Bose A20 Headsets - Pirep

I have two Bose A20 headsets. They are both bluetooth and both have had the wire cables break in the last two months. I bought these about two years ago, and when they are working they are really great. I love them.

Problem is about two months back, my pilot headset started dropping out on audio calls from the radio. I switched to the passenger set, and finished my flight. On the ground I tested both pilot and passenger headset and found the wires in the cable were bad. I called Bose, and they shipped out a replacement cable for free ($295 to buy on their site). They are under warranty for five years. When I got the new cable, I installed it and shipped the bad one back to Bose. Didn't think to much about it.

Last weekend the exact same thing happened to the passenger headset. Bose is sending me a new cable for that one as well. I am happy that Bose is fixing the problem by sending out the replacement cables. But I am worried about the reliability of these going forward.

Is anyone else having issues with the Bose A20 headset cabling?

Thanks for the heads-up Peter. I use the A-20 and am very happy with them. I really try to baby them as they are so doggone expensive. Hope this is a one-off happening; but doing the same thing on your 2nd set is troubling.

Please keep us posted if you learn "why" this has happened.

Are you wrapping the cables around the headset?

How are you storing them?

I used to work at a flight school where the rental headsets were constantly having cables replaced because renters would wrap the cables around the headset very tightly after using them, thinking they were making them nice and tidy for the next guy. In actuality, all the hard tugging, wrapping and twisting of the cable breaks the copper strands in the cable until they fail.

Happened a lot.

Just something to check.

Flybipe said:

How are you storing them?

I used to work at a flight school where the rental headsets were constantly having cables replaced because renters would wrap the cables around the headset very tightly after using them, thinking they were making them nice and tidy for the next guy. In actuality, all the hard tugging, wrapping and twisting of the cable breaks the copper strands in the cable until they fail.

Happened a lot.

Just something to check.

Click to expand...

I think he's on to something here Peter. I have a couple of old sets 8 years old still performing very well.

How are you storing them?

I used to work at a flight school where the rental headsets were constantly having cables replaced because renters would wrap the cables around the headset very tightly after using them, thinking they were making them nice and tidy for the next guy. In actuality, all the hard tugging, wrapping and twisting of the cable breaks the copper strands in the cable until they fail.

Happened a lot.

Just something to check.

Click to expand...

Interesting thought. My passenger set get put in a bag when not in use. The cord is not tightly wrapped, but it is spiraled down the middle. I will pay closer attention to storing without stress on the cable. Thanks for the tip.

Do you take the headsets out of the plane? The 135 operation I fly for, we use the same headsets and leave them in the plane. They're flown everyday, 2-6 times a day, 7 days a week. Never a single issue. They replaced the older X's that lasted years.

Fwiw the QC-15's with a ufly mike are awesome as well, cheaper, but don't work if the battery dies.

Do you take the headsets out of the plane? The 135 operation I fly for, we use the same headsets and leave them in the plane. They're flown everyday, 2-6 times a day, 7 days a week. Never a single issue. They replaced the older X's that lasted years.

Fwiw the QC-15's with a ufly mike are awesome as well, cheaper, but don't work if the battery dies.

Click to expand...

No, the pilot set stays plugged in all the time. The passenger set will get put away on occasion. My latest thought is the power / battery assembly is fairly large weight on the cable. When I am flying, the cable is clipped to my shoulder harness. At landing I unclip the cable, thinking I wanted to keep it clear of the harness as I get in and out of the plane. That leaves the weight of the power / battery assembly pulling the cable down. I have the plugs in the middle of seat back, so when the cable is not clipped on it is pulling down on the cable. The Bose A20 plugs are on the right in this photo. While the passenger cable is being shipped to me, I pulled an old headset out of the closet for the passenger side.

Maybe I need to fabricate some sort of harness to hold the power assembly so it does not put stress on the cable?

There is something annoying about forking over $1000+ for a headset and it not be robust enough to hold the connections together for typical use they see.