Re: Road music

[Emoto <emoto1@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 11:08 AM, Dancoe, John <jdan@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> "Tom Brown" tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
>>I like to listen to iPod music when I ride
>
> OK, NOW we're talking about something I care about.
>
> How do you get decent sound over the wind noise?

I wear a full-face helmet, and sit behind a somewhat larger than stock
Givi windscreen on my 1200GS. I also wear Howard Leight standard ear
plugs. The audio in my helmet comes from the thin flat speakers of a
Chatterbox headset. The sound is not bad at all. Granted, inserting
individual earplugs with tiny speakers into my ears and then carefully
putting on my helpmet over them might produce somewhat better  sound
quality, but on balance I prefer not to do it that way. Note that I am
listening through ear plugs that are normally used to block sound, so
I have to crank up the audio, but surprisingly it works. If I were to
ride without the plugs, the sound would be better, but overall noise
and consequent hearing damage would be greater.

I manage my audio through a MixIt2 (www.mixitproducts.com). It takes
audio from my radar detector, iPod, and GPS and sends them into my
helmet speakers (after passing through a Chatterbox GMRS X-1 that can
be used as an intercom or bike-to-bike radio). One channel is a
"priority" channel that, when it gets a signal, will mute all of the
other channels. I use this for the GPS voice prompts, because I don't
want to miss one. I make routes that cover days of backroads riding
through completely unknown (be me) areas, so I really need to hear
them. The rest of the time, I get my music just fine, and have the V-1
set up to be loud enough to hear over the tunes. Works well.

Bob