Sena 3s Plus Universal Bluetooth Intercom Review – Cheap Motorcycle Intercom? Music Intercom.
A couple of people have asked me about
what motorcycle intercom system i use
if any so here it is.
Good afternoon Youtube and welcome back to the
channel. Sena 3s Plus Universal stay tuned.
I bought this Sena Intercom very recently
which is why i still have the box. Now what
i really like about it is its simplicity
and how it’s quite streamlined you’ve got
a plus and a minus button which are easy
enough to control with motorcycle gloves,
you’ve got two speakers obviously and two
different types of boom mic that you can use
for phone calls or if you want to connect via
bluetooth to other Himalayan motorcycle riders.
At the back here we also have the little usb jack.
There’s another Sena 3s plus that’s got a boom mic
without the controller and the controls are on
the stem itself. Of course this is not the first
intercom or sound system that i’ve ever owned but
very recently I had one where the battery stopped
working on it and it was a Chinese model i don’t
remember exactly what the name of this thing was
sh.te com.. disclaimer may explode or
electrocute the rider when it rains.
So i figured this time round i would
and my Royal Enfield a brand name either a Sena
or a Cardo intercom but at the same time i didn’t
want to spend a fortune on this and that’s because
the majority of these intercom systems have got a
whole bunch of features which if i’m being honest
i don’t really use, if you’re the type of rider
who is very sociable and you like to ride in
large groups and perhaps you’re touring or maybe
you’re riding your motorcycle with other people
and you want to stay in constant contact with
each other. What’s that James? You took a left
at the fox and hounds i told you to take a right
mate! Foxtrot Oscar over! Then i would have to
say that this Sena 3s Plus system is not for you.
Goodbye. You can only connect to one other rider
at a time and the range is only 400 meters on the
other hand if you are a little bit more like me..
mama…
Then this system is probably perfect for
you. I guess what i’m really saying is
i don’t ride motorcycles to have
conversations with other people
unless it’s you guys of course it might sound a
little bit cliche but for me that’s what riding
a motorcycle is all about i don’t really want
to be thinking about other people and where they
are and what they’re doing i’m more interested
in the open road looking at the scenery being
alone with my own thoughts and maybe sometimes
just having a little bit of music on the go.
When we look at this Sena 3s intercom system one
of the first things you notice and certainly one
of the things i like most about it is just
how small it is especially on the side of
the helmet the benefit for me is just how simple
it is to use and how intuitive it is. A lot of
other systems on the market may well be larger but
they’ve also got small buttons or you know weird
toggles and stuff like that and i find them quite
difficult to use. When you plug this in the little
led light will start off initially as being red
and then once it’s fully charged that light will
turn blue. The first charge probably takes about
i would say three and a half hours after that
two hours forty-five to three hours. Charge it and
that’ll give you a run time for about eight hours.
I made use of the fact that this helmet is already
set up for a Nolan N-Com system so i was able to
put this basically in its place without cutting
anything i also downloaded the Sena App on my
phone and then i updated the software. You want to
just hold the plus and the minus button together
the system will power on and it will
tell you the status of the battery.
Hello battery high. It’ll either be battery
high battery medium or battery low and then
it will automatically connect to whichever device
is in range that you’ve paired with the headset.
Of course the most obvious use for the plus and
the minus buttons is for volume you know if you’re
listening to music for example press the plus turn
the music up, the minus and turn the music back
down again. So for me personally i feel that the
quality of the music coming through these speakers
is very good or it’s certainly good enough of
course at 70 miles an hour it can be a little
bit more difficult to listen to music especially
with the wind noise and things like that but guys
i never ride without some kind of ear protection
either and i use these Alpine moto safe earplugs
and the alpine motosafe earplugs are really good
because they block out a lot of the wind noise,
that rumble that you don’t really want but
they still allow you to have conversations
or listen to music for example. Everything that
you need for the install is in the box so you
have a selection of the two separate mics there
you’ve got the boom mic and a little button mic,
you have little velcro pads and you’ve got 3m
sticky tape as well well. For most helmets the
installation of this is going to be really simple
with this Nolan Helmet here there’s plenty of room
to run the wiring and it’s also got speakers or
cut outs for speakers already in the helmet which
actually fit exactly so i didn’t need to modify
anything and because it doesn’t have a whole bunch
of buttons on there it’s really simple to scroll
through the menu to find the settings you need
or to get the device to do what you need
it to do. Phone pairing.. configuration,
second mobile phone pairing, gps
pairing, delete all pairings,
universal intercom pairing, factory reset, exit.
Overall the installation of this took probably
less than 10 minutes for me and i decided to use
the little button mic rather than the boom mic
you know for the the very odd occasion i might
find myself paired up with another rider or maybe
using the voice commands for satnav for example.
Direct me to Stirling! All right Stirling.
Or you know taking a phone call. The Sena
microphones have got noise cancelling built
into them as well which is not unusual for these
systems but that just means that it’s easier for
people to hear you clearly even if you’re on the
move. So i guess you could say so far so good but
there is a negative i mean it’s only a tiny thing
and that is that you can’t use it and charge it at
the same time in other words i can’t plug it in
whilst i’m riding the Himalayan Motorcycle and
charge it and still listen to music at the same
time. Play music! Playing on youtube music. Having
said that you’re going to get a good eight hours
out of this before you need to recharge it. If you
need a system where you’re predominantly listening
to music, maybe you take the odd phone call or you
use it for voice commands for you know satnav and
phones. Call voicemail! Calling voicemail. But you
want a quality brand name that’s not gonna bust
the bank then i think Sena 3s Plus is probably
the right bluetooth intercom for you especially
if you’re not the type of rider who needs to speak
to you know tons of different riders whilst you’re
out on the road. Hang on a minute Jimmy! Goodbye!
See you on my next Royal Enfield
Himlayan Motorcycle Adventure.
