New 20S
What's happening with the 20S? Been announced a while ago, but still no sign of when it will be available? I'm looking forward to upgrading from the SMH10, but when?
Any news?
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The hum/buzz is not wind-related. First time we noticed it was when two of us were standing in my driveway after mounting the Senas in our helmets and turning them on for the first time. My friend said, "Mine is making a buzz sound." Hmmmm, mine is too, but its not loud.
Regarding wind noise and microphone placement: One of my friends uses the wired mic. In the helmet, it was too far from his mouth. Just an inch or so away from one's mouth made the audio level harder to hear compared to the other three of us who used boom mics in our flip-front helmets. None of us had wind noise issues. The wind noise rejection in these Sena 20S units is fantastic. Infinitely better than our SMH 10 and 10R units we've been using for the past couple of years. The transmitted intercom audio was almost total silence except for our voices.
Ken
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OK Ken, I confirm hearing the hum/buzz too.
I normally use a pair of ear defenders or ear plugs while driving. With the Sena 20S I still do the same so have to switch the volume to the maximum. I prefer protecting the ears rather than enjoying music at high speed. This arrangement is OK for using the phone for up to say 80mph when I speed-called the wife who was in a house. Obviously the ambient noise overwhelm the Sena 20S output when I am driving faster. I did not pick up any hum by this arrangement because there is no ear buds involves.
However in an attempt to use the ear buds I got the hum/buzz right from the unit. It seems to start as soon as I insert the jack into the ear buds socket. It is definitely coming from the one side and pretty constant too. It was not particularly intrusive but annoying. I suppose this may have something to do with how Sena screens the bluetooth signal from the ear buds or its audio circuitry. We all know the unit in operation must flash the bluetooth LED, send out and receive signal constantly. Plugging the ear buds in seem to pick this noise up right away. If this is the case it would be a design shortcoming and Sena may need to do something about it. I am quite happy to do away the ear buds to make my helmet truly wireless. If I drive fast I wouldn't like to talk to the phone or listen to the radio or music. At low speed my partly blocked ears (with defenders in place) find it acceptable can enjoy the facilities by Sena 20S.
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Where can I find what has been updated in firmware changes. I just updated to 1.1.1. Sure would like to know what they worked on.
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I am pretty much done with my sena 20s.. removed it from helmets today switching back to my single sena 10 and buying another sena 10 used,, .. biggest waste of money for me in years.
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K9rider, What is wrong with your Sena 20S? or what feature in Sena 10 you have found superior to 20S?
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Sound quality is absolutely awful.. My wife had gotten spoiled with the clarity of the phone calls from the road from me with the 10. I told her the 20s should be even better and intercom voice improved too. NADA, No,, I have tried everything the dealer reccomended. made sure the updates were done,, cleared the pairings and started over,, nothing helped
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Anyone else done the 1.1.1 update? What's supposed to have been changed?
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K9rider, Do you use ear buds? If the music from the helmet is heard via a pair of wired ear buds I would agree the quality is constantly being interfered by a humming or buzzing noise. However without the ear buds the sound quality should be perfect through the speakers provided. That is what I have found.
I wonder how many Sena 20S users use ear buds with bluetooth?
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Done the 1.1.1 update but no idea what has been changed.
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I had already read about all the problems using ear buds.. I was even trying to see if I could switch out the speakers from my 10.. But the electronics guy said he diod not think the scratchiness was from the speakers. I compared the two systems side by side this afternoon .. same distance apart same person using them and STATIONARY.. no electrical interference or wind noise.. My 10 beat the 20s completely..
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Re the audio quality using with ear buds... I opened a ticket with Sena and after a couple of messages back and forth Sena is replacing both my units.
They agreed there was a problem with ear bud use and assure me they have now rectified the problem. Obviously a hardware issue, if it was software
they would have just issued a patch vs sending replacement units?
My units work perfectly apart from basically useless when used with ear buds due to noise....
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I don't yet want to update, after the battery troubles from first unit I want to test the battery life on the second unit from the dual set. Been roughly a week and a half and still going strong ;)
Still using firmware 1.0 on this unit, as mentioned, I don't yet want to plug it in for the update until it has gone flat once... Is there a way to update firmware through phone app?Oh yeah, Sena's support was prompt and easy to deal with regarding returning the unit with the faulty battery.
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I would contact Sena direct. They will replace them. I also had the 10's, these new 20's are head and shoulders above for clarity, volume and features.
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One of the new units also will never read fully charged.. it stays red...Out of the box I plugged them both i so they would be fully charged the next day when i got off duty.. #2 never got there. i guess i just got lemons.. Shame i normally wait and check new items out OR give it a while to shake the bugs out BUT I so liked my 10 unit that I could not wait for the 20s since i am heading out in about 3 weeks for an 11500 miles ride..
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I did the 1.1.1 firmware update today. Don't have a clue what to look for. They should certainly give us a txt or pdf file telling what has been addressed.
As far as audio quality goes, my 20S beats my 10R hands-down. The audio quality is perfect with my earbuds. (My earbuds do pick up that noise, but it's way down in volume so as to not interfere with intercom). I doubt they can fix the "Earbud Audio Hum" with firmware. I have three sets of earbuds; should try all three.
The speaker audio is fine with my 20Ss except that I have to work to make out conversation at 50 mph and higher.
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@Ken - How do I email you regarding your experience with the unit throughout the trip?
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I've not yet been able to try the 20S, but the above is a bit worrying. After trumpeting the improved audio quality of the 20S to hear that some are finding it worse than the SMH10 is not good news.
A buzzing with earbuds is even more of a worry. Some of us tried to modify the SMH10 clamp to re-purpose the audio in jack as an output for earbuds and there were problems due to the fact that the internal amp expected to be driving 2 speakers each with their own independent ground. Trying to connect that to earbuds that use a common ground was an issue and AFAICR could cause humming and buzzing problems. Are we sure Sena have fully thought this through on the 20S?
BTW, I have a used SMH10 in great condition now for sale if anyone wishes to give up on the 20S. But I am in the UK which could be an issue.
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Yep the sena lady sure does not give you a lot of time left when she says low battery. Heard it the first time the other day while I was listening to music on my iPhone and thought I would stop the music at the next intersection. 1 minute after the first message she said low battery again and it was shut off completely.
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I have received my dual 20S headsets. Have anyone installed the 20S headset with a Vega Summitt 3.1 helmet.
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Can anyone tell me why when my 20S is paired to a SMH10 in intercom mode the 10 can bring up the link but my 20 just says "intercom failed try again later"? Please help. I've got latest firmware. Tried factory reset, re-paired multiple times. Same result. 0 -
To Jim Schaffer,
I can not help you with the Vega Summit, but I did mount my 20S to a Nolan 104 helmet rather than using the Nolan NComm system. Due to the neck hard-plastic trim, the 20S clamp would not work without some modification. I had to drill two mounting holes in the 20S clamp; drilled two holes in the neck trim (stayed out of the helmet proper); and replaced the boom mike with the hardwired mic and a piece of velcro. Works great now.
Regards
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I purchased two 20S units and one has Ear-bud/Headset buzz and does not show a charged (blue) condition on the Charge Indicator LED. I have requested a replacement.
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I purchased the dual set to ride with my daughter. The FM radio gets no stations, the voice command only works sometimes the side tap feature makes everyone at a stop light stare at you because you have to keep tapping it to get it to work tried the sensitivity adjustment and it made no difference. The case on one is splitting and the little white gasket is popping out checked the screws on the back and they have been over tightened and striped. One charges fine, the other charges until blue light comes on saying its charged but will only work for an hour before the voice comes on saying low battery. Tried the reset and nothing changed. Static when in intercom mode and if you both try to listen to music from one iphone it sounds like a CD skipping or like it's buffering. I think the concept was there but its just not working the way they should. I have done the latest update and don't see any difference. Have a ticket with Sena and hope they will stand behind there product and give me replacements that work. 0
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