Zzz wrote:Which is the headest? You make the call!

I vote for #2 or #4

Glidergeek wrote:

Zzz wrote:Which is the headest? You make the call!

I vote for #2 or #4

smart man. That #6 looks like a sex-in-a-canoe beer...

How good is Lightspeed with repairs? I've heard that DC is excellent with repairs, and if you bring in the headset they'll fix it for free. Might not work out to well if you don't live in MA, but...

UngaWunga wrote:How good is Lightspeed with repairs? I've heard that DC is excellent with repairs, and if you bring in the headset they'll fix it for free. Might not work out to well if you don't live in MA, but...

Had a bad connection on a pair of 20-3G years again, sent em back and they repaired quickly and returned with a whole new battery box.

Don't know how the others are, but my experience with DC is this: I have had my original DC 10-40 (no longer made) since 1978. In the early 90s, roughly 15-16 years later and well out of warranty, it was sitting on top of my flight bag, someone knocked it off onto the concrete sidewalk, and the left ear piece stopped working. I sent it in to DC, asked that they bill me, and said I needed it back as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, I ordered a new 13.4, figuring the 10-40 wouldn't likely be back for awhile.

However, a week to the day I sent in the 10-40, I had it back, priority UPS. The green cups were the same and the SS headband was the same (I recognized the scratches in the ear cups, and my name is inscribed with a vibrating inscriber on the SS band). Every other part, including the wiring, the plugs, the head pad, the earcups, and the microphone were all new. My first reaction as I looked at it was that they'd done much more than I had asked, and I wasn't willing to pay for the extras. But then I looked at the invoice. It listed only "repaired and refurbished" without the details, and N/C.

That's the only repair I've ever needed to any of my DCs. I also have 2 13.4s, and I have converted one of the 13.4s to ANR with a Headsets Inc. conversion kit. I'm sure if I had problems with that one, DC wouldn't likely fix it--maybe if some structure was broken or the mic stopped working, they might. But essentially, although DC claims only a 5 year warranty, it's for life. They really stand behind their products.

Cary

Last summer I picked up a light speed Zulu 2. I love it. Bluetooth works great too. I like how it fits my fat head better than the new Bose.

I can tell you how the service is with sennheiser ... Terrible!

My vote is for the Zulu as well love all the gizmos Bluetooth phone etc. stereo quality is excellent also had one of the original Zulu ones they said they wanted it back to do some testing when I said I had a little bit of a static issue not a problem as far as I was concerned but they had back to me in three days looking brand-new

In regards to upgrading my David Clarks, does the kit make them stereo? The 13.4's I have now are a mono headest.

I have a Lightspeed Zulu 2 and really like it. The Bose A20 is horrible for me, nothing wrong with them, but the way they fit around the ears, the ANR doesn't work for me.

Girlfriend has Bose A20 and she loves em, my lightspeeds are horrible for her for the same reason the Bose are for me. Go figure!

I had Lightspeed 30-3G and they were great also. I had bad luck with David Clark ANR, I returned them. I had great luck with DRE 6000's (I think the model number was 6000) and they worked great.

See if you can try as many as you can.

For many years I had various David Clark headsets. I then tried the Lightspeed Zulu's and there is no comparison. The Zulus are amazing

UngaWunga wrote:How good is Lightspeed with repairs?

Cord got stressed and was only passing one channel of audio. Lightspeed turned around the repair extremely quickly and at no charge (just out of warranty).

A couple have said they don't like Bose. I'm a lightspeed guy (four headsets via various upgrades, currently two Zulu2), but I have a 195 friend who flies Bose. For my head, they are no problem and great headsets. I could be happy with either. As others have mentioned, part of this is subjective and part of it is people having different sized heads. There are three you ought to fly: DC, Bose, Lightspeed. This is an expensive enough purchase that it's probably worth finding a way to fly them all before you decide.

Jeredp wrote:In regards to upgrading my David Clarks, does the kit make them stereo? The 13.4's I have now are a mono headest.

I've always wondered about why pilots want a stereo headset. So what's the reason?

whee wrote:

Jeredp wrote:In regards to upgrading my David Clarks, does the kit make them stereo? The 13.4's I have now are a mono headest.

I've always wondered about why pilots want a stereo headset. So what's the reason?

I like to listen to music when I'm in quiet airspace.

rw2 wrote:

whee wrote:

Jeredp wrote:In regards to upgrading my David Clarks, does the kit make them stereo? The 13.4's I have now are a mono headest.

I've always wondered about why pilots want a stereo headset. So what's the reason?

I like to listen to music when I'm in quiet airspace.

Good point. I'm not much for music so when I do play it through headphones I don't really care about it being stereo.

whee wrote:

rw2 wrote:I like to listen to music when I'm in quiet airspace.

Good point. I'm not much for music so when I do play it through headphones I don't really care about it being stereo.

Yeah, for me it only works in super quiet areas. The headsets do a pretty good job of ducking the music so you can hear ATC, but I find it distracting if there are more than a few calls coming through.

My buddy thinks the entire idea is stupid. He was raised on a farm and his grandfather taught him "no music in the cab" because you can't hear if your engine is lugging. He carries that same thought forward to aviation. He definitely has a point. If you're going to have an engine failure, it would be nice to pick up any early warning sounds the engine might be making.

The Headsets Inc kit can be wired either way, regardless of how your 13.4 is already wired. However, if you have a mono headset now, you won't have separate earpiece controls, because that doesn't come with the kit. So yeah, you can have stereo, but without any left-right balance capabilities. I suppose you could cobble up something with Radio Shack parts.

FWIW, I do listen to music when I'm cruising, as it makes the time go by more pleasantly, especially when I'm alone. I don't have stereo, and I don't miss it. The HI speakers are much better than most (about on a par with Bose, higher fidelity than DC), so the music is nice and clear. But there are enough other airplane sounds that filter in that having stereo wouldn't add all that much to the music experience.

On that score, I'd have to turn up the music really loud to blank out the airplane sounds. My preference is to have it as background music, not blaring like I was at a concert. I outgrew that "requirement" more than 50 years ago!

When I had the new PS Engineering audio panel installed almost 2 years ago, I was really happy to go with the 6000B, which is mono. The extra bucks that it would have taken to go up to stereo just wasn't worth it, plus I would be paying for a lot of features that the next model up has, which I'd never use. The most important part of listening to music is the automatic mute when there's radio traffic, and that is part of the 6000B. If your music input won't provide that, I'd question the advisability of listening to music and also trying to listen to the radios.

Incidentally, PS Engineering has a doodad called The Muse, which can be easily added to any airplane without any installation cost so that music can be piped to the headsets. It can be used for mono or stereo, if that's what you want. It's a bit spendy at $350, but if its automatic mute works as well as the automatic mute in the audio panel works, it might be just the ticket.

Cary