Anyone using the Scala Rider Teamset?

[JimL]

I bought a Scala Rider Teamset last year and just got around to installing them on our helmets.  I have to say I am not particularly pleased with the quality of the sound (lots of static).  I even tested them off the bike in the house were there is no wind or engine noise to contend with, and the sound quality still is poor at best.  Is this just me?  Does anyone else have any experience with this headset?

Thanks,
Jim

[dreamaker]

I have the Scala Rider Q2 but quality should be the same . I haven't had any problems. Is there something in your area that maybe causing the static, like cell phone tower. Have you gone out of your area?

Dan

[JimL]

I have the Scala Rider Q2 but quality should be the same . I haven't had any problems. Is there something in your area that maybe causing the static, like cell phone tower. Have you gone out of your area?

Dan

Dan thanks for the input.  Actually there is a cell tower very close to my house.  Is this known to cause static in these headsets?

Jim

[Don07tncav]

We've got a set of the Q-2's on our IS because we wanted to go cordless. They work fine so far after about 6 rides using them. The radio stinks for me.

[dreamaker]

Not being a jurk but you know you can set your own stations on FM. I noticed that when adjusting the stations, in some cases you may get the same station on two or three clicks when adjusting, with different quality. Kinda like being a half a station off. Does that make sense.

Dan

[Don07tncav]

It does make sense Dan, when it's adjusted and I go to lock in the station, I lose it. Just have to play with it some more!!

It is kind of weird when I'm paying for fuel and my wife is talking to me from outside. She wants me to mount a camera on the helmet and her hold a monitor so she can pick stuff out in the quick stop....  

[dreamaker]

Well you got to give it to her for being creative.

Dan

[humshark]

So - what's the end result?  Are we thumbs up or down with the scala riders?  Standard and Q2.  I was looking at possibly purchasing a SET of EACH.  Using the Q2 to go between bikes and the standard in the helmets for our passengers.

Does anyone run music into the set?  I ride with a constant flow of music coming from my mp3 player.

[dreamaker]

I have the Q2 and have no complaints. I have a Zumo 550 and it is tied to my Q2 using a Bluetooth dongle, Because I want to listen to XM.  I get XM, FM, Mp3, cell phone and commands through it. One thing about the Q2 it is not stereo which don't make a difference to me because after 45mph you can't tell the difference anyway.

Dan

[Fathertime]

I went the cheap route and got the Team set.  When me and my wife first put them on in the house I was very disapointed with the sound quality.  Loads and loads of static.  We went onto various web sites and got the word that they actually wont work well in a quiet situation because of the noise canceling features so we went for a short ride.
On the road, the quality really improves.  Its not "land line" perfect but to my old ears it works very well!

[dreamaker]

Your not going cheap, I think the only difference is you don't have bike to bike. Just for chuckles I would contact Cardo Tech. and tell them. I get good quality sound, in fact when someone calls me on the cell they think I am on a land line. We are humans and we make mistakes, so maybe your unit is not up to pare. I would check them out.

Dan

[Don07tncav]

I like the phone feature except for today, I was in a bike shop and looking at some boots. Called the wife about them on my cell phone and couldn't hear her at all. Called back, still nothing, called back for the third time and heard something out of the helmet which was sitting on the counter. Upps, I had the phone paired with the helmet... Put my helmet on in the store and talked to her....

As Dan said, it's not stereo sound but it works well enough.

[tlanz]

We've been running the Team Set going on two years now. The 1st set we got, I sent back right away as the communication sound quality was poor. The next set was not much better. I don't know why, but it seems only the rider/passenger sound suffers. And forget about hearing/understandig your partner over 40MPH (though the wife seems able to understand me fairly well). Anyway, I've recently modified my unit by hacking off the speakers and wiring in a mini audio jack. I then bought some etymotic er-6i's to plug into it. These headphones are sweet and they function well as ear plugs too. very nice noise isolation. Anyway, I can now understand what my passenger is saying even @70+MPH!

Otherwise, phone calls are excellent (even with the speakers); most people don't have a clue you're riding (not that I advocate jabbering while riding). It also pairs up nicely with my Zumo, but as others have mentioned, the ScalaRider does not support stereo so MP3 quality suffers quite a bit.

Given what I know now, I would seriously investigate other options (perhaps Chatterbox?) before taking the plunge on Cardo again.

[dreamaker]

I agree to shop around for the best bang for the buck.  I tend to be more practical in my choices, I guess I got one of the good ones. I don't even want to expand on who is doing the assembly and quality control of our components these days. But when I was looking for a system I knew there are trade offs.  I did not expect to have sound like an Ipod when I was jogging or my home theater with the 5.1 surround system.  One of the most important things was can I hear what is going on around me and still enjoy the music. Because I realize I am sitting on almost a half ton of lethal machinery and my first obligation is to my driving.  Now correct me if I am wrong, but stereo is not quality of sound but it just means separate signal. Quality of sound is fidelity of sound such as low, medium and high fidelity that is why I was not concerned with stereo in my Q2.  Remember no matter what you buy there is always trade offs.

Dan

[humshark]

ScalaRider does not support stereo so MP3 quality suffers quite a bit.

concerning

Quality of sound is fidelity of sound such as low, medium and high fidelity that is why I was not concerned with stereo in my Q2

I believe both of you are correct.  Listening to an original stereo source, mixed into mono can degrade the quality of sound, especially in modern tracks. 

While I am willing to compromise in some areas, I ( and this is personally ) would have a hard time with mono music.  Especially when we have the standards now for stereo Bluetooth.

It sounds like I am close to what I am looking for, but maybe I'll have to wait a year yet....   

I like the modification to higher quality ear buds.  That really makes sense to me.  The wind noise alone on long trips can cause hearing damage.     Being able to run with high quality earbuds and overall lower volume settings ( less high frequency ) sounds great!

[dreamaker]

I don't want to keep kicking a dead dog.   Some maybe, helpful hint for transferring audio.  Many people assume that when you copy to an other format or units that it should be somewhat verbatim, not really. In analog we look at signal to noise ratio, wav files is bits and sample rate and in mp3 is kbps. These days most people go to MP3 because they are small files with good quality. In some cases some units and programs will default to a lower rate because everybody seems to focus on the Internet. Which high quality can bottle neck on the net depending on your ISP and computer. So sometimes when you copy or convert it may not sound as good. So you need to go into the setting  in the program or menu and make sure you are copying at high quality. Mp3, I would say 96kbps to 128kbps, so check your settings before you copy. My music were converted to MP3 and sound great on my Q2.
In computers that have Microsoft OS system, under accessories or about is a program called MS Movie Maker and it is a good program and simple to use for copying and converting to MP3. You can set it to what quality you want.

Dan