David Clark 10-XX ANR Upgrade
 

All previous threads on this are about 5 years old.

I'm looking at upgrading my old David Clark 10-30 headset to ANR (It appears one speaker my be U/S anyway).

Anyone upgraded lately. If so what ANR kit did you use (there are a few different brands out there).

New ANR headsets are around the $1400 mark which is a bit steep IMHO.

Hopefully The ANR kits are better and less expensive than five years ago.

Which ANR kit and where to buy it from.

BTW, I'm in Aus.

Cheers

Might pay to poke around reddit aviation for some advice on that one.

I bought an ANR kit for my DC 10-40 from "Headsets Inc" about ten years ago and it works really well.

index

Thanks, I have since read the posts on reddit (or at least the posts I'm able to without signing up).

Cheers

That was one of the sites I was looking at.

Surprised there is no reply from someone more recent than 10 years ago.

It appears the ANR upgrade would cost around $320, Whereas I could buy a brand new Pilot PA18-50T for around $450. That may be the reason for so few ANR upgrades for David Clarks nowadays.

Certainly seems a waste having a DC10-30 sitting in the cupboard, but perhaps that is where it should stay.

Thanks for the replies.

Cheers

Looks like they're quoting USD 169 for the DC ANR upgrade kit, which is about AUD 220.

It was a good deal back in the day, but I guess the ANR electronics are more common and cheaper now.

I want to get a pair of new ANR headsets for my plane, but it's a hard choice because there are so many good options.

One thing I did observe recently is that when you have an ANR and non-ANR head sets plugged into the same intercom, the background tone from the ANR (Lighspeed) is deafening on the non-ANR headset.

I was planning long term to upgrade the DC10-30 and buy a new ANR headset.
Interesting you say ANR and non ANR dont play well together. So may have to invest in two ANRs.

The DC ANR upgrade is still $169USD, add the proper cable, auto power off box and postage and its around $320AUD.
The Pilot PA18-50T is around $450-$470AUD delivered.

Anyone know which is more comfortable The DC10-30 or PILOT PA18-50T.

The Bose A20s look nice, but $1400AUD. I think they are taking pilots for a ride. Surely they wouldnt actually cost near that to manufacture. Where are the Bose A20s made?

Pete
Thanks for your post.

Cheers.

I would run as far away as possible from brands like Pilot.

A lot of these are cheap look a likes of the original David Clarks. I don't have experience with the ANR versions but I saw plenty of "dead" cheap look a likes a few years ago to know I wouldn't bother with them.

You get what you pay for. An ANR headset that only costs a few dollars more than an ANR upgrade kit probably speaks volumes about its quality or lack there of.

If you don't want to buy a good brand ANR spend your money on the ANR kit. The DC will run rings around the Pilot in every way.

ANR performance isnt all the same, your comparing two things at eother end of quality scale
Ive done 2 Headsets inc conversions, both excellent for 400 hrs so far
I have hardwired powersupply on one and portable box on other which doesnt get used much
Never had issues with non anr headsets but did have to fit ferrites as they can pick up signals near big radio installations
Somewhere theres an old magazine comparison on ANR performance and Headsets INc kits were up with the top end units

That's one reason i did the Head Sets Inc conversion on my DC 10-40, it's a really solid unit and worth keeping. Also bought a couple of cheap DC clones for occasional passengers and you can really notice the difference.

Difference head set models have different impedance, which seems to cause excessive background noise on our Icom A210 radio. The next upgrade will be to buy a set of matching head sets for the plane and to throw out the cheap units.

All good comments guys.

I know a guy who bought the Pilot PA18-50 headset and said its OK. Admittedly he hasn't had it that long.

Then again, my DC 10-30 is about 30 years old, It was only used for the first two years after purchase, yet after pulling it out of the cupboard, all the foam is perished (understandably), but one speaker is not working. That's not very good for two years use.

The ANR upgrades are not DC, and fair comment on different quality of different brand upgrades.

Perhaps I will look into the "Headsets Inc" upgrade as most comments are favorable regarding their quality.

Cheers.

Take the opportunity to upgrade to good gel cushions
The quality of fit has a lot to do with how well any anr works

My boss has a ANR pilot headset, for the sake of everyone else on the airwaves, please dont get one.

What issues have you had with the Pilot ANR?

Upgraded my headset a few years back now from a guy near bankstown. Very happy with it

What upgrade kit did you use? and what headset?

Cheers

The quality of the radio transmission was rubbish, not a very good mic in them.

Ok, Thanks for the info.

I installed the headsets inc kit to 6 or more headsets a few years ago. Its a good kit and works well. The big issue now is that the price of ANR headsets has dropped, but the price of their kit has not.

For the ANR to work properly, you need a good earcup seal, so gel seals are essential. The DC comfort "undercut" ones are much, much better and you should use those.

I'd also think about adding the DC comfort headband.

I upgraded DC clones & DC headsets. The DC headsets are dramatically better in every way and make a better conversion. The hardware is better, the plastic cups are thicker (have better noise isolation) and the internal foam is thicker / better. The volume potentiometer is better quality

Once you add up the headsets inc kit (including the auto-off option), new gel seals and maybe a headband, and maybe a second volume control for stereo, you might find you can buy one of the cheaper lightspeed headsets for not much extra. Its a hard decision.

The converted DC headsets probably have similar noise attenuation to Bose, but Bose is in a different level of comfort. DC ( & DC clones) uses quite high clamping forces on the earcups. It gives me a headache on long flights.

But, ANR is the way to go. Once you upgrade you'll wonder why you didn't do it years ago. Now I use the Bose A20 with the old Bose X for the copilot and 4 x converted DC 10-80 headsets in the rear.

Thanks Old Akro,

I emailed headset Inc in the US. They just told me to contact the AUS dealer. Yet looking at his website, he doesn't have the comfort headband or Gel ear seals on his website.

I have old Gel seals on it (I believe from nearly 30 years ago). I remember replacing them after my previous ear seal sprung a leak during a flight.

Thanks for the info.