Headphones under your helmet

[sburba]

I've tried the ear bud style headphones, but they seem to pull out of my ears a lot while I am riding. Kind of a pain to have to keep pulling over to adjust their position. I have a small set of regular headphones that are very comfortable for about 30 minutes, but after that the band over the top of my head gets really uncomfortable (and somewhat painful) and I have to take them out for a while.

I was just wondering what most people are using inside their helmets. Ear buds or something else?

[stickers]

I use the Shure E3c and they work great got mine on e-bay for $45.00

[BigKev]

I use to use Koss Ear Buds like these
http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/yhst-3248687470797_1901_53518580.jpg
I got them at Best buy for around $17 or so. they worked great. I did have problems sometimes keeping them in my ears when i put my helmet on, but once I did, nothing beat it. Now I've got an Autocomm head set for my two-way radio, and I bought the extra adapter for the mp3 player. It works good, but the sound quality was better with the koss ear buds...

[VTXZR2]

I use one that are molded for my ears. The company is called Big Ear & you'll see them at various motorcycle shows. Cost $200 but they never come out when putting my helmet on, double as ear plugs and sound great.

[GADeputy]

Since I ride with a half helmet I've found that the most comfortable headphones for me are the behind the neck style. I picked up a couple sets like these at the local Dollar Tree (for $1 each) and they work great.

http://www.dollardays.com/images/d35/image2/nb-303-gray.jpg

[Scarecrow]

When using my 3/4 helmet, I use ones similar to those that GADeputy described.

On my full face however, I have a Chatterbox installed and I use it's speakers.

Unless you are using an in-line amplifier with the headphones, try and get a set with the maximum sensitivity. Otherwise, the volume on an XM or MP3 won't be loud enough to be heard over pipe/road noise.

Scarecrow

[sburba]

I use to use Koss Ear Buds like these
http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/yhst-3248687470797_1901_53518580.jpg
I got them at Best buy for around $17 or so. they worked great. I did have problems sometimes keeping them in my ears when i put my helmet on, but once I did, nothing beat it. Now I've got an Autocomm head set for my two-way radio, and I bought the extra adapter for the mp3 player. It works good, but the sound quality was better with the koss ear buds...

Thanks for the advice guys. I went to Best Buy to look for the Koss brand (meaning I can't afford the Shure models) but they didn't have any there. The guy there sold me on a $45 set of small Sony ear buds. I took them out for an all day ride yesterday, and I guess the jury is still out on these. Comfort was great....everything I was looking for in that department, and I didn't have them falling out of my ears all the time, in fact they didn't come out even once. But the sound was much less than impressive! The package said something like "Improved Bass Performance" but improved over what I am not sure. They almost have no bass! Very tinny sounding and not much volume level out of them compared to the other options I have tried.

A co-worker recommended the Koss brand that BigKev recommended above. He says the bass is great and the volume is louder from these than any others he has tried. (I thought about borrowing his to give them a test, but after being in his ears, I'll pass!)

I looked on Best Buys website and the Koss headphones are no longer listed there. Anyone know of another store that carries them?

At this rate, I'll have spent more looking for the perfect set than I would have if I'd just gotten the damn Shures in the first place! LOL

[BigKev]

I just did a google search for koss ear buds and found that they have them on Amazon.com and Target.

[meridien]

Unless you are using an in-line amplifier with the headphones, try and get a set with the maximum sensitivity. Otherwise, the volume on an XM or MP3 won't be loud enough to be heard over pipe/road noise.

Hey guys, be aware of what you're doing to your hearing. If you have to turn the volume up loud to cover up the road and wind noise, you are damaging your hearing. Try a simple test - before you go riding, turn the volume to the level you use while riding, but in a quiet garage without road/wind/engine noise to overcome. My guess is that you will wince at the sound level. If you do, it is a certainty that you are damaging your hearing every time and the damage is irreversible.

Just be aware of what's really happening.

[Scarecrow]

Unless you are using an in-line amplifier with the headphones, try and get a set with the maximum sensitivity. Otherwise, the volume on an XM or MP3 won't be loud enough to be heard over pipe/road noise.

Hey guys, be aware of what you're doing to your hearing. If you have to turn the volume up loud to cover up the road and wind noise, you are damaging your hearing. Try a simple test - before you go riding, turn the volume to the level you use while riding, but in a quiet garage without road/wind/engine noise to overcome. My guess is that you will wince at the sound level. If you do, it is a certainty that you are damaging your hearing every time and the damage is irreversible.

Just be aware of what's really happening.

Unfortunately, I already suffer from Tinnitus (ringing in the ears), so my hearing is already shot. But you are correct, increasing the volume of the music could cause eventual hearing loss.

Scarecrow

[BigKev]

Unless you are using an in-line amplifier with the headphones, try and get a set with the maximum sensitivity. Otherwise, the volume on an XM or MP3 won't be loud enough to be heard over pipe/road noise.

Hey guys, be aware of what you're doing to your hearing. If you have to turn the volume up loud to cover up the road and wind noise, you are damaging your hearing. Try a simple test - before you go riding, turn the volume to the level you use while riding, but in a quiet garage without road/wind/engine noise to overcome. My guess is that you will wince at the sound level. If you do, it is a certainty that you are damaging your hearing every time and the damage is irreversible.

Just be aware of what's really happening.

Well generally, most mp3 players or other portable devices only put out about 20 mW (milliwatts) which is fine for the most part if your wearing headphones or earbuds because the sound doesn't have to travel very far or through very much air. However, if you are have speakers that are 1 or more inches way from your ear, then 20 mW isn't powerful enough to do anything. Hence the reason you would need an amplifier.

[Scarecrow]

And in most cases, speakers in a helmet are at or over 1" from the ear. Plus their sensitivity isn't always very good.

However, the output on the MyFi does increase with a non-internal power source.

Scarecrow

[sburba]

Thanks everyone for all the feedback. Now that I have been using the Sony ear buds for a few days, they are starting to grow on me. I changed out the rubber ends with larger ones and that seemed to help a lot. The sound quality is much better because they have a better fit now. As for the volume, I'm not interested in blowing out my eardrums or anything like that. When I ride, I like to be able to hear what is going on around me first and foremost. But I also like to clearly hear some good tunes in the background. With the wrong inserts, having the volume turned to MAX, I could barely hear the music playing at all.

At this point I am riding with the volume about half way up. The sound quality is decent (good enough for me anyway) and I can clearly hear the things going on around me. (Today what I was hearing around me was the laughter from the car next to me while I was belting out my best Hank Jr "A country boy can survive" LOL!!! :oops: I guess I should forget about auditioning for American Idol! :D )

Hey, thanks again everyone!

[pingwax]

Some of the sound reducing intraaural headphones are made of earplug type foam material. These should allow you to use the headphones at fairly normal volume levels. I bought a pair for airline use, they work well. If you find earplugs uncomfortable to wear, than these will be too. Lots of brands of these to look for (I think the Koss work this way).

[Orange Crush/GJC]

I tried several things including the Koss (Circuit City) and ended up shelling out the bucks for the Shure e3C's. It was a lot of money, but they are well worth it to me. My concerns were twofold. I wanted to hear my tunes clearly and the wind noise was really bothering me. "Normal" outside the ear headphones required the volume to be maxed on my mp3 player and all of the other noise would still drown out some of the music, plus the battery dies faster when driving more volume. Earplugs meant no tunes. The Koss' helped with the sound quality and some of the extraneous noise, but were verrrrry uncomfortable in my full face helmet. I returned them after about an hour and got the Shure's. Now I barely have to use any volume and I have heard sounds that I didn't even know were in some of these songs. The variety of covers for the phones provide different levels of external dampening. I use the foam covers and can vary how much external sound is blocked by how tightly I fit them in my ears. They will block a train whistle beyond about 50 yds. if you want them too - that kinda surprised me.

[netdoug]

I've been using the Shure e3c's for a couple of years (also have a pair of e2cs I got for Christmas).

I like good music and want to keep my hearing as long as I can. I've tried the helmet speakers but found the fidelity, noise, and requirement for an external amp unacceptable. I also found that I needed to run the volume higher than normal to overcome the ambient noise getting into my 3/4 and full-face helmets.

I like the in-the-ear types because they also reduce the amount of noise entering my ear. It took a while to get used to the buds and I had to experiment with the earpiece attachments to find one that fit well, blocked the noise, and stayed in place. I tried riding with just the buds in and found that while they're not as good at sound deadening as custom ear plugs they can do a good job of reducing noise and therefore fatigue.

I like the fidelity of the e3cs over the 2cs. There appears to be slightly more bass, better fidelity, and they seem physically smaller (something to consider when putting on a correctly fitted 3/4 or full face helmet.

My conclusions:

Ear buds can do a good job at providing high quality music at acceptable volume levels. Speed changes require volume changes but that's not a problem and I'd rather lower the volume or mute than have speakers blaring at stops or low speeds. Buds are acoustically more accurate than road or helmet speakers.

The more your head is covered the better the sound attenuation and the lower the volume needed to overcome road noise. With more of my fellow riders wearing some kind of ear protection and vendors incorporating audio with ear plugs, any attenuation is a good thing.

Ear buds take some getting used to as does wearing them. I still find problems with the cable restricting head movement.

I ride with either satellite radio or my iPod for music. In both cases the volume is well below half and I find no problems with my hearing. I also find that fatigue is much less than listening to pipes, wind noise, or other external noises.

Doug

[Gary in Indiana]

I found the Koss ear buds at Radio Shack for under $20. I spent another $7 on an in-line volume control that someone recommended to cut down on in line noise that worked great for that. I'm using it on a Goldwing so pipe noise isn't an issue.

[HotFix]

Lets see. I had the Koss model but they would fall out of my ear when I turned my head asnd fell apart after 6 months. I had some Shure E3Cs, but lost them with my mp3 player a month ago.

The Shure's where great. They isolate a lot of noise and are very sensitive. I rode at 50% volume and 60% was 'loud'.

I just got a pair of the Sonys (not about to buy ANOTHER set of Shures). I haven't tried them while riding yet (read lost mp3 palyer above). I did get a 2GB card for my phone so the tunes should be back on soon!

Do be careful with your hearing. A good set should isolate noise - not drown it out.

[Jimmerz]

I guess you may want to check your states laws regarding this. I know PA you can have headphones in one ear only while riding? Just a thought.

I USE THE SONY SMALL EAR BUDS THEY WORK GREAT GOT THEM AT BEST BUY 45.00 I HAVE HAD THEM IN ALL DAY NO PROB