When I bought my plane, I ran out and bought two Bose A20 headsets. Now after flying with friends in their planes and using their head sets, I think I may have gone a bit overboard. There’s lots of less expensive options that will be just fine. But you’ll want to consider how noisy the plane is that you plan to fly and how comfortable the headset is on your head. By the way, we never used headsets when I was learning to fly - Grumman TR2, Cessna 150, 152, 172, Piper Arrow, just the overhead speakers In the military, it was earplugs and a helmet, no noise canceling. At the airline, I always used the cheap onboard headset. I’m sure a young guy who’s always used noise canceling will have a very different opinion.