Has anyone ever seen these go on sale? I need two of them.

They will occasionally have a Buy One Get One 10% off or similar. Most of their sales seem to be for buying more than one headset. They also will often throw in a free speaker or stereo headphones if you buy two which you could always sell on Ebay or Craigslist for bigger savings.

Yeah they regularly offer a free Bose Bluetooth home speaker with new headset purchase, about $200 value. Or 10% off your second headset. Expect to pay every penny other than those two offers. Even used, hard to find a deal.

However, CFI's can get $125 off A20's, just have to send a copy of your cert to them. Ask Bose for details.

Also, not directed at your original question, but if you buy used, make sure you get the later model cord/control unit. The earlier models (identical in appearance) limit you to phone calls over bluetooth and music over the aux cord. Later units allow both music and phone calls over both bluetooth and aux cord.

If you don’t need Bluetooth you can go this route and save 400 per headset

https://nflightmic.com/

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/bose-quiet ... Id=5876115

sierrasplitter wrote:If you don’t need Bluetooth you can go this route and save 400 per headset

https://nflightmic.com/

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/bose-quiet ... Id=5876115

Have you run those? Curious how the ANR is vs A20. They do have bluetooth

No, but you may save on the tax and/or shipping by purchasing from sporty's

Sh-t...got knocked off. I’m a head set “Snob “...!! Have used them all, own most of them. Go to https://uflymike.com and look at the adapters for the Bose Q25 headsets, noise cancelling head sets. It’s a music listening headset. You can pick up a Bose Q25 on FleaBay for $150+/- a bit. I have 2 of them and are great, only 10oz, so very light. The A-20 are heavy and somewhat clumsy. For about $400+/- you can get a nice noise cancelling head set. UflyMike really stands behind their product. They was a 4 month wait when I bought mine, but don’t think there is a wait now. Look over the Web Site. UflyMike is base in Colo Spgs, CO.. Dave B.

+1 for UFlyMike - I have not tried NFlightMic but it looks similar.

I have had a set of UFlyMike for about one year. I put about 75 hours on them this year, including taking them to Alaska and back. Alltogether a great setup

The QC25 was possibly out of manufacturing, but more new ones come on sale every now and then, sets were on sale on Amazon black Friday for 109$. I purchased 5 additional sets, I now have 8 total. I firmly believe that the QC25 is one of the best gadgets [aviation or otherwise] to hit the market in years. I can't fly commercially without them anymore.

I ordered my second UFlyMike kit last week.

Here are the Pros/Cons of a QC25+UFlyMic setup from my experience

Pro
- Total cost is about 370-400$. Great bargain for ANR
- Uses 1 AAA - very quick to change, order AAA's from Amazon Basic - simple 4 pack blisters are easy to store and keep in headset case
- Noise Cancelling is fantastic
- You can disconnect the UflyMic kit and use it on a commercial airplane, at the gym, walking your dog - it's a great headset.
- This is especially cool if you Travel commercially to fly a private plane, as it lets you pack even lighter overall
- QC25's well supported with lots of replacement parts and upgrades
- Setup survived one dunk into Ketchikan Harbor after drying off
- Control unit is much lighter weight/less bulky than a A20 setup
- The Mic attaches to the QC25 in a really nice way - conforms to the shell of the headset

Cons
- Connection to the Volume Control Unit feels "Delicate" - I would not want to sit on them or throw them around, makes me extra careful handling them in a Seaplane. Compared to a set of DC's you can't just bounce it around the cabin or smush it into a backpack.
- Controls are not labeled clearly and take some trial/error to figure out. Passengers may struggle with them if they accidentally change them
- ANR is not perfect on takeoff. I can't explain why, but it sometimes does not work perfectly on takeoff. Have not had an issue in flight.
- Plan on 2ish weeks for shipping

I have uflymike on a set of QC-15s. While nice, note that if you fly a noisy airplane like I do (Maule), in some cases the ANR throws up its hands and says WTF and gives up, leaving you with a batch of static until things quiet down a bit. Never a problem in the C140, C172, Archer. Just a side note for you.

I, too, am considering a set of Bose A20 fairly soon, too.

Chris In Marshfield wrote:I have uflymike on a set of QC-15s. While nice, note that if you fly a noisy airplane like I do (Maule), in some cases the ANR throws up its hands and says WTF and gives up, leaving you with a batch of static until things quiet down a bit. Never a problem in the C140, C172, Archer. Just a side note for you.

I, too, am considering a set of Bose A20 fairly soon, too.

Good to know. I’ve got a set of QC-15’s I’ve been debating getting a uflymike for. My plane is pretty noisy so I might have a passenger try them out on takeoff and see how they do before I pull the trigger.

Bose website has the QC25 for 179 and the QC35 are 299 Until Dec 31

FWIW,the durability between the consumer audio headsets and the aviation headset isn’t even in the same ball park. I’ve gone through three Quiet Comfort headsets during the time I’ve had my A20 headset. Aside from replacing the ear ups one time, the A20 headset might as well be brand new.

I have found headset discussions to be similar to the religious fervor of engine oil types. Frankly if they work for you they are fantastic, at least from your perspective. As an interesting side note on Bose aviation headsets, completely unrelated to their function. Frequently, well frequently enough that I had to take notice of it. My Repair Station customers would ask, as an aside to the repairs on their aircraft, to get their headsets repaired. Bose had to have had the pointiest heads of any pinheads I have ever dealt with. That and the cost of their repairs where ludicrous. Especially if one considers that in 42 years of flying I have only hurt one headset, which I fixed myself. Their use of plastic for major structural parts is, from an engineering standpoint, poorly thought out and rather designed to generate the aforementioned high repair income. Personally, I would not own one for this reason.

Again, personally, and I don't expect anybody to run out and get them, have fallen in love with the new David Clark Pro X series. The noise cancelling is great, they are super light, made out of magnesium (an actual metal) and do not leave huge indents from your eyeglasses, since they only fit over the center of your ears. And...the bluetooth works super well, for music, phones and has multiple easy to access modes of muting. So I have been slowly replacing my headsets with them (except for the helmets). I lurk on ebay and craigslist and feed on the stragglers. They end up being hugely cheaper than any others, should I have bought them new. So many people take to flying, like backpacking, run out and buy the most expensive gear possible. They find out it is modestly difficult, expensive and time consuming. Then they abandon the idea altogether and eventually sell off everything at a steep discount. Much of it only has been use once or twice. So if your hunting for Bose, David Clark, Improbability Drive headsets, think used.

Can't say I've seen any deals other than the free speaker thrown in, but the Bluetooth speaker I got with the last set is awesome.

I smashed a set of Bose A20's last year, they were 3 years old, Bose fixed them 100% free and even paid shipping. Told them it was my fault, said they where still warrantied and it did not matter. Not only did they fix them, they also replaced all other worn parts, looked pretty much brand new afterwards. They have a 5-year warranty, not supposed to cover being smashed, but per my experience they actually went above and beyond their guarantee.

Well I must say your experience was far better than ours. Perhaps they finally saw that their horrible repair experiences where negatively affecting their sales. We sent in around a half dozen headsets, all of which resulted in obscene repair bills. This was around 5 years ago, so they have obviously improved the experience. I obviously had nothing to do with them since, due in great part to my experiences dealing with them.

I also have had other manufacturers do similar complete repairs gratis, David Clark is one recent example I have had. Perhaps they are all responding to the negative interest reaction. I only wish Honeywell would take notice. That group defiantly commutes to work on the short bus.

Composite/plastic construction is great for a light weight product...which is really nice IMO.

8 years with 2 sets of A20’s and the only crappy part I can complain about is the ear cups falling apart and needing replacement every few years.

Consider the David Clark One-X--it's the around-the-ear version of the Pro-X, which is an on-the-ear system. I bought mine at OSH 3 summers ago, and I've been supremely pleased with it. I slightly modified it by adding a FliteLite to the boom mic and Oregon Aero covers over the ear cups to wick away moisture, plus a D-ring to hang it from a hook. I can Bluetooth pair it to either my iPad or iPhone, so I can hear ForeFlight's aural alerts (or any other audio I have stored on my iPad), or I can make phone calls--not both, because it won't allow multiple pairing at the same time. Music also sounds good--I have an XM music receiver hard wired into my audio panel. It's pretty light, and very comfortable (not the old plumbers vise that DC used to be famous for). It has pretty good passive performance if you forget to turn it on, and the ANR rocks! It just works so well! And it's $200 less than the Bose.

Cary

I have a set of A-10’s, one got sat on and broke the frame, Bose said they were not repairing the A-10’s any longer. I can’t remember is they offered a discount on a new A-20. Light Speed had a nice offer a while back, send in any NC headset, get a $300 discount, I bit, a nice head set. Dave B

David Clark has been in this game a long time with a fair track record, just saying .......!!!!!!

Get ya some