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(More customer reviews)Update 3/18/11: Winter has finally given way to weather that allowed us to get out and ride this week. After using the intercoms for about 20 hours now, I have a few words of experience.
First the good news: This unit works great as a bluetooth headset for your MP3 player on your smart phone. It took 3 or 4 trial and error positioning of the speakers, but once placed properly they sound very clear and are more than loud enough. The sound quality is certainly geared toward voice though so music sounds a bit thin and lacks bass. Both the sound and the microphone worked much better on my decent HJC helmet than they did on my wife's cheap helmet. We re-installed them on a new Bell helmet and she said the difference was amazing due to the reduced wind noise. Similarly, the wind noise was MUCH reduced through the mic and was much easier for me to hear. At speeds 60MPH the wind noise on both helmets was too much to be effective. However music could still be heard at our maximum speed of 70 MPH.
The trade-offs:
-As mentioned below, the long connect times required when switching to intercom mode quickly becomes annoying. This is especially true since the working distance is about a city block or so and if you get separated by a light, the front rider is nearly out of range by the time the units connect. Also, it isn't practical to keep the units in intercom mode unless you just like hearing your partner's wind noise in addition to your own!
The bugs:
-using the wired jack seems to only work when no bluetooth phone or MP3 is also paired up.
-When phone calls come in, it often is impossible to get back to the music playing on the phone. Unit must be turned off and back on to reset.
-The unit can be easily removed from the helmet by sliding the unit up and right. The unit can also be easily removed by leaning your head too far left and letting your jacket push the unit up and to the right! Not sure how to fix this problem other than periodically reaching up and ensuring it is pushed down all the way. My wife had more problems with this than I did. It may have been because her jacket was bulkier. Luckily, the wires connecting the electronics to the speakers is sufficiently strong to keep the electronics from falling to the ground.
Final summary: We decided we liked the ability to talk to each other on rides enough to purchase some units at $300/pair. I still think these are a good value at the $85 we paid for them, but we weren't willing to give up the features offered in the more expensive units.
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Disclaimer: It is winter here so I have only installed these in the helmets and tried the functionality. All testing was carried out at the maximum speed of my recliner.
The headset and microphone easily installed into my HJC full face helmet. The microphone is connected to a wire mike so it would also work with an open face helmet. The transmitter was smaller than I had expected and easily clipped onto the side of the helmet.
To turn the Interphone on or off you have to press the intercom button for about 10 seconds. It doesn't sound like a long time till you are holding in on the button for what seems like forever. There are two large buttons on the front and back of the transmitter. Both appear to be far enough apart and tall enough to easily operate with riding gloves on. The front "phone" button answers/hangs up the phone and on my phone would pause/resume music playback. The rear button enables/disables the intercom mode. There are two smaller buttons in the middle for volume control.
It took a few times reading through the procedure, but it was reasonably easy to bluetooth pair the Interphone with my LG Optimus android phone. Once paired, music played on the phone either through Pandora or the music player streamed automatically to the stereo headset. Volume seems to be plenty loud and the sound was much better than I expected. The sound isn't as good as earbuds, but in my opinion it was very satisfactory. When the cell was called, the music stopped and ringing could be heard in the headset. Pressing the phone button immediately answers the call. If no button is pressed, the phone will eventually auto-answer. There does not appear to be any way to ignore an incoming call. Calls can be terminated by pressing the phone button. Once the phone call ends, the music began playing again.
The units came pre-paired to each other so I can't comment on how difficult this process is. Intercom mode is entered by pressing the rear intercom button. It takes about 5 seconds for the Interphone to connect to the second Interphone and start an intercom session. The intercom mode is full duplex so both mics are open the entire time in the intercom mode. Pressing the intercom button on either Interphone ends the intercom mode and returns to the phone/music monitor. The 5 or so seconds it takes to establish connection to the other Interphone is going to prevent spontaneous quick chats between the riders, but it will be MUCH easier than trying to yell between bikes while going down the road or at a stop.
The unit is also supposed to be able to use a wired headphone jack input for a GPS or standard MP3 player. This function did not work at all for me. This input has the lowest priority and it is possible that my smart phone was locking up the headphone function even when music output was paused.
Battery life is supposed to be about 8 hours. I turned on both Interphones, set them to intercom mode and set one in front of the TV speaker so that it was constantly transmitting and the other Interphone was constantly driving the headset. I left them run for ~6 hours and both head sets were still working when I stopped the test.
I am sure that other products are more refined and offer VOX/PTT functionality and automatic switching to the intercom, but for only $80 for the pair this is a fantastic deal.
I will write an update once the weather lets me pull the bike back onto the road.
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