What's the word on the Autocom Active-PLUS DUO?

Shawn K

Shawn K

Professional Cat Confuser
Joined
Oct 11, 2008
Messages
855
Location
Boiling Springs, SC
Bike
GL1800
It's new intercom time. The wife and I are going on a much belated honeymoon in June, and we both want to stop yelling at each other while riding.

Numerous searches on intercoms had me narrowing down my choices to Starcomm or Autocom units. I don't want anything wireless... just more batteries to charge.

I don't care about cell phone connectivity or GPS or radar detectors or any other junk. All I want to do is plug in the MP3 player, hear my wife clearly, and MAYBE set up bike-to-bike someday.

I found a US retailer who has some sort of Autocom blowout going on, and has Active-PLUS DUO systems set up for rider and passenger. According to the retailer, the setup includes:

? Active-PLUS Control Unit (1003)
? 2x Universal (Type A) Headset with Universal Boom (1153)
? 2x Headset Extension Lead ? Straight (1179),
? Battery Pigtail (9V-PT)
? Power Cable (1536)
? Portable Stereo Lead 58"/1.5m (1307)
? Standard Cellular Phone Interface 58"/1.5m (1240)
? Universal Fitting Accessory Kit (1528)
? Installation and Usage Manual

... for the low, low price of $269.99.

We both wear HJC modular helmets.

So my questions are...

* Is this headset type compatible with modular helmets? (Autocom's UK site doesn't have active links to anything at the moment)
* Is the Active-PLUS series a decent product? (i.e., why is this a blowout sale? Is Autocom discontinuing support?)
* Is this a decent price?
* Do y'all think it's a good choice for my desired usage?
 
Autocom is coming out soon with a new line of units more geared towards wireless. See them at autocom.co.uk.

This is why they are blowing out the old ones. I am partial to the superpro avi especially if you are riding alot with a passenger. The automatic volume and vox control via outside noise sensor is a great feature.

In regards to the new units it looks like the main difference is that they separated the vox control for rider and passenger. Also they are providing at the highest line a remote control. I am sure that for a while the new units will not be discounted.



Gary
:04biker:
 
I tried the link you gave me, but it appears they're sold out. Oh well...

Sounds like this system will work just fine. Thanks for the input guys. :p:
 
Just got my Active-PLUS DUO system in the mail yesterday. I'm already impressed by the manual's thoroughness and clarity. I think I'll be pleased with the results.

After we buy my wife a new helmet (maybe this weekend), I'll be installing and fine-tuning everything. After we try it out, I'll let you know how it went.
 
Well, so far I'm impressed with the overall sound quality (on the bench, at least), but I ran into a snag that I hadn't expected, and now I need to figure out what I'm going to do about it.

I wear a Sy-Max 2, and it has a little pouch in the ear pads that I thought would be the perfect place to put the headset speakers. Turns out I was wrong...

I put the speakers in, plugged in my MP3 player, and put on some tunes ("September" by Earth, Wind, and Fire... gotta get in proper Happy Riding Mood). Put my helmet on and ... nothing. What the heck?

Checked the MP3 player. Yup, it's working. Plugged in a different set of headphones without the helmet... works fine. Plugged the helmet back in and put it on... nothing.

Now I'm getting irritated. I turned the volume up as loud as it would go, and I very faintly heard the chorus ("Ba de ya, say do you remember..."). Now I'm really confused.

I stuck my finger up in the helmet to find out where the speaker was. It was in the pouch like it's supposed to be. The only problem is (and this is the part I never noticed), that pouch is way the heck at the top portion of my ear. The little star on the speaker was right in line with the outside of my earlobe. In order to get the speaker in line with my ear, I have to take it out of the pouch and put it right over the base of the chin strap (where it passes through the cheek pad).

It's not like I have some freakishly misshapen head. An HJC rep even helped me find the size of Sy-Max 2 that I needed. I've never had a moment of discomfort with that helmet. It's just that the stupid pouch puts the speaker clear outside of my earlobe.

If I have to mount the speaker on the outside of the cheek pad, then so be it. I just hate having it look so gauche.

Has anyone else run into a problem like this with their helmet?
 
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Sounds like a nice system Shawn. I am about 99.9% sure I will be getting the same unit.

Going to swing by the local BMW dealer and see if they price match offers from autocom's web-site.

I have a Shoei and, my wife has a ScorpionExo.
 
It is really important that the speaker is in line with your ear, and the closer the better. I guess I was lucky both my Exo and the wifes nolan had the pockets in the right place..
 
Yeah, I learned that one. I'm just going to have to figure out a way to hold that speaker in place since the pouch won't work.
 
Shawn, remove the cheek pads from your helmet, find out where the center of your ear is and marks it on the inside of yur helmet on each side.

I sometimes have to melt away some of the inner styrofoam to allow the speaker to be recessed so it does not hurt your ear. If you cannot do it this way cut a slit in the cheek pad which will allow the speaker to move down while still not putting pressure on your ear. Kieth call me to discuss

918-446-2245
 
Thought I'd give a little follow-up on the install.

The pockets inside the helmet are useless for placing speakers. It puts the center of the speaker outside my earlobe. Needless to say, that wouldn't work unless I had my ears surgically relocated to about 1/2" away from the top of my head.

It turns out that if I shove the speaker down in the corner of the cheek pad, the centerline of the driver matches up perfectly with the center of my ear. That pretty much set the location.

After some trial fitting, I found that I needed some 1/4" foam backing to place the speaker up close to my ears, otherwise there's an air gap that ruins fidelity. To make it all work, I had to put the chin strap behind the cheek pad (normally, it's between the pad and my cheek), and then hot glue the foam backing in the proper place inside the hole of the cheek pad. As it turns out, the Velcro backing of the speaker seems to grip the foam backing pretty well. If it ends up not doing well in the long term, I can use some additional Velcro to attach the speaker to the pad. We'll see how it goes.

Once I got the speakers stuck in place, the rest of the wiring was academic. Rather than mounting the microphone to the chin bar, I opted to leave it free-floating so that I can raise the chin bar and still have a working mic. (The helmet is a Sy-Max 2 with the stickers removed.) I tacked it with just a little bit of hot glue behind the cheek pad, since it actually sits quite well as it is, and leaves me a little wiggle room to fine tune the mic placement.

So far, so good. I connected my MP3 player, and it sounds pretty good... better than my Sony headphones, in fact. I sat on the couch for a half hour listening to music with my helmet on. My wife thinks I'm more than just a little strange...

We'll see how well the install holds up over time. It definitely requires learning a new helmet donning routine, since now my earlobes get folded over because of the speaker. Oh well. It's the price of communication.

Next stop: Good earplugs. Any recommendations? Something low-profile that won't break my wallet?
 

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In cases like this I cut a slit in the cheek pad and slip the speaker down in it like a pouch. it will be comfortable and you will be able to hear it. Kieth

ps do not feel alone I run into this all the time not everyones ears are in the same place in relation to the top of their head, I have learned to have a person take the cheek pads out then put the helmet on and we mark the center of their ears on the inside of the helmet. It gets them in the correct place even though it is not where the helmet mfg thought they should be. Kieth
 
Has anyone considered sewing the speakers / mic into a thin under-helmet balaclava instead of the helmet itself? I bet you could find a thin balaclava, sew in suitable pockets, and be happy as larry. No worries getting the position right, you can pull all the wiring out to wash the balaclava, you can take it from helmet to helmet, you don't have to worry about getting your ears folded down putting the helmet on (I always find this irritating with my big lugs!)

The only downside I can think of is wearing a balaclava in hot weather, but if it's thin enough, or maybe ventilated, that should only be an issue in really hot weather...

Cheers & God bless
Sam "SammyTheSnake" Penny
 
Interesting idea, but I wonder if that would make it hard to put the helmet on? Rather than having speakers inside of pockets in the helmet, you'd have speakers effectively making your head wider, which means you have that much more to pull your helmet around.
 
Not a bad idea. My wife has a CL-Max. Maybe I'll experiment with hers first. ;)

Knock on wood, my install's been holding up. I'm not going to look for problems until I actually have one.

Measure twice, cut once? I always thought it was "Measure once, cut twice". Maybe that's why nothing in my house sits square.
 
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