Helmet audio systems are sometimes a little controversial. Some folks dig riding while listening to their favorite tunes, podcasts, or audio books. Some folks want to be able to chat with their pillion or with others in their riding group. And others want nothing between the sound of the wind, the engine, and their thoughts.
I’ve always preferred having tunes on in the background – from growing up and listening to the Sisters of Mercy or The Cure while doing my homework to aimlessly driving around listening to the Stone Roses or The Alarm. Listening to music while riding my bike was just natural. Besides, my thoughts truly aren’t that interesting. I’ve gone through a lot of sound options – earbuds and an iPod, earbuds and an iPhone, and more recently my current Sena bluetooth system. I thought my Sena was the absolute bees knees until I got a chance to test out Cardo Systems’ new bluetooth PackTalk system, created in partnership with JBL, at AimExpo 2018. We had a chance to interview Dan Emodi, VP of Marketing for Cardo and Bruce Ryan, Engineering Manager for JBL (read my husband’s interview at onlytwowheels.com for all sorts of great info about the Cardo-JBL partnership and what that means for helmet audio) to learn a lot more about their new system, which should be available for purchase in early 2019.
I got to test out the voice commands with music. If you’re an iPhone user, you’re probably used to saying “Hey Siri” to initiate your conversation. Cardo used the same introductory phrasing – to start playing the music on my headset, all I had to do was say “Hey Cardo, music on”. I was ready for Cardo to respond by saying “I didn’t understand that” – that’s usually what happens when I try to talk to Siri. Instead, much to my surprise, the music came on. Immediately. No questions asked. It was a little quiet, so I tried “Hey Cardo volume up” and the volume turned up a notch. Again, totally seamless with no hesitation. It’s really clear that the engineers at Cardo spent a lot of time to get both male and female voice recognition down pat. While I was playing with my headset, my husband, standing right next to me, was having his own fun. At no point did he trigger my system to do something he wanted his to do, and vice-versa. Super cool!
Because I normally sync my phone and listen to playlists, I asked the natural question. What if you’re having a great time and then your phone picks a track you really don’t want to listen to? No problem – you can tell the system “Hey Cardo, next track” and skip that song you’ve heard thousands of time. The other challenge I have is that sometimes, that track you’re absolutely digging (for me, currently that’s pretty much all of Ezra Furman’s latest album, Transangelic Exodus) has vocals that are just a little quiet, especially against the backdrop of road noise. Here’s where JBL has really come to save the day – you can boost either the bass track or the vocal track for an optimal audio experience. So cool.
Of course, we were testing all these features out in a non-riding, fairly optimal experience. But according to both Dan and Bruce, they’ve done extensive testing to accommodate wind and traffic noise. I’m really looking forward to trying that out once I get my hands on my own PackTalk system.
I’m really excited about having a helmet audio system that doesn’t require a remote and that has voice commands that actually work. My current setup does have a remote, which is nice but it’s also incredibly fiddly – if I need to turn the volume down in a hurry, I really can’t do that. Plus, the non-remote controls rest inside my helmet. If I’ve got my visor down, the volume buttons are inaccessible. The new Cardo PackTalk system takes all of that inconvenience completely away. Even better (although not helpful for me since my current bluetooth system isn’t a Cardo), if you’ve got their current model, they’ll be releasing new JBL speakers and firmware updates shortly after their new PackTalk system launches, so you won’t be left in the audio dust. How’s that for inclusivity? I’m really looking forward to testing out all these features in the wild, and I’ll be sure to do an updated review once I’ve had the chance to live with it and get to know it better.
In the meantime, to further whet your appetite, check out their introductory video.
The new PackTalk will have Dynamic Mesh Communications, Natural One-Step Voice Commands, the system is waterproof (of prime importance here in the PNW!) and dustproof, and thanks to the partnership with JBL, has an incredible sound experience. Oh, and it’ll also incorporate FM radio and allow you to take phone calls using the previously-mentioned voice operation (if you’re into that sort of thing while you’re riding…). And of course, there’s an app for it. Stay tuned for a road test sometime in 2019, once I get my own.