with sharper and cleaner highs which makes the intercom much clearer when there is a lot of wind noise. I also use Earpiece earplugs full time so perhaps they just work well together.
