Best noise cancelling headset for your money?

ajdwings said:
Bose. Nuff said! Hands down the best. Just always keep spare batteries in your flight case. Super quiet and very comfortable. They also have a pretty good payment deal too. Its like 150.00 first payment and then they charge a credit or debit card once a month for 12 months about 60 bucks a month. No interest or any other fees at all.
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Do they still have a discount for CFIs?
 
Bose

If you live near boston, you can call tech support and get the addy for the repair location. When you go, the tech comes out, goes over all the issues with you, generally asks how you like them, and where you would like to see improvements. They take your headset back with them. 25-30 minutes later they come out all fixed, mostly all new parts, new seals etc.

The last time I went in, they extended my service warranty an additional 2 years for doing a small survey for them.

If you have to ship it, they used to cover fed ex in and out... less than a week turnaround.

Bose support is second to none in my opinion. Also, they may not feature much, if any passive noise reduction, but the tri port thing they have going actually reduces the high freq. noise... makes it sound boomy and loud, but you can still hear normal conversation well.

I seemed to get about 35-40 hours of use in the 1900. prob. closer to 60 hours in the Q on a set of AA's... and the only time I turn them off is when I pack them on a plane swap or at the end of a day.

I did have hot spot issues at first, but learned that if i put the headband further back it went away.
 
When I was flying GA, I had a pair of Lightspeed Twenty 3G's, which were easily the best headset I ever had. I've used Bose headsets before and I didn't dig them, though they were uncomfortable.

In the jet I used a pair of Telex 750's with earplugs under them, worked well.

Now I've got my old standby DC 13.4's, which are incredibly uncomfortable, but they do the job.

In the end, though, find something that fits and go with it.
 
BillPerryCFI said:
I'm curious if anyone has tried the Lightspeed Mach 1's. They are the in-ear headset that looks really nice (and comes with a coupon if you will for free in-ear molded pieces). I fly in the desert 5 months out of the year and although I quite love my Bose...I'm getting tired of the swamp ear. Not to mention with nothing on my head it's a little cooler and more tolerable.

I've tried the CA's...but they just don't fit me.
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I would also be interested if anyone has any thoughts on the in ear headset. mainly, is something like this even appropriate for GA? Or is it more of the "i need to dampen some of the dull roar of jet so i can hear atc" type thing.
 
poser765 said:
I would also be interested if anyone has any thoughts on the in ear headset. mainly, is something like this even appropriate for GA? Or is it more of the "i need to dampen some of the dull roar of jet so i can hear atc" type thing.
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From what I have read, if you can put up with having something in your ear for a couple of hours at a time, the in ear headsets are actually comparable in performance to ANR headsets without the cost or bulk. Since they are designed to completely seal your ear canal (assuming the ear seals are in good condition, most I've seen come with spares and more spares can be purchased relatively inexpensively) noise can't get in.

Since I wear glasses all the time, I've been giving the in the ear headsets a close look.
 
Barty said:
From what I have read, if you can put up with having something in your ear for a couple of hours at a time, the in ear headsets are actually comparable in performance to ANR headsets without the cost or bulk. Since they are designed to completely seal your ear canal (assuming the ear seals are in good condition, most I've seen come with spares and more spares can be purchased relatively inexpensively) noise can't get in.

Since I wear glasses all the time, I've been giving the in the ear headsets a close look.
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Well shoot that sounds awesome. Go get some and let me know how they work. I'll by you a beer.
 
I've have Clarity Aloft's in-ear, and fly a duchess most every day. I love them, I've owned DCs and lightspeeds, tried bose and zulus, I much prefer not having anything clamped over the top of my head. They are not ANR but IMO they work as well or better at noise reduction.

With Clarity Aloft you can also wear any hat you want, even a full brimmed hat like a booney hat or cowboy hat, which is great in a glass canopy airplane like an RV or a pitts.

edit: glasses don't interfere with the seals so noise don't leak in!
 
I use the Lightspeed Zulu, and I prefer them over the Bose, but both are great headsets.

I also have my old DC 10.13S with the ANR conversion. Good if you are on a really tight budget, but don't believe the hype and think you will get a set of Zulus or Bose with this conversion. It is good, but pales in comparison to most OEM ANR headsets. Not to mention the fact that you will be is for a hundred bucks worth of batteries or so within a few months, depending on how much you fly.
 
Bose

I had a static noise coming from my left earcup, shipped on a monday and it was literally back on my doorstep that friday afternoon completely rebuilt.

Only cost me shipping to them.

I have another 2 years left on my warranty, I feel I have very much gotten my money's worth.
 
I scored my Flightcom Denali anr on ebay for a little over $400 brand new shipped to me, you can usually find them for around $500 though.

Extremely comfortable, Anr is impressive, however I have forgotten to flip it on several times and the passive reduction is very good. Great anr headset for the money.
 
I scored an old Telex ANR-1D on eBay, and I couldn't be happier. It chews through the AA batteries fairly fast and has a pretty large brick containing all the electronics, but it's light on my head, doesn't clamp that hard, and compares pretty darn well to my friend's Zulu and X that I've tried.
 
What I'm waiting for is someone to market an in ear headset (like the Clarity) that utilizes custom molds to fit your ears well (which would be done, shockingly quite affordably, by an Audiologist, like Ultimate Ears does for its headphones).

If you have a good fit, the passive reduction provided is very good, and a custom mold would make them comfortable for all day use.

On the topic of "normal" headsets, I fly with a Sennheiser HMEC460, and love the fact that it provides as much active reduction as a Bose, but also offers as much passive reduction as most good non-ANR headsets do. The audio quality through the Senns is very impressive as well (if listening to the iPod)

The single reason I won't buy a Bose if that it offers practically zero passive reduction. If you lose battery power, or if the unit fails, you're barely ahead of not wearing anything at all.
 
minitour...



Those are exactly what I was talking about. I was curious if anyone has tried these yet and how they like them/how the noise reduction is. I do like my bose however the 115 degree summers in the desert are not comfortable with traditional headsets.
 
I've been scouring the interweb for reviews of the Mach 1s and so far they are all pretty good.

No real major cons reported. The occasional slippage or hard to understand when broadcasting...but not nearly everyone reports that.
 
motoboy said:
I scored my Flightcom Denali anr on ebay for a little over $400 brand new shipped to me, you can usually find them for around $500 though.

Extremely comfortable, Anr is impressive, however I have forgotten to flip it on several times and the passive reduction is very good. Great anr headset for the money.
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:yeahthat:

Great headset! I just replaced the leather ear seals with new ones and I can't be more happy. Made a huge difference!
 
BillPerryCFI said:
minitour...



Those are exactly what I was talking about. I was curious if anyone has tried these yet and how they like them/how the noise reduction is. I do like my bose however the 115 degree summers in the desert are not comfortable with traditional headsets.
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I have the mach ones. I used them in the emb-145 before my furlough. Worked wonderfully in the RJ. Now I'm using them in the caravan, and they work great. It's just like wearing ear plugs, the sound quality is amazing. They do make custom ear molds, but I've just been using the blue silicone/whatever they are plugs. You do have to grab the top of your ear and cram them in there, but other than that they work great, are light on your head, and you can wear sunglasses all day and not have a problem or a massive headache at the end of the day!

They are quieter than the sennheiser hmec-400 (with sunglasses on, as the seal is broken) with the glasses off, they aren't as quiet. I love mine and would like the custom ear molds, you don't have to use the ear hook if you have the molds. I'm just too cheap and lazy to get them done. I'm hoping that they have a special booth at oshkosh so I can get them in the week i'm there, but i doubt it. Also, they aren't TSO'd, so if your company decides that you have to wear a tso'd headset, these are out. I really enjoy them.
 
PatrickCPS said:
What I'm waiting for is someone to market an in ear headset (like the Clarity) that utilizes custom molds to fit your ears well (which would be done, shockingly quite affordably, by an Audiologist, like Ultimate Ears does for its headphones).
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I talked with Clarity Alofts owner about that when I bought them at sun and fun last year, they said they can do it, but recommend against it because as you get older you ears change shape.:confused: Don't know whether that means anything, but I'm fine with the little foam plugs that come with the Clarity Aloft I have.

I've considered experimenting with a set of Panthers that I have, that I gave up on. Take the molded plugs off, and see if I can fit them to the CA ear pieces. Hmmmmm.:D I feel a project coming on. The worst I could do is screw up POS headset.
 
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