The International Cessna^® 170 Association

thanks walt
all these things that are pretty neat
i have ignored all these years!
dave

Before the trip to Kelowna last summer I picked up a Flightcom Classic ANR headset from ebay for about a 100 bucks less than the best price I could find retail and am very pleased with it. I had to try the ANR in my noisy diesel pickup before the trip. It just amazes me how much difference the ANR makes! Frank reminded me before the trip how I whined about the David Clarks on the way to Dearborn. (Thanks Frank)
On the return trip we were both getting tired of our headsets on the 3+ hour legs and swapped headsets for a while. I think the Flightcom is very comparable to the Lightspeed in comfort and noise attenuation and can probably be bought for less money.

Don't know that this is the best price but the flightcom can be found here

http://www.tropicaero.com/10Expand.asp? ... LASSIC-ANR

it is hard to believe that
the first several hundred
hours that i flew were
w/o ear protection of anykind.
and tryng to listen the
the speaker in the cabin
was pretty exciting in
an old airplane.
dave

Well it was fun to look at this old post. Hey George we agree on this one. Lightspeed!! Now four years old the Y connection to the earpiece broke on Marcys 15XL's. Lightspeed shipped another "newer materials" version no charge. Great Company.

170C wrote:George, eloborate on the leather ear pieces on the Lightspeed. I have either the 15 or 20 (can't remember which) and they have the soft foam earpieces (also the pad on top). Noise reduction is really nice & I imagine the best Lightspeed model is even better. I have had to replace the ear pad's once (Lightspeed did for free) as the thin covering began to deteriorate after about 2 yrs. Is the leather as comfortable as the foam? I want to borrow a set of Bose sometime to see how their comfort level is after 2-3 hours. Lightspeeds are OK, but do get uncomfortable in 3r hour.

Well, Frank, as you already know, the original Lightspeed ear muffs are subject to the thin "leatherette" coating to deteriorate and begin flaking. LIghtspeed is indeed pretty nice about freely replacing them, but after 3 times, I began to feel badly about always asking them to send me another set (they've been so nice, and the leatherette not really being anything but cosmetic anyway....)
Then one day I noticed their earpiece/cushions for their 3G headsets are genuine leather...not imitation... direct replacements....and for $20 ea. I ordered a couple sets. I believe they will be much more durable.
(They are slightly less bulky, but their finish is very nice, they're a direct replacement...snap in just like the others did, ... And after we flew all the way to Canada/Vancouver/and back....they worked out just fine, although they are slightly less thick, they otherwise seemed to work somewhat better (in my opinion) due to the fact I always felt the originals were just a wee-bit too bulky and caused just ever-so-too-much "clamping" pressure on my big head. I like the leather 3G ones better and expect they'll last much better and avoid the little "flaking" problem.

I tried the Bose and the new David Clark X-11's last week. Here's my observations. I bought the Bose first and I was thrilled with the light weight and how well they electronically cancelled the noise. As mentioned earlier, they do not offer much passive noise reduction should you find yourself with dead batteries. The other problem I had with the Bose is when I would push the transmit button it was as if the microphone suddenly picked up all the wind noise in the cabin. It wouldn't do that when just using the cabin intercom to talk to passengers. This may be a problem with the radio in my plane since this same thing happens on two other ENC type headsets, but not my standard headsets. But for the $1000 it was unacceptable, so I sent them back and ordered the David Clark X11's for $775 delivered (Chief). They are just as comfortable, provide better passive NR (but not great), just as much electronic NR, and the transmitting problem went away. The best feature is the built in jack for plugging in a cell phone or music player. Another bonus is they fold up smaller than any other headset I've seen. Still a lot of money, but I think they are worth it.

I have 2 sets called Headsets out of Tx. Bought them at Oshkosh. I like them for the price.

John

Iowa,

I probably spent the better part of a day at Oshkosh comparing all the different headsets. I first bought a Lightspeed 20-3G and then bought a 15XLC for the passenger headset. For the amount of difference in money there is little difference in performance that I can tell. But I am partially tone deaf from being on the Marksmanship team in the military. I have a 7AC with on 0-235 and also a 172. I use which ever one I happen to grab and am happy. I sure couldn't see spending several hunder dollars more for the Bose. I tried them also!!! But I sure couldn't hear enough to say they were worth nearly tripple the money.

I think I got mine from either Joe pilot or Pilot Mall. But Marv Golden did have a better deal on them via internet but I was at Oshkosh and had money burning a hole in my pocket.LOL

Keith

i bought the pacific coast ..pca anr headset for about $300...has the cell phone plug and auto shut off....hard to beat for the price.
jeff

iowa wrote:are the bose headsets
worth all that money?
dave

In my opinion, YES. I had a set of Lightspeed 20XL's before buying the Bose. The Lightspeeds are a very good headset (I've kept them for a backup), but the Bose is much lighter and more comfortable after 4-5 hours of flying.