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Need headset suggestions...

airguy

Unrepentant fanboy
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So I've got Bose X's in the 172 (still building my 9A), and my wife is wanting something lighter and smaller, she saw a picture of my cousin using Halo earbuds and really wants to try those, but they are not available in ANR versions (not surprising, really no place to put the microphone in the earbud). My question is this, for those of you that are using them - are they sufficient without the ANR or am I stuck with the bulkier full-cup design?
 
I have the clarity aloft in ear headset.

For me personally the clarity's are better than the Bose. I have had friends with the Bose and they have tried to convert me. Isn't going to happen. For me the clarity's are quieter, and less painful to wear.

I have changed from the supplied foam ear pieces to the triple tree aftermarket ones (don't remember whose). I did this mostly for longevity, the foams are more comfortable, and a touch quieter, but get dirty and don't last as well since I use them at work.

It is definitely a preference.
Mark
 
I find my Halos to be quite a bit quieter than my non-ANR David Clarks, but I haven't used them in an RV or compared them directly to, say, Bose or Lightspeed ANR. I will tell you they're a whole lot more comfortable and a lot better sounding than any other headset I've used.
 
Halos

Greg- My wife and I both prefer Halos to Lightspeed ANRs. At least as quiet and much more comfortable. We use Flents brand foam ear plugs from walmart- about $7 for a jug of them. I use DRDT2 and #30 dimple dies to punch the hole, ice pick to open, then goop to glue tube in place. Easy, cheap and comfortable.
 
So I've got Bose X's in the 172 (still building my 9A), and my wife is wanting something lighter and smaller, she saw a picture of my cousin using Halo earbuds and really wants to try those, but they are not available in ANR versions (not surprising, really no place to put the microphone in the earbud). My question is this, for those of you that are using them - are they sufficient without the ANR or am I stuck with the bulkier full-cup design?

I have just changed over from the Bose to the clarity aloft and my first inner ear set. I had always had the best in ANR. There is no question that the inner ear dub is more comfortable than a headset particularly for long runs. I find that the sound without ANR is only a change in the pitch I hear, not the loudness of it. The ANR's do a very good job of low frequency. But not so much with high. SO I find with the buds that I hear the low frequency now, but not so much the high. So its been a pitch tradeoff. But the amount of sound is the same. So net net, I prefer the buds now. Also all the headsets Ive owned, Bose & lightspeed and others, the mic cant hold up to the G's. My new Clarity's do. The biggest downside to the buds is fiddling with the foam bud activity in and out of the ear. Recommend you borrow a pair and give them a try.
 
I have both clarity aloft and Bose. IMO Bose are quieter, but the CA are pretty quiet. There is absolutely no comparison in comfort--CA are awesome. It is like you aren't wearing a headset. I don't use Bose unless I am in my CFI's plane for training.

Also, the CA sets are 1/2 the price of a Bose headset.

I can't say anything about other in-the-ear headsets.

cheers
ken
 
Hey Greg,
It was hard for me to believe that plugs could be as quiet as my Zulu 2's but I had to try. My ears have gotten old and ring a lot so I want to protect them. I flew VFR one day and removed my headset and tried regular ear plugs. The ear plugs were quieter so that is what sold me. You should try that experiment.
Plug fit is of the most importance. I now use the halo's.
 
QT Halo. I've had mine for almost a month and they really shine on longer flights. The microphone is of outstanding quality and the depth of sound you hear is amazing compared to conventional headsets. On my first flight with them I had to crank the audio panel volume way down. They are much better at delivering the audio to your ear.
 
clarity aloft allows me to wear my straw hat in flight, try that with clamp types! No batteries to mess with is a huge plus. Three years and no regrets.
 
Been using Halo's for the last six years and relegated the Bose to a lowly passenger headset. Because the earpieces fit in your ear canal there is no advantage to having them ANR, hence no one makes them that way. I find them to be a lot more comfortable for long periods plus when you wear a hat and sunglasses you aren't breaking the seal like was happening on my Bose. I would give the Bose only a very slight edge on cutting down on the low frequency engine drone but that is about it.
 
Clarity Aloft

I bought some to try and really like them, light, cool, and small. I adapted to Shure rubber inserts instead of the foam.

I popped for another set for my wife and she really likes them with the foam tips. It eliminated her "headset hair". And she said her earrings didn't get "smoonched" and her sunglasses fit better. There you go... all you need to know.

Don
 
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Clarity Aloft...

Any interference or comfort problems when wearing glasses (sun or otherwise)?

==dave==
 
I have a hearing deficiency in the 4-8000hz range. Years ago (~30) I found a military headset (helicopter) that was crystal clear for me. In looking at the mil specs for headsets, they had/have a ~10dB increase in the delivery in that range to enhance the understanding of vowels and consonants i.e. clarity of the spoken word. I have never found a GA headset that was it's equal.

Do any of the in-the-ear headsets have this frequency specific delivery curve (or similar)?

BTW: there are some earbuds ( not aviation headsets) now that are ANR, but with the high attenuation of the earplugs, they may not offer much added benefit.
 
I had an opportunity to try Bose X (sorry, not A20's, they were just coming out on the market at the time), David Clark H10-13.4's and Quiet Technologies Halos in a side-by-side comparison in our aircraft.

While I've always been a big fan of D-C's, they came in dead last in terms of noise attenuation and readability of the radio, not to mention comfort for the wearer.

The Bose and the Halo's were very close in noise attenuation, although at different frequencies. Each one seemed to pass a slightly different band of aircraft noises to the user's ear.

From a comfort standpoint, there simply is no comparison. If uyou can wear earplugs, the Halo's are definitely the way to go. I thought it was a big load of, well, you know what, when people told me that I'd eventually forget the Halos were on my head and that I'd try to climb out of the airplane with them on. Yeah... riiiiight! Actually, it didn't take very long before I did just that and got brought up short by the cord. Yes, the Halos are that comfortable.
 
Are the Halo's available with the Lemo jack connection used by panel-powered headsets?
 
LEMO plugs would be redundant since the Halo is a passive (non-powered) headset. I can understand that if your aircraft has LEMO plugs you would want your new headset to plug right into the aircraft. You will need to source an adapter plug to allow your standard headset to plug into the aircraft's LEMO connections. The better method would be to install a second set of standard plugs in your aircraft so both types of headset connections can be accommodated.
 
Halo report

Later middle aged guy here, little hearing loss. I find them very comfortable. Wear them under glasses, and beneath a hat. I had them shift around on my head till I got used to "bending" the headset to fit my big oval head.

The halo is good on background noise as long as you get the earbuds situated in the ear canal as they suggest. I put a mic muff over the mic to cut down on cabin noise on trasmit from my RV-7a. I have had some problems with the halo's slipping around, and not being able to tell where the mic is pointed with the muff on it. The mic boom is very "wiggley" and can twist easily. A couple of times people at the local airport have said I was hard to hear, and I found the mic was pointed 180 away from my mouth because the boom twisted.

I have now marked the side with the mic on it, and that has seemed to help. Just one person's opinion.
 
I've had Halo's for several years now. I use the rubber tips because they're just a lot less hassle. Pop them in and go. They don't work quite as well as the foam ear plugs but they work well, better than most ANRs I've used. No going back for me.
 
Halo vs Clarity Aloft

Hi Guys

I know I will probably start a Headset ''Primer '' war but I'm really thinking of buying one of these headset to use at work since like everybody else here I'm not getting any younger and I'm starting to have a slight buzz in my left ear ( wearing my headset on the right at work ) which is really bugging me.

So for the present users, which one would you recommend...

A Clarity Aloft or a Quiet Tech Halo headset...this is to be used in a B-777 (Not as Noisy as an RV but pretty loud at M.85..)

Thank you for your time

Bruno
[email protected]
 
Hi Guys

I know I will probably start a Headset ''Primer '' war but I'm really thinking of buying one of these headset to use at work since like everybody else here I'm not getting any younger and I'm starting to have a slight buzz in my left ear ( wearing my headset on the right at work ) which is really bugging me.

So for the present users, which one would you recommend...

A Clarity Aloft or a Quiet Tech Halo headset...this is to be used in a B-777 (Not as Noisy as an RV but pretty loud at M.85..)

Thank you for your time

Bruno
[email protected]

I use my Clarities at work. My airline has it in the GOM that TSO compliant headsets are required. To my knowledge Clarity Aloft is the only one with a TSO option. You may want to check your book. With the Clarities it is nice on the long quiet crossings to use the iPod input!

I usually have to keep one ear out in order to hear the other guy. Only a few of them will use the intercom, usually just the ones who use their own headsets. A lot of guys use the speaker above FL180, drives me nuts.

One thing on the Clarities. The wire to the ear bud is rather thin. Don't twist the wire when squishing the foam to insert into your ear (one reason I switched to the rubber triple trees) or you will have some issues. I have been very careful with mine and in 4 years have only had to send them for warranty repair once. The company treated me right, my only expense was shipping to them.

Mark
 
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QT halos for us

We bought one to try in the RV7a and pretty much immediately bought the 2nd one. Comfort is great, they also do a great job with the noise suppression. Biggest thing I noticed was how much better I hear the radio, both intercom and ATC. Can keep the volume much lower now.

It takes a little more time to put them on but training passengers to insert ear plugs is much easier than i expected. I also like the light weight and small size for storage and cable organization.
 
One factor to bear in mind for long term hearing loss risk: the Lightspeed and other brands of anr attenuate low frequencies well. It is not intuitive that the high frequency losses we incur as we age are from loud low frequency noise mostly. Comfort now may carry a high price later. Your mileage may vary and cost too.
 
Ditto

Only thing I will add is that it takes time to install the foam plugs so when you are in a hurry this can be a pain. My longest leg was 4.5 hours and I never felt I wanted to take off the headset. Also if the plugs are cold it takes more time for them to expand in your ears.

As far as TSO, I am pretty sure Halo has a TSO model.

Cheers
 
One factor to bear in mind for long term hearing loss risk: the Lightspeed and other brands of anr attenuate low frequencies well. It is not intuitive that the high frequency losses we incur as we age are from loud low frequency noise mostly. Comfort now may carry a high price later. Your mileage may vary and cost too.

So with this statement in mind, what do you recommend? If protection was the highest priority and comfort, the second, what's best? Passive cup, ANR cup, ANR bud, passive bud???
 
So I've got Bose X's in the 172 (still building my 9A), and my wife is wanting something lighter and smaller, she saw a picture of my cousin using Halo earbuds and really wants to try those, but they are not available in ANR versions (not surprising, really no place to put the microphone in the earbud). My question is this, for those of you that are using them - are they sufficient without the ANR or am I stuck with the bulkier full-cup design?

I went a different route. I went to an audiologist and had custom moulds made of my ears and had custom ear pieces made. They are a hard plastic substance, probably some sort of epoxy. The ones I have are made by Westone I think, intended for gigging musicians. I have vents in mine, I would not go that route in the future as the tiny little vent hole lets in a lot of noise and its not really needed as a jaw waggle will relieve any pressure. Once I blocked up the vent hole with a little epoxy they are very, very good, very comfortable. They were also quite expensive.

I simply use an adapter to go from aviation jack to the standard 3.5mm jack.

FWIW I built my own mic boom from a coat hangar and an old lightspeed mic I had laying around.
 
Got some of each

I've got a set of Lightspeed Zulu's, Clarity Aloft Buds & QT Halo Buds. I seem to fly mostly with the Zulu's due to being able to throw them on quickly & no fiddling with the foam. When I do use the Buds (Longer Trips), I reach for the Clarity Aloft 100% of the time. MUCH better build quality & components compared to the QT Halo's. Halo's feel like a childs toy next to the Clarity Aloft. You do get what you pay for between to two bud brands.
 
Zulu is my choice. Long term hearing protection, outstanding factory support and light. Check out Eneloop AA batts from Sanyo also. They power our light speeds. Very low self discharge characteristics.
 
Are the Halo's available with the Lemo jack connection used by panel-powered headsets?

Yes.

The audiologist who makes and sells the Halos will solder the LEMO plug on for a nominal fee.

Even though they are passive, this eliminates the weight and bulk of the normal connectors. As light as the headset is, the connectors seem comparatively huge and heavy...
 
CA OR HALO

Hi Guys

Thanks a lot for all the replies, it is greatly appreciated.

Mark: I presently used a Plantronics single ear headsets with custom moulds and I sure would love to use both ear's plugs as it is the main reason why I contemplating the use of the CA or the Halo's...I wanna reduce the noise to my left ear as much as I can.

I guess I'm gonna have to train the guys I fly with..Most of them are using the compagny supplied Telex 750 so it shouldn't be a problem to get them to use the intercom..

I'll check with our Flt Ops department to see if only TSO's headsets are allowed..

I'll probably go with the CA for built quality and TSO if required..I also might try their 30 days trial period...it will give me the time to try them on long flights..

Thanks again everyone

Bruno
 
Just got a reply from Quiet Technologies. They have no TSO options.

Mark

They also don't have an option for plugging into the Lemo plugs used on panel-powered headsets, they only have the standard 2-plug configuration. I've got both in the 172, but only Lemo's installed in the 9A. I don't have the top forward skin on yet, so this would be the time to put in the standard plugs as well, I was just hoping to avoid that.
 
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