So if all goes to plan I'll make the transition from Student to Instructor this year with my BMW CCA chapter and part of that will be picking up an in-car communicator to use with students. I have lots of experience with Trac-Com as a student, they generally seem reliable, durable and widely used in the club. In my old E28 though with the windows down there is a lot of wind noise and buffeting and the Trac-Com picks that up and amplifies it right into your ear which is not helpful (apparently some Cayman's are bad for this too). I even upgraded to a full face helmet to try to isolate the mic a bit but it didn't really help.
So that had me searching for something with some noise canceling built in and I found the ZeroNoise lineup which all have this. OMP is the parent brand so I reached out to them for more information but the response was lacking. The entry level Valiant model is priced about the same as the Trac-Com (no headset version) and they go up (and way up) from there to WRC level. I'll need to build some adapters for headsets but that is not a big deal.
So, to my question, does anyone (students or instructors) have first hand experience with these? How long do the batteries last? Is the noise canceling worth while? Any other suggestions along the same lines I am missing? Thanks
No direct experience with your brand there, but I've been using motorcycle intercoms for the past 5 years of instructing and I love it.
I'm using this set of FreedConn.
It's really nice not being tethered, there's no connections to start to fail like we have in with the Trac Coms in XX, and it's all Bluetooth, so if you use something like a catalyst, you can hook that up and pipe it in.
I've used this in windshield-less Miatas with no problem. I've done lead-follow, etc.
I've also smack talked with a lot of my friends :p
In reply to WonkoTheSane :
How are the headsets to setup in the students helmet? Are they holding up as they get swapped around? The price point is nice for sure.
adam525i said:
In reply to WonkoTheSane :
How are the headsets to setup in the students helmet? Are they holding up as they get swapped around? The price point is nice for sure.
Sorry, I just saw this tab and it looks like my response didn't post..
Yes, it's a bit more hassle having the two speakers to shove in the helmet as opposed to one boom mic, but it's also a lot thinner than a Trac com speaker and mic thing, which is good for me since it doesn't make my ear hurt by the end of the day like the speed/Trac com ones do.
It's also a bit annoying to find a place to slip the clip on the helmet. I'd say you need to plan a minute or two to get this set up with your student vs. 30 seconds with the speed/Trac com type setup.
These seem to hold up pretty good, though, I haven't really had any trouble that I can think of with them. And a charge will last two full days.
