I originally bought an R25XL for me and R20XL for my pax (both reconditioned from Lightspeed). I was happy with them for the most part. When the headband on my R25XL broke a few months ago I decided to splurge and trade up to the Thirty-3G. Lightspeed gave me credit for the R25XL and I did the trade-up.
The Thirty-3G crackled on takeoff. The noise level in my plane (while I haven't quantified it...I want to at some point) is ridiculous on takeoff. Literally on every takeoff, for the first 10 to 20 seconds, I would hear crackling.
And to be honest, I couldn't tell any difference from the R25XL and the Thirty-3G...or the R20XL for that matter!! Friends swore by the Thirty-3G and told me when they switched they noticed a huuuge difference. Different airplanes, different noise levels.
Anyway, I called Lightspeed and told 'em about the crackling. They had me send the headset back to them for a modification that they make, some sort of "tuning" for extremely loud environments. When I got the headset back it had new 25XL ear muffs on it (as well as the original Thirty-3G ear muffs in the bag). The crackling problem was gone.
There may be a sliiiiiiiiiiiight difference in noise reduction betwen the older models and the 3G line. It's not night and day in my case. I repeat...in my case. My plane is LOUD. No interior.
I'm happy with Lightspeed as a company, and I'm mostly happy with their products. Just wanted to give an objective data point.
