Bose Headsets

On Wed, 14 Jun 2006 09:32:23 +0200, Thomas Borchert
wrote:

RK,

The question is, does ANR do any better at attenuating the
ear-damaging frequencies than ordinary noise attenuating headsets?


I suggest you read the ANR tutorial at Lightspeed's website.

I did read that article, as suggested by Marc J. Zeitlin in a previous
message in this thread, thank you both. While an interesting article,
it doesn't really tell me too much that I didn't already know, or
suspect, and it doesn't constitute the scientific evidence that I'm
looking for.

I did a search in Google Scholar for papers on the subject and hit a
paper that appeared in "Journal of Occupational Health" reporting a
study on an ANR (or ANC) for industrial workers. That article
presented evidence that workers showed less TTS (Temporary Threshold
Shift), as measured with an audiometer, when using ANC hearing
protection. TTS is apparently that "dullness" in your ears that you
feel after a bare-eared flight. While the study doesn't cover aviation
headsets, it does suggest that ANR might be more effective at
preventing hearing loss than conventional noise-attenuating headsets,
which in turn are better than nothing at all. The article reports
p0.045 using the Wilcoxon sign rank test. Now that's the kind of
statistical evidence that I can get my teeth into. Give me some reason
to accept or reject h0. Does anyone know of scientific papers or
journal articles on Aviation ANRs? Preferably a paper that I can
download as a PDF for free instead of having to pay a fortune to buy a
copy from one of those scientific paper publishers.

Of course I've always been concerned about hearing loss as I already
have a hearing loss in one ear (mumps when I was 5) that kept me from
pursuing a commercial license (though recent rule changes could change
that). Consequently, I've always been interested in keeping what I
already have and was rather excited when I first heard that Bose was
introducing an ANR headset--until I found out that I couldn't afford
it. I do fly a somewhat quieter airplane, a Cherokee, so it's not as
bad as with some airplanes. I once used a sound level meter and found
that the noise in the Cherokee was only a few db higher than my car (a
Vega at the time) though with the logarithmic db scale, only a few
points still means an awful lot of noise.

I may be ready for a new headset since I've been noticing that my
current headset, a cheap DC knock off, has lately been exhibiting
audio dropouts. I suspect a broken wire in the plug. Now if I could
only come up with the cash. After the disastrous annual inspection
this year and the recent slide in the stock market, I'm not prepared
for a headset. Maybe if I bought a lottery ticket every day...

RK Henry

In article ,
Thomas Borchert wrote:
Those brands you mention are not your only options - just the most
expensive. For DC, you pay ridiculous amounts for the name and get a
technologically and ergonomically old headset. For Bose you pay for the

Your statement is just ridiculous. David Clark has unmatched quality,
durability, and customer service. While I think Bose does a great job
and makes an excellent headset, there is no way that the Bose headsets
will handle the abuse of a DC, nor have I heard reports of Bose being as
generous with repair/replacement as DC.



JKG

In article ,
Thomas Borchert wrote:

RK,

The question is, does ANR do any better at attenuating the
ear-damaging frequencies than ordinary noise attenuating headsets?


I suggest you read the ANR tutorial at Lightspeed's website.

Which provides no proof that using an ANR headset will protect your
hearing any more than a good passive.

The reality is that noise-induced and age-related hearing loss most
frequently occurs in the higher frequencies. The human ear is
significantly more susceptible to noise-induced hearing loss at high
frequencies, where ANR has no effect.

ANR headsets would be an improvement over no headset, but I have yet to
find any clinical studies or scientific documentation from qualified
professionals (a group which doesn't include Lightspeed's marketing or
engineering departments) that concludes that ANR has any benefit to
protecting against hearing loss.

In my experience, what ANR does do is provide for a less fatiguing, more
enjoyable flight.



JKG

Jonathan Goodish wrote:
In article ,
Thomas Borchert wrote:

Those brands you mention are not your only options - just the most
expensive. For DC, you pay ridiculous amounts for the name and get a
technologically and ergonomically old headset. For Bose you pay for the


Your statement is just ridiculous. David Clark has unmatched quality,
durability, and customer service. While I think Bose does a great job
and makes an excellent headset, there is no way that the Bose headsets
will handle the abuse of a DC, nor have I heard reports of Bose being as
generous with repair/replacement as DC.

Having owned both DC and Bose headsets and had outstanding customer service
experience with both, I'd say the difference in customer service quality was
imperceptible to me. Both repaired headsets promptly with no charge, and
replaced other wear parts at the same time without prompting.

The difference in comfort and sound quality is noticeable, and I give the edge
to Bose. The DC I owned was not an ANR, however.

The Bose is way ahead of the Telex ANR I owned previously in both comfort and
quality.

My primary flight instructor ran over his old DC's with his car (I saw
it happen, and there didn't appear to be a single salvagable part on the
headset). When buying a replacment, he mentioned what had happened and
the clerk suggested he call DC and tell them what had happened. He
did,and they told him to send them the headset. They sent him a
replacment free of charge within a week. It isn't like the one he ran
over was a new headset either, they were about 8 years old. Somehow, I
don't see Bose doing that.

Peter R. wrote:


Given the cost of the Bose, I cannot imagine someone being so careless as
to letting them end up in such a precarious position.

Same could be said for the DC's. Fact was, he accidently left them on
the roof of his car, and when backing out they fell off and the front
tire went right over them. Heck, if people can do that with babies in
car seats....

Ray Andraka wrote:

My primary flight instructor ran over his old DC's with his car
snip
They sent him a
replacment free of charge within a week. It isn't like the one he ran
over was a new headset either, they were about 8 years old. Somehow, I
don't see Bose doing that.

Given the cost of the Bose, I cannot imagine someone being so careless as
to letting them end up in such a precarious position.

--
Peter

On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 16:34:25 -0400, Ray Andraka
wrote:

I just sent a 16-year old DC headset back for repairs (it had
intermittent wiring / audio problems). I bought it new 16 years ago.
Guess I ain't as lucky as some other folks here on the list, 'cause
DC offered to repair the headset for $79 + shipping (a 5-year
warranty time-span limit was mentioned in the "repair estimate" e-mail
reply from a DC customer service representative).

For the record, I don't mind paying the $80 to fix the DC headset
(after all, it has given me 16+ years of trouble-free service). Just
thought I'd mention that they apparently aren't giving everyone
"Nordstroms style" (no questions asked, replace or repair
for free) service with regards to returns and / or repairs....

Since I'm typing, anyone here installed the ANR retrofit kit from
Headsets Inc. into their DC headset?

http://www.headsetsinc.com/
http://www.avweb.com/news/reviews/182561-1.html

I was thinking perhaps this may be a relatively inexpensive way to
move up from a passive attenuation headset to an ANR one....

Bela P. Havasreti


My primary flight instructor ran over his old DC's with his car (I saw
it happen, and there didn't appear to be a single salvagable part on the
headset). When buying a replacment, he mentioned what had happened and
the clerk suggested he call DC and tell them what had happened. He
did,and they told him to send them the headset. They sent him a
replacment free of charge within a week. It isn't like the one he ran
over was a new headset either, they were about 8 years old. Somehow, I
don't see Bose doing that.

Bela P. Havasreti wrote:
I just sent a 16-year old DC headset back for repairs (it had
intermittent wiring / audio problems). I bought it new 16 years ago.
Guess I ain't as lucky as some other folks here on the list, 'cause
DC offered to repair the headset for $79 + shipping (a 5-year
warranty time-span limit was mentioned in the "repair estimate" e-mail
reply from a DC customer service representative).

Oh, good. Then it wasn't just me.

Simular story, although my story is dated as a couple of years ago. I think the
era of DC "all fixed, no questions asked" policy is long past.

--
Frank Stutzman
Bonanza N494B "Hula Girl"
Hood River, OR

Yes, around the frequencies of the human female's speech. What more proof
do you need that there is a merciful God.

" The reality is that noise-induced and age-related hearing loss most
frequently occurs in the higher frequencies. The human ear is
significantly more susceptible to noise-induced hearing loss at high
frequencies, where ANR has no effect.