Past several years I've been using a Sigtronics S-58 headset and have been mostly happy with them. I decided rather than buying a set of Zulu's I would try upgrading these with a kit from Oregon Aero and a ANR kit from Headsets Inc. I figure even if I decide to buy Zulu's later that these will be a good passenger set. The kit from OA came today and I installed it; very simple.

I already had one cup done when I decided I should take pics. Sorry bout the poor quality pics.

Starts off looking like this:


Remove the ear seal.


Remove the thin foam that covers the speaker and the two screws that hold the speaker and its housing in place.


Remove the two screws and pull the housing out.


Loosen two of the four screws that hold the speaker to the housing. After two screws are loosened separate the speaker from the housing.


Behind the speaker and the housing is two pieces of foam, one with a hole in the center one with no hole. Remove the one with the the hole. Leave the one with no hole in place.


Take one of the blue pieces of foam with no hole in the center that came with the OA kit and press it into the ear cup over top of the piece of foam you left in place. Be careful not to damage the wires.



Place the speaker on top of the blue foam installed in the previous step. Take once of the blue pieces of foam that has a hole in the center and press it into the ear cup. Ensure the speaker is lined up with the hole but remains behind the foam being installed. This foam is what holds the speaker in place. No screws are used.



Take the black speaker cover that came with the kit and press it into the ear cup over the speaker. Ensure the edges are tucked into the ear cup.



Install the new ear seal. These were a tight fit.


Install the sheep skin covers. Not sure that I like these.


As you can see I removed one of the ear cups. This was done so the head band pad could be installed. I removed it before I was ready to put on the pad so it would be easier to work on the ear cups.

Pull the old head band pad off.


Spray some kind of light lubricant on the metal headband so it will slide through the new pad easier. I tried doing it without but couldn't. The instructions suggest silicon or WD40. I was working on the kitchen table and the closest thing was cooking spray. I used a tiny bit and it worked will. Slide on the new pad.


I didn't take any pics of installing the mic muff. The instructions that came were good and it is very simple.



Seems to be pretty comfortable. My only complaint is that now with the thicker ear seals the mic boom seems too short. We'll see how it works next time I go flying.

I did this to my Dave Clark. Was worth every penny and for less than $200 figure I saved almost 50 hours of flight time in my plane over buying a Zulu.

When a friend of mine got a job at a regional he gave me this headset and said, "I'll probly never fly a GA plane again. You can have these." With a little research I found this kit for less than $75. Soon I'll be ordering the Headset Inc ANR kit.

whee wrote:Soon I'll be ordering the Headset Inc ANR kit.

they work very well...it is much better to do it all at once to avoid stretching the ear seals tho. My QFR ANR's are now a passenger unit...

lesuther wrote:it is much better to do it all at once to avoid stretching the ear seals tho.

I wondered about that. I was planning on doing it all at once but when a rian across the deal for the OA kit I bought it. I couldn't resists trying it out as I probably won't buy the Headset Inc kit for a month or so.

I tried them out today. They were much more comfortable, quieter and the mic muff was awesome. I didn't know if I believed the claims about the muff but I was pleasantly surprised.

How do you like the finished product?

Tom

Tom wrote:How do you like the finished product?

I have only worn it for 1 hour but it was great. Quieter, comfortable, mic worked great, no problem sealing around my sunglasses. My dad owns a set of Zulu 1s that I have worn a for probably 10 hours and I really like them. If the Headsets Inc kit improves the sound quality then I'll have no reason to buy a Zulu.

I've been flying with my converted DC 13.4 for just over 3 years now, and I've been totally satisfied. The only thing I would change if I could do so easily would be AA batteries instead of 9v, but that hasn't caused me much grief--it would if I hadn't opted for the auto-shutoff battery box, because I often forget to turn it off.

It looks like you left out the cover for the speaker--probably should have it there, to keep stuff out of the speaker.

The OA Softskin ear seal covers are nice if it's hot enough that your head is sweating. I bought mine at OSH after a warm flight there 4 years ago. I had had the OA comfort/hushkit stuff on my headsets for a couple of years, but I hadn't bought the covers. They're also nice in really cold weather, because they keep the cold headset away from your head. After installing the HI kit, I found that they slightly interfere with the ANR, but only slightly--just enough to be noticeable, so I leave mine on year around.

Cary

There was no cover for the speaker. The instructions that came with is described how to do it on a DC set and yes you leave the cover in place.