Most important headset advice!

[AirDoan]

Good afternoon,

So I am flying around Alberta doing pipleine patrols. First job! I spend 3-8 hours in the air, mostly in the toolies with nothing but my own thoughts and music from my dying Sennheiser headset. I want to upgrade but I am wondering what the best is for audio quality for music specifically as I am sure they all make and receive acceptable ATC calls. I'd like bluetooth, but I can not find info on what Codecs these headsets use (A2DP, APT-X, LDAC, etc). I might just go hardwire to get the best anyway but it would be nice to have APT-X or better to eliminate one more chord.

Thanks everyone!

[daedalusx]

If you buy a used Bose A20 (pre-2015) it'll suck because it's the old Bluetooth 1.0/2.0 HFP low bitrate codex. Newer A20s are full A2DP.
UflyMike QC35 is full A2DP.

[Skunkworks]

Bose may retrofit your old A20 to have the new controller. When I took my headset to Brant Aero they fixed the broken boom and retrofitted the new Bose controller and cable. I didn’t even request it, they just did it!

Awesome people down there.

[Cessna 180]

No idea but the zulu 3 and the pfx (i've had both, the pfx was stolen) both sound excellent, and more than acceptable considering its an aviation headset.

[JasonE]

FWIW both my Lightspeeds were repaired under warranty, and now the most used one needs the volume sliders replaced (3 years old). It gets costly when you have to pay for shipping across the border...

[jg24]

Bose may retrofit your old A20 to have the new controller. When I took my headset to Brant Aero they fixed the broken boom and retrofitted the new Bose controller and cable. I didn’t even request it, they just did it!

Awesome people down there.

Lucky you! I'm still stuck with the old controller. Granted I don't even have BT on mine. Maybe one day I'll accept forking out for the bluetooth controller. Had mine repaired once, and hoped I'd somehow get one with bluetooth, but nope. The aux cable just gets in the way, plus it isn't very stealthy.

[jschnurr]

FWIW both my Lightspeeds were repaired under warranty, and now the most used one needs the volume sliders replaced (3 years old). It gets costly when you have to pay for shipping across the border...

I had the sliding potentiometers on mine also fail a few years in. They developed some "dead" spots where they are used the most. I used some electrical contact cleaner (such as this), spraying a little in as best I could. It worked, but you may need to repeat this every few months. It let me keep using my headset until I upgraded.

[gwagen]

Bose A20, great sound quality Bluetooth works well and has aux wired input if you want.

[AirDoan]

Just a thought, what about the Zulu 3? They are a great price point and the trade in is worth it to me. The ANR is weak on mine and passive sucks. So they aren't worth much anyway.

[Jungle Jim]

I sent my Sennheiser S1 digital in and they replaced the cords and did an upgrade all for no charge. I was really impressed.

Regards,

Jim

[Ggkl]

Give Q-set aviator headsets a try. They are bluetooth capatible noise canceling and they are priced better than comparable headsets. Aviatorheadsets.ca

[C-GGGQ]

Would the noise cancelling on the qc35/25 be good enough for a loud turboprop or should you be looking at the a20/ (insert quietest headset here)?

[AirDoan]

I ended up getting a set of Zulu 2s from a friend for a good price. But curious as to the q-set ones. Anyone done a side by side test? For the price they seem to have a good feature set.