Jay,

FWIW, that video is not a "pirep" really - it's a promotional video
from a pilot shop selling the Zulu. Not that it isn't informative, but
to set the record straight...

In the same sense, regard the following bearing in mind that my wife's
pilot shop sells headsets.

we did the big headset comparison flight yesterday in our TB-10
(Lycoming O-360 four-cylinder, so not as much low frequency noise as in
a Bo or so). We directly compared the Zulu, the Bose, the DC X11 and
the Sennheiser HMEC 250 in flight. FWIW, here are our opinions.

Let's do away with the easy ones first: The HMEC 250 had an
unsatisfactory fit for all three pilots on board. The ANR isn't that
great either. It is "only" 500 dollars, though. The biggest
disappointment by far was the X11. The difference between ANR on and
ANR off was barely noticable and much restricted to the low
frequencies. Considering that it is priced the same as the Zulu...

As for the two main contenders: We had one guy who was wildly
determined to prefer the Bose - and another who was all for the Zulu.
Turns out that after the test, the first guy slightly preferred the
Zulu, the other liked the Bose a little better ;-) In short: They are
really close - except in price and features (more on that below).

The Bose was found to be slightly more comfortable, it has a little
less clamping force and is slightly lighter. OTOH, the Zulu has thicker
pads, which can be an advantage when wearing glasses since the seal is
less likely to break.
The ANR of the two was found to be practically the same quality, with a
little difference in frequency spectrum. But both did an excellent job
of reducing the noise. Music reproduction on the Zulu was found to be
better when their FRC signal processing was activated. Speech quality
was different in frequency spectrum, but good in both. The mics gave a
clear, natural reproduction of the speaker's voice.

Featurewise, the Zulu is way ahead, if those features matter to you:
audio and cell phone inputs as well as a Bluetooth connection for cell
phones, a really neat case and the above mentioned FRC music enhancer.
As one pilot, who is also a professional musician, mentioned: You just
have the feeling to get a modern, up-to-date headset with all the
latest advances when you look at the Zulu. The Bose gives the
impression of being dated in comparison.

The prices are probably well known to all of you.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)