Wildhorn Alta Wireless Bluetooth Ski Helmet Speakers - Snowboard Headphones

In the 2024-25 season, I tried out - side by side - the Wildhorn Altas, Smith x Aleck Nunchucks, and Outdoor Tech Chips 3.0. I used them in my winter helmet to listen to music via bluetooth. Overall - I liked the Altas the best, based primarily on sound, but also with regard to ease of use, and price (far cheaper than the other two). The Chips sounded almost as good, but the controls are not as easy/useful to me as the Altas. The Nunchucks sounded very distorted, the app would not pair properly, and the buttons were hard to control. Buttons - Alta has 3 buttons, making volume, track changes, voice commands, and calling easy and intuitive (and similar to most other bluetooth headphones). It's easy to locate and operate each with gloves on. Nunchucks are two buttons and are less intuitive (requiring some memorization), for example, to change volume, you hold a button, and the volume cycles higher and higher, until looping around to lowest setting and stepping upwards again. Also, some two handed gestures are required (tougher when holding ski gear), and buttons are a bit harder to find and operate with gloves. The Chips are similar to the Nunchucks, and you'll need to memorize some key combos to use them (one click to lower volume, two to raise volume). Sound - I tested the units side by side (one brand on each ear) The Altas have nice bass and clarity (though they're slightly lacking in high end). The Chips were similar but not quite as good: the sound on the Altas is slightly more assertive and full. The Nunchucks have more high end treble and somewhat less bass, but the mid and upper ranges are significantly distorted and compressed. Sound quality is subjective, but I honestly don't understand how any reviewers can enjoy the sound of the Nunchucks… the harsh, distorted midrange gets tedious quickly. None of the headphones has hifi sound, but the Altas are pleasant and on-par with most good sounding sub-$100 bluetooth headsets that I've owned. Volume on all models is fine, though Nunchucks sound distorted at any volume. Features - The Altas were up and running in seconds with simple bluetooth pairing. The features all worked fine - voice command, volume, pause, track change, calls (no intercom included). The Chips were easy to pair as well.The Nunchucks require an app, and after 20 minutes of trying, I could not get the headphones to pair with the app, because the required firmware update consistently failed. I did get the Nunchucks paired via my phone's regular pairing, but without the app, you lose intercom, equilization, and all other advanced features, making the headphone features equivalent to the more rudimentary Altas. Other - My only gripe with the Altas (other than lack of intercom) is the micro-usb port (rather than usb-c). An added bonus to the Altas is simple packaging (a pouch in a baggie), compared to the elaborate cardboard packaging of the others, which gets immediately thrown in the trash. Each of the models fit well into my large helmet, though the wire on the Chips was slightly short. I hope this info helps… isn't it sad that even "professional" reviews just regurgitate the feature lists of these items, and don't seem to do real, hands-on, side by side comparisons anymore?

Ok I came back just to review these after using these all last season & using them yesterday because I found myself enjoying them so much! And no, this isn’t your typical AI-generated Amazon review ;) Tried several pairs of Bluetooth headphones & were disappointed with either sound, battery life, bluetooth connectivity - after reading the positive reviews, decided to pull the trigger at around $100 last year. Compared to other similar products I’ve tried, these are the best in quality & absolutely worth the $. I like listening to more bass heavy music while riding (EDM, hip hop) and these definitely do it justice, are some of the FEW headphones that offer a nice bass response, volume gets nice and loud, controls are easy to click, BT connectivity is stable and consistent and has a great battery life. Essentially all the functions you want in a speaker that is designed to fit in the helmet. Now all the reviews mentioning the sound is flat, thin, lack of bass clearly are not getting a proper fit with their helmet/ear. If the speakers are too far from your ear & have a load of padding on the way, of course they’re going to sound dull/flat. Make sure you use these with the right audio capable helmet/ear pads and you’ll definitely appreciate the sound quality. To note, I used to have them in my Smith Mission helmet but found it a bit uncomfortable after some time (due to lack of any padding between the speakers and my ear) so switched to a audio capable helmet from Amazon and now I get to enjoy riding with high quality music which makes the experience so much more enjoyable. I do agree the micro USB charging is a bit outdated, but I’m sure they are planning on upgrading the tech in their next version of this speaker :). But Wildhorn has definitely earned a supporter/fan for this product!

I bought the Wildhorn Alta bluetooth headsets at the start of the 24/25 season, with the main goal to use it with the Carv ski training unit and listen to music. As others have mentioned, you'll need to remove the foam placeholder inserts in your helmet first, otherwise you'll be listening through 1/2" of foam. Pairing was straight forward and for the 5 sessions I've taken them out so far, the headset connects right away to my phone without any fuss. I haven't encountered any loss of connectivity while using the headset. The audio quality is good for what it is - I find it super easy to hear the Carv feedback and instructions at medium volume, even mid-ski. I also find the music quality to be good - maybe light on the bass, but with deadmau5, Grandbrothers, and Orbital on heavy rotation, I've been pretty happy. Controls are super easy to use, but if it's your first helmet audio system, it'll take a little bit of time to build muscle memory to know where the buttons are. The ridge on the left ear piece can be felt with gloves, but I wish it were just a little more prominent. The buttons will give a prominent audible and tactile click - it's a small thing, but unlike mushy buttons, you're confident you've pressed the button. I don't know if this is a software or hardware thing, but one downside is if you click the up/down buttons too quickly, the headset appears to treat it as a long click, so it adjusts the volume rather than allow you to go through your music tracks quickly. You do need to be a little deliberate in your actions when trying to change volume or tracks. I also used the "OK, Google" audio commands using the built-in mic. It works well most of the time. However, when there is a lot of background noise or wind, it will often not pick up the command. When it works, it's great - simple things like sending a text message, choosing a different playlist, or just finding out the time provides a lot of quality of life improvements. One last nit pick, the charging port is on top of the left ear piece - this means you'll need to pull out the earpiece to charge it. The flat cable between the two earpieces is braided, but I do worry a little bit about it's durability if you need to take the earpiece out frequently. If you only use it a few days a season, it's probably not an issue, but if you do quite a few days a season, I can see it as being a weak point in design where cable might break. Overall super happy with the purchase - the sound is clear while the environment is audible, the voice commands improve your quality of life, and it's easy and reliable to use. -1 star for the mic issue in noisy and windy situations as well as button behavior when clicked quickly, for a final score of 4 stars. Highly recommend the headset, particularly if they are ever on sale or have a coupon.

Originally posted for the Kalence T10 headphones. Everything was tested the same between both pairs of "T10's". These headphones (Kalence & Doohoeek) were used with a Samsung S23 using Spotify as the streaming source with no EQ. Pairing was fairly easy, just power on the unit and it immediately looks for a pair and comes up as "T10" for a device. Calls are not clear for the person being called, but clear for the caller. Construction feels good for what they are. Controls are a bit clunky with having to press 1, 2 or 3 times on the left or right driver to control power/calls, volume, or Rewind/Skip songs. Musically, the highs are clear and the mids are clear but lack fullness. The problem is the bass. I used 2 test songs "Doin' It Right" by Daft Punk and "I Can't Hear You" by Dead Weather which both have very prominent multi-note basslines. The Kalence T10's sounded thin and like one-note bass. I also have to turn up the volume to max to get appreciable volume. I then tried EQ on spotify only adding bass 125 Hz and less and still no clarity, articulation, nor authority in the bass. What is produced is one-note mud. I have no idea how so many reviews here comment positively on bass for these headphones. Given this, musically, these are a no-go for me. I compared these to headphones by Doohoeek headphones which are available on Amazon and they are identical to the Kalence. Same T10 pairing and the cases have identical marking, though they are cheaper. They sound the same using the same testing. These had some weird response as well, where I had to power up both the L & R drivers independently and get everything to sync up. It wasn' hard, just might be a little weird interface wise to have to wake-up/pair both driver separately. The Kalence T10's didn't do this. Next comparison is the Wildhorn Alta Wireless headphones which have an echo when making calls, BUT the bass on these has decent clarity and authority. Listening to "Doin' It Right" by Daft Punk and "I Can't Hear You" by Dead Weather produces multi-note basslines with decent clarity, but the volume must again be turned up near max. There's not much headroom, but decent volume for listening and being aware of surroundings. The drawback is that calls are not great, but decent, the charging cord uses a micro USB (I don't want to carry another cord) and these require a tether between the L & R drivers though it fits up across the top of your head in the helmet nicely. The music reproducibility on these makes them a clear winner over the T10's. I also compared these to "Wireless Bluetooth 6.0 Ski Helmet Speakers - 30H Playtime, Glove-Friendly, HDR Audio, IPX5 Waterproof, Rechargeable Drop-in Headphones with Built-in Mic for Skiing & Snowboarding Audio Ready Helmets" which are actually sold by Kalence Direct and when paired, come up as "T40". The calls are not great again, but not echo and the bass is comparable with the Wildhorn Alta in authority, but with perhaps just a tad less articulation and clarity. The drawback is call quality is ok, not great for the person receiving calls, to the caller it sounds clear and again a tether between the L & R drivers, but as well manageable as this fits nicely over the top of the head with little impact due to the thin flat cable. These are also almost half the price of the T10's and use a USB-C cord (Yeah Baby!) so an easy winner. The Wildhorns appear nicer in build quality over the these T40's, but in use with controls, they are near identical and the much reproducibility is comparable. I'd go with whichever is cheaper when buying them. I just want to jam out when hitting some POW, so T40's it is for me until I hear something else better or if considering price, but if I want that extra bit of resolution in the bass and mids along with just a little more top end volume, the Wildhorns are better. I did go with the Wildhorns since I was able to get them for about $60.

Bought these back on Prime Day, and have finally been able to use them out on the hill a couple of times now, and I have to say these are pretty good little speakers: The initial Bluetooth connection was quick and easy, and I have had no problems with it dropping. When you power them up a voice tells you they're on and ready to pair and the battery level. If your phone is nearby they will then automatically pair and the voice confirms once paired up. I have 3 helmets (Wildhorn Drift, Giro Jackson, and an old Smith Variance - all size L), and these fit in the ear covers of all 3 with no-problem. The cable between speakers is long enough, and the extra cable stashes behind the liners so that they're almost invisible. The sound quality of music is great. Songs are clear and crisp. Bass is full sounding , but not heavy, as some reviewers have noted. However, I wasn't really expecting them to be bass-heavy. These are not in-ear or over-ear speakers. They are barely-pressed-against your ear speakers. (Pull your Beats headphones away from your ears so that they are barely touching your ears and the Beats will not sound bass-heavy either.) The sound quality remains clear at high volume, and these get louder than I would ever need them to be. They still allow outside noise in, so you can still talk to friends on the chair, or hear what's going on around you during your run. I can't really comment on call quality as cell service is spotty at my hill, so I haven't made any calls on them. The buttons are a little difficult to use/locate at first, but once you use them a couple of times and get used to where the buttons sit inside your ear pad they get easier to use. The speakers respond quickly to button commands, and I haven't had any issue using Google assistant with them. The battery seems pretty good. 3-4 hours of use seems to only zap about 15-20% of the battery. I've never run them all the way to 0%, but would expect to get at least 14-15 hours out of each full charge. All in all, these are great little speakers, and to me they are way more comfortable/practical than trying to use ear buds inside your helmet. At $70 the price is right, and is half the price of the other guys. If you're looking for speakers for your helmet, I'd give these a try first.

For the past few years I've been skiing with PowerBeats earbuds. I'd kind of worn them out, so it was time to look for a new solution to having music on the mountain. I was resistant to the idea of wearing a helmet at first - I am not an extreme skier by any means, but decided it was time, and having bluetooth "built in" to the helmet could make it worth it vs. dealing with buds falling out or getting tangled with the goggles. I am extremely pleased with this solution. The sound quality is fine. It doesn't produce deep bass like a studio headset or anything, but it's perfectly enjoyable, and appropriate as you want to be able to hear your surroundings. It was nice being able to hear my music clearly but also be able to understand people if they said something to me on the lift. I was very happy with the controls. There's one big button on the right with a distinctive click that lets you pause, or invoke voice control. If someone wants to chat I can quickly and easily stop the music with my gloves on. Or a double tap lets me do voice control commands which is good for almost everything else. There is an up/down control on the other ear. it can be used to skip tracks and change volume. This was almost useless in practice, it was hard to feel which button was which through the gloves and through the helmet, and they don't have as significant of a "click" when pressed. But these functions are all do-able with voice control, so it's okay. I used it to skip tracks a couple times, though. The microphone quality is interesting. It was far superior to what I had before with the PowerBeats. Siri usually understood "read my messages" while going up a windy lift, which made me happy as I don't like taking my phone out. Actually sending texts was a mixed bag though, Siri comically couldn't understand certain words and sent some hilariously wrong texts at times. But it worked better than expected, overall. Battery life seems very good. I accidentally left it on overnight a couple times and still had 75% left the next day. Probably should auto-off if not paired for several minutes, but the battery life seems so long it's probably not a big deal in practice. Good stuff!

I bought these because of the great reviews. But they are not as good as my 4 year old cheapo headphones from Walmart. What to dislike? Let me count the ways. 1. I cannot use Siri and say "Start Music" or "Call John" unless I unlock my phone. I though the whole idea was to not need to take my phone out of my ski jacket and risk dropping it off the chairlift. My 4 year old, $28 headphones does it fine. 2. By the way, I use it on the chairlift because the sound quality on the other end is terrible (worse than my $28 headphones). Is there a Noise Rejection setting? I can be skiing with my older earphones, and people can still hear me fine. But with these, they have trouble while I am inside the gondola in Vail, where I have decent reception. 3. The large Play/Pause button sounds great, but you have to push dead center on the button. I had to glue a piece of wood on the center of the button to push on it with gloves. 4. The sound quality sucks unless you play Rock when the volume is high all the time. I listen to Movie Soundtracks. The volume is non linear. On the soundtrack The Greatest Showman -- "From Now On", you cannot even hear the beginning of the song, unless you crank the volume to max, and then it is painful in the middle of the song , when it hits crescendos. 5. The battery life is good --- just as good as my old headphones. I emailed Wildhorn to address the first 2 issues. I will upgrade it if they can help me fix those issues

Audio is OK, but I found myself getting ear pain from the pressure applied to my ears with these. Controls are easy to find even with gloves on. Very good price for in helmet headphones compared to others. Ideally, they'd just make these thinner and shape them so they don't put as much pressure on ears.

El producto es sí tiene buen aspecto y la bolsa de transporte es un detalle útil....pero: 1. La potencia de los altavoces es insuficiente para un volumen “de confort” siendo externos al oído y normalmente tapados por una tela en las orejeras del casco donde se alojan. 2. La calidad del sonido deja mucho que desear. Hay una gran ausencia de bajos; siquiera con el ecualizador de Spotify, por ejemplo, se consigue que el sonido deje de estar tan descompensado con las frecuencias más altas (medios y agudos). 3. Supongo que dependerá de cada caso, pero en mi Casco de Snowboard (OAKLEY MOD5 Mips) son incómodos: los altavoces se dejan ubicar bien en las orejeras y el cable tiene la suficiente longitud, pero cuando te pones el casco, las orejas quedan presionadas y las orejeras quedan como abiertas hacia afuera como consecuencia del espesor de los altavoces, que no es mucho, pero lo suficientemente para ser incomodo cuando te pones el casco.

Es muy ancho y no cabe en los cascos

Good sound, long lasting battery, louder then I was expecting talking on the phone thru them works well

I went to Davos for skiing last week and I am SOOOO glad I got these headphones instead of other more expensive brands. Having used these in pretty extreme skiing conditions, these did not let me down for a second. They fit into any ski helmet with audio-compatible ear pads (I tried them in a few), including my Atomic one. The sound quality is pretty damn good. Those reviewers who complain about "not enough bass", I would say you need to place them correctly in the helmet! Also, you're using these for skiing, not in a recording studio! If you want very deep bass, I suggest you buy a ghetto blaster and carry it on your back rather than go skiing! In any case, my skiing playlists include classical, death/black metal, EDM and rock, and they all sounded pretty good to me. (And yes, I know what great sounds like - I use mixing and recoding quality headphones at home.) The charging is quick (I think around an hour from flat) and gives around 10 hours of use. The bluetooth connection is 100% solid. I had these connected to my Apple Watch music app, and my watch was buried underneath my ski gloves, ski jacket and thermal layers, and not once did I lose connection for a second! This is probably the best thing I like about these headphones; they are super reliable. And the large buttons are amazing. I could stop, play, skip backwards/forwards and adjust volume without taking my gloves off. I am not sure if the manufacturer claims these are water-resistant/-proof, but from my experience, they can handle wet conditions pretty well - I used them in my woollen hat instead of my helmet one day, and it was a horrible non-stop-snow-and-wind day, and these headphones couldn't care less! The manufacturers of these headphone make a point of saying these have been designed/tested by people who actually ski. After using these last week, I believe them! I cannot fault these one bit. If you ski, forget all other headphones. Get these!

Bon système audio Bluetooth. Je l‘utilise pour le snowboard. S’adapte facilement dans mon casque anon (prévu pour pouvoir installer des écouteurs). Son correct et puissant (bien suffisant). Pas de bass trop marquées. Connection très facile et très stable avec mon IPhone 6. Après 4 heures de Snow par une température de -6 degrés la batterie annonce 75%. Très bon rapport qualité prix par rapport à la (rare) concurrence.