Why are you doing this?

When I was learning to fly I needed to purchase an aviation headset. While conducting my research I found there was sparse objective data available on GA aviation headsets. This study is to evaluate the performance in terms of acoustic quality and hearing protection.

Don’t you find it crazy that cheap shelf loudspeakers publish more specifications than expensive aviation headsets!?

What does $300 buy you vs $1300?

Also, it’s fun!

What are you testing?

We are testing the objective acoustic performance of GA aviation headsets in the noise field of typical aircraft. Namely an R44 and a 172N. Other aircraft were recorded, these were chosen as the most typical.

Included in that testing is how well the headset adapts to leaks, how well it protects your hearing and the quality of the headset in those noise fields.

How well can you hear? How well can others hear you? How easy is it to understand in that noise field?

For detailed information see the analysis page

Can I trust your data?

This study was conducted by three professional acoustic engineers with over 50 years of experience. There are no sponsors, no money changing hands, no assistance from headset manufacturers and no bias.

The data was independently reviewed by Head Acoustics

How are the measurements performed?

The background noise of the cockpit of the aircraft is recorded using a calibrated microphone array mounted to an artificial head measurement system.

This noise is then reproduced in a listening room, complying to ETSI TS 103 557.

An artificial head measurement system is placed in this noise field and different headsets are then tested to (ETSI TS 103 640 V1.2.1) using a test suite from Head Acoustics.

Who is paying for this project?

No one! No headset manufacturers are involved. This ensures no bias to the data. If you’d like to buy us a beer or help host the website please click here!

All costs are borne by the engineers.

How come you’re providing this for free?

We are able to give answers to those hundreds and thousands of “which is better headset A or headset B” posts on Facebook and aviation forums. So I’m doing that.

Several people have donated time and / or some hobbs. Time discussing the project and so on.

What don’t we test?

This study is not taking into account the shape or how fat your head is, the shape or size of your ears, how hot you get, where you fly, when you fly etc and so on.

This study does not take into account subjective preferences or your perceptions of how the comfortable the headset feels.

This is purely the acoustical performance of the headset in a typical GA aviation environment.