Heads up, Article on Feb 20 mag on ANR headsets

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Heads up, Article on Feb 20 mag on ANR headsets

Post by [email protected] » Wed Feb 05, 2020 8:41 am

Hi all
As promised, I have opened a topic to discuss points you might like to make about the headset article (Heads up) in the February LA mag. I have already had direct feedback on my methodology and its accuracy but, what was not in the article was that both I and others conducted the test several time with a high degree of repeatability.

Ian Fraser
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Re: Heads up, Article on Feb 20 mag on ANR headsets

Post by John Dean » Wed Feb 05, 2020 3:28 pm

Having found my hearing deteriorating (possibly due to a noisy Continental engine!) I found this article very interesting in its technical explanation of headsets and their attenuation. However, one thing which did not seem to be mentioned was that of how comfortable a particular headset is to wear over a couple of hours flight in a real aeroplane. In my case I acquired one of the expensive headsets and found it very uncomfortable to use and soon disposed of it to replace it with one of the other expensive headsets. This one I found very comfortable over long flying days.

On the other hand a friend found exactly the opposite and preferred the make of the first one I tried. Buying the wrong set can be an expensive mistake and it's a shame that the dealers will not let you borrow a set to try over a short period of time in real conditions.

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Re: Heads up, Article on Feb 20 mag on ANR headsets

Post by AlanR » Thu Feb 06, 2020 3:59 pm

It may be a bit obvious and undiplomatic to say this so please take it the right way..
Surely a lot of it depends on how big your head is and how big your ears are as to which headset is the most comfortable? :D
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Re: Heads up, Article on Feb 20 mag on ANR headsets

Post by mikehallam » Thu Feb 06, 2020 11:15 pm

The article was the first I can recall reading that studied the headset question objectively.
Prior to that one only had fancy ad's by the main makers and a lot of individuals on forums endlessly giving - as a rule - one off views when the matter was written about, with the odd mention of quasi Chinese imports.
I read this article preferentially ahead of most others and appreciated the way albeit admittedly amateurish, the author sought to address what factors we very light a/c users should consider.
More interseting than say, yet another praise ridden 'air test' of someone's pride & joy.

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Re: Heads up, Article on Feb 20 mag on ANR headsets

Post by Chris Martyr » Fri Feb 07, 2020 9:10 am

It was only when I saw Ian's post on here that I was nudged into reading the article .

Not being in the market for a new headset , I didn't attach much priority to it . That was a mistake on my part .
It is quite clear that Ian is a massively knowledgeable and experienced man in his field and my attention was drawn pretty quickly to his ability to scythe through bullsh*t and mumbo-jumbo . He quite rightly points out that we are indeed at the mercy of the manufacturers when looking to buy a headset , and it is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the up-market , expensive items are superior to the more affordable items . Which for 'our' type of flying is a very important point to consider , as we could indeed end up like poor old John Dean with a rather expensive but unsuitable artefact on our hands . ,,,,,,,[or heads :D ,,]

The summary of results at the foot of p.13 also made very interesting reading .

Similarly , Ian's article re; EC made some very good points , ones which I have also pondered for some time now , and having seen what he had to say has reinforced my belief that until total unification can be achieved , then it's probably best to keep your money in your pocket with a lot of this gadgetry.

Did also chuckle about Mike Hallam's comment about how some of these topics have been ripped to shreds on a certain other forum .
And I'm sure that us LAA types can do it on here in a far more gentlemanly manner.... :lol:
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