Best bluetooth earbuds in helmet? RIDER TomTom RIDER 550

Toronto_Paul

Greetings from Toronto.

I'm moving to TomTom from Garmin. I've always had hard wired earbuds to hear directions/listen to podcasts or audiobooks while on long distance trips.

I notice that the Rider 550 does not have an audio port so I'm on the hunt for bluetooth earbuds while I wait for it to arrive. I tried the JBL Tune 120's but they were too bulky to get inside my helmet.

Now I'm looking at the Apple Airpods or Airpods Pro as they seem slimmer. Any feedback on either of them or any other earpods that will fit in your helmet?

Cheers!

YamFazMan

I use one of these connected over Bluetooth to my Rider 400 or Rider 550 when I’m driving a noisy Self-Hire panel van
The 3mm male/male jack plug is removable and I plug in a pair of standard hard wired ear buds

You could use you're existing hard wired ear buds....


See...https://amzn.to/2WJ0IVP
________________________

Or one of these....


Here... https://amzn.to/3fDpvDn

Use the above at your own discretion all the usual disclaimers apply
ATB YFM

Toronto_Paul

You were reading my mind. All of the bluetooth buds seem quite big. Only the Airpods seem small enough that they might fit but I don't own an Apple phone.

Thanks for the tip that the 3.5mm jack can be removed to headphones can be plugged in.

From reading the forums it looks like the Rider 550 uses your phone as a media player. Does it have the media controls on screen to play/pause/volume?

Cheers!

YamFazMan

Hi
@Toronto_Paul
I use a iPhone and Spotify... (I have also used a Windows12 phone with Spotify and with my Music library stored on the phone)
_____________________

The image in the 1st link in my post....
The centre button is the power button
The outer ring is Volume up/down
Skip froward/backward through the play-list
_____________________

The image in the 2nd link in my post....
The centre button on the front face is the power button
The buttons on the edge are multi function
Press & Hold the + & - Button to increase/decrease the volume
A quick Click of the + & - Button skip froward/backward through the play-list....

At the moment I'm using the device in the 1st image as a Bluetooth link to Spotify for my Home Sound surround system... The sound quality from both bluetooth devices is excellent...

Stay Safe... ATB YFM

tiljes

How do you combine this with hearing protection?

YamFazMan

Hi
@tiljes
Do you mean set the volume level ???
You can only adjust the volume level while the Rider 4xx or 5xx is speaking an instruction....

Stay Safe... ATB YFM

tiljes

@YamFazMan Nah, I mean, if I put foam earplugs as hearing protection...how can you still use earplugs for listening to audio?

YamFazMan

Hi
@tiljes
By Ear buds....I mean....
A pair of normal in-ear headphones wired to a 3mm jack plug

Normal in-ear wired Ear-buds will reduce reduce the Panel Van noise plus there's no need to set the volume the Rider 550 to 100% to hear the driving instructions in the Van

Normal in-ear wired Ear-buds with sound cancelling would be even better

Custom in-ear wired Ear-buds... Here for example...


Stay Safe ATB YFM

tiljes

Normal in-ear ear buds don't do enough dampening for me. Also, I don't really trust active noise cancelling for hearing protection.

But those custom moulded ear buds look great! I need a pair of these.

JoelS.

for wireless, we have the jabra t75 active, they might work...i might try them, they are slim, and fit in the ear. (wife uses them more, i use the sennheiser tw2, way too big for under helmet
myself , i use a cable to my phone, and some triple driver custom in ear monitors, they work well, but the price of admission is steep, depending on the number of drivers, and desired sound quality.