Cardo G4 Powerset

Bluetooth... the next generation

Overall, a very slick unit. Pairing is very simple, and you are notified via voice commands when you connect to devices rather than a complicated morse code of beeps.

Battery life: seems quite good, and charged units hold their charge. Haven't drained it in one shot yet, but it has kept going after 2 weeks of a 30 minute commute. USB uses 'micro' usb, rather than the more common mini USB, so hang onto that cable.

Range: maybe 1 mile on the Bonneville Salt Flats, but in the city, only a block or two.

Voice quality: Not bad. There is a definite lag (10-20ms) between speaking and the other party receiving. On par with a cellphone.

Audio quality: These speakers can do some real damage. Very 'bright' sounding, but not tinny. I really like the dynamic audio adjustment (the volume goes up as the wind noise in the helmet increases.) Sometimes it will increase the volume to extreme distortion. I hope a firmware update fixes that.

iPhone controls: You can hear audio from the iPhone, but playback controls do not work (except pause). Voice dialing doesn't work. May be more of an issue with iphone, but it's disappointing to see this not work.

FM Radio: well... it works, but doesn't hold onto stations very well. There are many stations in my area, which may be the cause.

My biggest beef is that I can't use my own headphones with it. This is a common problem with just about every intercom system, wired or wireless.

Overall, I plan on getting a great deal of use out of this unit, and it appears to be up for the challenge.

Scala G$ Tumbs down

Wait for the G5's these Scala G4's do not function as per specified. The distance is onoly .6 mi, no where near the 1 mi distance. The transmitter on the 2nd unit failed after the first day. Constantly having resynch the units after .6 mi is annoying, dangerous and puts the company in a liability position. Only one unit was able to initiate the resyching function, These units were tested on an open lake in optimum conditions. Sending them back.

Does the Job

I recently purchased the team set and had the chance to use it 4 times on day rides with my friend.

The installation was pretty straight forward.

I mounted one on an Arai Corsair V. Since the lining is removable I was able to get the wires all tucked away nicely on the inside of the helmet. However, the ear phones had to be stuck on top of the pads so they are not very secure. Ill have to mess around with that and see if maybe I can stick them under the ear portion padding.

I mounted the other on an Shoei RF1000 and this has a few wires on the leather portion on the underneath which I wasn't able to snake between plastic shell and liner but it worked out just fine since I was able to tuck in the wires and the provided Velcro stickers were able to be mounted directly to the foam inside the helmet much more secure than the Arai. one note here is the mic is right in your mouth (touching lips at all times).

It pairs easily with Android and iPhone takes calls and plays stored music.

We haven't tested the range out to the advertised 1 mile but it does work around buildings and corners. The flip up antenna should pretty much remain up at all times. Otherwise the range is about 300ft with a bit of static.

As for the phones, Android doesn't support voice dial yet so that function doesn't work. I also did not hear the phone ring via provided headphones. The phone it self rings in your riding jacket which doesn't do you much good while riding on the freeway with radio playing and earplugs in. On incoming calls it just somehow answered. Not sure what the deal was.

On the iPhone the voice dial works but still seems like you need to have the phone out in front of you to make it really happen.

As for the music the skip track works on Android but doesn't on iPhone. Also some weird glitchy stuff happens here and there like you're listening to your music and you get your friend transmitting to you when you stop talking sometimes the music doesn't resume playing so you have to press buttons to figure out what's wrong with it.

I also had the unit stop working on the first ride because I kept pressing buttons I think it just froze up. There is not manual reset, it resets when it charges for 10 secs. So this is something to keep in mind when on the road. Perhaps pull over and use a plug somewhere to charge-reset it.

I can see all these things being taken care of with a firmware update in the future.

I find myself mostly using the FM radio which works great and it transitions well between talking to rider and turning back on.

From what I understand this unit is better than the previous generation but still not perfect.

I would definitely say its worth getting, just know it's not going to be perfect.