Tandem-com with "jabra" earbud?

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fvalenti

On the T@H list recently folks were talking about replacing the standard Tandem-Com headset with a cell phone mic/earbud setup. Has anyone tried this with the Jabra style earbud that appears to have no "microphone" but somehow picks up your voice from inside your head (insert your own joke here)?

It worked well on my cell phone - but I no longer have that earpiece. Before I spend the money I thought I would ask. My current Tandem-Com headset works - but I thought that the Jabra might be a little lower profile.

Thanks.

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cowtandemstoker

I'd like to hear tandem geek weigh in on this one.
Pat

fvalenti

I also posted this on T@H - and someone came up with the answer. I have yet to try it myself (planning on it this weekend) but here is the email that went around:

from Wil Bush (my hero):

When I visited the old Radio Shack aka The Source tonight with my 4 kms of wires, tandem talk, and portable radio, I asked for the whiz kid on electronics. By default, I had cornered a what seemed to be 16 year old who said I guess that's me. I went through the demonstration of showing that the radio plugged into the Tandem Talk would play out of the original headset but not out of the Jabra earbud. He said you should have a stereo plug and went and got what is called on the package an Audio Adapter; part 2740397 Nexxtech. In our money it was $6.49 - and the Jabra was $3.99 (but not at Radio Shack) .

It was truly music to my ears when the radio came through the earbud.

Came home and collared my 12 year old and we plugged everything in the tandem Talk. Worked perfectly.

The Tandem Talk folks obviously don't promote a low budget approach since they know the approximate shelf life of the headset and that people will come back for more. A bit like the auto industry where the money is in the parts and service. To be fair to Tandem Talk, when it works; it works well, My research led me to believe that it was better that the competition. Unfortunately the wireless is just a little too expensive. Having read one of the posters talk about a system to plug into, relieving any stress on the plugs at the Tandem Talk end, I am inclined to try and set something up.

I am anxious to see how much road / wind noise comes through the mic when actually riding.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Nice riding day here today. Still have snow on the ground but the roads are dry.

Thanks for your feedback. I will post a small version on T&H in answer to Frank's question of 20 March 2007.

BTW I bought a second adapter since I have at least 3 cell phone headsets purchased for this endeavour but no cellphone.

Happy riding

Wil

Rincewind8

Sorry I can't help you, but if your spring for the earpiece please let us know how it works.

I can tell you that we bought standard earbud/microphones to use with our tandemcom and even with the "alleged" noise dampening mic it still picked up too much wind. Needless to say we wasted $39.

I have never heard of an earpiece that "picks up your voice from inside your head".

Throat microphones don't pick up background noise (unless you hold them onto another rigid object). They pick up the vibration directly from the voice box. When you speak your head actually vibrates and the voice can be pick up from that as well. Depending on where you pick it up it will be more or less distorted (voice box is best, but also the top of the head works pretty well). I assume the Jabra just has a more sensitive microphone than a throat microphone.

TandemGeek

I'd like to hear tandem geek weigh in on this one.

Sorry, nothing from a first-hand perspective to offer on this subject relative to the use of an earbud / mic for cycling as we have never been inclined to use a 'tandem-talk' or similar system. We routinely see them in use by folks who are very happy with their systems, although the headsets do seem to be the most fiddled with part of the system.

FWIW: I use a Jabra hands-free integrated earbud / mic with my Blackberry and it works well; however, the mic on the earpiece on the one that I have would be too susceptible to wind noise for use in a cycling application.

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