Snowtalk 2 - Universal Bluetooth Headset for Snow Helmets with Built-in Wireless Intercom

I am an expert blind skier. I purchased these towards the beginning of the ski season. I have tested them extensively both at high speeds, and while skiing technical terrain. They work great for both. While testing these in bowls, even on double black steepness, they can easily cover the range where a guide can see the blind skier, without the audio chopping out. I have had a few chops at the far range of what we would normally cover, but its rare and is very reliable, even at distances of 100 yards. When skiing steep shoots at Aspen Highlands, the audio never chopped out at sight ranges even when we got into the steep trees. Of course, the reviews mentioning dropouts of the audio if the users separate beyond where people can see each other don't really matter for blind skiers, because blind skiers always need to be within sight range of the guide. The system has a bit more noise than my previous system at high speeds, where the wind makes it a little more choppy than I was used to, but the radio quality of commands was still well within what I would consider safe. I never had the audio drop in any way while going fast. It was muffled a little by wind at 30mph or more, but hearing my guide was fine. The latency, though higher than any analog system by a good bit, was still sub 200 MS. This means that when right next to my guide, I hear the guide speak then I hear the guide through the mic, and the latency is high enough that I hear both. This will be disorienting for most people who aren't dealing with weird audio gear regularly. This also makes it quite annoying to hold conversations with people when near the guide. If my guide and I are separated, because we often ski powder separately taking turns, and the guide presses the button to turn off the intercom, I can press my side and bring it back up. Suepr duper useful. The system is clearly designed for listening to music while skiing as well, meaning it fits over both ears, and not just one ear like I'm used to. I would prefer a 1 ear system, and may start using the system with one ear only, tucking the other ear into my jacket. I like hearing what's around and with this system the guide is centered mono. The buttons on this system are a little annoying. Because of the previously mentioned latency, I prefer to turn off the mics during chair rides or if holding conversations. I do not like that I have to take off my gloves to operate these often, as the buttons are a little finicky. They are at least tactile, but through a helmet, knowing which button is which isn't as easy as it could be. This is a minor point because honestly solving this with gloves on might be tricky. The boot sequence is the most annoying, because you have to press and hold two relatively stiff buttons, which is very awkward with a helmet, in the cold, in adverse conditions. We have only had battery life issues once, while skiing from 9:30-3:30 one day, without turning the systems off of intercom all day. They started to fail on the last run, and the failure mode consisted of the entire audio glitching out rather than failing in some more subtle way. I knew it was failing but never got any sort of battery low notification. As it was on the last 400 yards of our last run, I turned the system off rather than trying to diagnose whether it was honestly a battery low issue, and not just a glitch of radio communication. Even on days at or below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, I was surprised to note that the radios still operated as expected. It is to be seen whether these systems maintain a good battery life when we don't ski during the summer. I would advise not storing them in any rapidly changing temperature environment, as the unstable heat environment is not good for most batteries. Skis go in the attic but radios stay in the house. Overall, these were an amazing purchase to replace the mics we had prior, which were starting to have more than just battery issues and needed replaced.

TL;DR: Works well as long as you are okay with the short range and battery life. Despite the poor range and mediocre battery life--these do the job (hence the four stars). I can guide my wife who is a complete Jerry on the slopes as long as I stay close enough so I don't need to yell. While walkie-talkies provide better range and battery, having a private, hands free, always on, call is very nice. Make sure your helmet is compatible with bluetooth headsets as some helmets do not have the slots/opening in the ear pads to hold these. My wife and I use the Snowtalks 2 with the Glade Boundary Mips helmet where the ear pads are compatible--though the pads are a bit too big so the speakers tend to move around and sometimes need adjustment. The advertised range (700m) is definitely over exaggerated. On a gloomy but otherwise dry day on a wide open groomer, I would start having intermittent connectivity issues with my wife at around 50 yards (~45m). At 100 yards (~91m) it gets pretty unreliable (potentially one of us could hear the other but not the other way around). I have not tested this with obstacles like trees where I would imagine range would be worse. The theoretical talk time is only about 6.5 hours which is a bit short if you plan to ski or snowboard a full day. I've only tested these about five hours. It would be great if I could confidently sport these the entire day without carrying an additional battery. Build quality is okay but the ergonomics are pretty bad: the control buttons are pretty much unusable once your helmet is on your head. Helmet ear pads are thick and make the buttons difficult to press--especially if you have mitts on. You need to press the both volume buttons (left side) to turn them on so you pretty much need to pull out the driver out before putting on your helmet. The plastic grilles covering the speaker drivers are also very thin and fragile. I actually cracked my right side grille when lightly pinching the ear piece to push the intercom button. Ideally there should be a controller that could mount somewhere outside of the helmet to make it a bit easier to interact with. Another potential concern with these is that the charging port doesn't have a water tight cap. You can stow it in the helmet to reduce the chance of it getting wet but it does make it a bit more annoying when you need to charge them. I got around this by 3D printing some fitted caps and leaving the charging cable dangling out so charging is easier. Also for the non-technically inclined: make sure the speaker drivers point towards your ears...My wife once turned her headset on by herself and we keep getting a bunch of feedback when we got too close. Turns out she didn't notice she put the driver back in the ear pad backwards (facing outside the helmet)...

We've been using Sena Snowtalks for probably 5 years. We use them when skiing and have found them especially great when on the mountain with our 5-yr-old. The range of the microphone is really great in open spaces and through trees, but you'll lose the connection if you go over a ridge line (even a small one). It's relatively easy to use, but sometimes it takes several tries to get the headsets to all connect correctly. The Snowtalk 2 has an external microphone that has a lot of extra noise, especially on windy days, but it can be tucked close to the helmet straps with good effect. The battery is better on Snowtalk 2 as well - doesn't make an entire 8 hour day out in the cold, but can usually manage 4-5 hours so long as it isn't super cold (less than the teens F). But the punchline is that this past season we've had 2 pairs of the Sena Snowtalks melt at the USB-C charger connection. In both instances we were using the supplied Sena cord to charge the devices. One was at home (in the States) and one was abroad (Japan). Luckily one was charging in the basement gear room with nothing flammable nearby, and the other started smoking when we were in the room and were able to recognize the issue and intervene before anything caught on fire. Photos are attached. We've started the process of trying to get Sena to acknowledge and address this safety issue, and they've seemed primarily concerned with whether the item was under warranty, not at all about the safety of their devices. So for those of you that do have or decide to purchase this device, please do be careful where you charge them and be mindful that at least some of these connections seems to be faulty enough to smoke and possibly catch fire.

Works very well on the ski slope. We have three of them and can clearly communicate with each other at all times. As a family with a 6-year-old boy, we ski close together, and the device fits perfectly inside a ski helmet. The connection is automatically reestablished if you get too far from the other devices or if objects temporarily block the signal.

Absolutely perfect! This lets 4 people talk on the slopes as if they are in a room together - everyone is on all the time and is crystal clear! Clear sound and works from hundreds of metres away. This is absolutely exceptional if you have children! Best purchase i have made in the last 10years!

mikrofonen ger väldigt dåligt ljud med den du pratar med. För att lyssna på musik fungerar den utmärkt.

Muy contento con esta compra. Es exactamente lo que buscaba: puedo oír música, hacer y recibir llamadas y manipularlo muy fácilmente sin quitarme los guantes de esquí. Se oye muy muy nítido e incluso el volumen a tope puede llegar a ser molesto de lo alto que se oye. Por ponerle un pero, se notan un poco con mi casco de esquí pero no llegan a molestar. Los recomiendo.

Werkt goed maar de barrerij duur valt zwaar tegen. Na ongeveer 2,5 uur leeg Bij muziek afspelen