I have been using the Bose X headset
since last November ('03) in an EMB-145. Anyone who has been in a
EMB-145 in flight knows that the cockpit is VERY loud. I have
been thrilled with the performance of the Bose X in all aspects.
As a side note, when I replaced the batteries for the first time, I
found myself thinking that they had lasted for quite some time. I
pulled out my logbook and did the math...unbelievably, the batteries
lasted 145 hours. I use Duracell AA batteries and I get about the
same duration out of each set.
Phil Sprang
EMB-145
Continental Express
I use the Bose X in
King Airs and a Citation Bravo. Excellent headset as long as
active cancellation is working. Very poor without the active
cancellation. Have found it to be more fragile than my Dave
Clark. Have broken the Bose X three times (always repaired
and returned promptly, and no charge). The first repair was due
to popping in one ear, and one ear piece broke off. They replaced
the drivers, and repaired like new. The next repair was for the mic
breaking off. Again, they repaired promptly. I can say that each
time I sent it for repairs it was turned around immediately (The
second time I didn't think they had had time to receive it and it was
back). Have broken one Dave Clark in about 5000 hrs of use. Dave
Clark too heavy but I prefer for shorter duration flights, and it's
tough.
J.L. Simpson
I have been using the Bose X headset in the EMB-120 Brasilia for a few months now, and have to say there is no comparision with other headsets. The comfort of the new design is unmatched by other manufacturers. Even after a full day of flying the headset produces no hotspots or "pinches". You simply do not even notice you are wearing it after a while. Mic quality is top notch and on the same level as Sennheiser products. There is a huge difference when the ANR is switched on, reducing all engine noise to a faint whisper. I have had other pilots say the mic transmits less background noise than other mics through the intercom, a feature that is nice considering the EMB has a open mic intercom at all times (unless you turn it off). The only drawback is price, but if you want the best it is worth it.
Jason S.
I was asked to write a review of the Bose X for the website. I currently fly an F100 and I found the aircraft to be awefully loud. I started a search for an appropriate headset and the Bose X became a candidate.
I first started using Bose headsets when I started flying a piston helicopter (Robinson R22) doing traffic patrol over 4 hours a day. I first tried to solve the problem by using E.A.R. plugs (the little yellow foam ones) along with my David Clarks. What I found was that I had to turn the radio volume louder and that the E.A.R. plugs attenuated the higher frequencies of voice communications and made it difficult to understand many transmissions. Additionally, if the E.A.R. plugs "leak", they cause damage that is not detectable during the flight (I have found the same problem with the F-100).
I bought a Bose Series I headset and quickly fell in love with them. The Series I had a few flaws, notably the "whooping" sound when near a radar facility (you could always tell which airports had PAR approaches!) and the battery was a beer can size arrangement of NiCads that only lasted about 10 hours or so depending on the noise signature. The earcups pivoted in such a way that when you took them off, sometimes the headband would become tangled....it's hard to describe, but if you owned a pair, you know what I am talking about. But even with their bulk, they were very comfortable and performed well and I credit them with saving my hearing. I also attached a PS Engineering Muse, a little portable 9 volt battery (some of you old types might know those as transistor batteries!) powered stereo amplifier that allowed a music input. I hooked up a portable FM radio and I was able to hear the traffic reporters report and also listen to stereo music. The Bose headsets have near Hi-Fi quality stereo sound.
Because I often ordered earseals from Bose, I was contacted by one of their engineers about doing a study for the Series II and then again for the Xs. They modified my headset and it in essence became a Series II which was the Series I with all the bugs gone except the battery. It still was large, heavy and expensive and since it was a NiCad, it had memory effect and therefore no level guage. You had no idea what the remaining power was.
When I started flying a King Air 200, I asked the owner if we could install an intercom and panel mounted jacks for Bose headsets and we bought a pair of Bose Xs. The Xs are lighter, better performing headset than any other Bose has made but to me it has one major flaw: the headband. It folds at the top using a piano hinge type assembly and although the headband is padded, it gave me a pressure point headache right at the top of my head. That problem could be modified somewhat by proper placement (Bose will tell you that any discomfort is due to improper positioning) but it still gave me a headache. I've asked others and many people report the same problem. It could easily be modified to eliminate this problem and it is possible that you won't experience this problem. It seems specific to certain head types (I don't think I have a big head!). I can't speak to the X's battery life since they were panel mounted and therefor powered by the aircraft. But the performane is excellent and the earcup comfort is also superb. They are amazingly lightweight and not at all clumsy. And for a headset that completely covers the ear, very low bulk. You pay for the quality but you get it. If you've never dealt with Bose, their customer service is superb. If you have any problem, just send them back and they will FedEx them back to you. Bottom line, this is an excellent headset and at the price (around $1,000) you'd expect them to be. Bose simply makes the best but wear them before you throw away the box to see if they give you any problems with the headband. As to the F100 or any other cockpit, I'm not sure how easy it would be to use the "one on/one off" method (keeping the 1 earcup facing your other pilot off so you can hear him). Since they cover the entire ear, it may not be feasible to wear them comfortably with one earcup off. Again, try them for 30 days and see... Jor
Jorge de Cubas
I really liked the Bose X headset. Unfortnately, I couldn't live with the mic. It simply was too difficult to place the mic to get it to operate properly. I assume part of this placement problem is the reason there is so little background noise, and admittedly, the transmission quality was excellant. I tried everything on mic placement but it seemed even a 1/32 inch change and it would go to zero transmission. I sent the headset back and it was a no hassle no questions refund.
Rob Roper
I have been using a Bose X headset for about a year, flying about 4 hours five days a week as a flight instructor in piston singles and light twins. The noise cancelling is excellent as is the weight and comfort.
A lingering annoyance, however, was the microphone and associated boom. First, the boom was flimsy and difficult if not impossible to properly position. It had to be practically in your mouth or there was no sound transmitted. Second, the tonal quality of the mike suppressed the "highs" for some reason, making transmitted voice sound muffled. Now, after a half hour or so, I would rotate the mike on the end of the gooseneck around to the mike's "back" side and the mike would then be crisp for about ten minutes. I had to keep flipping it back and forth.
I completely and totally solved the problem by replacing the entire mike and boom with one from a Peltor headset. Yes, it took courage to slightly dissassemble a $1000 headset, but the result is absolutely fantastic. The Peltor boom and mike is a generic assembly used on the David Clark and Sennheiser, etc., headsets. Best news, it required no permanent change to the Bose. (meaning the old mike can be reinstalled for some reason). Once the old mike boom was removed, the Peltor boom/mike literally bolted into the existing hole and the job was completed with the soldering of the leads.
The change makes the heaset a thousand times better.
Mark Wollman, Philadelphia, PA
Previously I contributed my thoughts on the Bose X headset. I have more comments as follows:
I had been using the Bose X in a popular commuter airliner, Saab 340B. Although the headset is great, the battery life is terrible and 9 volt batteries are rather expensive. There is no cigarette lighter in such airplanes, so I had to use the unit's battery and keep buying 9 volt's all the time. I bought rechargeables, but these were a lousy solution because their life was even shorter, I had to travel with one in "standby" ready to be swapped out at any time when one went dead and I had to lug a charger around with me on the overnight trips. The worst part was that the battery would unexpectedly die during a critical phase of flight: e.g., right after the tower at JFK says "cleared for immediate takeoff 31R, heavy Airbus 3 miles out on final, Idelwild climb" or after glideslope intercept on an approach to minimums. When the battery died, it was like wearing no headset at all and the distraction quite unsettling.
Solution: I disassembled the electronics case of the headset and installed an external power jack. I then fabricated a coiled pwer cord and external battery case. The connectors are special, difficult to obtain, locking power connectors that I got from http://www.headsetsinc.com/ . The battery case contains 2 rechargeable lithium ion batteries from a lap top computer, an on/off switch, and three levels of safety fusing to prevent fires: 1) themal fuse; 2) special lithium ion PCM fuse; 3) automotive fuse. The battery pack is amazingly light, small in size (about the same size as the Bose box), and provides power for a month (minimum 75 hours of flying). I keep the battery pack in my kitbag with the coiled cord running out the top under my approach plates book to the Bose electronics pack and now the headset nevers fails due to a dead battery! If anyone wants the details on the conversion, just me.
Microphone and Boom
You've read about my microphone/boom replacement. I have heard
from Bose that there is a new microphone which they will fit on an
existing headset for no charge. I declined to have them do it
since the type of flex boom provided on the headset originally is
half the problem. I managed to fit a Peltor boom (which is
virtually the same as a David Clark) into the same hole used by the
factory boom without disturbing anything. The improvement
is dramatic, but personal. Note that theoretically, the headset
can be returned exactly to the way it was, except for the microphone
wiring plug which I had to snip out to make the proper new microphone
connection to the existing Bose wires. There is one little
trick: the new microphone/boom assembly has an external wire while
the factory boom's is internal. This is not a problem, but I
suggest that you not drill a new hole into your Bose which would make
changing the microphone from left to right (think captain upgrade
time!) impossible. Instead, slip the mike wire into the boom
mike attachment by sliding it along side the unit's wire and up and
into the original wire rubber strain relief. It is tight but it
can be done with patience. Leave enough slack, but not too
much, to ensure you can rotate the boom up to store in your kit bag.
I forget which color wires attach to the microphone, but you should be able to find out easily enough once the little boom attachment box is apart. The new mike needs only two wires but the Bose mike has a third which is presumably an additional shielding conductor and need not be connected. I only notice interference when my head is unreasonably close to the plane's windshield when the heat is on, which, of course is at all times in flight, and every headset makes the same sound (a 400 Hz. hum).
After flying over a thousand hours with the new boom/mike, it is terrific and problem free.
New Battery Case
I sent
an email to Bose lamenting on the battery life and telling them that
the unit was pooping out during critical phases of flight. They
offered no solution other than to put a new battery in before every
flight. I knew there had to be a better way. The present
lithium battery was a development of my initial battery
eliminator.
During the my days of piston engine flying, there were 12volt
cigarette lighters in the panel. I found that the power cord
from an Escort Passport radar detector perfectly converted 12v to 9
volt with no audio noise. The trick was to install an external
power fitting to the Bose battery box. I managed to install a
small radio shack power connector into the middle of the box on the
end opposite the green/red light. The leads were simply
soldered to the wherever the internal battery leads went. I
clipped off the factory Escort original plug from the cord (which is
a beautifully made and sized coiled cord which I still use for the
new battery box--I suggest you get one) and installed an
appropriately sized radio shack power plug. It worked perfectly
until one day I accidently plugged it into a 24volt Cessna and fried
the Escort power supply. Replacement radio shack adapters (from
China) were worthless because their circuitry resulted in excessive
audio noise and hiss.
I used rechargeable 9 volts but they had even less life than the alkalines and I always had to have a spare ready to be put in at all time (with the leads taped to prevent a fire), plus I had to carry a recharger on the overnights.
I obtained empty plastic electronic experimenter boxes in various sizes to see if I could build a battery pack that could hold the 6 or 7 rechargeable cells needed. I wanted at least AA size since they would provide about 1300mAh versus 350 for a rechargeable 9 volt. I found that no commercially available boxes were avaibale in the size I needed (as small as possible). Then it dawned on me to use lithium batteries. Because they are 3.6 volts I would need only two, although they are a bit bigger than an AA, sort of like an AA and a half, not quite a C, but much longer, maybe three inches. Plus, they are very light. I found that a battery box made by the same people who make the ANR modules for David Clark headsets http://www.headsetsinc.com/ will hold two lithium cells perfectly (1200mAh), plus it comes with a built in switch and jack!. I found that the ordinary radio shack jack I installed the year before in the Bose battery box would vibrate during flight and dislodge the power cord. Luckily the headsetsinc folks sold me locking connectors when I bought their battery box which I installed on the Bose box. New lithium ion cells can be expensive, but you can get appropriate ones by getting the cells originally sold for Quallcom QCP1900 and 800 cellphones or Sony CMD500 and 600 cell phone from Ebay, although my prototype came from a worn out laptop battery. If you have an old lithium cell from a laptop, try it, mine works great and I thought I was dead!
I recommend several layers of fusing inside the battery box. First a regular 1/2 amp car fuse, then a 180F thermal fuse. The lithium battery will probably come with an integrated circuit build in. Discard it unless you know what your doing, it contains, among other things a PCM which is some type of additional layer of heat/current fusing.
You will need to charge it on a low current (i.e., slow) 9 volt charger. The science of charging lithium ion cells is complex and to do it right requires a sophisticated feedback reading and variable power charger with temperature monitors (that's why there's an electronic board inside a lithium ion battery pack) and that is the reason why they do not readily replace nicads or nimh's in consumer goods. A slow unsophisticated $12.00 charger will charge the cells, but not totally. Nevertheless, the charge is more than adequate. I charge it by removing the power cord from the new battery box, then attaching a 9volt clip to power plug adapter cable. The 9v clip attaches onto the charger's clip and the plug goes into the battery box plug. I charge it overnight before a trip.
There it is. The lithium pack has never failed me. This one has two 4 day trips in it without a charging!
Good luck and best regards.
Mark Wollman
(Mark sent some additional information about his solution to the battery life problem.)
One or two readers expressed concern that the lithium battery used in the modification which is nominally rated at 7.2 volts wouldn't adequately power the headset which requires 9 volts. Well, it works perfectly and is far superior to even a brand new charged up "9 volt" sized nicad or NiMh.
I conducted a test comparison using the loudest plane I could readily find which is an 1960 Aztec with the original unmuffled straight augmentor pipes, with an ill-fitting door and decayed weathersealing. On takeoff, the noise is sickening and with even brand new 9 volt sized nicads/NiMh's the Bose X was not be able to handle the antinoise load and suddenly shut off. This usually occurred at the most inopportune time of rotation to climb attitude/gear-up. The alkalines worked OK in the plane. I tried the lithium battery and it handled it perfectly. I have not tried it super loud blood-will-come-out-of-your-ears plane like T-28 on takeoff nor in an open cockpit, but my guess is it would be fine.
I fly the F-100, an extremely noisy cockpit both on the ground
and in the air. I used the Sennheiser HMEC-25ka headset for a year.
My guess is that the noise was cut in half.
Now I use the Bose Aviation X headset and the noise is cut by 90%. It's incredible! The Bose is much more comfortable the Sennheiser. I had no problems hearing the copilot during ground operations, or in the air. You can't go wrong with the Bose. I arrive at home after a three day trip just as fresh as the day I left.
Pete Monaco
American Airlines-ORD
I fly 172's, 182's, a Citabria, and a TBM. The TBM is not a
quiet plane, and a two hour flight with the old Dave Clark's was
deafining. The Bose X's are excellent, cutting the noise level by
80%. Yes, there are problems with intercom and radio volume
levels when using other brands of headsets along with the Bose. Usually
the radio has to be turned up for them, and the intercom down for me,
and I usually have to turn my headset volume down. I have the two
AA battery model, and get at least 80 hours out of a set, yes, 80
hours! After six months, and 250 hours, the mike began to work
poorly, I had to speak very loud, or no transmittion. Bose
repaired the set at no charge, with a quick turnover. Are they
worth a grand? How much is your hearing worth? With the
excelent customer support, I think they are worth the money and will
buy a second set for the right seat.
wingnut
I used uflymike, Bose Headset X,
and David Clarks w/o noise cancellation in the CRJ and I prefer the
David Clarks. As for the sound quality of the Bose QC2 and Headset X, I
will take the
David Clarks any day. It may sound crazy, but while comparing
them to David Clarks, I noticed that ATC voice transmissions sounded
muffled compared to the crisp clear sound of the David Clarks.
With Bose, It was like listening to ATC through a pillow. I think
this must be due to the design of Bose products being focused on a
broader range of sound instead of an acute sound range of the speaking
voice that is best for clarity of content. With the David Clarks,
it sounded similar to turning the sound setting on your home stereo to
"talk show" instead of "hip hop". I didn't need to turn the sound
level up as high in the cockpit when I used the David Clarks. It
was easy to decipher ATC instruction at a very low level of radio
volume which made for a much more relaxing day. As far as comfort
goes, both Bose products beat the David Clark clamps, but it's not
enough to make up for the serenity of the David Clarks. I'm going
to try the new David Clark X11's (their lightweight ANR answer to
Headset X). I'm betting that David Clarks with noise reduction
will be completely silent AND have good sound quality. I just
hope their light weight version has the integrity of the clamps.
Alvin Vinson
If you use this headset, please send your .