I have been enjoying background music while skiing since the 2001/2 season. Back then I bought my first MP3 player in the form factor of a USB stick. Its name was Muzic Aera. The size of the storage was only 128 MB. Yes, it could hold only like a dozen songs but it was a huge step forward because the year before you simply couldn’t.
In late 2003. I purchased iRiver iHP-120. It was a hard disk based MP3 player with 1.8″ hard disk with capacity of 20 GB. Boy, could it carry a shitload of music. More than you could listen to on the slopes. Also, it had a remote control with a clamp to fix it on your jacket and one big friendly button to pause/play which you could operate even with your gloves on.
In 2007. I got my first skiing helmet with integrated Bluetooth headphones. The model was Atomic Caps Bluetooth.
Back then Bluetooth with stereo capability was not widespread so you got a special Bluetooth transmitter which was supposed to be plugged into your MP3 player via 3.5mm stereo jack. I had Palm Treo 650 and later 680 smartphones with integrated Bluetooth so I could stream my music directly into headphones.
Bluetooth headphones integrated in the helmet were Ever-E T905S. The sound was acceptable with some lack of bass. If you applied equalizer to boost the bass then membrane excursions would exceed it’s limitations thus reminding you with serious distortions that you are trying too squeeze too much out of them.
This Atomic helmet served me well until 2021. Through the years it had serious ups and downs. Headphones fell apart a couple of times. Wired connection between left and right headphone had to be rerouted. Battery became weak and had to be replaced. Safety buckle got broken. Finally the inner soft part made of plastic sponge started decaying – turning into dust. I had to say good bye to it.
I bought Smart4U SS1 and got disappointed. The bass was seriously missing. Overall reproduction was acceptable, mids and highs were clear but there was almost no bass.
Notice that the same headphones are also integrated in helmet Livall RS1 which is sold at even higher price.
While looking for my new helmet I found the page Snowboard Helmets With Bluetooth Audio which list all of the world’s helmets with headphones. While very informative as a catalog it is very obvious that authors never actually tested any model. Instead they are just listing publicly available specifications. Based on specifications alone I liked Sena Latitude S1 helmet. It is a serious and fast growing Californian company with devices that enable for intercommunication between people while skiing down slopes or riding motorcycles or whatever else.
I was lucky to find a review based on a personal experience by Max Mogren. Sena Latitude S1 Bluetooth Helmet Review
He writes: “For listening to music the integrated headphones leave quite a bit to be desired. The lack of bass is not a dealbreaker for me, as high definition headphones alone cost about as much as the Sena S1 snow helmet does. That said, I go out into the mountains to get away from the world and I would gladly trade some of the other functionality of this helmet for an improved music listening experience.”
I couldn’t agree more. I had to drop this option.
I have known about Tech Chips headphones for a couple of years. Early models were fully wired with wired connection between your music player and headphones and wires between your left and right headphones. Practicality of this solution is very questionable if you are wearing your helmet, jacket, backpack etc. Newer models Tech Chips 2.0 and Tech Chips 3.0 dropped the wire between player and headphones but the wire connecting left and right headphones remained. Finally Tech Chips Ultra are TWS – True Wireless Stereo.
How they sound? Excellent. All right, very good. I have heard better headphones and I own a couple myself. But considering the fact that these headphones don’t physically align to your ear but rather hang inside the flap at some distance from your ear the sound is as good as it gets. Headphones boast large 40mm membranes which give you both Hertz and decibels – good bass and high sound levels. So far I didn’t get them into distortion and I don’t think I can. Sound remains clear even at highest volumes that you can endure.
So now I had my perfect set of headphones. I needed some helmet to install them into. Some helmets are “audio raedy” which means that ear flaps are actually pockets into which you slide in your headphones. Obviously they are not very popular and I never saw any such helmet in any shop. I had to order blindly over the Internet.
First I purchased Salomon QST Charge. I ordered it online anticipating that XL size will be enough. Well, it wasn’t. The shape of my head is not up to Salomon’s expectations. No go. It is still lying around unused. (Correction: my wife inherited it.)
I got an excellent Ebay deal on Smith Code MIPS Matte Alder and now I’m fully satisfied.
Enjoying the sunniest week in Les 3 Vallées and listening to Vladimir Platine – Destiny and BAAL – Cashmere [Nølah Remix] and Jos & Eli – Flashes feat. Ellie Ka.
From time to time you want to stop and resume playback or adjust the volume. It is not very easy taking off your glove, unzipping a pocket and fishing your smartphone out of it. All the abovementioned heaphones have a few buttons which are not always easy to operate with your gloves on.
This device is a Bluetooth multimedia remote control which you can hang around your neck. The importance for me is best described by the fact that I have the main remote and the spare one.
If your source of music is Android smartphone then I suggest you install Media Volume Control. This app will adjust volume in accordance with your current velocity so you can have different volume settings for queuing in line and chatting, for riding a lift and for skiing downhill. It was built for some previous version of Android so you will have to disable Battery saver option for it.
