headphones/tunes in your helmet

I purchased a set of skull candy titans this winter with a gift card at TARGET ($35 - ish) for riding. there is a lot of differeing opinion on listening to music while riding, but that aside, these went on the maiden voyage last sunday. I rode approximately 50 miles of various paved and gravel surfaces from kalispell to bigfork, mt and back.

My initial opinion is favorable. They came with three sets of rubber earpieces, and using the smallest, I am able to nest them into my ear fairly deeply to allow for helmet installation on my head without too much movement. I did knock them out once when putting on the helmet, but I think I pulled the cord as much as anything. I then set the volume to a comfortable level prior to starting the bike. I was suprised to find that that level was easily sufficient to hear my tunes while riding. At speeds up to 65 (down a hill on the highway) with an open face mx helmet and goggles, I could actually say there was less wind noise than with the cheap earplugs I was using before.

They also have a volume control in the cable which may be helpful at times, but it would be tough to adjust with gloves on.

Anyway this is probably not much of gear or equipment review, but if you are in the market and don't want to spend the big bucks for a set of isolating earplugs that still sound like junk.... check em out. -killstrees

Skull Candies have decent sound, but they have a higher profile then others. Meaning they stick out of the ear a little too much. Also if they aren't positioned right the rubber/silicone ear piece sometimes make squeaking noises as it rubs.

IMHO it is encouraged to wear earplugs, but acceptable to wear earbuds and listen to music while riding at higher speeds on pavement. Once we get to the trails/dirt roads and the like we take them out.

I've been using the Etymotic ER6i earbuds while commuting for years. They are a little spendier (~$80), but work very nicely under the helmet and cut out a lot of road noise.

While we are on the subject, does anyone know the proper impedance for headphones for a Garmin Zumo? I can't find the info anywhere, not from Garmin, not from the Zumo forum, not from Google.

yeah, I think those etymotic's are supposed to be it. these titans are at least good/viable alternative in my opinion. they fit right in the ear and helmet and don't touch anything or move as far as I can tell, but it may be my personal skull geometry. The $20 skull candy models looked like they would stick out more.

impedance has never been a problem for me....

killstrees wrote:

impedance has never been a problem for me....

If it ever becomes so, they say meditation helps. Just assume the Lotus Position, and chant: Ohm... ohm...

You can run any impedance above 8 ohms. The higher the ohms the less current it will draw. The most useful number the the db rating. Find the headphone with the highest db per milliwatt. The one with the higher number will sound louder at the same volume.

mrmagoolin wrote:

You can run any impedance above 8 ohms. The higher the ohms the less current it will draw. The most useful number the the db rating. Find the headphone with the highest db per milliwatt. The one with the higher number will sound louder at the same volume.

Thanks, all I have seen are 16 and 32, so I guess I am safe. I just didn't want to burn up anything by going too low (Yes, I learned about that the hard way. )