Earthstar Forums

Well this is only my opinion.
I have a Telex Stratos 50D which are excellent and even better with the mic muff.
My dream has always been to travel with my wife in my plane.
So it is time to get another noise cancelling head sets.
I thought I better try all brands. So I went to aircraft spruce and tried the major brands. Here are my preferences.
I tried- Lightspeed - Telex stratos - Senheiser - Bose-
Without a shadow of a doubt the Bose are hands down the winner.
They are smaller in bulk yet very comfortable and light.
When the engine is running and you turn them on you its unreal how quiet things get.I experimented with putting a mic muff on the mic. The Bose works better without it. You get what you pay for. But boy do you have to pay a high price. Now that the money is all gone I am still 100% glad that I made the purchase. Flying is about seeing and hearing.
I made my first airport landing making my own radio calls with my Bose and MGL radio.The transmissions were crystal clear both ways.
My wife and I had a 2 hour flight (she gets the Telex)The built in com in the MGL works great also. She really enjoyed the flight and to my surprise is making plans to where we can fly next.
So now that the communications problems are licked my next project is the kick stand to hold the tail up.
Been working on that one in my mind for over a year. Its a hard nut to crack! But I think I have most of it figured out.
My 2 cents.
Fred

Thanks for the review, Fred. Which Lightspeed did you try out?

Gary

Hi Gary
I forget the name or model, but it was their latest highest end set.
They just didn,t fit my head that well. Felt they wouldn't pull down as far as I needed.
Don't get me wrong. All the brands I mentioned are very good at their noise cancelling but Bose is large step better. Less bulky as well.
Get this. In canada we have to by law wear a helmet in a basic ultralight I have had to carve out the inside of the helmet to make the headphones fit. Works well with any head set.
Fred

Helmet law for ultralights? I didn't know that.

I have a pair of Pacific Coast Avionics ANR headsets I really like. A while back, I borrowed a Bose from a friend, and the main thing I noticed was how comfortable it was. Very light, and no head-clamping. The noise cancelling was good, and the audio quality listening to MP3's on my iFly was great.

Good idea researching all this, before you spend the big bucks. I have not found any specs on an ANR headset that showed it attenuates the higher frequencies. Seems like they are mostly tuned to the lower frequencies. I guess because that is what does the most damage to your hearing. But, for those of us flying 2-strokes, it would be nice to turn down the higher frequencies, too.

Gary

OMG!! In the U.S. I don't know of any law requiring helmets while flying ultralights (254lbs empty weight max), and we only wore them for noise and wind protection in the old days. Now that I'm flying a registered E-LSA airplane, (fat ultralight converted), and sit inside a totally enclosed cockpit, I enjoy wearing only headsets. Although my freind Jerry who flies a Titan 2 still uses his ultralight helmet with headset inside. It is an old military one that has bumps on the outside to enclose earphones on the inside. We laugh at him, but I guess up there in your territory he would be right at home.

kb

Fred,
I second your opinion, they are much quieter than any other headset I have tried and very light without squeezing your head. eBay has them used sometimes for $500

Gary

I guess transport Canada figures that if we crash it will be into ice or frozen ground! So the brain bucket. We may break but we won't drool.
Fred

Just got the Bose A20s. Really expensive. Comfortable. Boy are they quiet. Almost too quiet. I'm going to have to recalibrate how I listen to the HKS.
John

What'd ya say? Can you speak up a little?  Ohh. Maybe that's what happens from
decades of wearing David Clark's.

Did you do a comparison with Zulu?

If I refrain from buying 15 Bose or Zulu headsets I could buy an HKS.
 Dick O'Reilly

I have 30 days to try it/them out.
The old 15-year old Boses, which came with the Odyssey when I bought it, had punctured gel ear seals. Poor Mark: Last time he flew it he had oozed glop all over his ear.
I did try the Zulu.2s - my wife bought one and it is more comfortable for her. I'm going to use both for the 30 days and then make the A20 vs Zulu call.
John