PIREP of sorts: got a new headset, but should I keep it?

wrote in message
oups.com...
[...]
As for noise attenuation: I have been flying for over a year with a
cheap $99 Cobra headset, and I expected to be absolutely blown away
when I put these on - it didn't happen. [...]
I wouldn't say it's loud, per se,
but I guess I expected the "I turned them on and thought the engine
quit" effect that I've read about so many times with various ANR
headsets.

Where have you read about that? I have never heard of anyone saying that.
All of the ANR headsets I've ever used (Peltor, Lightspeed, Bose) had the
same effect: they are MUCH more effective with cancelling the low
frequencies than the high.

The goal of the headset should be, IMHO, to reduce the overall sound volume
(pressure), protecting your hearing and reducing fatigue, while at the same
time allowing you to hear important sounds. Every ANR headset I've tried
does this.

I don't know whether it's a design choice, or a basic limitation in what's
capable with the first generation of ANR (IMHO they haven't gotten to the
second generation yet), but it does happen that the low frequencies are the
ones that seem the loudest, and which fatigue one the fastest.

I would suggest it's unrealistic for anyone to expect an ANR headset to
actually remove all ambient sound. I've never heard of any that do that,
nor have I heard of anyone saying that they do.

Pete