If you were testing the new Sena 50S, the one with sound by Harman/Kardon, would you pick the most challenging environment or the one where you will appreciate the enhancements the most?
Bluetooth intercoms – perhaps I should call them communication systems due to their features – are already marvels of modern electronics. A small device on the side of your helmet that connects to your phone and GPS and delivers a mesh intercom system.
I know a rider who had no interest in fitting an intercom – sorry, communication system – until they tried one, and now it is as much a part of their riding kit as the helmet it is attached to.
All of this brings me back to which helmet will give me the best platform to test the new Sena 50S Harman Kardon.
Helmets
I have three helmets to choose from, and I’ve used a standard Sena 50S extensively in all of them.
The superb LS2 Explorer or LS2 MX701 C Explorer Frontier, to give it its full title offers the most challenging acoustic environment. The nature of all carbon fibre helmets is that they are noisier at speed than meshed fibre helmets. The lightness of carbon fibre equates to increased background noise.
The other distraction with the LS2 Explorer is that it doesn’t have speaker pockets, so locating the speakers to keep the helmet comfortable to wear, doesn’t have them in the ideal position for audio clarity. Nonetheless, the Sena 50S does a cracking job up to around 60MPH before the noise in the helmet would make a meaningful evaluation impossible.
The perfect choice would be my Schuberth C4. It is amazingly quiet – measured at 85dB at 60mph – and is designed to take a communication system. The speaker pockets are oval so that you can mount the speakers to your exact taste. That is typical of Schuberth’s attention to detail.
But in perfect conditions, everything will sound great. If the Harman Kardon developments are as significant as Sena suggests, the new 50S needs a challenge.
Perhaps it is best to start with the Shoei NXR. Reasonably light with good padding. Not as quiet as the Schubert, but not noisy either.
Harman Kardon – What is new?
Both the speakers and microphone have been redesigned by renowned audio specialists, Harman Kardon. As those wonderful people in the Sena marketing department have explained, the objective is to provide an “… unmatched audio experience with the Sena 50S. The speakers send crystal clear audio to riders’ ears while the microphone, with a newly designed sensor, provides robust performance for voice communication”.
Excellent, but when my head is in an 80mph wind on a Dutch motorway, can I tell the difference? After all, the original 50S was clear and has provided me with hours of music and communication with other riders.
Spoiler Alert: The short answer is yes.
Shoei Road Test
There are two pads in the NXR’s lining that you removed to expose the speaker pockets. They are a simple push-fit and easily removed. The Harman Kardon speakers are about half the depth of the speaker pockets, creating more space around my ears, changing the overall sensation of wearing the helmet.
Changing the space around my ears changed the tone of the road noise. It isn’t that the road noise was louder. It had more reverberation. Similar to talking to someone in an empty building.
However, when I started streaming music from my phone, the Harman Kardon speakers filled the space beautifully. I want to say that the music had more volume. Not in the sense of it being louder, but there was more off it. A greater definition is perhaps a better description. Would audiophiles describe this as having more range?
And remember, my head is in an 80mph wind, I’m wearing earplugs – because I always do – and I have the mechanical sounds from the engine and the exhaust playing loudly as background noise.
The fact that I could hear anything is amazing when I think of it, but with the enhanced clarity the new speakers bring, it is a noticeable step forward from the original Sena 50S.
The advantage of the Shoei NXR over the flip front Schuberth C4 is that the microphone is behind a solid chin bar, and I have a chin curtain fitted. As far as microphones in helmets go, this is as close to an ideal environment, as I think I could get. The Schuberth C4 is a better place to judge the microphone improvements.
Schuberth Road Test
The speaker pockets in the Schuberth are covered by the helmet liner even when the speakers are installed. This helps with the quietness of the Schuberth, however, the liner will also muffle the sound from the speakers.
Regardless, both the standard 50S speakers and the Harmon Kardon version are installed the same way, and even with the liner over the speakers, I can appreciate the improvement in sound quality the new speakers deliver.
Noise Cancelling Microphones
The bigger test for the new Sena 50S is the enhanced noise-cancelling microphone. Opening the flip on the C4 invites a 60mph wind to blow directly onto the microphone. In the box are four simple foam covers, which do a lot to reduce the wind noise, but we need more.
That is where Harmon Kardon comes in. Active noise filtering is the art of determining what is background noise and separating that from the sound you want. There are two primary methods for this: a separate microphone and sound amplitude.
A separate microphone approach is the first solution. Place another microphone somewhere to pick up all the background noise and remove this sound from that being picked up by the main microphone. That’s the principle, the clever bit is doing it.
The second technique is to look at the amplitude or strength of each sound and decide which sounds have been made close to the microphone – someone speaking – and which were made further away. Again, it is simple to say and difficult to do.
Harmon Kardon adds massive value from its years of expertise in digital signal processing (DSP) and its algorithm for processing the sound detected by the microphone.
Add all of that together, and you get a clearer signal transmitted into Sena’s Mesh technology, resulting in clearer reproduction.
What do they think?
I can’t judge the difference the new microphone makes by talking to myself. I did make a couple of phone calls to test the Sena 50S after installing it in the Schuberth, but that was sitting in the kitchen.
Strange how my family didn’t even ask what I was doing. It seems me sitting in the kitchen with my helmet on is “normal” behaviour for me.
Real-world performance is what matters and having ridden 200 miles in sunshine and rain yesterday, the feedback from the other riders is very positive.
Although I’m sure listening to me isn’t high on their list of things to look forward to on a ride, they all commented on how noticeably clearer, to the point of sounding louder, the new microphone makes communication.
Bottom Line – Is it Worth It?
An excellent question, to which the answer is, yes. However, it isn’t really a question.
When the Sena 50S was first released, it retailed at around £250. That was in June 2020. Two years on, the price has reduced slightly, yet Sena has improved the 50S and included enhanced speakers and invested in enhanced noise-cancelling technology.
The original 50S was impressive. The new Harmon Kardon version is a further step forward, and the price has been reduced.
So, yes. If you want a fully-featured Bluetooth communication system, with Mesh technology and arguably the best sound reproduction and noise-cancelling microphone available, the new Sena 50S is most definitely worth it.
Clarity.
The author is a long term Sena intercom user and has been using the original 50S for over two years. Sena Communications provided the Sena 50S with Sound by Harman Kardon for this evaluation.
As always our Product Testing Philosophy applies.
