Originally Posted by jock

...

I always hated the MET because of its propensity to generate massive amounts of wind noise. Having head-slammed both it and a Bell Furio I can thoroughly recommend the Ippo over the Furio. The Furio was quieter yes, but left me with a massive headache after side slamming the road. MET took full force of the fall at a much higher speed and i hardly felt a thing afterwards even though the shell did not break down as much.

Having said that, there was no way I would buy another Ippo: I need to know what's going on behind me. I was going to upgrade to a MET Stradivarius but baulked when they pulled out a large and it fit. There's no way I'm a large, so the alarm bells started ringing. The Decibel fitted nicely in a medium and was $200 vs $290 for the Strad.

After 7 hours of riding I'm bloody happy with the Decibel. It's quieter than the Ippo, better looking (although the Dav-Lotto colours were more betterer!), and it's so light you hardly notice it's there. I'll update you with crash performance details at a later date