Cardo Systems Scala Rider Q2 - $99 each, $169 for 2

[setasai]

Hey, found these while browsing. Scala Q2 for $99 each and $169 for 2. Those of you that have used it think it's a good deal? Don't need one at this moment but I am torn because I've heard great things about it but I've spent a ton already.

http://www.newenough.com/parts/close..._intercom.html

[Alex]

/moved to marketplace

[addy126]

Originally Posted by setasai

Hey, found these while browsing. Scala Q2 for $99 each and $169 for 2. Those of you that have used it think it's a good deal? Don't need one at this moment but I am torn because I've heard great things about it but I've spent a ton already.

http://www.newenough.com/parts/close..._intercom.html

Its a good price for either one or the pair. The pair was marketed for over 200.00 last year. They've introduced a newer model for 400.00 ish I've seen so its dropping the pricing down on the older models... I'd buy at that, I use the product and like its capability. However, warning... when the battery quits charging for good you cannot replace it yourself. Must be sent in to a Scala facility to have that done. One of mine went and I cracked open the casing. You can't buy those batteries anywhere. I just searched ebay and picked up a new one to pair with the other Scala I had.

[bob706]

That is a good deal. If I didn't already have a set (the version w/orange button) I'd be all over this.

[dubojr1]

I'm curious to know how these would be functional if everyone is wearing their hearing protection...

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by dubojr1

I'm curious to know how these would be functional if everyone is wearing their hearing protection...

Strangely, I finally started using my earplugs on my new, longer, commute and I can finally hold a telephone conversation at freeway speeds (Parrot SK4000). I wasn't wearing them before because I had enough problems hearing it already.

[setasai]

I'm surprised at how many riders dont use earplugs. I went for a short spin to the market one afternoon and thought it was close enough to leave it out, boy was I wrong. That thing even stock exhaust is loud as ever!

I havent decided to purchase the Scala's because I just bought a new pair of boots but hopefully some of you can get in on the deal.

[spooph]

awesome deal, I think i'm gonna scoop up a pair...

[s2kenny]

I wonder how these compare to the Chatterbox bluetooth.

[camaroz1985]

I have had mine for over a year now. They work great, and I use earplugs all the time. It almost seems like they are too loud without earplugs even on the lowest volume setting. I have one on my helmet all the time, and the other I transfer from my gf's helmet to my friend's when we go riding. My gf feels a lot more comfortable riding with it because she knows she can talk to me if she needs to.

They have good range, and for what they are the clarity is pretty good. They obviously aren't high fidelity speakers for you audiophiles, but work great when on long trips. The volume is low when plugged into an ipod through the aux jack, but I only do that for really long trips, and I just put a Boostaroo in series with the ipod.

For what its worth I found mine on craigslist a year ago for $160 and no one else was selling them for less than $250 at the time.

[GeneJunkie]

Originally Posted by s2kenny

I wonder how these compare to the Chatterbox bluetooth.

Ryan works for Chaparral Motorsports in the street department and sells both. His opinion is that the Scala Riders are better than the Chatterboxes that use BlueTooth (there are the ones that are based on radio that have 5+ mile range and are huge). He said that a lot of customers complain that the Chatterbox isn't loud enough to overcome wind noise, and the noise canceling doesn't work well. On the other hand he has heard that it's hard to hear over 85mph on the Scala Rider but that also depends on your helmet and the noise canceling works much better. The Scala Rider is also much more user friendly and easier to set up. He said it's a pain to pair up the Chatterbox.

Anyways we grabbed a pair, it's been a pain doing hand signals to communicate to each other while riding lol.

[sharkie308]

She pretty much got it all. I've had customers come in stating that the clarity on the Cardo systems are considerably more clear than the Chatterbox.

The units are very similar. The XBi-2 and the Q2 both have the same range. The XBI doesn't have a built in FM radio like the Q2 but you can bluetooth your music from your smartphone or 2g+ ipod touch with the XBI eliminating any need for wires.

The G4 supports A2DP format and can bluetooth music and extends your bike to bike range up to 1mile. It also features an upgradable firmware so as they beef up the abilities of the software on the unit you can update it by plugging it into the computer.


All in all I've sold maybe 1 XBI for every 10 Scala Rider units. This is mostly due to clarity and better microphones and ease of use.

[addy126]

Question on the Scala.... to circumvent using the cable attachment from the Ipod to the Scala unit do I have to purchase a Bluetooth adapter for the Ipod and then pair it with the Scala unit. The scala does not recognize the Ipod bluetooth signals. Yet I can get my Nuvee Bluetooth headphones to recognize the Ipod bluetooth. Anyone know?

[sharkie308]

Originally Posted by addy126

Question on the Scala.... to circumvent using the cable attachment from the Ipod to the Scala unit do I have to purchase a Bluetooth adapter for the Ipod and then pair it with the Scala unit. The scala does not recognize the Ipod bluetooth signals. Yet I can get my Nuvee Bluetooth headphones to recognize the Ipod bluetooth. Anyone know?

I do know. So your whole thing depends on which version of the cardo system and which ipod you are using.

Q2 scala rider can't communicate with any blue tooth device communicating with it in the A2DP format which is what blue tooth music is in.

Solution: Get an FM adapter for your Ipod and set one of your presets on the Q2 to the station that the Ipod is now transmitting to and there ya go. Wireless Ipod.


On the G4 it can accept Blue tooth music format and all you would need is an Ipod with Blue tooth already or a blue tooth adapter for a non blue tooth music device.

Anymore questions feel free to ask.

[addy126]

Great... thanx for enlightening me Ryan....heck everything else accepts the bluetooth Ipod... thats the one downside to the Scala Q2 multiset..ggrrrrr Again thanx Ryan!

[sharkie308]

Originally Posted by addy126

Great... thanx for enlightening me Ryan....heck everything else accepts the bluetooth Ipod... thats the one downside to the Scala Q2 multiset..ggrrrrr Again thanx Ryan!

Lol, Tell ya what. When I get mine which should be towards the end of the week I'll try it out. I have both an Iphone and second gen Ipod so I'll try it with both and see what it does as far as music goes. Oh yeah talked to the owner of Newenough.com today and the deal on the Q2's is Legit. It isn't the "multiset". When you buy two it is just two single units so you will have to pair them yourselves but thats it. As someone that works in the industry I can't even begin to tell you how sweet of a deal this is.

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by CZroe

Strangely, I finally started using my earplugs on my new, longer, commute and I can finally hold a telephone conversation at freeway speeds (Parrot SK4000). I wasn't wearing them before because I had enough problems hearing it already.

Well, it turns out that the Parrot SK4000 just can't overpower earplugs when listening to music, radio, or menu prompts. I can't hear the Caller ID prompts but I can hear the caller just fine. WTF?!

I started the A2DP music source (my iPhone 4) and left work today and by the time I was on the freeway I couldn't even tell it was on. Whenmy brother called, I could barely tell that he was calling and really only noticed it because I was listening intently as I tried to see if I had successfully switched to the FM radio input/source. Even then, all I could tell was that it didn't say "Radio," "Telephone," or "Bluetooth Audio," so I hit the button to answer it.

The Parrot kid can be painfully loud when off the bike and not wearing earplugs, so this will be a problem with any kit that has a lower music volume than telephone conversation volume.

[addy126]

Jet... thats the upside to the Scala units. Its tops when coming to auto switching into the different formats while in use. I looked at the Parrot yesterday and just felt that taking my attention away from the ride while operating the barmount control panel was just a bit too much re: safety. I picked up the Motorola S9-HD headset that bundled an "adapter". The pairing was so easy for both Ipod and cell phone. The sound is tremendous for the Ipod music and actually remotely controls the sound so you hear everything and then some. The HD sound is very very good and everything is nicely integrated! I love stereo sound and will be using this for the cruiser and my 1/2 helmets... will try it with my fullface on the Ninja to see it it will fit without squishing the beegeezuz out of it.... thats for another day tho.

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by addy126

Jet... thats the upside to the Scala units. Its tops when coming to auto switching into the different formats while in use. I looked at the Parrot yesterday and just felt that taking my attention away from the ride while operating the barmount control panel was just a bit too much re: safety. I picked up the Motorola S9-HD headset that bundled an "adapter". The pairing was so easy for both Ipod and cell phone. The sound is tremendous for the Ipod music and actually remotely controls the sound so you hear everything and then some. The HD sound is very very good and everything is nicely integrated! I love stereo sound and will be using this for the cruiser and my 1/2 helmets... will try it with my fullface on the Ninja to see it it will fit without squishing the beegeezuz out of it.... thats for another day tho.

The Parrot switches automatically too. Hands-free operation is actually one of its strong points with voice recognition and TTS ensures that you never have to look at anything. It switches to phone for a phone call, Bluetooth Audio as soon as an A2DP audio sink is established, switches back and resumes after a call, prioritizes and over-rides for GPS directions, etc. In that case above, I started music playback (A2DP) on my phone before leaving and I was operating the source button only because I could no longer hear it at speed and didn't need it, so I was over-riding the default behavior. If the device had paused or stopped, it would have done the same thing (switched back to "Phone" and waited silently), but either way would be manipulating something while riding if you wanted to stop it mid-playback as opposed to just letting something finish. The only way to send the AVRCP "Play/Pause/Stop" signal to the source device is to switch inputs and, if the source does not respond, it will remain on that input, which was a problem when only the iPod app would respond to Play/Pause/Stop. Apple fixed this with iOS4 but a jailbroken app called "Music Controls" fixed it before AND allowed full AVRCP "Next/Previous Track" support. iOS 4.1 finally adds NT/PT as well, but Music Controls is still useful for having things like album art on your lock screen for non-iPod music sources (Pandora Radio, for example).

The only source it doesn't auto-switch to is FM radio. Even with no Bluetooth device connected, it defaults to "Phone" (AKA "Menu") and you have to press source once to get to FM radio. The source button is the only button on the back of the unit so you don't have to feel around for it or remove your hand from the grip. Your thumb isn't involved at all.

Before full AVRCP was added in iOS 4.1, I pretty much never touched the remote while riding. Heck, the iPhone 4's Bluetooth issues have made sure that I've barely done anything since then either. Anyway, my point is that the remote isn't needed much. It announces an incoming call using Caller ID TTS and you answer them with voice commands ("Answer," "Accept," etc). Well, you can press a button on the headset or the remote if you want. The same button will prompt you to speak a name for dialing, but I would rarely place a call. I never read the online manual to see if there was a magic word for placing a call without pressing a button, but even if there isn't, NONE of the other kits have an internal phonebook with voice dialing, Text-to-Speech synthesis, and voice recognition. In fact, it synced my contacts over Bluetooth so I was able to voice dial even with my old iPhone 3G, which had no built-in voice dialing.

The Parrot's biggest drawback is that it is not an intercom. If you both have one, you have to call each other on your cellphones. At least range is excellent as long as you have cell coverage.

[addy126]

Originally Posted by CZroe

The Parrot switches automatically too. Hands-free operation is actually one of its strong points with voice recognition and TTS ensures that you never have to look at anything. It switches to phone for a phone call, Bluetooth Audio as soon as an A2DP audio sink is established, switches back and resumes after a call, prioritizes and over-rides for GPS directions, etc. In that case above, I started music playback (A2DP) on my phone before leaving and I was operating the source button only because I could no longer hear it at speed and didn't need it, so I was over-riding the default behavior. If the device had paused or stopped, it would have done the same thing (switched back to "Phone" and waited silently), but either way would be manipulating something while riding if you wanted to stop it mid-playback as opposed to just letting something finish. The only way to send the AVRCP "Play/Pause/Stop" signal to the source device is to switch inputs and, if the source does not respond, it will remain on that input, which was a problem when only the iPod app would respond to Play/Pause/Stop. Apple fixed this with iOS4 but a jailbroken app called "Music Controls" fixed it before AND allowed full AVRCP "Next/Previous Track" support. iOS 4.1 finally adds NT/PT as well, but Music Controls is still useful for having things like album art on your lock screen for non-iPod music sources (Pandora Radio, for example).

The only source it doesn't auto-switch to is FM radio. Even with no Bluetooth device connected, it defaults to "Phone" (AKA "Menu") and you have to press source once to get to FM radio. The source button is the only button on the back of the unit so you don't have to feel around for it or remove your hand from the grip. Your thumb isn't involved at all.

Before full AVRCP was added in iOS 4.1, I pretty much never touched the remote while riding. Heck, the iPhone 4's Bluetooth issues have made sure that I've barely done anything since then either. Anyway, my point is that the remote isn;t needed much. You answer incoming calls with voice commands ("Answer," "Accept," etc). Well, you can press a button on the headset or the remote if you want. The same button will prompt you to speak a name for dialing, but I would rarely place a call. I never read the online manual to see if there was a magic word for placing a call without pressing a button, but even if there isn't, NONE of the other kids have an internal phonebook with voice dialing, Text-to-Speech synthesis, and voice recognition. In fact, it synced my contacts over Bluetooth so I was able to voice dial even with my old iPhone 3G, which had no built-in voice dialing.

The Parrot's biggest drawback is that it is not an intercom. If you both have one, you have to call eachother on your cellphones. At least range is excellent as long as you have cell coverage.

Well this enlightens me more than the box jacket did! Thanx CZ I just may look into this sometime in the spring when I ride solo than when I ride with need for the Scala Multi..... thats after my prop taxes and christmas are all paid up!

[DRivero]

I just bought to sets from New Enough (seriously, who doesn't LOVE those guys?): one for me, and one for the BF as an early Hanukkah gift. How lucky is he, huh? Haven't installed them yet. I still have my BT Interphone set in. The Scala has FM radio, which my other set doesn't have. I'm stoked about that.....I miss my morning radio show while riding to work.