So "Santa" brought my new helmet and goggles yesterday. Today I got my first chance to start "playing" with my new toys while hanging around in the house. I'm not going to cover the SP Switcher helmet in this post; including info about getting the XSound3 audio speakers installed in the earpads. This will be strictly about the audio system itself and its interface with the helmet to achieve high quality audio performance.
The XSound3 instructions specifically state that your goal in the installation is to get the drivers as close as possible to your ears; ideally resting directly on them. They include a padding "system" to help ensure this type of fit. Unfortunately the SP Switcher helmet earpads have a "hollow" area for your ears which puts the audio speakers further away from your ears. To add insult to injury, the very bottom of the earpads press hard into my cheek bones while the main earpad section over my ears is pushed away. So I installed all of the pads included with the drivers to try to push them closer to my ears. This didn't fully succeed, but did help in moving them closer.
I'm going to try to find a way to reshape the helmet's earpads to move the drivers closer.
(update: pushing in on the top of the earpads while pulling out on the bottom causes them to "buckle" in a manner that changes the profile of the earpads and results in a much better coupling to my ears. Will have to see if this "sticks" during helmet usage over time).
Note that I found that by squeezing the sides of the helmet above my ears I am able to get 3 things:
1. Closing of the gap between the speakers and my ears
2. Relieving some pressure on my cheekbones (for some strange reason)
3. Improving the helmet fit by making it tighter side-to-side and eliminating pressure on my front and back of head.
So I'm going to try to find a way to reshape the helmet itself. More fun.
In my old Giro helmet that uses the Tune-Ups speakers, the earpads rest directly against my ears so the volume level achieved by the Sony SBH50 Bluetooth Receiver is more than sufficient. However, having the XSound3 drivers farther away and the fact that the SBH50 doesn't seem to have the power to drive the higher quality XSound3 speakers, leaves the output level quite lacking. So I had to find a way to drive the XSound3 with more output power.
I experimented with my Radsone ES100 Bluetooth Receiver/DAC Preamp and found that it easily drives the XSound3 speakers. The Radsone app on my iPhone provides tons of options to tune the audio and achieved more volume output than I need. Unfortunately I don't really want to ski with the higher cost ES100 hanging on my jacket and the ES100 lacks a lot of the nice-to-have features of the SBH50; like a screen that shows time, caller ID, and track names.
So I decided to purchase the FiiO BTR3 and BTR1K for testing. Another option would be to go with the FiiO A1 "micro" headphone amp and put it between the SBH50 and the XSound3 drivers. This theoretically would provide plenty of power boost and 4 EQ options. Of course this would mean another device to remember to charge, but its only $20 and would allow me to keep using the features of the SBH50 I like that aren't available on the other Bluetooth receivers.
On to the audio quality of the XSound3...
I spent about 2 hours listening to various music while indoors in a quiet room. I tested with Amazon Music HD, but unfortunately over the AAC codec (16-bit/44.1KHz) which we're all stuck with until Apple gets their head out of their a$$. I would love to see AptX come over to iOS devices. I went back and forth between the ES100 and the SBH50. I also switched back to my old Giro helmet setup with the Tune-Ups.
A few observations... its often stated in audiophile reviews how the "fog is lifted" and the muddiness is removed when describing the audio of different equipment. I hate to repeat that, but it's exactly what I experienced when switching between my old helmet and the new one with the XSound3 speakers. There really is no comparison between them; the XSound3 is just on a totally different level. The sound is quite lackluster with the SBH50 driving the old Tune-Ups, but with the ES100 running the XSound3 the audio response is just "off the charts" for helmet audio. Its smooth and nicely balanced across the full audio spectrum. More than sufficient bass without it being over-the-top and in your face; obscuring the rest of the music.
I hope that one of the FiiO units does the trick so the ES100 can stay home. If not, I may buy the newer Mark 2 version of the ES100 for my "travel kit" and use my old one for skiing.