CardoPTS00101 - PACKTALK Slim Motorcycle Bluetooth Communication System Headset - Black, Dual 2 Pack

Bottom line: It works as advertised and I'm about to buy a 2nd. Anyone expecting dolby surround sound or 12 speaker car audio quality... doesn't understand acoustics and the environment this operates in. Do I wish it was more robust sounding audio, yes. But it is a good balance of on the road entertainment and still being able to track what's happening in your environment, YES!Longer Version:Ok, so I've had this and used it on my daily commute for about 4 months now. So far I've never run out of battery, but I've not been on a ride longer than 4 hours yet. However, I've gone 2 week or so without charging it with roughly 30-40 min round trip runs. Still, not the advertised lifespan tested, but again no issues. I've only paired up with someone once. Worked without any headache. I bought mainly for audio navigation and music. Both have worked pretty flawlessly.Noise cancelling is quite good. I've had trouble with people hearing me on a call when testing it in my apartment (I think it was too quiet in my apartment for the noise filtering to understand lol). But it seems to work great when on my bike. At 80 mph, they can still hear me as well as 25mph. At pretty much any speed, I'm told that the volume coming through on the call is low, but clear. I haven't discovered a setting that seems to impact that. It's not ideal, but it does allow me to flawlessly answer or make calls if necessary without stopping or any fumbling or fuss. Practice using the button to hang up on a call. I haven't discovered a voice command to hang up and it took me longer than I'd like to admit to figure that you had to press a button to end the call.Music - the big one. Look, if you want to blast your music in your ear while riding, I'd humbly suggest reconsider the safety of that. But that's also what headphones are for. Having said that, I'm a music guy and I want to have tunes rolling while I ride. This is my first helmet system. So I can't compare it to anything else, but I am an audiophile and if you heard how strong, full, balanced, and clear my system is in my car, you'd know I spend a lot of time and effort getting it right. This system just works. I actually think it sounds very good. For those that claim they can't hear it or it's unimpressive, I don't know what you were expecting from a small scale speaker competing with 85-100db from road, engine, and wind noise in even the better helmets. But 2 things have made a big difference for me. Make sure your volume level on your phone is turned up pretty much all the way. This seems to have a very real impact to the volume range of the system for me. Also, to protect my ears, I ride with some Alpine riding ear plugs in that claim they filter out the white noise and spare reduce the strain on your ears. I think they do that well and a great investment. I also find that I can actually hear my music much better when I wearing those plugs than without and at a greater range of volume levels.I'm about to purchase my second unit for my second helmet. I have a HJC RPHA 11 and a RPHA 90. One for short runs and imo improved safety. The other is for the longer hauls I've started running. So far this has been running in the 11 with the full face mic. I'll install on the 90 with the modula mic and update if I find a noticeable performance difference. It might help that I'm also on a semi quiet bike (2018 Versys 650) without burning cash on any aftermarket pipe. I also have an aftermarket windshield that is very effective. But even when I have that dropped down for some airflow I don't notice much, if any drop off in hearing my music. Weirdly, I feel like podcasts also tend to come through more clearly. But you have fewer audio waves fighting the environment to reach your ears. So to me I suppose that makes sense.I spent the first 30 years of my life paycheck to paycheck. So even with the resources now to buy premium products, I can't shake the habit of bang for buck buying. I think this is a great bang for buck if it fits your budget and if comms and audio while you ride are important to you. If there are better options, I'd say this is at very least not a wrong choice.

So my husband and I finally had the time to ourselves and went for a run. We are not techie at all. We watch some you tube videos to install the talk pack bold duo into our helmets. The video was excellent too. Showed all kinds of helmet. I charged the packs overnight. Took us about 30 mins to install in the helmet. Am very glad we bought the jbl. The sound was crystal clear and the bass did come through fine. Yes was very pricey but So worth it. I figureD if you’re going on a couple to a few hour cruise and you’re sightseeing and going places you’ve never been before you’ll want to talk to your spouse or partner on some cool things you see like we do. We are about to hit 50 so going for a cruise and able to listen to our music without having to fumble with your cell phone is a plus. I had my purse inside our saddle bag and was able to listen to the music fine.So this is my take on it. With the duo you’re able to individually listen to your own music but still be connected to your partner thru the intercom. There is no wind noise whatsoever. Their white noise cancellation is excellent. You don’t hear any wind noise like you do on cell phones. Your partner will not hear your music or vice verse. The Bluetooth allows the connectivity to both the cardo talk pack and you stay connected to your smart phone at the same time. It was perfect. When you spoke the music soften a bit so you can hear each other and then the music would come back to original volume. I love the “hey cardo” function similar to Siri and bixby on smart phones. You can pick up phone calls with a touch. Increasing volume was cool. It’s a turning wheel on the talk pack.Now one con was the instructions showed I could share my music with my husband but was not able to do that yet. Still need to figure that out.I have a shoei helmet and my husband has a no name brand helmet that the front face lifts up. He used the half part mic. I used the full mic. You can’t even tell it’s inside the helmet. We both used the stick pad onto the outside of the helmet instead of the clip. The clip is a joke. All the helmets are thicker by design nowadays anyway. We both ended up using the adhesive to stick the talk pack clip onto the helmet. The video says to let the adhesive sit for 24 hours. We didn’t know that and we wanted to try it out. We still went out to try it. The adhesive as fine after 1 hour. This allows you to remove for charging. My shoei is very well insulated so the music And sound was great. I was totally impressed. I’ve had jbl before so wasn’t surprised but was still impressed. Never used an intercom before in a helmet. We went for a two hour ride and the battery didn’t die.I am very excited about The fact we can intercom with other riders and may be able to connect with them too to talk but that may be beyond our tech knowledge may have to trial and error it when opp comes. We may need to have same brand. Will have to read more into that.If you’re a hard core bike rider or a weekend road warrior it’s a must have if you’re with a partner. For individuals, the music alone to listen to on rides and be able to pick up calls and such is great. We also used a cell phone holder for motorcycles that held the phone in place by pinching the phone in the middle and has silicone bands that stretched around the corners of the phone for added security. We went along back roads over hills and some roads had some holes and unevenness and the phone didn’t budge.So overall it took us no longer than 30-40 mins to install, turn on, Bluetooth search for the talk pack, read on how to turn on music (minus the overnight charging) and we were out the door to go pick up some to go sushi for dinner. Charging Doesn’t take that long but I did it for the first time use. My husband didn’t have any music downloaded to his Samsung so at first we thought it didn’t work but we turned on his MixerBox list an app on his phone and he could hear his music fine.I love this product and it is so worth it. I hope this was helpful.