Best headset connector to go for?

[Paulm1949]

Hi

I might be posting this in the wrong section, sorry in advance.

I am after a new noise cancelling headset. I fly aircraft with both the airbus connector and dual GA plug sockets.

Which one is the best one to purchase? I see there’s an option of even a Lemo socket, what ever that is?

I can buy the appropriate adapator, no problem. Looking to future proof as best as I can and mindful of future types. Any connectors have any advantages over the others to start with ? Or lose audio quality if I use a connector to go a certain way? Am I better going from GA plug to XLR or other way around?

Thanks,
Paul

[Denti]

In the end it doesn't matter really for which plug you go, there are adapters both ways. But it does matter what kind of flying you do, which airplane type and therefore which kind of headset is the best for your work.

The standard answer is the Bose A20, which works really well from piston single engine planes up to Airbus/Boeing types. However, Bose is just in the process of bringing a new headset (Bose ProPilot) to market which is aimed mainly at jet flying, or to put it another way, for the professional airline pilot. As Bose is extremely slow to deliver there is not much real life experience with that piece of kit yet, but it adresses some issues about the A20, like less passive noise insulation and several switchable levels of ANR, and of course it is much smaller and weighs less.

Apart from Bose there are of course several different OEMs that do build quite nice headsets as well, David Clark is still in the game, Telex does a very lightweight ANR headset without any passive noise dampening at all, Phonak does some very good (and expensive) in-ear headsets and so on.

[Paulm1949]

Thank you. So there’s no advantage in going for one connector over the other then. It’s for B737.

Heard some connectors draw power from the panel without the need for batteries.

Thanks

[Denti]

Well, 737s usually have the GA 2-pin connector. Although of course a company could order them with the Lemo socket (which provides power) or a powered version of the XLR connector. But in that case they will most likely do that to provide their own ANR headsets to the crew anyway.

[Uplinker]

Originally Posted by Paulm1949

.........I see there’s an option of even a Lemo socket, what ever that is?

LEMO plugs and sockets are very high quality connectors, (I think LEMO are Swiss?). The connectors are configured a bit like the so-called Airbus plug/socket, (which itself is actually an XLR-5 connector made by Neutrik and others). The LEMO is much smaller than the XLR-5, very robust and, I think, IP65 rated. They have a concentric sliding sleeve locking release mechanism and are used extensively in television outside broadcast equipment.

But they are expensive with a capital F !!


The BOSE QC25 ANR headset is very good, very comfortable and perfect for airline aviation, but they are as rare as hen’s teeth now*. It has active noise cancelling powered by a single AAA battery in one earphone housing. Combined with a UFly Mike microphone attachment - which will cost you more than the headset to purchase and import - you have a very nice active noise cancelling headset and boom mic for around £400. (The UFly Mike lead uses a small LEMO connector.).



*I think I bought the last one Currys had, from their damaged stock shop near Manchester. Only the box was damaged, the ‘phones were perfect.

[Paulm1949]

Thanks for all the replies.

What I was getting at with my question, is there a reduction of quality if I went for a certain plug type?

For instance, with video, going from a hdmi cable to scart will only give you scart quality even though it’s running through an adapter. However the stand alone hdmi straight into the tv say, will give you much better native quality.

Is this the same with headphones and their plugs?

Thanks

[Uplinker]

HDMI is digital, SCART is analogue, hence the drop in quality.

Aircraft headphones are all analogue, so there will be no digital to analogue degradation with different connectors.

Having said that, try to have as few connectors in the chain as possible. If you need different connectors for different aircraft, what I would do is have a headset terminating in an XLR-5 (Airbus type) plug, and then get adaptors from the XLR-5 in line socket to whatever. If you have a headset terminating in the double jacks, you need an ungainly double jack adaptor to convert to anything else.

[Denti]

I have actually used both kind of adaptors, and the difference is not all that big after all. But yes, i went for XLR on both my Bose Headsets (A20 and still waiting on my ProFlight) and use the adaptor for the 2 plug one, but mainly because in my current company XLR is the norm and only a current batch of dry lease aircraft, mainly based in my base, are equipped with the 2 plug connector.