Headset Decision: Clarity Aloft or Lightspeed Mach 1???

I met Darwin Barrie at RMRFI and he is really sold on the Clarity Aloft headset. If you have bought a Clarity Aloft or a Lightspeed Mach 1, what was the deal maker. The list price is within $30 so unless you found a really great deal somewhere, there had to be some specific feature that sealed the purchase decision!
My old Lightspeed XC is wearing out but it's been a great ride for the last 5 years. I've had a great customer service experience with Lightspeed but the Clarity looks so much lighter and less bulk.
Please, voice your opinions and help me make an educated decision here. Does anyone know of any dealers in the DFW area that sell either one of these two units?

Thanks for your time!

Mike,
You might check out this thread. It has some information you'll probably find real useful: http://dfwpilots.org/board/index.php?showtopic=1313

Mike,

My wife just started flying with the Clarity Aloft headsets and she really likes them. The choice for us was the availability of different sized ear pieces since she has smaller ears. Although based on the previous post, sounds like you could get custom ear pieces for the LS ($$???)

Before you finalize your decision, also check out www.quiettechnologies.com. I had a very impressive demo of these while at SWRFI, and the owner/proprietor is a PhD audiologist who really seems to know his stuff. These are also very attractively priced compared to the other two, due to the lack of national ad campaign $$$$.

I have not tried the LS, but bought a Clarity Aloft for my wife at Oshkosh last summer. She loves it. I fly corporate for a living so I borrowed it and took it on a couple of trips. I really like it versus the ANR Sennheisers we use in the jet. I have not tried it in our Bonanza yet, but will definitely buy one for myself. The comfort factor on a long day of flying is huge. The sound quality is excellent and the mic is incredible.

Clarity Aloft

Picked up a Clarity Aloft headset on a whim at Sun'n'Fun '06.
Haven't worn a traditional headset since.

Quiet Technologies

Before you buy. look at Quiet TEch as someone above posted. I also tried them at swrfy and came home and ordered one set for my wife and for me to try... only 2 flights and love it so far. He has interesting story and to me seems like the "little man". I like to support the little man with lower overhead and better prices. For $340 can't beat it.

jeff h
Austin tx
RV6A for sale just not listed yet

Headset Choices

Thanks for all the info guys.
When I get to work this morning I'll check out the provided links (on my break time, of course!).

Gary Bricker

I am the forum chair for SWRFI and I sat through the quiet tech forum twice and listened to all questions. I bought two sets and two other friends bought sets also. One friend flew home with a Bose set and switched in flight and then call back and I bought him another set. We have about six sets here in the airpark and several Clairity. Both are great. There is about $200 difference. Phil who owns Quiettech was associated with Clairty before starting his own company.

Quiettech

Gary,

Thanks for the info. I went to their site to check them out. After reading about the problems with the Lightspeed Mach 1, it is off my list. The Quiettech is on sale right now for $340.

Wish I could get one today! I'm heading for Missouri in the morning. I may order one so it will be here early next week just in case we get to join some fellow RV pals in Colorado during the week.

Thanks to everyone for all the info.

Clarity Aloft feature

Mike.... one other thing about the Clarity Aloft headset.. it has a built in music input jack. Something to consider.

Thanks for the link to Quiet Tech! I've been looking at lightweights for about a year now, and these look pretty impressive!

I will wait until I get back from OSH to purchase since the sale price of $340 is good thru 7/30/06. Could be a better deal at OSH, but if not I'll order when I get home.

Quiet Tech

I purchased a quiet tech in ear headset for my wife because she does not like the headset band or weight on her head. She reports it is as quiet as the Bose noise canceling headset that she used to use. The only issue is proper placement of the foam plug in the ear. If it does not get placed in the ear canal properly, it can be noisey, so reposition it until it works. She has had no difficulty doing that and is very pleased with the headset.

Tom Lewis
Granbury, Tx

I ordered one!

Well, guys, I had every intention of buying a Bose (or two) at Oshkosh in a couple of weeks. And then David Clark came out with their new headset and I was interested based on my previous 10 years of excellent service with a pair of DC H10-13.4s. But after reading this thread and doing some surfing, I decided to buy one Quiet Technologies HaloTubephone and see how I like it. My wife and I made a 1 hour 15 minute flight (each way) to see our daughter on July 4th, and she was very uncomfortable with our DCs. I think part of the discomfort was due to some stress because the weather wasn't the best VFR and she much prefers CAVU. The ceilings were 5000 feet so it wasn't scud running but I did have to zig-zag to miss some rain.

I talked directly to Phil McCandless and he gave me some of his company's history which I won't share here. If you want to hear it, I suggest you call the toll free number and get it directly from the source. I don't want to misquote him.

He indicated he was going to Oshkosh, and the $340 price would be good through Airventure. Since my wife is not going to Oshkosh with me, I plan to try the QuietTech Halo on the trip up. I will have my trusty DC H10-13.4 as a back-up. If I really like the QT, I may buy another one at Oshkosh.

I will post to this thread (or to a new thread) if anyone is interested in my opinions.

Don Hull

BTW, you will notice from my signature block that my RV-7 construction is on hold, so I will be flying the family 172.

I have had the Quiet tech headset for a couple of years, and had a love-hate relationship with it. I've found that the yellow earplugs are really only good for two or three flights, and need to be replaced frequently.

I didn't have good luck with the mic boom unless I used the plastic "halo" gizmo.

I tried the Clarity Aloft and found it to be superior for me with their foam plugs, which ar a little different.

However, all of the above changed recently when I sprung for the custom earmolds. I got a local audiologist to make impressions for me (she wouldn't let me pay her, but retail would have been maybe $25) and sent them with $35/ear to quiet tech.

Now the noise attenuation is the best I've experienced, with good audio quality and the mic is totally stable with only the earmolds. Now that summer is here it's great to be able to wear my favorite sunglasses and hat under the bubble.

I've only flown about 3 hours so far with this setup, but I've quit carrying the bulky headset as a backup (unless I have a passenger).

It may be related to the anatomy of my ears, but the custom earmolds made al the difference in the world for me.

James Freeman

Any chance of a group buy for the quietech's? Seems like there is a fair bit of interest and support for the product.

James,
Relative to the earmolds...
Your reply is interesting as McCandless discouraged me from going that way even though I was (am) open to the option of adding them if they improve performance. We'll see.
Don Hull

rv7boy said:

James,
Relative to the earmolds...
Your reply is interesting as McCandless discouraged me from going that way even though I was (am) open to the option of adding them if they improve performance. We'll see.
Don Hull

Click to expand...

Yeah, he does sort of discourage them. The impression I get is that many people don't like fooling with them as it takes a minute to get them inserted properly.

The biggest problem I was having was mic stability--I had to grab the mic boom with my hand and hold it if I wanted to communicate intelligibly. I still used the quiet tech on the summer though for comfort.

With the earmolds, at least for me, it's a whole new ballgame. The mic works fine now, and they are comfortable with great noise attenuation and comfort. YMMV

James

Initial Impressions of Halo headset

Okay, I thought I would post an initial report. It only took a couple of days to receive my headset after ordering. Unfortunately for me, I was on a business trip last week, so as of right now, I haven't flown with it yet. I did however, try it for a short taxi to the fuel pump at the other end of the airport.

When I first took the Halo headset from Quiet Technologies (www.quiettechnologies.com) out of the box, I was impressed with how incredibly light it is. Between the headset and the male plugs is a small control box with a volume control and a stereo/mono switch. The halo itself fits over the two ears, and there are two pneumatic tubes that are amply long enough to reach the ears. The instructions say do not cut the tubes; they are cut precisely to length for a reason. There is some type of metal plug or acoustic dampener inserted in each one about two inches from the ear.

If you've ever worn foam ear plugs in an industrial plant, you will have no problem inserting them in your ears...provided you do it right. I thought the instructions were a bit weak here. We were taught to gently compress and roll the ear plug and then with the opposite hand, reach behind the head and pull the ear back, opening the ear canal slightly so the plug can be inserted properly. I received three different styles of plugs...the standard size foam, a smaller size foam and a triple ringed rubber plug. I have only used the standard size foam plug so far.

Anyway...enough of that. My brief taxi test indicated the Halo headset was very comfortable and communications with both the Unicom at an FBO and with a friend in another airplane indicated communications were clear.

I will be wearing it for approximately 5.5 hours on Friday for my trip to Oshkosh. I will be taking my David Clarks as backup. If I really like the Halo, I may buy another so my wife can have one! I do plan to go by the Clarity Aloft booth and hear their sales pitch.

I won't be able to post until after I return from Oshkosh. BTW, I was told the $340 price would be the airshow price at Airventure. He only charged me $4 to ship it to me. Most places take advantage of the buyer and charge a lot more for "Shipping and Handling."

Don Hull

P.S. One other point...if you're bothered by not having a music or cell phone interface, Dr. McCandless says for a hundred bucks you can buy an interface to use with his headset and still have money in your pocket when compared with the Clarity Aloft. I may try that later; however, I do have music input on my PS Engineering intercom.

QT Halo

Guys,

Thanks to all who advised me about Quiet Technologies when my original post was to decide between Clarity Aloft and Lightspeed Mach 1. My QT Halo arrived Monday, I ordered it on Friday afternoon!

I just flew a short cross country from Hicks to Graham, Texas (sorry I couldn't find Craig at the airport!), and after getting the foam plug inserted properly, I was truly pleased!

The music interface is not an issue since I have a stereo jack for my MP3 player already installed. In the past, I have only used a cellphone once and I don't see a big need for it but you can get an adapter if it's a big issue to you.

I didn't have too big an issue with the mic, other than every time you take it off, you have to reset it's position. It bends really easy. I talked with other planes, a helicopter, and a tower controller, and all said everything sounded very good!

Gotta let my wife try them , she may want a set for herself.

One other nice feature...

Another nice feature of the "fit-in-your-ear" headsets has to do with wearing glasses. I would venture to say that nearly 100% of pilots who wear headsets also wear either glasses or sunglasses. I have noticed that even with the high-end headsets, there is a slight difference in noise with my favorite sunglasses due to the loss of seal where the earpiece frame of the glasses fits under the headset seal. We don't have that problem with the fit-in-your-ear headset.

Don Hull

PIREP: Quiet Technologies Auricomm II's

We've had two sets of Auricomm II's (in the ear lightweight headset) for about 6 months now (one for the wife, one for me.) They work very well to remove all of the high-freq noise, plus most (90%) of the low-freq noise. Sound quality is excellent. The only complaint I have is that the mic tends to slip down, but I fashioned a little plastic clip which I attach to my glasses stem which keeps the mic in place with no discernable force. Four thumbs up.

Flight Report on Quiet Technologies Halo

Okay, guys, I promised a report after my trip to Oshkosh, so here it is...

The summary is I am very pleased with the performance of my Halo headset. I have noticed that the first question from other pilots is "Do they have Electronic Noise Cancelling?" When you say, "No, but..." they don't want to hear the explanation why it's probably not necessary.

So if you are still with me and want to hear my comments about this headset, here they are:

I flew about 8 hours to and about 8 hours from Oshkosh. My longest leg was 2.8 hours, and most of my legs probably averaged 2 hours. I have worn Bose, David Clark, Lightspeed and Telex, and I believe the Quiet Technologies Halo is the most comfortable headset I have ever worn. After about 10 minutes into each flight, I can honestly say I didn't even notice I had them on. I had no problem with hearing the controllers or other pilots, and apparently everyone heard my transmissions clearly also.

While I was at Oshkosh, I went to the Clarity Aloft booth and had the demo with one of their sales people. I believe I could be happy with the performance of their headset also. I will say I was surprised that their Stereo/Mono switch was not clearly labeled. They do have a small lapel clip which the QT did not have. They do have a music/cell phone input interface, but for the show price difference ($499 vs $340) I thought the QT was the better buy...so much so that I bought a second QT at the show for my wife. She already likes it because it doesn't mess up her hair or clamp her head in a vice like the David Clarks I have in the flight bag.

I went by the Fly Market and was able to find two small clips like they use on cell phone earpieces, so I clipped the wire to my shirt pocket on my way home. The only other comment I would make is that it does take a little more time to install the ear plugs in the ears than to place typical headsets on the head, but it's maybe 10 seconds per ear.

I'm happy with my purchase. Any questions, contact me.

Safe flying!

Don Hull

I bought a pair of QT Halo's at Oshkosh as well, and I'm really looking forward to the performance of these, especially after hearing the flight report!

Great Report Don!

Don - thanks for the detailed report! I am currently mulling over the purchase of a new headset, and am trying to convince myself that the super light "in the ear" units will provide adequate hearing protection for someone who already has a hearing loss from more than thirty years of flying noisy airplanes with inadequate protection. The problem is that my flight surgeons have been drumming "Active Noise Canceling" into my head for a number of years now, and I just want to make sue that I can get an equivalent level of protection.

My surgeons have put me in contact with an expert in audiology, and he's looking into it for me - I will certainly share what I learn with the group - and I am hoping that I'll get a GO to buy one of the lightweights!

Paul

My wife has the Clarity Aloft headset and loves it. It allows her to wear her hair anyway she wants which is a big deal to her. I had the lightspeed 30 3G headset. After 2 -3 hours I have sore ears from wearing it. I am thinking about changing to the Lightspeed Mach 1 or the Clarity Aloft also. I wore my wifes Clarity Aloft headset yesterday on a breakfast run. My initial impression was that the engine nose in the rv-4 was a lot louder and I ended up throttling back to reduce the sound. I may not have had the earplugs seated deep enough or correctly though because my wife says it works as good as her ANR headset. Being able to wear a brimed hat to block the sun is definately a plus with either the Mach 1 or the Clarity Aloft headset. Will test again next weekend.
Regards,
Tom Velvick
RV-4

Brand new one for sale.

I have a clarity aloft HS that I bought yesterday at OSH. I decided, what did I have to loose with their 30 day money back program. Well, I guess I don't like things in my ears.... I really don't care for it. I flew from OSH back to ATL today, and I guess you could say it wasn't my cup of tea.

It works perfectly as designed, I just don't like the feeling of the "things" in my ear.

So, if someone wants a second (or a first) for the OSH price. I'll see it for exactly what I paid for it, plus *actual* shipping.

Drop me a private email if interested, and I'll provide specifics.

aadamson at high rf dot com

I used the demo pair of ear buds today so there are still 12 of the factory originals in the case as well.

QT Halo

Guys,

Thanks for all the reports and reviews, etc.
I have flown several times now with my QT Halo. No problems encountered when solo and absolutely no need for ANR - the earplug does a better job than most ANR's on today's market.
The only problem I encountered is when my wife went with me. She's using a Lightspeed Cross Country ANR. Every time she spoke it about blew my ears off.
The "volume" control on the Halo is a potentiometer that appears to not only control the sound level to your ears, it also increases and decreases the mic gain.
I had to turn it way down so we could talk over the intercom. Then, when I transmitted to the other RV's flying with us, they all said it sounded like I was way at the end of a tube. They could hear me but it was very faint.
The solution, for us anyway, was to turn down the gain on my wife's headset to the lowest setting. We flew yesterday morning and all worked fine.
Another solution would have been to order my wife her own QT Halo. I tried but they were at Oshkosh.
I guess I missed the sale price!

Mike, I think the sale price at QT is good thru today if you can get a hold of them or send in an order over the internet...

QT Sale Price

Chad,

According to their website, the sale ended July 30th.
I'm going to call and see if I get someone. The message last week said they wouldn't be back in the office until Aug 3rd or 4th.

Halos

Have about 6 hours on my Halos now. I put 6 hours on Mach 1s and own 20 3Gs, and David Clarks. Most comfortable and quiet hearing protection I have used. It does take some tuning with more than one headset in the plane.

Probably specific to your ears. I have small ear channels that are deep set and none of the Mach 1s earpieces fit well. Since they did not fit solidly, the mic moved around continually. Nice units though.

mrreddick said:

The "volume" control on the Halo is a potentiometer that appears to not only control the sound level to your ears, it also increases and decreases the mic gain.

Click to expand...

I asked Phil McCandless of Quiet Tech if the volume control changes the mic gain. His answer; "Mic gain has nothing to do with the volume control. Totally separate circuits."

Finley Atherton 9A

ANR vs. Passive Attenuation

OK. This is a very timely thread for me as I am also looking into a new headset acquisition. I recently decided that I would NOT be buying an Active Noise Reduction (ANR) system such as Bose or Lightspeed. Rather, I will be looking at the passive noise attenuation systems such as the Clarity Aloft or Quiet Technologies. In no particular order, the performance measures I used for my assessment are:

1. NOISE REDUCTION
I want to protect my hearing and be able to communicate clearly. ANR, as the name implies, uses active (i.e. needs power) electronics to sample and cancel the ambient noise in the cockpit. The cancellation effect is about 20 to 24 dB in a fairly narrow spectral band of 40Hz to 250 Hz. This low frequency region happens to be where most of the cockpit noise is generated, so that's a good thing. Most of the sound energy from human speech is in the 100 to 500 hz region, so the low frequency region is really where ANR systems shine. To illustrate this, if you have a pair of ANR headsets or have tried them on, the thing you notice when you apply the ANR power is that the low frequency rumble fades away. Now you know why. But because nothing comes for free in the world of active electronics, there is very little cancellation outside of the ANR band. In fact in some regions of the spectrum, the noise levels are actually increased by a phenomena known as "overshoot".

Passive Attenuation is better, in my view, because it provides significant (25 to 45 dB) wide band (from 100 to 4000 Hz) noise reduction. It requires no power source, and does not boost noise in any region of the hearing spectrum. The passive systems use a foam earplug to block the noise out. The plug is attached to a sound transducer (like those used in hearing aids) and has a sound channel (Hole) through the center of the plug to allow the sound to reach your ear. Here are the spec numbers from the two passive systems I am looking at:

Clarity Aloft
35 - 45 dB between 400 HZ and 4 KHz

Quiet Technologies
100Hz = 30 dB
125Hz = 30 dB
250Hz = 32 dB
500Hz = 35 dB
1KHz = 35 dB
2KHz = 38 dB
4KHz = 42 dB

So in the low freq regions the passive systems provide about 10 dB more attenuation than the ANR systems. In case you don't know, the dB or decibel system is logarithmic scale for measuring power ratios.

dB = 10log(Power1/Power2)

In simple non-math terms this means that 3dB equals TWICE the sound energy difference and 10 dB equals TEN TIMES the sound energy difference. So 10 dB is very significant.

2. PRICE
The Bose X is three times the price of the Quiet Technologies - or a 4.8 dB cost ratio 'nuf said there.

3. RELIABILITY
ANR = Batteries (Or Aircraft power), Active Electronics, High Sensitivity sampling microphones
Passive = None of the above

4. COMFORT
In analogous terms
ANR Headset = Football Helmet
Passive Earpiece = VAF Ball Cap

For me the decision is a simple one. And being an engineer, I like simple when I can get it!

YMMV

QT Halo

Finley Atherton said:

I asked Phil McCandless of Quiet Tech if the volume control changes the mic gain. His answer; "Mic gain has nothing to do with the volume control. Totally separate circuits."

Finley Atherton 9A

Click to expand...

If this is true, then I definitely need to send mine back. As I previously stated, if I have the volume up high, the mic sounds great to everyone I'm flying with. If I turn the volume down, the mic transmit sounds like I'm very, very far away. The volume control on the headset shouldn't control the volume of the mic output, but it does. No bs, just the facts!

"Flight, Surgeon - You have a Go!"

I guess the Flight Surgeons have been convinced, so I'm gonna give the QT's a try! I now wish I'd tried them on at SWRFI a few months ago - one thing I have learned wearing light weight headsets in Mission Control throughout my career is that what fits on one person comfortably just flat out doesn't work for someone else. Of course we are not at all concerned about noise, but how they fit on the ear, head, glasses is all very personal. It seems like every time we buy a new batch of headsets, they are slightly different - and that's OK, because people keep trying one until they get one they like. Mine is a Plantronics from the Apollo era, and clips to my glasses. For some reason, the common "Star Sets" that fit over your ear just don't fit over my ear....

The info posted on this thread was incredibly helpful, and JoeG's tipped the scale I think...thanks guys!

Paul

Lightspeed specs from the 3G site:
28-30dB of Active Cancellation
12-22dB of Passive Attenuation
retail $600.

From their chart, it looks like they have about 30dB of active attentuation in the 100-500Hz band. Add on 10dB of passive and that comes out to 40dB. Just another data point.

Personally, I don't like in-ear hearing protection. I don't like the pressure in my ears. However, bulky headsets aren't so great either. I'm going to give the QT set up a try when I finish the RV.

ear plugs

I purchased a set of the Quiet Technologies Halo headsets at AirVenture. So far I have about five hours with them. The earplugs are not a problem for me. They are much softer than the old plugs I used to used for industrial noise. After a few minutes you do forget you are wearing them. I have had to turn down both my radio and intercom. If my wife likes them I just might have a pair of Lightspeed ANRs for sale.

Tom Martin
EVO1 tapered wing rocket

Davepar said:

From their chart, it looks like they have about 30dB of active attentuation in the 100-500Hz band. Add on 10dB of passive and that comes out to 40dB. Just another data point.

Click to expand...

Hmmm, from the chart on the link you included, it looks like the 30 3G actually has only 12 dB of cancellation at 500 hertz. But even if what you said were true, you can't just add passive attenuation and active cancellation together to get a "total" reduction. To the casual observer, it would seem to make sense to do this, but in reality its an apples and oranges comparison. This is because the Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) system is used by manufacturers as a standard method to establish the "effective" noise reduction of a given Noise Protection Device. In other words, it is the measure, in decibels, of how well a hearing protector reduces noise, as specified by the Environmental Protection Agency; the higher the number, the greater the noise reduction.

When dual protectors are used, the combined NRR provides approximately 5 decibels more than the higher rated of the two products. For example, using standard ear plugs (NRR of 29 decibels) with standard ear muffs (NRR 27) would provide a Noise Reduction Rating of 34 decibels.

The reasons go beyond the number of words Doug has allowed in a single post, but in essence it's because of the way the human ear was designed. It turns out that a given level of sound energy has different impacts on human hearing on the basis of its frequency. Our ears are not uniformly responsive across the entire audio spectrum. This is pretty obvious if you think about it, since we can't hear at the same frequencies that dogs might be able to. The human ear can tolerate about 18 to 20 dB more noise at 100 Hz (without hearing damage) than it can at 1000 Hertz. Again, this is because our ear is frequency sensitive. So, since a passive NRR is a normalized measure of cancellation at eight specific frequencies (From 125 Hz to 8KHz) and since ANR performance is usually given on the basis of single peak frequency response points, they cannot be simply added together.

If you really want to know all the gore and details you can start at the OSHA site: http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=9737

Bottom line: do your own study, pick your own poison, and live with the outcome. I have done that, and I like passive attenuation.

After I posted that I started to wonder if adding them together was the right way to go. Reminds me of an Andy Rooney segment where he added together a bunch of different way to improve fuel economy. I think he ended up with a savings of 110%, meaning his car should be producing fuel instead of consuming it!

Thanks for the correction.

New Fuel Efficient Math

Sounds like great formula! Now if I could only make the math come out so that my RV would actually earn cash rather than burn cash