Chatterbox vs AutoCom

[NCBusaRider]

All,
I have had my Busa for a long time and I must admit riding for long distances has always had me longing for great sounding audio while I tour, as well as being able to talk bike to passenger and bike to bike . . .

I know the choices are Chatterbox, and Audiocom, with Audiocom being considerably more expensive (which if the quality is better isn't a problem) but I understand that to talk bike to bike you have to buy additional equipment???

Reason for the post - what do you guys prefer and recommend? I want to be sure I can hear clearly music, my passenger, and other riding partners. Any insight into this topic is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts

[GSXTacy]

I have the bluetooth chatterbox. Love it. The tunes sound great even at highway speed. I have mine mounted on a stem mount and just plug my helmet in with an extention cord. I also have a great hook up on price. He will give org members the bluetooth model for $300 and other models even cheaper.

[Busasweety]

our chatterbox hjc-frs units work great, we find that higher speeds 80+ bothers our volume that we can hear..
We have found ear plugs that can be hooked up and probably would help.

[omslaw]

I have the Autocom and love it! Powered from the bike; don't have to worry about charging anything! Yes, to do bike-to-bike you need to buy a walkie-talkie and cable for it. The unit I have has 4 inputs. I use one for my XM, one for my cell phone, one for the walkie-talkie and still have one left over. Plus, it will do rider-to-passenger out of the box! Oh, and it can do bluetooth also.

My

[MC MUSTANG]

Momma and I used chatterbox units several years ago; I have had both the FRS and the GMRS units... I gave them up because of the cabling and the cruddy VOX; the autocom has been a great all around unit for me - but admittedly, the Blue tooth Chatterbox does sound cool... Like Omar, I run my cell phone, MP3, Satellite Radio, Walkie Talkie and Garmin GPS....

Autocom has a wireless adapter, but is not wireless to the helmet...

[Mr Bogus]

I have the bluetooth chatterbox. Love it. The tunes sound great even at highway speed. I have mine mounted on a stem mount and just plug my helmet in with an extention cord. I also have a great hook up on price. He will give org members the bluetooth model for $300 and other models even cheaper.

maybe you have a different audio setup but the music on my chatterbox sounds like crap... what are you using for speakers? I have the factory supplied in helmet mounts and the audio reproduction is a 2 out of 10..

[PDBusa]

Autocom here. Use Chatterbox FRS units for dirtbikes and they work great. Had a problem with wind noise when used on road at higher speeds, but they are older non-noise reducing sets.
I use MP3, passenger intercom, and also 2 way radio for bike-bike on Autocom. Works well... except if you ride with 13 y.o. daughter and trust her to set up a playlist on her Ipod... Hyperbike, full leathers, great roads at the Bash and Brittany Spears/Mylie Cyrus/Jonas Brothers just don't go together...  

BoB,YH2K,and JetLi did get to see some moves though...

[jetsetter]

Autocom here. I love it. It absolutely doesn't matter what the speed, all of my music, cell phone, bike to bike and intercom are clear. People on the phone can't tell I'm on a bike, or even outside, at speeds well past 100.

And the thing with having to buy all of the periphrials, you can customize your setup the way you want. For instance, I have a yeasu VX-2R ham radio for bike to bike. If you really wanted to get crazy, the sky's the limit.

[neoBusa]

NCBusaRider thanks for bringing up this thread... Generating good info... hope more add to it.

Good Stuff - Thanks all!

[NCBusaRider]

Thanks to everyone that responded - I really appreciate it, as I do with all information I receive from here. I think I will go with an AutoCom - does anyone know if we have a sponsor that sells them?

Thanks again!

[PDBusa]

Dunno about sponsors but I can tell you the AutocomUSA customer service is top notch! I got mine used and ordered some parts, seemed like they were at my door before I hung phone up.

[neoBusa]

Contact Josh from Ryders Connection, hes an org sponsor. He has both chatterbox and autocom and gives nice deals for org members.

Im thinking of Autocom and considering Josh.

As or their customer service, it truly is great. they were really quick to reply to my inquiry. but again so was chatterbox people.

[Akumu]

Question. My father uses hearing aides. Instead of ear plugs, when riding he just turns off and takes out his hearing aides. Are the 'speakers' on the Autocom loud enough that a good bit of a deaf man can hear them?

[slugsgomoo]

Do any of these systems work with regular headphones? I use canal-phones on the bike since the ear-plug action quiets it down enough that i don't have to run ridiculous volumes to hear the music clearly.

[jaschil69]

I use the Chatterbox bluetooth GMRS. I like it but not sure I would buy it again. I run my GPS and Satellite radio into it and it works great. I also use the battery cable to run bike powered on long rides. At speeds above 75 or 80, it is tough to make out what other riders are saying to you sometimes. The radio volume is fine but the speakers leave a lot to be desired.