Hi Kyle,

Well buying headsets is a tough decision because as you mentioned, many that
sound or feel great, don't seem so great after you've had them on your head
for a couple hours. Experience has shown us that generally speaking, you
usually get what you pay for.

As for the Lightspeed, they do sound great and are comfortable to wear for
long flights. The problem I have with them is they are just to cheaply made
to last for very long. I know of two pair that have broken after 2 years of
normal use and are unfortunately no longer under warranty.

On the other hand, I have several pairs of Dave Clarks for myself and my
passengers. I fly professionally, many days timing out at 8 hours and I can
wear my DC H-60's for the entire day and not feel uncomfortable one bit.

I paid around 350 dollars for my H-60's about 10 years ago before ANR
existed. The first thing I did was have them fitted with the Oregon Aero
leather top with sheep wool and the ear pieces are the DC ear gels with the
felt lining. In 2000 or 2001, I had the ANR kit installed and it's one of
the best investments I've ever made in aviation.

Customers are hard on headsets and these have been dropped out of airplanes
and helicopters, kicked across the ramp, stepped on, sat on, doors shut on
them and ripped out of the jack inputs and they just keep on working as
expected without a hitch. The quality and durability is, in my opinion,
superior to all other headset on the market, including the Boise, which I
have used often. I actually prefer my DC's for the way the mic is attached
with the wire type of system. It's much more adjustable and stays put
without a fuss. As you could guess, for someone who is really going to
'use' their headset I can not recommend the DC line highly enough.

With the Boise, I tend to get a hot spot on top of my head after several
hours of wearing them. I've also found that because of the materials used,
they do not withstand the abuses the DC's hold up to.

Of course if you're certain that you won't subject your headsets to these
tortures, you may be happy with a lesser pair. But then my girlfriend
didn't have that luck with her lightspeeds.

Good luck,

PJ

============================================
Here's to the duck who swam a lake and never lost a feather,
May sometime another year, we all be back together.
JJW
============================================

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
...
I've got 3 headsets. Two sets are cheapies I got when I earned my license
10
years ago, and a nice set I bought when I finished the RV-6. Both models
are discontinued.

I'm happy with the nice set (Lightspeed 25XL's), but the cheapies have
more
clamping force, and my wife is uncomfortable wearing them on longer
flights.
Being PIC, I make sure she understands why it is very important that I
wear
the nice, comfortable, noise cancelling headsets. Clearly, I need to hear
traffic calls, and since her life depends on me when we're in the air,
she's
very much attuned to my comfort, not hers. ;-)

Anyway, how do I go about helping her find a set of headsets she likes?
I've never found an avionics shop that loans headsets for a weekend ,
which
is what you really need, since you don't get a real feel for a headsets
until you wear them for 3-4 hours at a time. What feels and sounds great
in
the booth at Oshkosh or SnF may be a head crushing nightmare after you
wear
'em for a couple of hours...

Thoughts?

KB