50S Motorcycle Jog Dial Communication Bluetooth Headset w/Sound by Harman Kardon Integrated Mesh Intercom System Premium Microphone & Speakers

Oh this thing is awesome. It is expensive, especially this model with the camera. I bought a new BMW that has the car like computer console, and wasn't sure if I had to buy the BMW version that is definitely a model series behind this. But it was fully compatible, include the magic twist control on the bike grips. It ties to my Google phone just fine, and I subscribe to Amazon Prime Music, so I listen to that on the road. That's really nice, the sound could be a little louder for me, but that's probably a safety thing. It's a high end sound quality. One amazing magic, is it does sound cancelling, meaning when I talk to people on the phone, they don't hear the bike at all or the wind, they don't even know I'm riding. Bonus points to their engineering for that voodoo. The camera is my luxury. The photos are pretty high resolution. I don't do video, the internet is full of people complaining of short battery life if you do that. So, I don't. :) I do put the camera in burst mode, so I touch the button, and it takes a series, then I just slowly move my head, because you can't carefully aim of course. This works well, and people can't tell you are taking pictures. I photograph cars, like license plates, all the time. I use it like a manual dash cam. It's simple reach up and touch the button when you are riding. Mainly though, I can use my phone by using the controls on the bike, the same with the music. I have no idea how to use it with the buttons. My son has this same one but without the camera, and he has a Harley, so no fancy computer screen. He figured it out, and said it's not too bad to do. We can talk when we ride. Oh yeah, forgot that. It has really good range, better then BlueTooth ones. The mesh thing that does that is a different frequency or something. And, it has a radio. When I don't like burning Amazon Music on cell phone time, or just out of range, I can cruise playing the radio.

I have owned headsets from both Sena and Cardo. This deserves a top spot in the considerations. The good: Physical Interface: The wheel and buttons are very tactile and easy to find. Definitely better than the smallish buttons on the Cardo. Not that you need to touch it anymore as the voice commands are very good now. Voice Commands: Hey Sena..."insert command here" works as advertised and does just about anything you would want. I would rate voice commands a bit higher than the Cardo, and that is saying something (no pun intended). Sound Quality: The speakers are very good...right up there IMHO with the JBL on the Cardo Packtalk. Nice balance and absolutely louder than the competition. I can now hear and understand Intercom and music clearly at highway speeds. There are built-in equalizer settings, but it seems to cut down on maximum volume. Mesh 2.0: In a word...pure awesome. It has a public mesh mode for idiot proof intercom. Turn on unit, flip up antenna and push mesh button and you are instantly talking to whoever is nearby on a Sena. If you would rather setup a private group mesh, a 5 second hold on the button or a 'hey sena, group mesh' command has you talking just to your crew. Seriously doesn't get any easier than this. Beats the Cardo in my book for ease of use. The mesh is really robust too. It does have a distinct hit on battery life, which gets me to my first ding... Backward compatible: The clamp is absolutely compatible with earlier 20s/30k models but the gasket has been updated for better water repellency and the speakers on the 50 are heads and tails better previous generations. That said, it is VERY nice that you can use existing mounts so if you have already kitted out multiple helmets you are good to go. Intercom in bluetooth to a 20s seemed to work great too, but I didn't test it a lot. Accessories: They include a little charging cable with a wifi dongle. Once configured, it checks for updates to firmware and automatically applies it. First night I had it, I plugged it in and was greeted the next morning with 1.0.2 software...very nice. Software: The PC/Mac app for updates and config is good and the mobile phone app is well very done and functional. All the configuration and operation you could need right at your fingertips. The 'not so awesome' Battery Life: Decidedly meh. The battery life is not on par with Cardo. I hope maybe a software update will help, but I was only able to eek out 5.5-6 hours with the mesh intercom going and music streaming. This is mitigated somewhat with an EXCELLENT quick charging tho. We stopped for 15 minutes for gas, bio break and a snack and I plugged it into my USB. It went from 17% to 85% in that time, but the Cardo would have gone all day. Something to be aware of but not a show stopper in my book. They can be ridden and used while charging as well. The inaugural run went VERY well, albeit with a few hiccups. About 5 hours into the ride she announced low battery. A little while later she disabled mesh to stretch what was left (bluetooth uses half the battery of mesh), but actually seemed to setup a bluetooth channel with another rider so I could continue talking, which was very nice. After charging up, I needed to power cycle the unit to get the Mesh channel back, otherwise I would get 'mesh disabled, enabling bluetooth'. Probably a software fix in the works. Not perfect, but all in all pretty cool. Waterproof: Or lack thereof. Not 100% sure how much this will matter in real life, but there is no IP rating like on the Cardo units. That said, they improved the gasket on the clamp and reversed the rubber cover on the USBC charging port. Time will tell. Interspecies communication: My squad all have Sena units, and my daughter has my old 20s. Know that they all tout 'universal pairing' but setting up a link between Sena and Cardo is a hot mess and someone is gonna hate it. One set uses universal pairing, but the other needs to be in second mobile phone pairing mode. If you had a phone and GPS paired, you are skunked. On top of that, the range is bad and the quality of voice is crackly. I would not buy a new comm unit from another vendor expecting seamless communications between both worlds. Pick one and stay with it. Hope that helps.

My riding buddies have Sena 30K's, and I could not get my Lexin to pair with them, so I bought this. Checking Youtube reviews I found a lot of negative comments, but I have to say I'm pretty happy with it. After my first day with it, here's my likes and dislikes: Sound Quality: Definitely better than my Lexin. Pretty good bass for such tiny speakers. Mic worked well, my buddies had no trouble hearing me. Mesh: Worked easily on my unit, but one of my buddies couldn't get it to work on his 30K. Could be he needs a firmware upgrade. So we did not use it. Bluetooth Intercom: It took us a while to figure out how to get all 3 of our units talking together, the instructions are a little confusing. But once we did it worked very well. Once we had one guy drop out of range, and when he rejoined us he automatically reconnected, which was nice. We were riding in wooded mountains, and range seemed to be a couple hundred yards, which is all I'd expect in those conditions. With clear line-of-sight it would be better. Voice Commands: I used voice commands to control the music on my Motorola phone, and it worked very well. Also used "hey google" to make a couple phone calls, no issues. It's really nice to be able to keep your hands on the bars. Battery Life: We rode for 8 hours with the unit on for the whole time, battery held up. We did take a break for about an hour, looks like the unit put itself in standby at some point. One push of the big button got it going again. One of my buddies had his battery die after about 5 hours, he was able to charge it while using it, which is handy. I assume that works on the 50S too. Wifi Charger: Getting it set up with my wifi was a bit confusing, but I got it figured out. I updated the firmware on the charger first, then connected the 50S and its firmware got updated automatically. I downloaded the user manual to my phone, I'll never remember all the commands and features, so it's helpful to have that always available. Getting everything set up and connected took a couple hours, make sure to give yourself plenty of time before you first use it. I have to say I'm very happy with it so far. Being able to talk to my buddies made the ride more enjoyable, and safer too, as the leader could let us know what was coming up.

I’ve been a Sena user since the pre-USB SMH10 days. I have thousands of hours using their devices. I currently own 2 10S units, 2 20S EVO units (with Sena HD speakers), 2 Cavalry half helmets, and 2 SR10 Bluetooth adapters. All of my Sena devices are running their latest firmware. Both 50S units were taking directly from the box, and updated to firmware ver 1.0.6, and fully charged. A fault reset, along with a factory reset was performed after the firmware upgrade. Testing conditions. * The units were installed into HJC i90 helmets. * BT paired to iPhone 8 * BT paired to 1 10S * BT paired to 1 20S * BT paired to 1 Cavalry BT half helmet * BT paired to Sena SR10 What I liked. * Installation. It’s straightforward just like the other Sena comms devices. * Mount. Much better than the SMH10 or 10S mount. * Jog Dial. Prefer the Jog Dial over a 3 button design. * HD speakers. Sound quality is much improved. * FM radio. Works well like in the 20S EVO. * Mic mute is a nice feature. * No pairing needed for an Open MESH. * Users Manual. Well written. What I did not like. * The flip up MESH antenna. Difficult to flip up using rain or cold weather gloves. The antenna should be incorporated into the wiring harness and routed inside the helmet for a permanent configuration. * MESH button. It’s positioning makes it very difficult, or nearly impossible to use with rain or cold weather gloves on. Switching from an Open MESH connection to a Private Group MESH or BT connection is very difficult due to the location of this button. IMO the better location would to have incorporated the Ambient button to perform this task. * Hello SENA is still hit and miss. Same rate of success as with my 20S EVO. 50/50. * Hey SIRI. Works 99% of the time if I speak directly into my iPhone 8 mic. Fails 99% of time when speaking via the 50S. This is a HUGE FAIL. I even tried to re-setup SIRI using the 50S mic. No joy. * Audio Multi-tasking was hit and miss with the SR10 that I have connected to a RADAR detector, and a 2 way amateur radio. Another HUGE FAIL for me. Works perfectly with my 10S or 20S EVO. When it did work, and the connection ceased, streaming music from my iPhone 8 would be jittery. Had to re-boot the 50S to solve the issue. * Numerous Open MESH connections error messages when exiting a 2 party Group MESH back into a 2 party Open MESH. Error message would be BT intercom already connected. Closing MESH. I assure you the 50S units were not intercom connected via BT. The only way I could solve this issues was to re-boot the 50S. * When connecting into a Group MESH by pressing and holding the MESH button for 3 seconds, the announcement of connected in to the Group MESH should be heard as soon as the 3 seconds have expired, not after it has connected into the Group MESH. If you by mistake hold this button for more than the 3 seconds another function takes control. * BT comms connections downgraded to 4 from 9 of the 20S EVO. * The popping noises are still present when BT connected with the 50S, as the 20S EVO’s sometimes do. * Intercom Audio-Overlay even while in a very quite environment would randomly engage, no matter what sensitivity setting was used. This occurred in both BT and MESH connections. My 20S EVO’s perform this function much better. My conclusion, the 50S devices are not ready for those of us who plan to use the majority of the claimed features. If that’s your plan, at the present time these will probably not meet your expectations. If your plans are just for a comms unit, and to listen to music, these work sorta okay. The deciding factor for me to return the units was the failure to properly integrate with my Sena SR10, along with the flip-up antenna and MESH button. My 20S EVO’s integrate with my SR10 seamlessly, and having the ability to BT comm connect to 8 others is well more than I need. My 20S EVO’s live on! UPDATE JULY 2021. Sena listened. Firmware version 1.0.8 addressed several of the issues that I discovered. Although not quite perfect, the 50S performs audio multitasking much better now.

The product is as described, was delivered on schedule, it's more bulky than my Cardio packtalk, sound is not quite as good as my pack talk. Noise cancelling, if they say so?? Both my U Clear and my Packtalk bold, I can use earbuds, the UClear not with the Sena, which is a huge issue for me,the Sena is by far the whitest of all them, and having to add earplugs, makes it really,,, no I mean really, quite, with everything set as loud as you can go, it's still a little too quite, sound quality on phone calls is adequate, but not even close to the Packtalk bold, it is on a par with the UClear. Sena app is pretty good, the smart charger, just this side of a huge pain to set up, but once It was working,,,I really like it. Talk time is optimistic,,, I have only riden with it a handful of times, it's out of battery about an hour before both the UClear and Packtalk run out, using the UClear (with the optional extension cord), I can charge it in the ciggy lighter and put the unit in my jacket pocket,. The Packtalk can use earbuds of your choice, the UClear their junky earbuds, but switching helmets is simple,,with the UClear you don't have a microphone or speaker s to mount on the brain bucket, super convenient no matter which of my helmets I wear, the Sena,, had to dedicate one street,and one dual sport helmet, otherwise you're uninstalling from one, moving to the other or buying another headset and mic set up, either way, that's your only for Sena intercom helmets,,,, lastly,,, really?, Sena mesh intercom and Cardo mesh can't mesh with each other??? No way no how,,, come on man!!!

I have a 20S that I have used for the past 5 years. With a new helmet comes a new headset. I purchased this to install in a Shoei RF1400. Since the mount is the same for the 20S and I had already installed the improved speakers in my current Shoei X14 it tried it out. Wow what a difference in sound quality and volume. In any helmet at 80MPH, the sound is not great, but the music was there and the intercom between bikes at up to a mile was great. My son was using a Sena 10CPro and we could talk between bikes, switch to music with no issues. I found it integrated with the free wire in my 2015 Goldwing and all of my functions including the CB radio worked as if I was wired in. Some would say that the sound is not great, but I can hear the difference and up to about 60MPH is is great. I don't think any headset sounds great at 80MPH. I made calls on my iPhone and sent text messages just by saying "hey Siri". The battery life was great. My maiden voyage with the 50S was on a trip from Bremerton WA, to Idaho Falls ID. The drive time is 12 hours and with stops it is about 15 hours. I did top off the charge when we stopped for luch, but it ran the entire trip. The app tells you the battery level and time remaining which is a great plus. Even when the 50S announced that the battery was low, I had over 3 hours of time remaining.

The listening ability on these is awesome. Bluetooth connectivity is good. Clarity is excellent control buttons are a little hard to figure out. They fit great value for money could be better pretty expensive. It’d be nice if everybody had them for safety.

Please understand, I am a Sena fan. So I am predisposed to want them to succeed. I love my SMH-10, and my Sena GoPro bluetooth backpack. I have had tens of thousands of trouble free miles with my riding buddy (separate bikes), with my wife (pillion), and solo with the SMH-10, and the GoPro backpack. But the 50S is absolute garbage. I am a complete gadget head, a techie, and a computer nerd. Call me what you like, but everyone I know calls me for tech support. I can make stuff work. This thing does not work. I swear this is the thing that they make in the Dilbert comics. PROS: -Extra bass in speakers makes podcasts easier to hear at slightly higher speeds than SMH-10 (Sadly, this makes music muddy and inaudible at significantly lower speeds than the SMH-10). -Extra bass in speakers makes Bluetooth intercom easier to hear than SMH-10 -Can listen to music while in Mesh Mode, sort of. -Has mesh mode (if you're willing to give up Bluetooth intercom with other Sena devices). -It looks pretty (too bad they chose form over function). CONS that might possibly be fixed with future firmware updates: -Ambient mode DOES NOT WORK AT ALL. All it picks up is your head moving LOUDLY inside your helmet. you can barely hear people shouting right next to you, and only if they are on your left (where the mic allegedly is). -Listening to music while connected via Bluetooth intercom (Sena calls this Bluetooth Intercom Audio Multitasking) DOES NOT WORK AT ALL. You just get extremely choppy music. -Smart volume control DOES NOT WORK AT ALL. I have no further detail on this, it just doesn't do anything. Maybe it will do something after a firmware update or something? -Listening to music while Mesh is enabled (Sena calls this Mesh Intercom Audio Multitasking) only sort of works, but not how you would want it to. When you transmit or receive, you can chose for it to duck (turn down) or not duck your music, but you can not chose how much it ducks. You can only chose the sensitivity of its decision to duck. It's full blast, or imperceptible, but nothing in between. -Bluetooth intercom connections become very poor, and are extremely short range when Mesh is enabled. You also get the "Popcorn" sound that the 20 series is so infamous for, even at very short range. -App is garbage. It fails to connect to the headset most of the time, even though the headset is connected to the phone, and playing music. Much of the terminology makes no sense, so it's hard to get anything done, and even harder to undo. -The EQ is an OUTRIGHT LIE. There are three presets (Bass boost, Mid boost & Treble boost) and off. That's barely tone preference, it is absolutely not an equalizer. -The "WiFi" charge cord is almost impossible to set up, and when it finally succeeds at connecting to your WiFi, it tells you that it failed. It took me at least 10 attempts to connect the app to the cord. After that, it took at least 30 attempts before I finally got it connected to my home WiFi. -Bluetooth intercom distance while mesh was enabled was about 250-300 meters (or yards if you like, they are about the same at that range) on a straight road with uninterrupted line of sight, it was about 400m with Mesh turned off. Sena's claim of 1600m is an absolute LIE. Even at 200m, the instant I saw my friend's head go beyond the crest of a hill, we lost intercom connection. The SMH-10 works much, much better than that. -Battery life is terrible. From full charge, while listening to music, and while mesh was enabled, I was down to 64% in about an hour and 15 minutes (~30 miles). -Voice control is a sadistic joke. At best, it replaces some (not all) of the simple single button press functions. Anything you would really want voice control for is several menus deep in the Sena 50 App. CONS that can not even be fixed with a firmware update: -Ergonomics of this thing SUCK!!!!!!!!!!! I wear liner-less deerskin gloves, and this thing is almost impossible to use. God help you if you ride a Snowmobile. -You can't even find the jog wheel, let alone use it. If you manage to find it by accident, then you've already turned it or pressed it. The only thing I could do reliably and predictably was slide my thumb on the edge of it, but that feels like the reverse of manipulating the jog wheel of an SMH-10, because you roll it down to turn the volume up, and up to turn it down. -The phone button is lower compared to the SMH-10, so you have to rotate your hand uncomfortably far to use it. This was a REAL PITA, since I found myself power cycling the thing almost every time I needed to connect to the app to access a setting that should have been available with a voice command. -The "Ambient Mode" button is impossible to find. This may be a moot point since, as I stated earlier, "Ambient Mode" does not work at all. -The "Mesh" button is difficult, but not impossible to find. You can't actually feel it, but you can feel the ridge behind it, and you know it's right there in front of the ridge, so you can make it work faster than the rest of the buttons. -The Mesh antenna is impossible to raise with gloves on. CONCLUSION: Dear Sena, I really, really wanted you to win the intercom war. Motorcycling is the reward for our work-a-day lives. It's what we work for. It's what we live for. But it's not easy. It's not even safe. The SMH-10 did something that is almost impossible. It made motorcycling better. It added convenience without adding complication. It added fun without adding danger. It simplified communication. It minimized our time with our hands off the bars, and it never required us to take our eyes off the road. The Sena 20 was crap, and you knew that. I was willing to give you a pass, because I thought it must just be growing pains, a sophomore misstep. An attempt to add features that sort of fell fell flat, and sounded like popcorn. Then you made the 30 series. An answer to the Cardo devices that was pushed out the door much too soon. I gave that a pass too, because Mesh networking blindsided us both, and you had to answer with something. As we all know now, Mesh 2.0 on the 30 series would probably have killed Cardo three years ago. Today, its barely worth mentioning to an entire "Pack" of talkers. But now, in your senior year, you give us the 50 series, which is obviously just the 30 series with speakers that are almost as good as the 10 series and a firmware upgrade that we should have had two years ago. You made it hard to use, and you crippled the functions we actually appreciate. The SMH-10 was so good, that it convinced me of four things. It convinced me that you cared about motorcycling. It convinced me that you cared what your customers wanted. It convinced me that you wanted to make a product that worked. And it convinced me that you might even be motorcyclists. The Sena 50S has only convinced me of only two things. It has convinced me that the SMH-10 was a fluke, and it convinced me that not only are you not motorcyclists, but that you don't even know any motorcyclists whom you could ask to try this thing before sending it to market.