Sena SMH10R Low Profile Motorcycle Bluetooth Headset and Intercom - SMH10R-01

I'm a fairly new rider. I've only had 1 helmet (Shoei GT-Air), and I've only used this bluetooth unit. So, I can't really offer a comparison helmet-to-helmet or bluetooth-to-bluetooth for this review. What I can say is that this bluetooth unit does about everything I could want, and does it well. I'm riding for work now, and put a LOT of time in the saddle for my job (approaching 3k miles, been less than a month since I got the bike), so I do feel like I can offer a good review for this product based on my usage and gear. Installation: Easy, easy, easy. Never installed any bluetooth or modified a motorcycle helmet in any way. I tried putting the velcro side of the speakers directly onto the ear pad of the helmet (they stick to the fabric with no trouble, nice and secure) but I didn't like the fit after a few hours of use in that way. The following morning I removed the padding that covers the ear cavity (pops right out, stuck 'em in a drawer where I have random motorcycle gear stuff in case I want them back in later) and used the velcro mountings that came with the Sena to install the speakers. Fits good, speakers sit right by my ears. The main part of the unit can go just about anywhere you want on the left side, so figure out a good spot and stick it there. A lot of folks have said they got the battery on the inside of the helmet, but as I mentioned I'm gonna put a lot of hours on this thing so I'm going to leave mine mounted on the rear outside of the helmet so I can carry a couple extra charged batteries with me. Finally the microphone. I haven't used the boom mic, figured I'd start with the other one. Stuck a piece of their mounting velcro in front of where my mouth goes in the helmet, stuck the mic to it, done. Last but not least, all these wires. Basically, I unbuttoned the padding and neatly ran all the wires around until nothing was sticking out more than it needed to, but none of the wiring was stretched tight. Looks good! Very inconspicuous. Sound: Works great for voice. I've listened to audiobooks through it, phone calls sound good, turn-by-turn navigation from the phone is clear. Music however... well, there aren't a lot of really AWESOME sounding speakers for motorcycle helmets out there. If you're after some really nice sound you may want to get the adapter that lets you connect earphones to it and get a nice pair of ear buds. I appreciate great sound quality, but not enough to drop the convenience of the helmet-mounted speakers. IMHO this quality can be tolerated while riding. What "THEY" hear: Great. I've got a bluetooth stereo in my car that includes microphone, used it for a long time for work. It does an alright job, but I've had complaints that it sounds like I'm in a wind tunnel while I'm at highway speeds. Not so with the Sena! I would have thought on the motorcycle the noise would be even worse than in the car, but because of the positioning of the mic folks on the other end don't even know that I'm riding, even at high speed! The first night I used it I called my girlfriend while riding around. Even with the face shield open she couldn't hear that I was riding. I got to a highway on ramp and when the light turned green I went from 0 to 60 fairly quickly and she said "I kinda heard that a little". I've got a Honda VTX 1300, not what I'd call "stealthy" but certainly not the loudest. Controls: Pretty simple, takes some getting used to. You've got 3 buttons, + , -, and a center button in between the two. Everything's done by tapping the buttons or by press-and-hold for various lengths of time and in various combinations. I'd advise actually reading the instructions when it comes to this, because aside from tapping + and - to adjust volume, it's not intuitive and you will have to memorize some stuff. It's not hard, once you use it a handful of times you've got the hang of it. Good luck on your quest for a bluetooth unit for your helmet. Keep the rubber side down folks!

I have owned this set for about 3 years now and am impressed with the quality, clarity and battery longevity. That said, I have used it maybe 5 times during this time, so the battery hasn't been constantly charged and discharged. Connects easily to my Google Nexus 6p and controls music, calls, etc. I can even do a 3 sec press to get the phone voice control, which lets me tell the phone to call home, send text messages, etc. Only issue is if your data connection isn't good, Google Voice won't play nice, but that's not the headset's fault. I never used the included speakers, but instead got the 3.5mm earbud adapters. I then bought a pair of Etymotic noise blocking earbuds and this is really a winning combination. No hearing damage from turbulence and super audio quality. Speaking of audio quality, my wife loves being able to call me on the bike and hears me crystal clear through the boom mic, which I am using inside my modular helmet. My only nit-pick, it can be difficult to time the long presses for different phone functions. for example, it's one quick tap for rider-to-rider communication, 1 sec to start or stop music, 2 sec for something I cannot remember, and 3 sec to enable voice control on my phone. Note that after quite a bit of research, I realized you cannot use any of the new handlebar remote controls Sena now makes to control this headset. And don't be fooled by the newer identically looking Sena 10R - it is not the same as the SMH10R. the latter is only Bluetooth 3.0, not the required 4.1. So if you want a more future-proof headset, consider getting one of the newer ones. A quick story to illustrate the battery life: I charged the battery fully and went on an 8 hour ride with the headset on for about 6 of those hours, listening to music, and charging it maybe 25 minutes during my lunch stop. I got home around 9pm and forgot to disconnect it from my phone. At around 11pm I realized it was still connected, even thought the headset was with my helmet down in my garage! I disconnected it on the phone and went to sleep. The next morning around 11am I went to the garage and realized the Sena was still powered on! It had literally been on for around 22 hours!

I was considering both this product and the SMH10 with the jog-dial. I was concerned about call quality, battery life, usability, and build quality. One of the guys in my local store had expressed a preference for the SMH10 over the R. The 20S is more than I wanted to spend. A few weeks in, I really like this product. I have a full face helmet and use this unit mainly around town to day trips, and mainly solo (no done a big group rides, and don't have a passenger unit yet). A few observations: On the pro side-basic functionally worked great, and made the unit well worth the price: 1) sound quality is great and pairing to my phone works well. I thoroughly enjoy listening to music as I ride. I find that it makes me more, not less focused on the road around me, and bluetooth makes a big difference vs headphones / wired solutions. music sounds good, regardless of type. not as good as my sony studio monitor headphones (no big surprise), but better than earbuds. 2) phone works well enough. people can hear me on the other side of the phone. There are motorcycle sounds (I have an older ducati / dry clutch), but we can have a conversation that is not annoying or painful for the listener. talking on the phone is definitely somewhat distracting during city riding, so I will likely limit how I use this feature. 3) works well with phone GPS, though seemed to play less well with GPS + music on my phone. likely an android, not Sena issue. 4) volume buttons were easy to reach and use. 5) battery life seems more than sufficient for around town to day use. 6) size- the SMH10R is MUCH smaller and less obtrusive than the SMH10. I also prefer the velcro mounted control unit to one that is clamped onto the helmet. it feels safer, though it may not be. There were a few cons / nits that keep this from being a 5 star product: 1) control button (not volume) is a little difficult to use. they packed a handful of features into one button, so there is a lot of pressing and waiting for beeps. ultimately, I think this is sufficient for basic features- turn on / off, answer phone, start / stop music, but it is not optimal and there is a bit of a learning curve. 2) pain to install. the speakers don't quite fit in the holes in my helmet (holes are round, speakers have a tab on them), felt like I was jamming wires in random places, as opposed to a smooth / logical place to put them. however, once everything is in place, it seems to (mostly) stay put 3) pain to remove. the 3 leads on the control unit don't make a lot of sense to me- there is a lot of clipping and unclipping any time you want to remove the unit. I suspect this will lead to damage / wear if you pull it out a lot, and it requires pulling up helmet pads, as the lead for the microphone isn't quite long enough. I believe this means that I will mostly leave the unit in place (or removed from the shell and tucked into the helmet in a pinch). 4) flimsy wires on the battery. I am expecting this to be the first thing to break. time will tell 5) doesn't seem to be waterproof. usb cable hole in main unit seems the big leak point. I suspect that they could have fixed this with a little engineering thought. on balance, the SMH10R does the job, adds a lot to my riding experience, and I am happy that I bought it. I am also glad that I purchased the 10R over the 10. I would consider the 10 over the 10R if I had an open chin or convertible helmet and needed the solidly attached boom mic, or felt that I needed to frequently remove the unit from my helmet.

First off, I have to mention that I am a penny pincher and EXTREMELY picky about the things I spend my money on. I do a TON of research before making any purchace. With that being said...This system is absolutely worth the money. Before I bought this, I had tried out 3 different setups over the years and none of them ever quite stacked up. I bought 2 of these in May of 2013 for my helmet and my wife's (at the time) helmet. Now, 5 years later, my system is still working as well as the day I bought it. I can't speak for my ex's..I dont know. But, she LOVED it when she was around. When we would ride together, we would both be listening to our own music and/or GPS from our phones, be able to answer phone calls and also paired with each others helmets and be able to talk with one another from different bikes (the furthest we ever reached and still were connected was about 3/4 mile). The buttons are super easy to get used to and with leather gloves on, I can clearly feel and function the buttons. It is super low profile and barely noticeable on my helmet (most people don't even notice it til I point it out). The sound quality of intercom (helmet to helmet) is crystal clear. Talking on the phone: In all honesty, I feel that it is more clear sound than just walking and talking with my phone to my ear. Plus, I've been told by multiple people that they can't tell than I'm on my motorcycle (amazing noise canceling). And as far as music: I can't imagine better music sound in a helmet. And, LOUD! I normally have my volume set to about 1/2-2/3. Any louder would hurt my brain. So...why am I buying another one 5 years later? Well, i bought a new helmet. Yes, that's right...the bluetooth kit outlasted my helmet. My old helmets padding needs to be replaced and I can't find any for sale so I am keeping my old helmet for backup or passenger use and picked up a new helmet. I decided I want to just keep the old bluetooth kit on the old helmet incase I decide to wear it again or if I have a passenger, we can communicate and/or they can jam out to their own music while riding. In conclusion...I cant say enough about how amazing this thing is. If you're on the fence about it...just do it. You will be very pleased with the quality. **Included is a picture of the quick reference guide for the button functions**

Okay, so this is the correct location for this review. I bought the SMH10R because of its low profile design even though I ride a large R1200GS adventure bike. I feel that it is less likely to catch on something and twist my neck in an accident. The battery is small enough to mount inside the helmet to the side of my mouth so the only part that is externally visible is the low profile control unit which is almost invisible on my black and white helmet. The fewer people know I have it the better in my mind. Installation on, and in, my helmet was pretty straight forward. I bought it with the additional smaller speakers that were reviewed as sounding better than the large ones that come with the unit. I haven't compared the two so I can't testify to the difference but the unit and small speakers sound very good. It paired easily with my LG android phone and works flawlessly with it. I did have to go back to the quick start card a few times to memorize the different operational instructions. Each of the 3 buttons performs a variety of functions depending on how long you hold it. The unit gives you feedback in the form of beeps to assist in knowing if you're accomplishing the desired task. The phone function performs extremely well with the mic mounted directly in front of my mouth in my Arai helmet. I am about to pair the unit to the Garmin Zumo 660 I just bought so I can't comment on that operation yet. Nor have I tried to pair it with another headset yet for bike to bike communication. The battery has lasted all day playing music on some long days of riding. I am very happy with this product so far. Oh, and with Amazon Prime it almost arrived before I ordered it.

Maybe if you had never listened to music on headphones before (or only ever listened to music with headphones that came free with your budget cassette walkman knockoff) the sound of the Sena could be considered acceptable, but otherwise, these are absolutely horrific. I was coming from a Cardo Packtalk Pro and lured in by the low profile look of the Sena. Relative to Cardo, the sound quality of the Sena is just absolutely atrocious. I read others on the Internet saying "you just need to make sure the speakers are perfectly positioned and it sounds acceptable" but no amount of headphone positioning in my SHOEI RF-1400s (or even holding them over my hears outside the helmet) helped. I even broke down and bought Sena's 1/8" headphone adaptor to be able to use the JBL speakers from the Cardo with the Sena. I also tried it with wired Apple Airpods. In all cases, all I got was variations of just unusable sound quality. No bass, horrible sharp midrange peaks, crazy distortion at 3/4 volume and you get the digital sounding cell phone interference from the Bluetooth of the unit itself (lots of digital dit-dit-dah noise, etc). Maaaaaybe for just phone calls in the parking lot it could be OK but even human voice through it is of such so poor quality and quiet as to be unintelligible once you factor in any type of wind noise, and this on the RF-1400 known for being a super quiet helmet. The Sena's battery life was also awful. I have a short commute every day and can go for well over a week without charging the Cardo. The Sena lasted not even two days. I thought maybe I was mis-remembering the Cardo and despite spending all the time mounting the Sena to the helmet (which has maybe 2x the amount of wire to hide in the lining relative to the Cardo), I went back to the Cardo Packtalk Pro. This time I positioned the Cardo mount back further and lower on my helmet at a 3/4 position; as far back and low as I could put it without interfering with the Brakefree light mounted on the back of the helmet. Where I had first mounted the Cardo (where they show it in their ads) it looked like I was that dude when bluetooth headsets first came out wearing it all the time and trying way to hard to look important. It's not like I'm aiming for the Instagram motorcycle influencer look, but repositioned, the Cardo looks much less douchey and is virtually invisible from head on. Even if I could not have repositioned the Cardo in so much better of a spot, the virtually unusable sound quality of the Sena is not worth the low profile look. Just to be clear, this is not a subtle thing or an audiophile thing IMO. Listening to music while you ride on the Cardo Packtalk Pro with JBLs sound like wearing Apple Airpod Pros while the Senas are just abysmally unusable. I get that Cardo is a much more expensive option, but I'd suggest saving up and investing in a Cardo Packtalk Pro and avoid this poor product from Sena.

Had this product since July 2013. Ended up purchasing it after I had had enough of the U-Clear and figured a wired mic would be better. Installed on a Shoei Qwest, connected to Galaxy S2, 07 ZX10R. Pros 1. Low profile controller makes for a quieter ride as compared to the bulkier U-Clear. With the U-Clear, and probably other similar profiles, the wind noise is increased on the left as it goes over the controller. Also, I tucked the battery away inside the helmet for a cleaner look. 2. I ride with earplugs and the sound is great for music and calls. My music is random and even at highway speeds I can still hear classical music with clarity and the person on the other end can hear me. Some complain about the lack of bass. Unfortunately the wind noise is the same frequency so its of no concern to me. But I do feel the speakers vibrating while riding. 3. The controls are simple once you learn the button pattern for commands. (i.e. "+" briefly is up vol, Hold "+" 2sec is FFW, Hold "+" 3sec is speed dial. You hear beeps to match the hold time and depending on the command you'll get voice prompts.) Some complain that its too low profile. The 3 buttons are either far forward, middle or far back. The blue and red lights are raised location ridges and even with my thick, heated Harley gloves had no problems. (HD heated gloves suck. Not recommended.) Cons 1. Too many wires. But as previously mentioned I tucked the battery inside the helmet. Once it's installed, don't remove, its part of the helmet. 2. Noticed some communication issues during calls when it is extremely cold. The air is much thicker, plus balaclava and believe the product has problems processing it all out. Not a major issue, no problems when warmer, but just noting it. 3. Hopefully this issue is fixed, but started having clarity problems while on the phone. Can only guess the BT firmware may have changed during a phone update but the helmet has to be updated manually. I deleted the profile from my phone, updated the headset, then reconnected. Will find out soon if the problem has been fixed.

I am a pretty hard core biker. I ride a sport bike but I commute on it and I do long weekend rides with friends in addition to having fun on twisty roads. This headset is a fantastic addition, making all of my rides and miles more enjoyable. Installation was very easy. I used the sticky-backed velcro they supply for attaching both the operating unit and the battery. Running the wires through my Arai helmet was easy, even though the helmet is a bit older ('02 RX7RR) and clearly was not made for wiring. In other words, installation is simple and you don't need a special helmet. Probably took me 15 minutes or so, and I was taking my time. You mount the control unit on the left side and the battery pack on the back. You velcro the speakers in the voids in the helmet next to your ears and you velcro the mic just in front of your mouth. Then you connect the wires, each of which has a unique connector. There is no place you can screw it up and connecting/hiding the wires takes one minute. Most of my time was spent finding just the right spot for the speakers by my ears. It's easy and anyone can do it. I have an iPhone, which integrates simply via bluetooth. It took 30 seconds to pair with my phone and follows the same process as pairing anything else to the phone. Now for the amazing: I can get GPS instructions and listen to music, while taking phone calls if needed. Frankly, w/o the phone calls I'd still be thrilled. I have a mount on my bike for the phone, but I don't love looking down at it to interpret the maps while I'm riding. Thus, having the voice guidance coming straight to my ears is great. When I'm going over 60mph it can be a bit tough to hear the instructions due to wind noise. In the city, very easy. And that's not for lack of volume. This thing can make your ears bleed if you want. It goes up way past comfortable and thoroughly into rock concert volume levels. But it's simply tough to hear over the scream of the wind. That said, i can hear my music well at any speed, and I don't need 100% intelligibility to enjoy my tunes. You can easily control volume up and down, even with gloves, and you can go forward or back songs as well. I use both iTunes and Pandora, and the controls work perfectly with either (and others, i would imagine). It is just great having music on the road again. Finally, the phone. By pushing one button you can fire up Siri (which stinks in general, but is slowly getting more competent). I can make phone calls (or receive them as they come in). My wife was amazed at how clear my voice was when i was on the road. I did not do high speed testing, but up to 50mph it was brilliant. We could both hear one another perfectly. In fact, as we were both going to our son's doctor's appt., she was talking me through where the parking lot was. So useful! I just told my riding buddy that he must get this. I cannot wait to use the simple intercom on the road with him. All in all, I highly recommend this helmet headset. It's not cheap, but it's the best $ you'll spend on your riding enjoyment other than the bike itself.

Bought this for my Motorcycle with the Senna media control so i can control if from my handlebars, When it didnt work i contacted Sena and was told that this is the old version that will not work with the control, it is now already mounted to my helmet so seriously not impressed that they are selling old versions as new that does not work with their other products

Uno dei migliori intercom in circolazione, testato con caschi aperti e integrali a velocita superiori ai 130 orari, perfettamente comprensibile usato in abbinamento con altri intercom Sena. La casa lo dichiara compatibile anche con altri marchi. Le funzionalità di comando rapido per il controllo del telefono bluetooth sono ottime e facilmente memorizzabili. Dotato di doppio microfono per essere adattato a caschi integrali o aperti. Il dispositivo ha bisogno di un pc con connettività internet per aggiornare il firmware e impostare la lingua (inglese default) tramite un'applicazione scaricabile dal sito ufficiale come da istruzioni incluse.

J'ai d'abord installé 1, puis 2 autres SMHR tellement j'étais stidfait du produit. Petit, très complet, il fonctionne parfaitement avec le GPS et le telephone. L'installation (dans 3 casques BMW - jet - 6 evol et Airflow2) nécessite un peu de patiente (j'ai dissimulé les battereies à l'intérieur dans les 3 cas), mais le resultat en vaut la peine. J'apprécie le menu vocal (plus besoin d'emporter le mode d'emploi en vacances) et la sonortité

Fàcil de usar e instalar, buen sonido!

I ordered this from Amazon for a good price and I was not disappointed as I already used the SMH5 which is great too! this unit is much slimmer wit external battery fitted to rear of helmet and can be charged while riding (supplied cable) It has a very good menu system once you have got used to it and pairs easily with my Garmin, Phone (Motorola X ) and G it also pairs with more units for bike to bike comms. Very happy I got it. Thank you Amazon for quick delivery. Recommended