This is part one of a three-part series that will review the Bose Aviation Collection headsets. Bose was gracious enough to provide me with to headsets for review; a Bose Proflight Series 2 and an A30 headset.
Typically, I use an over-the-ear headset in flight and for watching movies or listening to music, so even before testing the Proflight, I was a little weary of using an in-ear headset in the flight deck, especially in the noisy aircraft that I fly.
During the setup of the Bose Proflight Series 2 in the Bose Connect app, the walk-through setup process mentions that it comes with three different earpiece sizes and that it’s not uncommon to use a different size for each ear. The headset comes pre-loaded with the medium size earpieces. I concluded that the best way would be to try each size for a little while to determine which fit best.
I really like how lightweight this particularly headset is. The side pads are a little awkward to get used to when placing it on your head. My customary headset is a simple over-the-ear cup. Trying to find the right way to insert the earpieces also took some trial and error with each of the different sizes while attempting to optimize the noise cancellation. Ultimately, I found I needed the small earpiece in my right ear and the medium in my left ear. The microphone is typical of all other aviation headsets that I’ve owned, except that the voice clarity seems to be significantly better.
The aircraft I fly requires a constant hot mic due to FAR requirements for the black box voice recorder, therefore there is always a background low hum. I really like the ability to take one earpiece out and place the wire on the hook so I can listen to others who are not on a headset either at the gate or while in flight. There is also a double-tap feature that can be enabled by a switch inside the battery compartment. This feature sounded good, but I found myself accidentally double tapping as I was trying to adjust the earpieces for comfort and maximum ANR. Ultimately, I opted to disable this feature to avoid accidently double tapping.
My test of this headset concluded after approximately 25 hours in use. (I will be giving each headset equal bench-test time.) I found with this headset that my right ear, which I had fitted with the smaller earpiece, had some pain.
Next, I will be testing the Bose A30 headset. Watch for this next bench test in the September issue of Aero Crew News. After reviewing both, I will provide my honest comparative assessment and conclusions.
