Sena 20S ?

[Exploreinman]

I've read many reviews, good and bad, about the Sena 20S that I'm still researching rather to pull the trigger on this communication system. Me and my riding buddies have been looking for bike to bike communication that works consistently and easily. If you own this model, what's your review of it?

[Tri750]

Not a direct answer, but maybe more data for your "research"

 

I have both the Sena 10 and the Scala G4/9.

Several years experience selling, using and installing the Scala products, several months experience using the Sena.

 

Between the 2, the Scala product has more powerful and better sounding speakers for music. For voice, they are both good.

 

I'm surprised Sena hasn't incorperated active volume into the new 20-S.

Scala has had it since the G4 was introduced.

You really get spoiled by it. At least I did. Once the base volume is set, you never touch it.

 

I have 2 Shoei open face helmets each has a unit on it. Me personally, I much prefer the Scala.

 

The newest model, similar to the 20-S is the G9X.

Looking at the Sena features, they are similar.

The only thing Scala may not have is the advertised ability to to pair with other brands of BT intercoms. My old G4 actually does.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Danny caddyshack Noonan]

I've had a 20S for a month or so. I drive it off a SMH10 hardwired into the bike.

I like it. Handshake is instantaneous, BT linking is easy.

However, I may put tbis on the wifey helmet and test the lower profile unit due to wind noise in my multitec. I don't think the BT is a big contributor but, I'd like to find out.

Volume is just enough to listen to anything with high dB attenuation ear plugs in.

[hopz]

When I first made the decision to go with an intercom system plus linkage to the GPS I tried Scala.

 

Admittedly it was an earlier model than this one. My experience was not positive, mainly due to an almost unusable volume on both headsets. After months of fussing with it, and many one-on-one discussions with an engineer from Scala/Cardo both myself and the engineer gave up. I sold the Scala set and went to full Autocom.

 

This week I went with a Sena SMH10 Dup set and the volume is great, maybe even too loud, but everything else is a vast improvement over the earlier attempts.

 

I am aware that this is not the product you are asking about but the core company orientation towards customer service is important. I can tell you the conversations I have had about the Sena have been most helpful and effective.

[Exploreinman]

I have custom molded ear plugs with audio that I use for hearing protection and to listen to music, so I like the fact that I could use these with the Sena 20S. There's a plug in for ear buds, so I would not use the helmet speakers that come with the kit. My priority list in a communication system is:

 

1. Bike to bike communication

2. Listening to music

 

Integrating Phone and GPS would be nice, but they are far down my priority list. My greatest interest would be that 1 & 2 above work well.

[John in VA]

I've had my 20S for several months and like it a lot, with Tork X-Pro speakers in my helmet and is an improvement over the SMH10. It connects instantly to my iPhone and I listen to classical music on the FM radio on my daily commute. Charge lasts a long time. I haven't used it for intercom.

 

Sena's upcoming Prism Bluetooth camera looks great but will be an expensive toy. I hope I can resist it!

[Motobricker]

My riding partner and I bought G9's, a bit expensive, but they work for quite a long distance and have some really good features. Couple of items I don't like is the radio option, it keeps coming on at funny times. Otherwise we used them all the summer of 2013 for a month long trip to Ohio and back, would never ride without them anymore. We use them on every ride and they are great for communicating gas stops, bathroom, turns etc. If you get stopped at a light and partner goes on they work for at least a 1 to 1 1/2, more if it is open.

[Lucky Dave]

I have a Sena 20s, it works a lot better after updating it to the latest firmware. Don't be afraid to update!

[Exploreinman]

Just ordered a dual back from Revzilla.Dual pack is on sale for $412. Me and a Buddy are going to split the cost an give them a try.

[Exploreinman]

Got'em today and will begin working with them this weekend. Report later.

[deesee]

I have had the SMH 10 and the 20S. I was happier with the SMH 10, and would not reccomend the 20S. I bought the 20S for 'audio multitasking' feature, and I'm extremely dissapointed. Friends say the phone call quality was also better with the SMH 10.

 

[Exploreinman]

I have had the SMH 10 and the 20S. I was happier with the SMH 10, and would not reccomend the 20S. I bought the 20S for 'audio multitasking' feature, and I'm extremely dissapointed. Friends say the phone call quality was also better with the SMH 10.

 

Hope I don't have the same experience. Me and 4 other buddies just purchased the 20S and will be trying them out soon. Report to come!

[BarryBeemer]

Took a while to sort out, but we're very happy with our 20s setup now. The techs were very helpful. One key is to make sure the antennae are in the up position while music sharing. I know it seems crazy that that would have anything to do with music quality when the headsets are so close together, but you're using A LOT of bandwidth and that takes care of the problem. Enjoy!

[Exploreinman]

Update-I received the Sena 20s and it was very easy to mount to my Shoei Multi-Tec. Synced it up to my phone & made my first phone call clear as a bell. On bike test coming next!

[bmwdavid]

Would appreciate a in depth review as I am still trying to decide what to purchase. Would like to know about music quality, whether or not it pairs to a second helmet allowing music sharing and what it doesn't do well such as not being able to use the wonder wheel on the bike to control volume.

[Exploreinman]

I'll do that.

[Exploreinman]

Just did my first on-bike try of my new Sena 20S communicator. I have a group of 6 friends that ride a lot together and we've been wanting to try a communication system. We've always thought that being able to communicate with one another would contribute to our safety, so clear bike to bike intercom was the highest priority as we looked at different systems. I'm not going over all the Sena 20S can do. You can watch a good video review of this model at www.revzilla.com. Upon receiving the 20S, I upgraded the firmware via the internet per the instructions, paired it with my iPhone, and both were very straightforward. The unit mounted easily to my Shoei Multi-Tec helmet using the clamp. Even though I use custom molded ear plugs with audio, I went ahead and mounted the speakers in my helmet. My earbuds plug into the unit and they override the speakers in the helmet, but if I'm ever going down the road on a short errand, I'll still have audio if not using the earbuds. Upon reading the user instructions for the 20S my initial impression was this is going to be complicated. But after re-reading several times and playing with the unit, it's very easy to use.

 

I met a buddy of mine in North Georgia last Friday and our first order of business was to pair the two units together. That was a snap and I was extremely impressed with the clarity of the communication that we experienced bike to bike. I was expecting some type of FRS or CB radio experience with static and lag time in our communication. But the Sena 20S has full duplex communication. My buddy Pat and I talked with one another like we were sitting across from another in a restaurant booth. The audio was clear as a bell, absolutely no static, no lag time, simply talk like you do with some one face to face. You pretty much have to be in line of sight for the radios to work with one another, but Pat and I rode 250 miles in the North Georgia mountains and only lost radio contact a few times. We generally ride .2 miles behind one another and if one of us dropped down the back side of a hill we would lose radio contact, or if you were well around a mountain corner you would lose contact as the radio is not going to go through the side of the mountain. I was amazed how little we lost communication after 250 miles of twisty mountain roads. And the safety factor that I mentioned was readily evident on our first ride. It can be very startling when a M/C passes you and you don't realize it till they're right up on you. I was in front of my buddy Pat and he radioed that I had two sport bikes screaming up on my left to make a pass. I try to continually look 360, but I didn't catch these bikes in my mirrors and it was nice to know they were coming via the intercom. Being able to radio about debri in the road, approaching cars, directions, etc. was very helpful, and I think the safety enhancement alone is worth the price of the system. That being said, it was also nice to have a conversation with my buddy as we went down the road together. It enhanced the joy of the ride as we communicated along the way.

 

I don't listen to a ton of music on my bike, but when I'm riding the 110 miles from my house to the Appalachian mountains, I will listen during that time and the Sena Bluetooth enabled me to cordlessly listen to Pandora during that commute. Again it worked extremely well. Out on a long stretch of country road I tried the voice command to make a cell phone call, and once again it was clear as a bell and the friend that I was talking to had no idea I was on my bike until I told him. He said I sounded very clear and he heard absolutely no road noise or wind noise.

 

I'm looking forward to trying the Sena when the 6 of us are all paired together, but for now I would give the Sena 20S a rating of 10 on a scale of 1-10. I'm extremely impressed at this point.

[bmwdavid]

Thanks for the in depth review. I was hoping to find out if the Sena 20 was able to share music with a passenger, if the bike linked to the wethead RT and how well it sounded mainly for music. Thanks again for the review.

[walton66]

My question is: can I pair with my passenger while she is paired with her own phone and music source?

[BarryBeemer]

Just completed integrating all my audio on the bike.

 

Pretty much duplicated Garry's setup by disconnecting the speakers, tapping into their audio and hardwiring that to a Sena SM-10 that fits nicely in the lockable right-hand compartment where it gets 12VDC power from the USB connector. It then transmits via BT to our pair of 20s headsets. It's absolutely wonderful, crystal clear audio in our ArizonaAl earmolds. My 20s is also paired to my Droid phone via the NavV GPS. I can share XM/AM/FM with my wife or she can plug in her own ipod Touch to cut out my feed and listen to her own music. (She uses the hardwire option for the ipod since she already has her iphone paired via BT to her 20S. She doesn't keep her music on her iphone.)

Did 160 miles yesterday up and over the mountains East of San Diego. It all worked perfectly! Audio volume from each source is independently controllable and memorized by the 20S. The wonderwheel on the bike is still very useful for adjusting volume of the bike audio output.

 

Sometimes, there is a 1-2 second lag after a GPS audio command before it releases back to my music. That's fine since I usually mute that audio anyway unless I'm really looking for something and wouldn't be listening to music anyway.

 

I have one more step to complete my system and that is to have the Valentine V1 audio output hardwired to the SM-10 using their audio add-on unit (on order). I'm crossing my fingers for a "no-lag" situation when the V1 picks up a radar signal and am optimistic. Will report back on that.

 

Bottom line.....VERY satisfied!

[Exploreinman]

"My question is: can I pair with my passenger while she is paired with her own phone and music source?"

 

Yes she can.