what headset

[the ace of spades]

hi guys, just wondering whar headset would you recommend for ppl and maybe beyond.

[mad_jock]

Some form of ANR if its beyond. The sooner you start protecting your hearing the longer before the damage sets in.

As for which one everyone has there favorite.

You can go from silly expensive to reasonable.

If they are comfy the old DC's H10-13x are magic you can get spares world wide and if the bat goes they turn into a normal passive headset.

But your are now going to get a heap of posts telling you how good all the others are. In fact they all work it purely comes down to which one suits you and your head.

[BackPacker]

But your are now going to get a heap of posts telling you how good all the others are.

Or we can simply direct you to the search function of this forum. This topic comes along every other month or so, and the previous threads contain basically all you need to know.

PPRuNe Forums

Not that it will help you a lot in making a good choice though. There are simply too many to choose from and there's a lot of personal preference too. What it comes down to is first making a choice between ANR, PNR or in-ear headsets.

ANR: Expensive but it gives the best insulation against ambient sound (assuming the battery/power supply is not dead)
PNR: Cheap but less insulation. Good enough for a lot of pilots who fly <100 hours a year.
In-ear: Best insulation, some claim better than ANR. But it's a very personal choice and some people are not comfortable with them. Ideal for aerobatics due to the extreme light weight.

But from there, you will just have to try a few out and choose the one that you find most comfortable.

[the ace of spades]

tks guys

[Cessna 172S Skyhawk]

Sennheiser HME 110 Special Edition

Ace of Spades,

I am in the same plane as you so to speak. Started out on my PPL, and bought a headset before I started. Having used DC 13.4 I did not feel that they were comofrtable, and the older ones you get in clubs dont seem to be the best.

I bought the Sennheiser HME 110 Special Edition ones, and they are

1. Very very comfortable
2. Great sound quality, even in a noisey SEP
3. While they are almost at the top of the price range for PNR Headsets, I think they are a good investment.

Even if you only using the headset for all your training, it works out at not far off £1 per hour, and you will probably sell them for half the price you paid for them when your training is finished, if you were going on to become a professional pilot, and you could then get an ARN set.

I was advised to get a PNR set, while training, as they provide adequate protection during training and even beyond.

PM me on where to get a set as I shopped around and read countless reviews about DC 13.4 and HME 110's. Also, there is one site that you will get a whole bunch of extras with your headset which in itself is great.

[Ryan5252]

PM me on where to get a set as I shopped around and read countless reviews about DC 13.4 and HME 110's. Also, there is one site that you will get a whole bunch of extras with your headset which in itself is great.

Be sure not to tell the rest of us though - let's all muck in a try and keep aviation nice and expensive!

[SNS3Guppy]

Be sure not to tell the rest of us though -

He did say to PM him. How hard is that?

[Ryan5252]

He did say to PM him. How hard is that?

Thanks Guppy for your input, but where did I say it was hard?

172 mentioned a site where 'you will get a whole bunch of extras with your headset', and being in the market for a new headset myself I thought perhaps there may be others in a similar situation who may stumble across this topic and potentially benefit from its content. Is that not a fair assumption? Would it not be better to help many of us rather than one?

Perhaps then people may find the information they are seeking via the search function if we all posted helpful material in the public forum rather than by PM?

[SNS3Guppy]

Is that not a fair assumption? Would it not be better to help many of us rather than one?

This is aviation. Assumptions are never appropriate.

Have you PM'd the poster, as he offered? If not, then you've no complaint. No, you didn't say it's hard. You continue to waffle on about it. Why not simply PM him, get the information, and be happy for the gift?

[Ryan5252]

This is aviation. Assumptions are never appropriate.

I'm not making assumptions as to how much fuel I have left or if the wet grass is long enough for me and the kitchen sink to take-off from. I'm posting on an internet forum and made an observation in relation to a post which I felt I (and others) could have benefited from. So no, this is not 'Aviation' in the context you speak of. Don't take my quotes out of context.

Have you PM'd the poster, as he offered? If not, then you've no complaint. No, you didn't say it's hard. You continue to waffle on about it. Why not simply PM him, get the information, and be happy for the gift?

Surely it is my own perogitive whether or not I wish to communicate via Private Mail, E-mail, Smoke signals, Pigeon or otherwise. It has little to do with you but I need someone to tell me how I should conduct myself there are others more than happy to help in that regard. May I suggest seeing as your not actually contributing to the topic or discussion that you (kindly) butt out?

I was only pointing out how one member sharing information publicy may help others who may be in a similar position (such as myself). This may not have crossed the other poster's mind when he kindly offered such advice to another member via PM. Surely the more information is available to everyone the less we have to repeat the same topics over and over again (in therory).

Im not sure what your involvement here was?

[mad_jock]

Calm down even if they did post a link it would proberly get deleted because its advertising.

The poster said they would supply it if you PM them so its no great shakes to find out who it its if you want to know.

[Ryan5252]

MJ,

Due respect, thats not the point I was making (OK it was initially) but I was happy to leave it at that as it should have been, when did Guppy become involved? It really isn't a big deal.

Ryan

[Slopey]

While we're on a similarly related topic, has anyone done the Headsets Inc ANR mod of a DC 10-13.4?

Or are there other in-line ANR options? I'm keen to give ANR a go as I have a pair of Sennheiser PCX450s which are great when sat in the back of a shiny tube, but if I can mod the DC's it'd save some cash rather than stump up for a new ANR pair.

[Ryan5252]

has anyone done the Headsets Inc ANR mod of a DC 10-13.4?

I use the regular passive 10.13s but had occasion to use the ARNs a few weeks in a twin com. I personally found a massive difference and the passive has felt 2nd class ever since.

[mad_jock]

Its meant to be rubbish because you take out half the passive foam to fit the units in. So although it makes them better than the passive headset if the battery goes they are worse than useless. And they arn't as good as the factory made jobs.

This is pretty common with after factory options.

Once you start using ANR you never go back I find it makes a huge difference to my day at work. The radio volumes are halfed and I feel alot less tired.

So much so when my DC's went in for a service after 3000hours faithfull service after I abused them and needed a new mic. I phoned up after a day and purchased a second set.

And Guppy got involved because you were coming across as a stroppy git and having a go at the poster for not just posting the link for absolutely no reason because they had already offer to supply the link by PM.

So dry your eyes

[Cows getting bigger]

Don't skimp (ie €99 red/blue specials). The DC13.4 sells in truck loads for a reason - it is good value for money. ANR is always better (some would argue that an ANR failure on a Bose X is a PITA) but you need to question the additional cost.

I'm a professional pilot (well, 'professional' in so far as the CAA think so ) and have some Bose A20s. These are absolutely excellent but at €1200 a pop, you need to be decadent, a lottery winner or able to offset the cost against your tax bill.

My advice to a newbie is go for the DC13.4s and if you want to upgrade, there is always a healthy second-hand market for the DCs.

[mad_jock]

Having a look at a certain ebay place brings up loads of them for sale at about the 100 quid mark. These DC's really are an investment for life.

So if you get one for 100 quid it will be about another 60quid to replace the pad,cup and mic foam. Which will for all intents and purposes gives you a brand new headset.

If your going beyond PPL it really isn't worth getting one set then upgrading later.

[Droopystop]

Just a question.....

Some time ago light aircraft crashed due to an engine failure. In the report the AAIB mentioned that the the four occupants were wearing ANR headsets and queried the possible masking of unusual noises by the headsets.

What are the thoughts of people with regard to the noises that are effectively suppressed by an ANR headset which might give rise to a quicker recognition of trouble brewing.

I know I have traditionally been a critic of ANR, but that's not to say I am not open minded and I am not having a dig.

[mad_jock]

It suppresses a certain frq range but leaves the others relatively open. You can still hear what the engines are doing its just that you don't have to boost the RT to hear of the top of them. You can hear if the engine starts burping and farting or a mag has dropped out.

There are some old and bold out there that always bang on they don't like them for that reason. Commercially you get notices that you should turn it off for engine starts etc when CP's get a bee in there bonnet about it. But to be honest these old and bold hearing is that shagged after years of noise damage they will hear the same as the ANR headset pilots anyway.

You will get hearing damage what ever you use, ANR reduces it. Engine failures are very rare and if its going to fail having ANR on or not, aint going to stop it failing.

And to add the DC's arn't for everyone, I have lent a pair to a FO and after a couple of hours he had to take them off because his ears had got a burning sensation and his head felt as if it was in a clamp. I had mine on for 8 hours that day and suffered no discomfort.

[SNS3Guppy]

ANR should be thought of not as protection for hearing, but as clarification in communications. ANR is more illusion than fact; while you don't hear or perceive vibrations or sounds so much in certain higher frequency ranges, assume that you're safe from hearing damage.

ANR reduces fatigue and it enhances communications. One can turn the volume down and hear. One can relax more.

ANR does mask some sounds. Depending on the aircraft and the phase of flight, ANR can mask an engine failure. In other cases, depending on the phase of flight, an engine failure can be unmistakable, even with good ANR.

ANR masks higher frequency sounds. With many ANR headsets, voice communication within the cockpit can be enhanced, because distracting sounds are eliminated or reduced, and one can still hear cockpit sounds, switch movements, voices, and low frequency vibrations.

At the moment I'm using a Bose QC-15, with a U-fly-mic. It's excellent in terms of "noise reduction," and I find I understand communications much more clearly. This is especially useful when traveling internationally, with the myriad of accents and voices one encounters on the radio.

I hear best with both ears. However, the headset is effective enough that I cock it off my left ear whenever talking to others in the cockpit, or during takeoff and landing. Enroute when there's not so much going on and little cockpit chatter, I put the earphones over both ears. This particular installation has a jack port on the bottom of the mic assembly which allows an auxiliary set of earphones, in the event there's a problem with the bose QC-15 headphone.

The entire assembly is relatively inexpensive, compact (a big plus, as I've already got enough stuff in my flight bag, the reduced space that the headphones take up is important), and handy. It's got a music input, and I can use the headphones when deadheading or riding as a commercial passenger somewhere. I can use it for the aircraft entertainment system, or use an mp3 player.

I've used Bose headsets such as the Bose X quite a bit in all kinds of aircraft, from noisy shakers like the Cessna Skymaster to the Cessna 210, to Learjets, King Air's, and Large aircraft of differing types. They work great. They're a good investment. I've tried the new A20, and it's the Bose QC-15 entertainment headset technology, turned into an aviation headset. I was on a flight right after they were released in which a crewmember was wearing a newly purchased A20. He let a check airman on board try it out, as well as the flight engineer. Upon landing, the flight engineer went to his hotel room and ordered one, as did the check airman. It was that good.

I've got several different david-clark type headsets without ANR. I don't like the hotspots that develop, especially when wearing them for long periods in hot environments. I use the Oregon Aero headband on each one, as well as the Oregon Aero temper-foam ear seals, and the hush kit by the same company, in the earcups. The hush kits are high density foam designed to supplement what's already in the headset. Combined with the ear seals, they make the headset a lot quieter. The headband is wide, with sheep's wool, and also makes the headset a lot more comfortable. In particularly loud airplanes I've used this along with earplugs quite successfully.

In the PB4Y, the noise level without hearing protection was into the pain threshold. I used ear plugs and the modified passive headsets. When ANR first came out, a cockpit crewmember bought a headset. I tried it, and was amazed at the difference that could be felt simply by turning the headset on and off.

Whether you get ANR or not is up to you. It's best if you try various headsets before you buy. What works for you doesn't necessary work for someone else, and visa versa.

This subject gets beaten to death. A little effort with the search feature will yield more information than you can use.