I use the Cardo Freedom 2+.

Seems alright. Not stellar, but not bad either.

I am not sure what stellar should be like. My expectation is in less than 10 years it will end up lost in some corner of the basement along with some long time dried-up centipedes.

 

It all comes down to if you ride with groups and what intercom is used by majority of the riders. I was leaning towards the Cardo after my last Sena unit crapped out, but my choices were kinda limited as almost everyone in my riding group uses Sena.

 

 

If you have a Nolan helmet (or are considering one like the Nolan N70-2X then they do a comms system that integrates with the helmet - the battery tucks away inside in a special recess, and the mic has special routing. The battery can therefore be quite large and lasts me at least 10 hours playing music full volume (I wear earplugs), and continuous bluetooth for the satnav connection too. The manual describes how to set it up to talk to riders with other systems (other n-coms are best, but it works with Sena etc). Prices for the N-com systems are about the same as Sena I think
No problems with mine so far.
Mike

 

I used for 2 years a M1S from ali but now changed to Cardo bold that is a big improvement. Good quality and what it like is the way how you can click it of your helmet for charging the 🔋 . DMC works good with other Cardo users bluethoot mode not always working with other brands. On Ble 1 unit has to be the master and if you are riding with 8 people the master has to be on de middle. If this battery goes down you need to starting pairing with a new master. With DMC is this not a problem all others can still talk.

 

I've used Sena for yeeeears. Started with the SMH5.. then on to the 10s, and then my Schuberth has the 10u which custom fits in the helmet. I'm done with Sena. First off, and most important, is that Sena hasn't kept up with the bluetooth. If you look at the specs, you'll see that the Sena is working with older releases of bluetooth. My intercom with the phone used to work great. Push the button, you'd have 2 way communication with your phone. Sena "you have a new message from xxx, would you like to hear it".. me: "yes".. Phone would read the msg. Sena "do you want to reply?" etc. Now, it just beeps at you.. I tell it to read and it doesn't tell you who it's from, just reads the msg. Then you ask it to reply and it's just dead. You start another interaction. errrr. Takes several attempts to get what you want. Making calls is about as aggravating. The sound quality out of Sena (newer models with the bigger speakers) is 'acceptable' but not really if you're any kind of audiophile. The built-in Sena in my schuberth is useless unless you have the handlebar controller.. which used to come with it but doesn't anymore. I had to buy mine separately. If you don't have it, you have to open your visor to volume up/down or answer. It's a nightmare to try and communicate with your phone.
I've just bought my first Cardo and will be installing it this weekend. I'm hoping the JBL speakers sound better and the communications are better. It does use a later release of bluetooth but not 'the' latest.
Now having said all that.. I have to admit, I haven't stayed up with the latest Sena's. It's a bit expensive to keep running out buying the latest. It's very cheap to update the firmware on these things but they don't. Also, it REALLY makes a difference depending on what phone you have. I'm on a Galaxy S8. It has two communication apps. "Bixby" which came out a few years ago and I haven't found it to work well with the Sena. The other is the google assistant, which works better. I've heard iCrap "Siri" works better. Maybe someone will chime in on Siri.

 

Well my siri has started misbehaving in exactly the way you describe. I'm sure it used to work ok so maybe it's an Ios update. All the controls on the nolan are in the fairly small unit that fits on the side of the helmet (the battery is inside the helmet). One long press of the big button fires up siri, but she now decides at best I might have one message for her to read (when I have several and she used to read me all today's if I asked). Usually she decides I don't have any. If I ask her to answer the last text - even when she begrudgingly acknowledges that I got one - she is stumped and just doesn't do anything. I wish if could fit my alexa Echo auto in my helmet
Mike

 

Update: I just installed a Cardo Freecom 4+ with the 40mm JBL speakers (they make a 45mm spkr too) in my schuberth. It sounds leap years ahead of the Sena. It also does all the voice commands in both directions again. I do not have the latest "high def" sena speakers to compare those. I also have not tried them out on the road but the system goes way louder than the Sena. I'll update more once I get the thing out on the road.

BTW.. I tried to update my Sena's firmware before I removed it. Couldn't get it to connect after multiple attempts. done!.

 

Willy's ridin' with a decade-old Sena SMH10B. It has done yeoman's duty and is still going strong. It doesn't have a really good filter for mic noise though so phone conversations in my Arai XD-4 require I slow down to about 35 mph or less. In my full face Arai helmet it works fine.

I am looking into purchasing a dual Cardo Packtalk setup to replace the seasoned Sena system. I just need to find $500 somewhere, and a signed and dated kitchen pass authorizing the purchase.

 

We have had Sena SMH-10, 20S, and 20S Evo and have had some issues with the Sena units while touring and water ingress. The Sena isn't waterproof as the Cardo are. But that said, we feel the quality of comms helmet to helmet between Sena and Cardo was better with the Sena.

Long story short (and maybe not of much help) I wish there was a Sena as waterproof as the Cardo and I would then recommend it hands down.

Otherwise they each have their own issues and customer service pretty much sucks for either.

 

I can give my anecdotal experience (just what I experienced) using both the Sena 30k and a Cardo Packtalk Bold.

I first bought a Sena 30k and it was working well for me. I had no major complaints. I went on a tour over 3 days and on my last day it rained hard for about 10 hours on my way back home. After getting home, I took my helmet off and just left it in the garage (left the sena on the helmet). The next day, I was organizing my gear and noticed that the Sena wouldn't turn on. Turns out, water got into the device and corroded the board overnight. I contacted Sena as it had only been a few months since I purchased it. I was told they don't certify the 30k as waterproof so I was out of luck.

I then tried a Cardo Packtalk Bold. Features are similar to the sena, I found the speakers were better. No issues with weather (been using it for 1 year).

Summary - I would get the Cardo based just on the waterproof rating itself.

 

I can give my anecdotal experience (just what I experienced) using both the Sena 30k and a Cardo Packtalk Bold.

I first bought a Sena 30k and it was working well for me. I had no major complaints. I went on a tour over 3 days and on my last day it rained hard for about 10 hours on my way back home. After getting home, I took my helmet off and just left it in the garage (left the sena on the helmet). The next day, I was organizing my gear and noticed that the Sena wouldn't turn on. Turns out, water got into the device and corroded the board overnight. I contacted Sena as it had only been a few months since I purchased it. I was told they don't certify the 30k as waterproof so I was out of luck.

I then tried a Cardo Packtalk Bold. Features are similar to the sena, I found the speakers were better. No issues with weather (been using it for 1 year).

Summary - I would get the Cardo based just on the waterproof rating itself.

Long time welcome to the Forum @snowiscool. I also use a Cardo and functionally it has been no problem. As with most devices, I am not too warm with the pushbuttons, but the competition can be worse.

What are you ridin'?

 

I’ve used a couple different Senas over the years and I’ve just recently bought a Cardo packtalk slim for me and the misses. I’ve been so much more impressed with the Cardo.

 

Did a lot of research on this before buying myself. The general consensus seems to be that Cardo is better than Sena. However, if everyone you ride with uses Sena, you may have to go along with that. In the end, I went with a Sena 10C PRO as I wanted a camera and coms unit all-in-one and I don't see a similar unit out there.

 

I’ve been looking at the 10C EVO. I really like the idea of the integrated camera and being able to record voice and video at the same time, including a conversation with others. But, the big drawback for me is having the field of view narrowed on the right side (basically can’t see anything to the right but the helmet). I want to vlog and this just doesn’t seem as good as a chin mounted GoPro. Oh and, no stabilization all though being mounted on your head that shouldn’t be too bad.

I’d be nice if Cardo brought out a camera unit as well.