Forum Members ,,,,,,

When I picked up my new 2010 Harley Ultra Limited last week, it came with a newly designed Harley headset, as all Ultra’s do.

So I decided it was time for another J&M vs Harley headset test, comparing the J&M #HS-ECD584-OF-HO headset, using the #HC-ZHD lower section cord, against the 2009 model of the Harley brand headset (Harley part#77147-98 )and the all new 2010 Harley re-designed headset, (Harley part# 77147-98A ).

Now take a little bit of this test with a grain of salt, as I am the president of J&M and it is in our best interest for the J&M headset to be judged better than the Harley brand ,,,, however, I have been riding motorcycles with audio systems and testing headsets with them for over 32 years now, and if what I say here were not true, I just would not bother writing about it at all.

All headsets today were installed into Arai open face Classic helmets, with stock windshield and exhaust installed on the Ultra.

One of my hot-shot R&D guys and I first went out with the J&M elite series open face headsets, with the high-output (-HO) mike, small J&M windsock, set the intercom vox sensitivity to 1 block to the right of the center position, set the intercom volume at 4 blocks to the left of full right, for both the driver and passenger intercom volume controls.

Then I turned on my favorite CD and we hit the highway ,,,,,,, and as we rode we first tested for false vox’ng, which is the wind and/or ambient noise breaking the intercom vox, without anyone speaking.

This happened with the J&M headsets only occasionally when revving the 2010 Ultra, during max acceleration, right at red line on the tachometer.

We could ride at a steady speed of 85 mph indicated, with the J&M headsets and the vox would NOT be activated by the wind or ambient noise, and the music coming thru the headsets at this speed, was quite enjoyable, decent bass/mids etc.

We then switched to the 2009 style Harley headsets, and the first thing we noticed of course was a very tinny sound to the music, then every time I accelerated hard at all, regardless of the gear, the vox would false from all the ambient exaust noise being picked up by the Harley mike,,,, then anything above a steady speed of 60 mph, the wind noise would overpower the Harley mikes, lock the vox on and you could not listen to music at all.

At this moment we adjusted the intercom vox sensitivity to 3 blocks to the left of center, we could then go to 70 mph before the wind overpowered the vox system, but then it was hard to break the vox with the driver or passenger voice. These things made the system virtually unusable on the highway, with the 2009 Harley headsets, for proper transitioning back and forth between music and intercom.

We then switched to the 2010 style Harley headsets, and noticed a decent improvement in the quality of the music, from the 2009 Harley headset, but not near the good bass and amount of overall music volume available from the J&M elite series headsets.

Out on the highway, the new 2010 Harley headset mike picks even more ambient noise than it’s predecessor, at the slightest bit of acceleration, regardless of gear or speed, it false trips the vox (vox sensitivity set in center position).

The new Harley mike is better in the wind than it’s predecessor as we were able to attain a steady speed of 70mph, (instead of 60mph with the 2009 Harley version) before the wind began false vox’ng the system, thus making the system useless to transition back and forth between music and intercom.

We found most of these same characteristics with the CB radio.

We installed a good o’l Cobra underdash CB in my Dodge PU, with 48” magnetic roof-top antenna, and first drove the truck to the farthest point away that we could still hear the CB transmissions from the Ultra, then began to listen to the differences between the various mikes, with the Ultra running but not moving.

BOTH of the Harley mikes were ever so slightly stronger over the CB with the bike sitting still, but if one was not comparing them side-by-side, seconds apart, you would not be able to tell the difference.

Same with the tonal quality on the CB, the Harley mikes had a slight bit more bass in the voice, but the volume and clarity was so close between the two brands, that the differences would have been inconceivable had not they been tested seconds apart.

Once the Ultra started to move however, the wind and ambient noise when TX on the CB, increased with the Harley headset, just like we heard over the intercom, making CB TX at speeds above 75 mph difficult at best with the Harley brand headsets.

With the J&M brand headsets, CB transmissions were very clear up to about the maximum speed of the Ultra.

I have had a new Ultra every single year since 1989, and I have ridden them with headsets, both Harley and J&M, talked on the CBs, the intercom and listened to music on them all.

JMJOHN ,,,,, john@jmcorp.com ,,,,,

 

I also had some issues with the intercom on my 2010 SE Ultra. I use a Boom half-helmet headset/mike along with the stock headset for my wife. We could not get the VOX to work properly and then I upgraded the HK Advanced software following the instructions here http://www.harley-davidson.com/cp/moar/en/overview.asp

The intercom did work better but I still had to keep the VOX at the lowest setting to avoid it kicking in whenever the sound from the exhaust increased on hard acceleration. In the end, I simply turned the Vox off (lowest setting) which requires both my wife and I manually activate the mike with the switch to communicate through the intercom. It becomes second nature and better than the headset activating whenever I hit the throttle.

 

Hey JMJohn,
i just ordered an Arai Profile full face helmet, what all is involved in getting the "HS-ECD584-FF" kit working with this?
I expect I'll have to pull out the cheek pads and maybe modify the foam slightly for the speakers.
What I'm most concerned with though, is the mic. Is there a manual available for that kit in pdf format that shows exactly what I'd be getting into?

I'm kinda leery about drilling a hole in my chinbar for the mic.

Would a boom style mic work in a helmet like that?

Jim

 

letitride ,,,,

for the Arai Profile, if you have not installed a headset in it before, can be tough job ,,,,

give our sales department a call at 1-800-358-0881 and get pricing for the custom install and the adress to send it to ,,, that will be the best solution ,,,,

audio performance will be superb that way also ,,,,