Sennheiser S1 VS Bose A20

[fixtor]

Has anyone been able to compare the the Sennheiser S1 to the Bose A20? I still have my 9 volt powered Bose X and it has saved my hearing (8000+ on this headset alone). I was going to buy the A20 but have learned you cannot BT music to the A20 (just patch cord).

[eocvictim]

Only 1 person has the s1's at work so far but loves them, still early days however. There was a group buy of the a20's and there have been more than a few breaking within the first months. Some have already sent them back multiple times, while Bose have been very good about quick repairs and no claim resistance, it's a poor standard for a $1300 headset. Considering you get more and they cost less the s1's would be my pick.

[NOSIGN]

I prefer the x to the a20. It feels like the a20 has a tighter clamping force despite it's specs on paper. That's the deal breaker for me. The a20 sounds marginally quieter and the phone function is good but the control box is bulky and so needs to be clipped to your pants or similar in order for it to not weigh down the earphone.

I have the privilege of chosing to use the x or the a20, and I'm going to stick with the x.

I haven't tried the Sennheiser.

[Howard Hughes]

Funnily I prefer the A20 over the X, I find it considerably quieter and didn't really notice the additional clamping force, I guess it's all those years wearing DC's!;)

Sennheiser have always been my headphone of choice for home use, I better look up the S1.:ok:

[kingRB]

I was going to buy the A20 but have learned you cannot BT music to the A20 (just patch cord).

funny you mention that. BT music / audio would chew through the batteries at an alarming rate. Not sure what batteries Bose used to come up with the claim of 40 to 45 hours of use between battery changes, but I never got close to that. BT use kills them even quicker. I have the A20 and actually prefer having the 3.5mm jack for that reason.

[baswell]

You left the Lightspeed Zulu 2 off your list!

I tried all of them at Oshkosh (the vendors set up a sound booth so you can actually reasonably test the noise reduction) and in order: (1 is best)

1) S1
2) Zulu 2
3) A20

So the most expensive one ends up on the bottom of my list. Hmmm...

So which one did I end up buying? The $500 Clarity Aloft in-ear headset. No headband giving me more canopy clearance, no big ear cups means no sweat and they are really, really quiet without batteries. Sound sweet with music plugged in too.

That said, if I flew more than a couple of hours a week (like you seem to do, as an understatement) I would probably choose a traditional headset, most likely the S1 or Zulu 2.

[Jay Bo]

Good thing about lightspeeds is that you can send them your old headset and take advantage of their trade up program. Saved me $300 on the Zulu 2:ok:
A bit better deal than trying to sell a headset on Ebay