Bose A20, no doubt. As for Bose durability: I have had a set of Bose-X now for 16 years and only had to repair the stirrups once. You get the part for about $20 online.
Edited to add: of course one replaces the foam seals periodically, but that’s maintenence
I’m not going to give an individual recommendation as I don’t have enough experience of the current offerings.
However I would say that if you plan to spend a lot time in GA, then you are fishing at the right end of the market. Buying a cheap headset isn’t a good way to go. Better to buy really good quality and buy once.
I started flying 22 years ago. Fairly quickly I bought a pair of DC 20-10XL which was the best you could get at the time. I still have them. They are in as good condition as the day I bought them. They never have had a fault. The ANR has helped protect my hearing. I hate when I have to use a cheap headset. Comms with ATC can be hard enough at time and you really want to have the best sound quality you can. So a great headset is worth the ONCE OFF cost.
I’m not recommending that you buy this headset. It’s way out of date now. But the point I’m hoping to get across is that a great headset is a once off cost that will all you to enjoy your flights for a long time. If you save a bit of money on a cheap headset, you’ll be putting up with crap sound quality, uncomfortable conversations with your passengers (they’ll sound distance or tinny) and probably have to replace them in a few years because they break or your get fed up with them. And you may be risking your hearing.
So buy quality, so you only have to buy once!
If buying now, I’d take the bluetooth option. The aircraft I fly has bluetooth in the audio panel, and it’s great to be able to hear my EasyVFR on my tablet talking to me.. traffic warnings, airspace warnings etc. But most aircraft won’t have bluetooth in them yet, so getting it in your headset is worth it for a once off cost.
There are a million headset threads on the net. Headsets are a bit like watches in that some people buy the most expensive as jewelry or out of snobbery. Generally however people think Bose are good unless they operate in a particularly loud environment or have larger ears than fit into the small ear cups. I find them uncomfortable and don’t like them very much for both those reasons. Lightspeeds are good too, a little less expensive and they fit everybody. I have a couple of those but find myself preferring the Clarity Aloft Flex I bought a while back. It’s very delicate but works very well once installed. No batteries to mess around with. I carry an extra Zulu in case I break the CA again while away from base.
By my observation all of the newer types seem to last about 5-10 years before needing rebuild by the manufacturer or replacement. Anything resembling rubber or foam rots eventually.
Laurent_N wrote:
I have just started flying (got my PPL last year) and my CFI recommended me to buy some decent headphones just to have them in my toolkit and use them instead of the default ones in the planes I rent.Friends recommend me the Bose A20, Lighspeed zulu 3. I would like something with ANR. Bluetooth is optional, but nice to have.
What would you recommend?
@Laurent_N, I went for AvMike conversion, see https://www.euroga.org/forums/maintenance-avionics/6847-bose-quiet-comfort-qc25-qc35-conversion-for-aviation
Quite a few people used that one or a similar one based on QC25/35 – works OK, quiet, sits comfortably on your head.
Laurent_N wrote:
Friends recommend me the Bose A20, Lighspeed zulu 3. I would like something with ANR. Bluetooth is optional, but nice to have.What would you recommend?
I bought a Lightspeed Sierra a few weeks ago, it suits my needs. The difference in noise reduvtion between the Sierra and passive headsets is remarkable.
I wear glasses, also no factor.
I bought a Bose A20 as a gift to myself when I achieved my PPL in 2015. ANR is very good, they are light, I like them. Biggest regret is I bought them at the end of flight training instead of the beginning.
I just (as in literally today) bought my first replacement cushions after 430h flight hours.
BTW Bose has announced they will present a new aviation headset next week (march 28), you might want to have a look at that before finally deciding.
Biggest regret is I bought them at the end of flight training instead of the beginning.
ANR was a blessing to me. Moving from a passive Sennheiser to an active one (I don’t remember the exact part numbers, bought the 1st one around 2003 and the active 3-4 years later) brought many improvements: less noise and less pressure on the head, all of which resulted in less fatigue. With the passive headset I used to have a slight headache after each flight. This was gone once I switched to active.
I also acquired a Clarity Aloft a few years ago and I really, really like it. It is passive but has very good attenuation. It is also very light. It is very convenient when wearing glasses! Glasses can open a gap between your ear and a “regular” headset and reduce attenuation. Not so with the Clarity. Unfortunately there is a bug somewhere in my audio system, which prevents me from using it. Audio comes out completely garbled when transmitting for some weird reason. (Intercom works fine). I need to have the shop look into this. It works well in other aircraft.
Bose are announcing a new aviation product on 28th. If it’s a new headset, I’m sure I’ll buy one and use my current A20 for passengers.
etn wrote:
I also acquired a Clarity Aloft a few years ago and I really, really like it. It is passive but has very good attenuation. It is also very light. It is very convenient when wearing glasses! Glasses can open a gap between your ear and a “regular” headset and reduce attenuation. Not so with the Clarity.
I did too, some 5-6 years ago. They are excellent. The only thing is they take longer to put on and off than regular headset. All in all I would never switch them out for traditional headset. The main reason I bought them was I was towing gliders, and could wear the headset almost the entire day with no breaks. Bose headset started becoming uncomfortable after 1-2 h and unbearable after 4-5. The way I “dress” is regular glasses (to see properly 
) and a cap. I don’t wear sunglasses. Maybe without glasses and cap the Bose would be OK, I don’t know, but then I wouldn’t see well enough to fly They are also excellent when flying aerobatics. Sits smack on, and I don’t feel them at all.
More noisy than ANR, but that has never been a problem to me.
More noisy than ANR, but that has never been a problem to me.
I’ve been trying to decide if my CA Flex is louder than ANR headsets or not. Sometimes it seems to me that it is, but it’s hard to tell because the audio quality is a whole lot better and I think it’s possible to confuse quality and quantity.
I’ve figured out the routine to put them on and take them off, and don’t use my other headsets anymore when flying my own plane. However if I’m running off to fly with somebody else I just grab a Zulu – the CA stays in my plane more like an instrument in an operating room, not something you grab and go.
I also wear a cap plus (reading) glasses and agree that it’s nice not to deal with traditional headset ear cups, sealing etc.
