Intercom advice sought

[Frogman]

Morning All,

My car is in with CC for some electrical work and I have been thinking that with a European extended blat imminent I should consider whether to fit an intercom if I am still to have a wife at the end of 3 weeks. I am also concerned about my hearing protection, I usually wear ear plugs when driving.

I have had a trawl through some of the archives and Starcom Advance comes out well as a contender but others speak of hideous wiring requirements. That being the case getting the chaps to fit it at CC would make sense as I am not particularly good with electrickery. Some have mentioned Peltor as a good option but it doesn't have some of the additional functionality of Starcom, Bluetooth modules and phone capability.

Almost all seem to be aimed at motorsport rather than road use and I am curious to know if anyone uses any intercom system with in ear noise canceling headphones. Obviously these are designed for predominantly audio use and the mike will not be optimised for the required use. Either way I am keen to avoid wearing a Peltor style headset on a 10 hour run down to St Moritz.

I have also seen a Chatterbox, battery powered system that is considerably cheaper at £60 and might be worth a shot and accept that it might not be ideal but an 80% solution may be adequate.

Anyone with any experience in this or advice they care to chip in I would be most grateful for their opinions. Over to you.

[DJ.]

If you decide on Starcom, I would suggest spending more to get the Digital versdion, because this is good at eliminating wind noise from the microphone.

I modified Peltor ear defenders by adding open face Starcom headsets, but other don't use full headsets. I believe Ian B has an in ear solution that works well. There are some good threads on here with more information

[EEK]

Depending on how you plan to get to St Moritz don't overlook that, in according the law, use of headsets in France is illegal.  Now it's France and the theory of the law and the practical application are at times Mars and Venus. But anything that avoids drawing too much attention might be appropriate.

Crash helmets would hide most things! 

[Frogman]

Thanks for the info and thanks Eek for the advice on the French Rozzers, sadly my French is not good enough to explain it is about hearing protection rather than musical isolation from the driving environment.

Having had a further dig around on the Starcom website I did find that they have an in ear system with a boom mike that looks like it will do the job nicely as it then has a properly designed mike for the purpose. I agree that the digital noise canceling is worth paying for as I swear by the use of my in ear noise canceling headphones in any noisy and distracting environment.

I have to say that their website is not the best but then it is their intercom capability I am after, not their web design.

 

 

[Garth]

If you go the Starcom route I have one in my car which I am planning to remove as I do not use it - digital version with two bluetooth modues and two headsets etc. Was installed by Cartronics about 5 years ago and I used it for one trip - since then have tended to be in the car on my own!  Happy to see the Starcom go for about £100 - where are you based?

[Luegonigel]

Hi, I had the same problem in Northern Spain, the police asked us to remove the headsets.

We went through the iterations with the Starcom Digital of throat mic, boom mics and finally headsets. The headsets do what they say on the tin and I find them ok for a full days driving.

The boom mics wobble about too much to get consistent volume from both parties. The in ear bit I found was poor quality.

The throat mic was good where your neck is a reasonable size and it stays in place. If you or your good lady has a small neck, it doesn’t stay in the right place to get consistent volume or quality.

I bought the combined headset and mic from Starcom and it worked fine. It cost me a bit to go through the learning exercise but I was able to sell the unsuccessful (for us) bits on here so not too bad,

 

 

[Expat]

Thanks to energetic protests from the motorcycle community intercoms are now tolerated in France, but they must be fixed.

A self tapper should suffice!

Note there is nothing to stop you feeding  music or other distractions into the system either.

[diggerman]

Have had a Starcom set up with headphones and boom mics for eight years now.  Sound quality is great, they are comfortable and the wife is happy. Have used them extensively in France and Spain without problem. I fitted everything myself, including bulkhead plugs, it was relatively straight forward.

[diggerman]

Have had a Starcom set up with headphones and boom mics for eight years now.  Sound quality is great, they are comfortable and the wife is happy. Have used them extensively in France and Spain without problem. I fitted everything myself, including bulkhead plugs, it was relatively straight forward.

[Frogman]

All good and useful info thanks all. I bought a Starcom Advance system and blue tooth module from Starcom this morning, so sorry Garth. I needed to get one today to get it sent to CC who will be fitting whilst they resolve my fuse box meltdown under warranty. It made sense to me for them to fit it given the circumstances.

Sadly Starcom are out of the in ear and boom mike variant and if I keep the windows in on the 21 hopefully the buffeting won't be too bad and it won't be a problem. I didn't know they did a throat mike though and I shall look into that. It is a real shame that no one does a bone phone system that uses bone conduction for transmission and reception, it allows for the use of ear plugs to protect the delicate bits from the wind noise.

 

[SLR 11]

Hi Garth - I am interested in your starcom... Pm sent.