Listen up! The best motorcycle earphones as chosen by MCN

For many riders, the solitude and peace of riding a motorcycle is what they love; no phones, emails or questions, just them and their bike and the road. However, others, myself included, like to remain connected with a set of motorcycle earphones for listening to music on long, straight roads and being able to hear sat nav instructions on my touring bike.

One solution is to attach a motorcycle intercom to the side of your helmet, but a quicker and less permanent fix is to pair a set of earbuds to your phone to wear underneath it instead.

Best motorcycle earphones in detail

Earphones in detail

Of course, an in-helmet intercom is a great solution that can satisfy all of these requirements. However, as many of us also wear earplugs to protect our hearing from external noise, these can also reduce the effectiveness of any intercom.

Coupled with that is the fact that the intercom must stay within the helmet so is no use to you off the bike and if you have more than one helmet – you ride a sports tourer and an off-road bike, for example – then you need an intercom (or at least a fitting kit) for each helmet.

One way around all of this is to wear a set of motorcycle earphones within your helmet. These can serve to insulate your eardrums from the external noise while also directing sound directly into your ears, making them far more efficient.

Like intercoms, motorcycle earphones, as well as many ‘sports’-style earphones, will have some form of separate control but some may not and in this case, you may need to control them directly from your sat-nav, smartphone or even by voice.

The other difference will be the fit. An intercom will (should) sit flush within the helmet’s interior and not interfere with your ears. A set of earphones may protrude from the ear’s profile and so may not work with all motorcycle helmets, though generally if you are careful, you should be able to get a helmet on – a flip-front or open-face may be easier here.

Finally a word on phone calls. While you may be able to hear someone else on a phone call, depending on where the microphone is located in the system you are using, they may not be able to hear you so if crystal-clear phone calls are a key element of your riding, these may not be for you and an an intercom could be a better bet.

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At MCN, our team of expert journalists have decades of experience gained over hundreds of thousands of miles. We don’t test our kit to destruction; we use it exactly how you do, in the real world and in all conditions. That means we can deliver impartial buying advice you can rely on.

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To find out more, head to our dedicated page explaining how we test motorcycle products.

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