I've been using a Bose A20 for the last 3 years and have been mostly happy with it, but the cables have become frayed a bit and I'm sending it back to get it refurbed and needed something to hold me over. I just got my David Clark's this morning and was able to use them on my second flight of the day.
For all you considering Lightspeed, please take a look at the One-X. It's $900 and Made in the US, where most Lightspeeds are made entirely in China.
David Clark's marketing's never been that good and I find the name One-X very similar to their recently released Pro-X and going by name it doesn't make much sense that the Pro-X is the cheaper model.
I prefer the build and feel of it to the Bose A20 in almost all respects. The earbuds on the Bose seemed to hold to my head just slightly better if I try moving my head around, swallowing heavily anything I could do to try and break the seal of the earpieces to my head. I prefer the Volume module on the David Clark to that of the Bose as it's got a little more length in the cables that plug into the aircraft so I can rest it between my lap or tuck the clip into my cargo pants without making the cables taut.
The Bluetooth is better as I can use it to play audio where as the A20 can only be used for phone calls.
The active noise cancelling on the Bose is superior, but not enough for me to really care. I thought the passive on the David Clark's was better, but if the batteries fail on either it's going to be loud and annoying.
The music playback quality was better on the Bose, but I had to really listen to a few songs in particular and I'm not sure if they were affected by playing back over Bluetooth instead of the aux cable.
I haven't been able to test out the mic at all to see if controllers and other pilots can understand me better, but I think I can hear the controllers and other pilots better. I was really impressed with the audio levels as I was playing music pretty loudly, but could still hear other pilots without problem, where as with the Bose with the interrupt turned off it was very difficult to do that and I would probably need to turn multiple volume knobs to fine tune it and my passengers might not be that happy.
I prefer the bag it came in. The Bose had a nice looking bag, but it was always a bit tight and I think the stress of wrapping my cables is what caused them to fray a bit. The David Clark has more room and I can easily fit cables, batteries, extra pens in it.
You can't go wrong with the A20 or the One-X from my experiences. That said I only have one flight in with the One-X so I'm sure I'll find something irritating about it.
For all you considering Lightspeed, please take a look at the One-X. It's $900 and Made in the US, where most Lightspeeds are made entirely in China.
David Clark's marketing's never been that good and I find the name One-X very similar to their recently released Pro-X and going by name it doesn't make much sense that the Pro-X is the cheaper model.
I prefer the build and feel of it to the Bose A20 in almost all respects. The earbuds on the Bose seemed to hold to my head just slightly better if I try moving my head around, swallowing heavily anything I could do to try and break the seal of the earpieces to my head. I prefer the Volume module on the David Clark to that of the Bose as it's got a little more length in the cables that plug into the aircraft so I can rest it between my lap or tuck the clip into my cargo pants without making the cables taut.
The Bluetooth is better as I can use it to play audio where as the A20 can only be used for phone calls.
The active noise cancelling on the Bose is superior, but not enough for me to really care. I thought the passive on the David Clark's was better, but if the batteries fail on either it's going to be loud and annoying.
The music playback quality was better on the Bose, but I had to really listen to a few songs in particular and I'm not sure if they were affected by playing back over Bluetooth instead of the aux cable.
I haven't been able to test out the mic at all to see if controllers and other pilots can understand me better, but I think I can hear the controllers and other pilots better. I was really impressed with the audio levels as I was playing music pretty loudly, but could still hear other pilots without problem, where as with the Bose with the interrupt turned off it was very difficult to do that and I would probably need to turn multiple volume knobs to fine tune it and my passengers might not be that happy.
I prefer the bag it came in. The Bose had a nice looking bag, but it was always a bit tight and I think the stress of wrapping my cables is what caused them to fray a bit. The David Clark has more room and I can easily fit cables, batteries, extra pens in it.
You can't go wrong with the A20 or the One-X from my experiences. That said I only have one flight in with the One-X so I'm sure I'll find something irritating about it.
