Sena Motorcycle Bluetooth Headset - Wireless Intercom Communication System for Riders - Perfect for Group Riding, GPS Navigation & Hands-Free Calls

I bought this to replace my 20S. A big selling point for me was the mesh technology and the fact that it fit on the same base unit as the 20S. I have two helmets that I go between, so I put the newer base unit on the helmet I use more often and the base unit from the 20S on the other.I can't give an opinion on the HD speakers because I use earbuds with mine. That way I think I get better sound, and I get the benefit of noise reduction. The speakers on the 20S were crap.I gave the Sena 50S 3 stars overall mostly because of the "bugginess"...Pros:The mesh intercom sound quality is great. The bluetooth intercom is pretty good, too.The iPhone app has a cool setting called "Smart Intercom Pairing" that allows you to quickly pair to another 50S or 20S.The iPhone app overall is better than the app for the 20S because it is more intuitive, though I would prefer that Sena create a single app that works for both. I would recommend using the app to set up the configuration of the 50S; you can do it on the device itself, but it's more difficult. For sure don't try to change the configuration while you're riding.The battery life in bluetooth intercom mode is said to be 24 hours. I've had mine powered on and connected for over 12 hours before with no problem.The flexible mic that comes installed on the base unit has pretty good noise reduction, but I thought the mic on the 20S base unit was good as well. However, it can only do so much noise reduction when someone is riding with an open face helmet with no windscreen at 75 mph.Cons:In mesh mode when you're trying to listen to your own music, the mic sensitivity is too high even when it's set to the lowest sensitivity. I was riding with two other people who have the 50S and I couldn't hear more that about 20 seconds of music before someone breathed too heavy and muted the music. There is a setting that you can turn on that will prevent the music from muting, but then you end up having a hard time hearing what someone is saying over the intercom when your music is playing.Setting up group mesh is a little confusing so read the instructions thoroughly. I would recommend setting up your group in advance of your ride. It’s more difficult trying to figure it out while you and your buddies are sitting on your bikes and yelling back and forth under your full-face helmets.The button on the 50S that turns mesh intercom on/off (press and release) is also the button that mutes the mic (press and hold for 1 sec) and it's on top of the 50S right next to the antenna. It is almost impossible to find and manipulate the button when you're riding and wearing thicker gloves. I think it mesh mode, especially in group mesh, it would be MUCH easier to press and release the jog dial to mute/unmute the mic, similar to how you start an bluetooth intercom conversation.The battery life is cut by a 2/3 when you're in mesh intercom mode, so after 8 hours, it’s time for a recharge.The music-sharing function when in mesh mode is a cool idea, but in reality I found the sound quality subpar and it kept cutting in and out.The firmware is still fairly buggy. I always have the most recent Sena configuration program on my iMac as well as the most recent app on my iPhone and I have the latest firmware on the 50S. And I always have my iPhone OS up-to-date. Sometimes I will randomly lose the bluetooth connection to my phone. When I checked my OS bluetooth settings, it says it’s disconnected and it the Sena app also says I’m disconnected. It's a pain in the @$$ when it happens while riding. Some people may point to the iPhone as the root cause, but I have a number of bluetooth devices connected to my iPhone and the Sena 50S is the only one that gives me problems.Overall my recommendation would be this…if you and your riding buddies have Sena 20S’s and 10S’s, and you find that everything works to your liking, stay with what you got. I had no issues connecting my 50S to 20S’s and 10S’s via bluetooth.Update - 05/19/2021:I’ve been using the Sena 50S now for a few months. I stand by my original review with a few updates…1) When you’re in Mesh mode and listening to music, the mic is always on. Even at the lowest sensitivity, wind noise or heavy breathing will still trigger the muting of my music. The setting that prevents the music from muting is nice, but you then you constantly hear wind noise, etc. while listening to music. It is a bit difficult to have a conversation with people while music is playing at the same time.2) Connecting to the other people in my group in Mesh mode is easy. Just turn on Mesh mode, and within a matter of seconds everyone is connected to each other. That’s very convenient.3) The speakers…my bike is loud, so combined with wind noise while riding, I need to wear hearing protection. If I wear the cheap foam earplugs, then I have to crank the volume to 11 to hear my music and the intercom. I found a company that makes special foam tips from my earbuds that does a pretty good job with lessening the noise when riding, but then I have to contend with cords, earbuds falling out when putting on my helmet, etc.4) Battery Life: In Mesh mode, you have 8 hours, period. In regular bluetooth intercom, you have 24 hours…unless you’re listening to music, then you’re down to 12 hours.5) Bluetooth Intercom VS Mesh Intercom: If you’re in a group of more than 2 people, then I think Mesh intercom is the way to go, even with the drawbacks I mentioned earlier. If it’s just you and a buddy, bluetooth intercom is fine. You don’t have to worry about “single-clicking” to talk to person A, “double-clicking” to talk to person B, “triple-clicking” to talk to person C. (Read the directions if you don’t know what I’m talking about).6) The firmware seems to be better. I’ve updated mine a couple times since my original review, and I haven’t had the issue with my Sena disconnecting suddenly while riding.7) If you are new to Sena intercom devices, I recommend practicing how to use it while riding. In the safety of your home, put on your helmet and riding gloves (if you wear them) and get a sense of how to use your Sena.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.I’ve been wanting to get this headset for almost a year now and I finally got it. Was it worth the wait? Yes! The speakers are so much better and they don’t poke your ears. You have to use the SenaMotorcycle app to pair headsets but it also has an equalizer and some other features. You can also set it to get louder when you’re moving faster so you can hear your music. Now getting the cord to connect to my wifi took me forever. It was confusing. But once you have the cord (yes, the cord) connected it will check for updates every time you charge it. I had to update my kid’s Sena 10s to the new Mesh 2.0 firmware to connect to them but no biggie. All non mesh headsets have to have the new update in order to connect to the 50. Overall, I love this headset.Very easy to fit to helmet, control and use are tricky but you get used to it, there is a learning curve. Phone works great, sound is fine at legal speeds, not brilliant just useable. My only gripe is I cannot unplug the speakers and mic to swap the kit between one helmet and another I have to move the entire thing. Other than that this is expensive kit but it does actually work as advertised with 2 phones / GPS and Intercom all at once.After I install the app, which has a very low Google Play rating, and others saying they had the same problem, Ican not get passed the T&C's agreemewnt not matter what I press the app freezes and I can not use it at all, I tried to email the support email address but the email was returned as rejected!Music volume = very very very poor. Intercom volume = brilliant. I can’t hear any music over 35mph. Intercom is crystal clear at 100mph+ with full akro system. I can’t figure out what is wrong and how to fix it. Phone calls, intercom etc. Is all ok and crystal clear, and excellent distances. Music? Pile of rubbish.Product went totally dead after two months and they returned it Saying there was nothing wrong with it,It still didn’t work.This took two weeks and cost me £5.50 in postage.Not happyHabe mir das Sena 50r gekauft wegen der Radiofunktion und der besseren Lautsprecher. Das Headset ist von der Tonqualität wirklich top. Musik hören macht spaß. Habe mein Smartphone (iPhone) mit meinem Navi (Zumo XT) gekoppelt, und das Navi mit dem 50r. Bei dieser Konfiguration ist alles top Navi Hinweise sind klar und deutlich, ebenso Telefongespräche, MP3 vom Zumo XT sind von der Qualität richtig gut. Aber wenn ich das Sena Headset meiner Frau zusätzlich mit dem 50r per Bluetooth kopple ( was laut Sena problemlos möglich sein sollte ) ist es vorbei mit der Freude. Sobald die 2 Sena Headsets verbunden sind, bricht die Verbindung von meinem 50r zum Navi ab. Mehrfacher Kontakt zu Sena brachte keinen Erfolg, es wurden alle empfohlenen Einstellungen vorgenommen und getestet, es funktioniert nicht. Wer also solo unterwegs ist, Navi, Radio, MP3 hören und telefonieren möchte, ist mit dem 50r super bedient. Nur gegensprechen mit Sozius klappt auch, aber mit Sozius gegensprechen und z. B. Navi Hinweise empfangen geht nicht, und genau das wird von Sena beworben, bin sehr enttäuscht. Übrigens, in den einschlägigen Foren kann man nachlesen das es sehr viele Biker gibt die ebenfalls über verbindungsabbrüche klagen. Für mich ein no Go von Sena. Sollte durch ein Firmwareupdate das Verbindungsproblem behoben werden, gibts 5 Sterne, so leider nur 2.