Cardo Spirit HD Single

So I got this unit because it was on sale. Cardo was a good brand name so I thought. It fits good on my helmet but it's design is flawed. I constantly loose connection in one speaker. The way the 4 tabs on the unit contact with the pins on the cradle isn't great. I have to constantly press down or move the unit to get it to work which gets annoying riding with one hand or head tilted against shoulder. The unit works great when it does work. The speakers are loud and is very clear. The controls take some time to get use to. I haven't used the mic while riding but I did try it out when not riding and sounds great on both ends. Overall good product when working.

Far exceeded expectations

I bought this to replace a Chinese cheapy that wouldn't fit in my helmet properly. This completely blew me away. The speakers are small and easily fit in the ear cups of my helmet, but still sound good and are loud enough to hear my music at any legal speed. The buttons are large and easy to press with gloves on. I love the ability to use google voice with just a push of the rear of the unit.I purchased a freecom4x shortly after because a few friends just got into riding and suddenly I needed to speak with more than just one person. The freecom's larger speaker doesn't fit as well in my helmet and applies just a bit of pressure on my ear. I don't notice any improvement in sound quality over the spirit.If you only ride with one other person, save your money and ... MoreI bought this to replace a Chinese cheapy that wouldn't fit in my helmet properly. This completely blew me away. The speakers are small and easily fit in the ear cups of my helmet, but still sound good and are loud enough to hear my music at any legal speed. The buttons are large and easy to press with gloves on. I love the ability to use google voice with just a push of the rear of the unit.I purchased a freecom4x shortly after because a few friends just got into riding and suddenly I needed to speak with more than just one person. The freecom's larger speaker doesn't fit as well in my helmet and applies just a bit of pressure on my ear. I don't notice any improvement in sound quality over the spirit.If you only ride with one other person, save your money and get this, you won't regret it.

Great inexpensive coms device, but beware!

I mostly use the coms device solo for GPS communication. The unit is clear, easy to install, a really good unit.The mount to the helmet is disappointing. It is extremely easy to hit the release button on the mount to release the coms unit, especially wearing gloves or just carrying your helmet. I lost my first Cardo within weeks of purchase this way. I now use two thin zip ties that you can thread through the mount to stop this happening. Not elegant, but does the job.

Great not perfect

Got the Spirit HD for 160$ CAD. For my budget, I was hesitating between the Freecom 2x at 222$, the Sena's series at around this price, the Spirit at 105$ and the Lexin's on Amazon and chose the Spirit HD due to its middle ground price, 40mm speakers, and USB-C charging. My objectives were to listen to music, gps, radio and to make calls and this checks all the boxes.For sound quality, first you have to understand that you need a helmet that fits snuggly, but also the emplacement of the ear sockets to be right in front of your ears for great sound quality. This applies for all communication systems. Unfortunately, the latter is not the case for me. I have a Shoei RF1200 and the ear sockets are a bit forward for me, thus decreasing sound quality, especially bass ... MoreGot the Spirit HD for 160$ CAD. For my budget, I was hesitating between the Freecom 2x at 222$, the Sena's series at around this price, the Spirit at 105$ and the Lexin's on Amazon and chose the Spirit HD due to its middle ground price, 40mm speakers, and USB-C charging. My objectives were to listen to music, gps, radio and to make calls and this checks all the boxes.For sound quality, first you have to understand that you need a helmet that fits snuggly, but also the emplacement of the ear sockets to be right in front of your ears for great sound quality. This applies for all communication systems. Unfortunately, the latter is not the case for me. I have a Shoei RF1200 and the ear sockets are a bit forward for me, thus decreasing sound quality, especially bass wise. However, the sound quality is enough for me to dance to the music at stop lights. When I push my helmet backward such that the speakers are facing directly my ears, sound quality and bass are good. For references, I have had Sony's WH-1000xm2, bose qc35 II and airpods pro, and the spirit hd gets nowhere close to any of the previous headphones, but it is an unfair comparison. Maxing the sound volume hurts my ears.When taking phone calls, sound quality is crystal clear and people on the receiving ends never had any complaints.USB-C is the future (should be the present) and I try to avoid any micro-usb charging port when possible. Usb-c is just better in every way.Clicking on buttons require some force, not that ideal and I would have preferred them to require less force, but at this point I am nit-picking. I would have liked the volume knob on the Freecom 2x. I heard some people saying that the knob could rub on the shoulders, but I think the convenience of the knob overcomes the other inconvenience. Siri works when clicking one of the buttons.I am satisfied with my choice and would have much preferred this if the ear sockets on the helmet were fitting me right but it is not Cardo's fault. Even though, sound quality can still improve. I wonder if the 40mm JBL speakers in the Freecom 2X would make a difference.

Happy so far!

I bought the Cardo Spirit HD about a month ago and installed it on my LS2 Rapid helmet. Works pretty much as advertised. I use it mostly for listening to FM radio while city riding. Had one instance where the the unit powered off unexpectedly while riding, but no other issues. I can hear clearly at low volumes and the speed compensating volume works well. Installation was easier than expected. I do find the button functions on the unit itself hard to remember, I control it mainly through the app.

Microphone works incredibly well, user interface is good once you learn it, speakers arent bad.

Ive been amazed with how well people could hear me through the microphone even as my helmet is extremely noisy. Nobody has suspected I was riding until I told them. The headphones/speakers are mediocre, and at this price point thats 100% okay;. Learning the buttons on the remote requires practice, but are easy to find with gloves on and easy to use once you can remember their function. The mobile app is excellent even with gloves on. Integration with your phones voice assistant (such as Siri) makes it very easy to control with your voice with a simple tap of a button.

Not good enough

Bought this last year, I installed it right away and tried music playback and the phone, music playback was really really low and the phone was good when spoken to but not good enough when speaking to.Bought new speakers for it and another mount to try it with a different helmet, the sound was still lacking to be honest and did not fix the communication problem at all.Also the accessibility for the controls when you're wearing your gloves is not really that good at all. the only use so far for this is when I am riding and using my GPS from the phone, sound for that is good.

Not so great

Bought it for the lady, I use an older Cardo SHO-1. We had problems pairing the 2, once paired I cannot start an intercom call with her, I can only answer if she calls. Sound quality of the mic is poor. Tried different placement, no success. She can hear me find but some times she wishes the volume would go up more. Theres is also a great latency, if we talk with the visor up i will hear her true the visor a good second before she comes in true the com system. Previously she was using a Freecom2 and we did not have any of these issues.

Two Pack - One Has Bluetooth Issues

I bought a two-pack and the box clearly had been opened and returned as the sticker seals on the box were broken and new ones applied over top that were smaller/different. Also some of the bits inside like velcro stickers were in different baggies for one of the headsets than the other giving me a hint someone took things out and didn't quite put them back 100%.The good news is they have two different microphones for different helmet styles in each pack and lots of goodies to make mounting easy.The bad is one of the units seems to have bluetooth issues. I set them both up at the same time, out of the box both had 50% battery which should be fine. One of them had crisp clear audio when streaming music from my phone over many on/off cycles and playing around. ... MoreI bought a two-pack and the box clearly had been opened and returned as the sticker seals on the box were broken and new ones applied over top that were smaller/different. Also some of the bits inside like velcro stickers were in different baggies for one of the headsets than the other giving me a hint someone took things out and didn't quite put them back 100%.The good news is they have two different microphones for different helmet styles in each pack and lots of goodies to make mounting easy.The bad is one of the units seems to have bluetooth issues. I set them both up at the same time, out of the box both had 50% battery which should be fine. One of them had crisp clear audio when streaming music from my phone over many on/off cycles and playing around. After popping the other one into the same helmet (so same mic and speakers) it would break up consistently. The audio would come and go being completely silent for seconds then getting a robotic garbled noise here and there. After re-starting the unit a few times eventually it worked correctly and I was able to walk 20 meters down the hall from my phone and still had perfect audio. But then after restarting the device (off and on power cycle) the audio issues returned with my phone 1 foot away. So it's pretty hit and miss. I ruled out connection issues by fiddling with the speaker connection with both units and couldn't get it to mess up. Also the audio the device plays when starting up (not over bluetooth) sounded fine, but the audio streaming from my phone (over bluetooth) was not.I suspect someone returned the product for these reason and FortNine couldn't reliably reproduce the issue so they said "it's fine" and sent it back out.I'll try again in a real use case with rider + pillion today with two fully charged units and see if the issues return and update my review accordingly.

good for music, bad for GPS

I've spoken to Cardo and confirmed that there is nothing to do about my issue. Contrary to what the manual says, you must be listening to something for the volume controls to work. That is fine when you are listening to music. It is streaming while you play with the volume controls. However, when synced to a GPS, you can only change the volume while a direction is being spoken. That lasts a couple of seconds, the you are out of luck until the next verbal direction. This is not practical.