Race Radios - School Me - Music Quality

wesinls

wesinls

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I ride with headphones - always...I like music when I'm driving...relaxes me, etc. I also like that it muffles the sound a bit, but not enough that I can't hear the engine.

Every year I walk buy the PCI and Rugged booths at the SSSS and think about pulling the trigger - allowing me to have the best of both worlds - music, plus car-to-car communication. But, what I won't stand for is a loss in music quality...I like my music loud and I like bass.

What's the best option?
Rugged has the alpha bass and PCI has the Bose A30 - those look to be the two best options? Or are there others?

Also - can you talk to people from both manufacturers regardless of which one you have? i.e. can PCI talk to Rugged and vice versa.

This will be for a sand car FWIW.
 
NEITHER will give you any good base. Both systems are still a communication radio not a stereo quality listening device. I was a Rugged Radio for years and finally stepped up to top of the line PCI Trax and i was very disappointed in the quality of the sound in the helmet speakers. The extra grand at PCI didn't get me anything different in sound than the cheaper Rugged stuff. Now the PCI quality is 2x better than the RR equipment though.

You would think with todays technology someone would reinvent the wheel for the non racer community who want music quality first and communication second.
 
wesinls said:
Also - can you talk to people from both manufacturers regardless of which one you have? i.e. can PCI talk to Rugged and vice versa.
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Yes, these work on radio frequencies so as long as you are on the same frequency, you can talk car to car.

I can't speak much on sound quality though. I run the headsets being in a sand car and they sound okay. My wife likes the music while driving, but we don't crank it up loud.
 
I have the PCI system. MDD said it best...communication is first and music quality is second (at best). I have lowered my expectations.
 
I have the pci trax system in a rzr turbo r with wired helmets. The stereo speakers are better than the other intercoms but not as good as a good set of headphones. I haven't tried with a good quality headset. Overall though I am happy with it and it works really well integrating with the polaris ride command switching between helmet or rzr speakers.
 
Do any race radios work with earbuds (Bluetooth)?

I have some Samsung Pro, noise cancelling, ear buds. They make life pretty quiet riding my Harley.
 
Ive had PCI and Rugged. PCI was better quality and seemed to work better. The music was alright even with the upgraded speakers. Both companies work alright for music but nothing to write home about.
 
I have the Rugged alpha boost. They absolutely are better music quality than std headsets.
The bass hits decently well, as in you feel it. Charge typically lasts per day, plug in and charge at night. If it dies you just lose the bass and have regular headset.
 
I think you should try them both, out, the music is sub par, after having a sandcar with headsets for 19 years now, i find myself not wearing them, i keep one for the radio, but basically use a cell phone if i really need something,
I dont know if anything will beat a normal sound system,
 
Deviantduner said:
I have the Rugged alpha boost. They absolutely are better music quality than std headsets.
The bass hits decently well, as in you feel it. Charge typically lasts per day, plug in and charge at night. If it dies you just lose the bass and have regular headset.
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thats been my experience too just from testing all headsets here in the store - you need the STX intercom and hard wired input has a better range than BT does by a lot. But we are not talking a Class A amp in the Intercom, its way underpowered to get a full dynamic range I have not tried the new PCI Bose.
None even match the cheapest Music headphones IMO both they do great at voices - which is the primatt purpose. PCI even just introduced new helment speakers - way better voice - music -not so much
 
We dune too hard to listen to music through the headsets. We rely on the car 2 car communications to keep everyone in the line and shiny side up. Besides that my spouse is the best navigator and always has her eyes on things I don't necessarily see when driving hard so shes on the mic frequently. But with that said, I wish those in neighboring camps would listen to their boomba through headsets.:LOL:
 
Thought I'd post what I ending up going with...

Rugged as compared to PCI seemed to make the most effort to focus on music quality - their advertising, YouTube video's, etc...so I went with them.

After talking with Rugged I went with their M1 Radio, STX high fidelity intercom, and alpha bass headset...the music quality is good as long as i don't max out the volume on my phone...if it's maxed out it starts to distort a bit. The bass is more like a vibration. but it's a nice to have feature, but even without the bass turned on they sound good.

Playing with the RT systems software has been fun too...learned a lot in the last week.
 
Had the PCI Trax "stereo" (5 pin vice 4 pin) in the last car and used headsets as well as several different helmets. I had the helmets rewired and even had them change the speakers to a different impedance value chasing volume... let alone sound quality. No matter what system you go with, if using a helmet and even expect to communicate effectively I'd spend the big bucks and get one of the more expensive racing helmets with cups inside. I also would not waste the time and money again on Trax.
Currently in the market for two complete 4 seats systems... one for a sand car and one for a MavR. I'm 99.999% going Rugged.
BTW, for music and sound quality it's almost exclusively the intercom portion of the setup that provides that. For the most part, the radio really doesn't matter if it's a 30 year old Icom out of a John Deere combine or a brand new M1... other than waterproofing and whatnot, a radio is a radio is a radio.
 
I just moved from a Rugged 696 Plus to a PCI Elite with Bluetooth intercom. At the same time, I had my helmet speakers (2 year old PCI) upgraded to the new G2 speakers. The sound quality seems noticeably better to me.
 
I don't think that anyone that has ever had an intercom/radio setup, regardless of brand or bells and whistles, would ever say that the sound quality is superior to a $100 JBL bluetooth speaker. They do allow you to listen to music while also communicating with passengers (intercom) or other cars (radio)... but if sound quality and music is the actual reason you'd be better off buying a chinese Kemimoto system off of Amazon over an intercom/radio setup.
 
HozayKwarvo said:
I don't think that anyone that has ever had an intercom/radio setup, regardless of brand or bells and whistles, would ever say that the sound quality is superior to a $100 JBL bluetooth speaker. They do allow you to listen to music while also communicating with passengers (intercom) or other cars (radio)... but if sound quality and music is the actual reason you'd be better off buying a chinese Kemimoto system off of Amazon over an intercom/radio setup.
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Even the new system sounds like crap with music compared to a real set of headphones, of course. That said, it's my best option for having some music when travelling at speed with a helmet on. A bluetooth speaker wouldn't work for us when ripping through the dunes. Also, the intercom is totally adequate for speaking with passengers, no complaints with that part. The music quality is just limited because the speakers aren't sealed to your ears and because they are optimized for speech, not music.
 
kazuaki said:
Even the new system sounds like crap with music compared to a real set of headphones, of course. That said, it's my best option for having some music when travelling at speed with a helmet on. A bluetooth speaker wouldn't work for us when ripping through the dunes. Also, the intercom is totally adequate for speaking with passengers, no complaints with that part. The music quality is just limited because the speakers aren't sealed to your ears and because they are optimized for speech, not music.
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100% and totally agree. The only bluetooth speakers that work at speed for me are when I toss my pair of JBL Party Box 310s in the back seats :ROFLMAO: ...but if music was my only purpose I'd drop 3k on a stage 3 kit before I dropped 3k on a radio/intercom setup. I'm about to get into two new intercom/radio setups and I'm not happy about it... but need to the comms.
 
I just had the PCI Elite, with BlueTooth DSP Plus, and the Kenwood NX-1700 installed.
Going from a handheld Rugged radio with helmet kit and listening to the voices in my head to actually listening to music and being able to hear my buddy's on an intercom and when they can't actually hear me clearly was a game-changer...LOL
I'm not looking for Car show quality sound, but I will say this thing sounds great!

db
 
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