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Motorola XE vs XE 500 remote speaker microphone

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N1XDS

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Was is the best RSM (Remote speker microphone) out of the Motorola XE or the XE 500? Is the XE 500 the newer model of the XE RSM's? If anyone is using the XE or the XE 500 can you please tell me about them and how you like it? How is the audio sound coming from both microphones when in use and not in use.

Thank you for your time.
 

MTS2000des

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We bought XE's in 2016 for our fire agencies along with APX6000XEs. High failure rate of the mikes and cords themselves. Around 50 percent, most just out of the 1 year warranty. The lights get stuck "on", the most common failure. The XE500s are what replaced them, and so far, only 1 failure and that was due to a high temp prolonged exposure when a firefighter lost his radio in a working structure fire. The radio survived okay as it was in a Boston leather case, the antenna melted as did the mike cord and mike body but what can one expect if something gets thrown into a fire.

When you ask about audio, these mikes have good loud SPL but remember the APX requires a bit of configuration to get the audio to do what you want.
 

N1XDS

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Thank you for your reply and information about the microphones. Looks like I'll be getting a XE500 for my APX 6000XE. What would you recommend for configuration for the APX and microphone to work together? All I have to do is use the APX CPS to adjust audio settings correct?
 

K2NEC

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I have an XE RSM and to be completely honest, overall, I like it. MTS2000des has more experience in the public safety industry than I do, I just use it for personal use. But I want to chip in my 2 cents anyway.

I have a Gen 3 XE and I use it with both an APX and an XPR. When I first got the mic, it locked up every now and then and would require me to turn the radio off and on. Whenever I keyed up it kept unkeying and rekeying as I was holding the button. Both of these issues seemed to fix themselves as time went on and I am glad to say I haven't had either issue in months.

EDIT: I just remembered that the mic would also get stuck with the volume rocker. It would only go up 1 volume level and down 1 volume level and get stuck there until I did a reset. No matter how many times I pressed up it would stay at that one level. Again, haven't experienced this in months.

The LED on it is ok. Just ok. It won't light up your house and maybe it will function as a work light or if you drop your keys or something but it certainly isn't too bad. To be fair it's being powered by a radio and it's a flashlight on a mic so I can't say I expected much to begin with.

Audio quality is very good. Speaker gets loud and the dual mics work great in a high noise environment. I used the XE mic for a county fair with generators, music, fireworks, overall loud ambiance and I could be heard clearly every time (Just make sure to talk into the front of the mic and not off to the side).

I personally love the layout of the mic. Two programmable buttons is enough for me and the volume rocker is in a good spot. Works very well with gloves(as advertised) and it has a firm click to it. I always keep the top as mandown so I am left with 1 button that I use for scan/nuisance delete.
 

Mr_Boh

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I will echo the comments of MTS2000des - seen customers go through many iterations of the XE, only to start migrating to the XE500 and have little issues. Also if you use Bluetooth, particularly for SCBA, the XE500 is better suited for the use case.

I am not a super sound guru - to my untrained ear they are the same quality wise. Haven't really done any significant testing like having FFs stand next to pump panels or through SCBA, etc., but quality wise the blow them away.

Just a personal opinion, the model with the channel selector knob is unnecessary. But I wasn't a fan of the commander mic with display either.
 

N1XDS

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I'll be honest with you guys. I am coming from the XTS 5000R radios with the commander speaker microphones and setting up the APX 6000 with the XE500 for audio quality is new to me. Does anyone have XE500 microphone settings they can tell me what they use so I can test which works best for me?

Thank you!
 

60ASSTCHIEF

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Was is the best RSM (Remote speker microphone) out of the Motorola XE or the XE 500? Is the XE 500 the newer model of the XE RSM's? If anyone is using the XE or the XE 500 can you please tell me about them and how you like it? How is the audio sound coming from both microphones when in use and not in use.

Thank you for your time.

I have both. The XE500 blows away the regular XE For both RX and TX. The XE500 has 5 microphones in it along with the adaptive audio engine. Sounds absolutely amazing. We use ours for Fire/EMS operations. Definitely worth the money.
 
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