Helmet speaker upgrade

I couldn't take the piss poor quality of the helmet speakers that came with the Starcom so I did a little speakerectomy to remedy the situation.

I bought a pair of Koss Pro35 headphones at RadioShack, which just so happened to be on sale for 1/2 price at $19.95.



I then just popped them off the headband.....



Snapped the backs off them until I just had the speakers....



You can see the difference in size from the Starcom.



Chopped the Starcom speakers off and soldered the new ones on....



They fit great. They had a very small nub of plastic on the back of them so rather than breaking it off I just took the soldering iron and burned a small hole in the foam inside the helmet for them to recess into. A little dab of hot glue and they are good to go.



The sound is 100% better. Probably the best $20.00 spent in a long time. The Koss headphones have an inline slide volume control on them so when I change them out on Michelles helmet I will leave that on so she can tone down the Led Zep (or me for that matter) whenever she wants to...

Kool deal! Is that wire a single conductor thing? Hard to tell from the pics...

Nice...

Are you using those with ear plugs?

toecutter said:

Kool deal! Is that wire a single conductor thing? Hard to tell from the pics...

Click to expand...

Toe,

Yes it had a single insulated wire with some copper strand following along side of it. I just made sure I soldered each speaker the same way, coated them with a little Starbrite liquid electrical tape and then put some heat shrink tubing over the splice (you know, the belt and suspenders/two condom method).

No, renegade, I have never been able to wear earplugs. I just find them much to uncomfortable after a couple of hours. (Here comes the "beats being deaf" responses.)

TheAxeman said:

No, renegade, I have never been able to wear earplugs. I just find them much to uncomfortable after a couple of hours. (Here comes the "beats being deaf" responses.)

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+1 And still hearing just fine.

radman said:

TheAxeman said:

No, renegade, I have never been able to wear earplugs. I just find them much to uncomfortable after a couple of hours. (Here comes the "beats being deaf" responses.)

Click to expand...

+1 And still hearing just fine.

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Whats that? Whutjasay? :blink:

TheAxeman said:

No, renegade, I have never been able to wear earplugs. I just find them much to uncomfortable after a couple of hours. (Here comes the "beats being deaf" responses.)

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I don't wear them as often as I *should*... For me they change the *tone* of the wistling air to one that bothers the hell out of me on long rides.

I kinda did the same thing. I bought a pair of sony desktop speakers made for walkman, mp3's. Cost $10. Disassembled, glued, done.

Scab said:

I kinda did the same thing. I bought a pair of sony desktop speakers made for walkman, mp3's. Cost $10. Disassembled, glued, done.

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I did the same thing except instead of cuting the wire I unsoldered it at the speaker. This was easier to work with than splicing the fine wires away from the speaker.

Lerdog said:

I did the same thing except instead of cuting the wire I unsoldered it at the speaker. This was easier to work with than splicing the fine wires away from the speaker.

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In retrospect that probably makes more sense....eliminates one more spot that may cause a problem later on. I tried splicing the slide volume control into the speakers on Michelles helmet but couldn't get it to work for some reason. Just ended up with alot of static over the music. Still can't figure out why that shouldnt work. The control is small enough that it would mount easily onto the side of the helmet for those of you more electrically adept.

TheAxeman said:

Lerdog said:

I did the same thing except instead of cuting the wire I unsoldered it at the speaker. This was easier to work with than splicing the fine wires away from the speaker.

Click to expand...

In retrospect that probably makes more sense....eliminates one more spot that may cause a problem later on. I tried splicing the slide volume control into the speakers on Michelles helmet but couldn't get it to work for some reason. Just ended up with alot of static over the music. Still can't figure out why that shouldnt work. The control is small enough that it would mount easily onto the side of the helmet for those of you more electrically adept.

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Don't ask me how I know that connecting at the speaker is easier than splicing the wires...

Interesting. I may be conducting a similar operation on my autocom speakers.

TalioGladius said:

Interesting. I may be conducting a similar operation on my autocom speakers.

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I have exchanged my Autocom helmet speakers a long time ago.

I bougth a quality Philips neckband headphone and took the speakers out and installed them instead of the standard Autocom speakers. A world of difference in sound quality. Realy worth it.

h34r: Flere.

I did something fairly similar to your speakerectomy when I put speakers in my helmet. I had an old pair of Sony Digital Monitor headphones. They were old... the speaker foam was crappy and all... but the sound in them was excellent. I stripped the speakers from the headphone body (a big plus is there was only 1 lead coming out of the left to deal with). I took them to an electronics tech friend & she shortened the wire, added a quick connect where the wire exits my helmet to go to my MP3 & I was good to go.

I'm very happy with this setup and definitely encourage anyone to do similar if they're not happy with their current setup.

+1 on this idea.

I use MotoComm headsets in both my helmets since they are easy to integrate with my home-built com system.

I swap in good headphone speakers first thing.

Flere-Imsaho said:

TalioGladius said:

Interesting. I may be conducting a similar operation on my autocom speakers.

Click to expand...

I have exchanged my Autocom helmet speakers a long time ago... A world of difference in sound quality. Realy worth it. h34r: Flere.

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Just finished up my Autocom speaker upgrade to the Koss $20 Radio Shack specials today. unk: My helmet rocks!
My question: WTF? I mean, why does one of the premier M/C intercom setups need to be upgraded? My $150.00 MotoComm, O.K. I expect low quality with low price. But the $600.00 Softline wasn't any better sounding than the Autocom before I changed the speakers either. I would gladly pay an extra $20 to get this kind of sound quality out of any system.

Hey big thanks to The Axeman for pioneering and documenting this farkle of a farkle, Lerdog for the idea of soldering straight to the speakers (what I did too) and Flere for confirmation that the Autocom could be improved by a speaker upgrade.

[SIZE=18pt]This Place is Great!!![/SIZE]

- Dan Akroyd, in Ghostbusters

radman said:

TheAxeman said:

No, renegade, I have never been able to wear earplugs. I just find them much to uncomfortable after a couple of hours. (Here comes the "beats being deaf" responses.)

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+1 And still hearing just fine.

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Well, just wait as it's an accumulated effect! I'm 65 and am doing good to hear the call to supper. You need to figure out what your ears like as protection and wear it!........my $0.02 worth!

jim

PS: Rad, we're excited about the possibility of having you ride thru the are!

You might want to add the boosteroo or something similiar, world of difference with this farkle too...

...Know this was an old Thread.

However, thanks to the contributors. I was about to start a question thread about speakers vs. earbuds. Tired of struggling with earbuds and setting up, everytiime I ride, and also the inevitable accidental wire pull where the bud dislodges and becomes uncomfortable and a distraction.

Did a google search, and whalah!

So, got my answer, headphone speakers mod works just dandy in lieu of earplugs and earbuds. Must say, don't wear earplugs at all, so anxious to do this mod tonight on the new gmax helmet.

Thanks again.