One more input on the "high fidelity"....I think DenverPilot is referring to blue tooth driven audio. I just use the little aux input cable for music. For me, blue tooth is fine for phone/voice/etc, but for good music I prefer the cable....no noticeable loss of signal. The PFX uses digital signal processing (DSP) vs analog that all the other high-end headsets use. I'm really curious about how the DSP works with my music input...once I demo as OSH I'll post a review.
Lightspeed PFX Headset PIREP?
- Thread starter CT Arrow
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Jay Honeck
Touchdown! Greaser!
Tried the PFX at OSH yesterday. Impressions:
- Nice quality feel
- Big battery box, but not terrible
- Very comfy
The only bad thing was that last year, when you did the whole tone generator thing (to map your ear) it got really quiet in just a few seconds. With the production version, it took several minutes. Not sure if that was because we were talking, or what?
And then...there's the breathtaking price. $1100 is just hard to swallow.
But it did get really, REALLY quiet.
- Nice quality feel
- Big battery box, but not terrible
- Very comfy
The only bad thing was that last year, when you did the whole tone generator thing (to map your ear) it got really quiet in just a few seconds. With the production version, it took several minutes. Not sure if that was because we were talking, or what?
And then...there's the breathtaking price. $1100 is just hard to swallow.
But it did get really, REALLY quiet.
JOhnH
Touchdown! Greaser!
Make that about half the price of ONE hearing aid. I have two and they only seem to last me about 3 or 4 years each.
But even a low end headset will be better than the mic and speaker in the 150 I trained in when I was young. That probably plays a large part of what caused my hearing loss. Well, that; and pistols, and diesel engines, and sheet metal fabrication, and rock concerts and various power tools. And the fact that I come from a long line of deaf people.
Martymccasland
Pre-takeoff checklist
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M.McCasland
I'm muddying the water here a little, but we own 2 Bose A20 and 2 Lightspeed Zulu headsets. They both are good, but between the 2, I prefer the Lightspeed.
Yet on top of that, I bought some in-the-ear headsets -- the Quiet Technologies Halo's -- mainly for a backup pair or when all the seats are full. Have owned them for about 5 years now and increasingly reach for them over both the Bose and Lightspeed on all but the shortest trips. Paid about $325 for them way back and see they are up to $359 now. Excellent sound quality, excellent noise abatement -- I'd say at least as much as the Lightspeed and Bose, more comfortable than both the Bose and Lightspeeds, doesn't take any batteries.
My only issue is to keep a fresh supply for yellow foam ear tips. If they start sounding noisy, I replace the ear tips. $6 worth lasts me about 200 hours. I bought a few mic windsocks and keep them in my flight bag after losing one on a flight a while back and sounded to ATC like I'd lost my two front teeth. Yet a single drop of super-glue fixed that problem / still I have 6 replacements in my bag should the need arise.
Negative: They're not real suited for loaning to random passengers since they go in the ear and I don't want to run through new ear-tips for each use... So I just use the Bose and Lightspeed headsets for passengers.
Hard to beat the price for the sound quality, noise reduction, and comfort.
http://www.quiettechnologies.com
Yet on top of that, I bought some in-the-ear headsets -- the Quiet Technologies Halo's -- mainly for a backup pair or when all the seats are full. Have owned them for about 5 years now and increasingly reach for them over both the Bose and Lightspeed on all but the shortest trips. Paid about $325 for them way back and see they are up to $359 now. Excellent sound quality, excellent noise abatement -- I'd say at least as much as the Lightspeed and Bose, more comfortable than both the Bose and Lightspeeds, doesn't take any batteries.
My only issue is to keep a fresh supply for yellow foam ear tips. If they start sounding noisy, I replace the ear tips. $6 worth lasts me about 200 hours. I bought a few mic windsocks and keep them in my flight bag after losing one on a flight a while back and sounded to ATC like I'd lost my two front teeth. Yet a single drop of super-glue fixed that problem / still I have 6 replacements in my bag should the need arise.
Negative: They're not real suited for loaning to random passengers since they go in the ear and I don't want to run through new ear-tips for each use... So I just use the Bose and Lightspeed headsets for passengers.
Hard to beat the price for the sound quality, noise reduction, and comfort.
http://www.quiettechnologies.com
Jaybird180
Final Approach
Let's see....2 posts and they're both in the same thread praising the PFX. You wouldn't be a company rep would you?
denverpilot
Tied Down
Tried on all of them here at OSH. For the price of the PFX, Bose is way more comfortable with glasses on. The PFX jammed my glasses into the bridge of my nose and didn't let up. Second best for glasses was the Sennheiser. PFX was a distant third.
Turningfinal
Pre-takeoff checklist
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Turningfinal
I didn't have that glasses problem with the sunglasses I was wearing. I suppose it depends on head shape, etc.
I, like many others, tried all the big name ANRs at the show this year. By far, I felt the PFX had the best noise cancelling of any of the headsets. The Bose A20s and Sennheisers didn't even compare, IMO. If I had 1,100 to spend id be on those in a heartbeat. They also offer a CFI discount and may offer a trade in (similar to the Zulu 2s) in the future.
I, like many others, tried all the big name ANRs at the show this year. By far, I felt the PFX had the best noise cancelling of any of the headsets. The Bose A20s and Sennheisers didn't even compare, IMO. If I had 1,100 to spend id be on those in a heartbeat. They also offer a CFI discount and may offer a trade in (similar to the Zulu 2s) in the future.
No just really enjoy the headset that's all.
Dr. O
Pattern Altitude
I took the opportunity of the trade up program for the Z2's to trade in my 3G sets.
Now wish I had been able to do it for all the seats but they had a limit.
Perfectly happy with my Z2's
When the time comes for them to offer the PFX on a discount trade up so they can bring out the PFX MKII I will finish out the seats.
Now wish I had been able to do it for all the seats but they had a limit.
Perfectly happy with my Z2's
When the time comes for them to offer the PFX on a discount trade up so they can bring out the PFX MKII I will finish out the seats.
Jaybird180
Final Approach
Not a dig, just asking a question (or posing a theory - not provable either way). I invite you to stick around and contribute to the forum though.
I just picked up a zulu pfx, and tested it in a 172. I found them very comfortable, but am not quite sure about the ANR. I have been using a pair of lightspeed qfr cross country's that I picked up several years ago for about $250; wires are starting to frey and they are uncomfortable after a while, so I wanted to upgrade. I was expecting a significant difference between the two in terms of noise, but didn't really find it. The QFR certainly has better passive noise reduction, and I am just not sure if, overall, the PFX is less noisy -- it certainly wasn't with just the base ANR, and was maybe a bit quieter with acoustic response mapping on. I need to fly some more to test it out. I certainly liked the sound quality of music over bluetooth from my phone.
I had also been thinking about the clarity aloft headset, and am now wondering if I should have gone that way. I really wish there was a way to test all the major headsets side by side in one's plane.
I had also been thinking about the clarity aloft headset, and am now wondering if I should have gone that way. I really wish there was a way to test all the major headsets side by side in one's plane.
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flyingcheesehead
Taxi to Parking
Nate,
Anyone who wants audiophile quality isn't going to be listening via Bluetooth. And, I can say that I consider the Lightspeeds all the way back to my 20-3G's with a cabled connection to the audio source to be audiophile quality and then some. In fact, I was able to listen to the English Horn solo at the beginning of the 2nd movement of Dvorak's 9th Symphony while driving a semi and still hear the keys clicking on the English Horn. Amazing. And that was just the 20-3G...
So, I consider the Lightspeeds to be audiophile-quality headphones without any doubt.
denverpilot
Tied Down
Agreed. The post said the headphones were audiophile quality with Bluetooth.
There ARE now such things with the new CODECs, and aviation manufacturers are NOT offering them. So my response stands.
A few years ago there were NOT such things.
What were you doing operating a motor vehicle with both ears covered? Completely illegal here... One ear only. Dual ear headphones are illegal as are earbuds in both ears while driving.
I'll happily put the Lightspeeds up against a relatively cheap pair of Sony studio monitors and show someone what a real pair of studio quality headphones sounds like, for $1000 cheaper, too.
flyingcheesehead
Taxi to Parking
Well, yeah, it's illegal. Here, earbuds are OK while full-coverage headphones are not.
However, in the truck, I could hear outside BETTER with them on because they took out the massive low-end rumble, and I was prepared to demonstrate that to any law enforcement officer that wanted to call me on. Not legal under the letter of the law, but very much in line with the intent.
Hmmm. I'd take that bet. I'll have to lend my Lightspeeds to my audio-engineer friend.
Jaybird180
Final Approach
You must be from some small town somewhere like Wisconsin or something. That would NEVER fly here in the big city.
flyingcheesehead
Taxi to Parking
Trucks aren't allowed inside the beltway anyway.
Plus, 99% of your driving as an OTR driver is outside "the big city" and you never get stopped by cops in the city because there's often nowhere to pull over a beast that big and they don't really know what to do with you if they do pull you over. The ones that get you are the state troopers and "county mounties" out on the interstate... And they're pretty reasonable if you talk to them like human beings and are nice to them. Friend of mine used to call me "teflon" because I could get out of damn near anything by just treating them with basic human respect.
denverpilot
Tied Down
The funny part is, I'm arguing because someone said the Lightspeeds were "audiophile" headsets, but in the end you really don't want "audiophile" sound for voice comm. You want to push the midrange and maybe the highs and as Kent mentioned in the truck, remove the low end noise that makes voices hard to "copy". So it's all really a moot point. Sennheiser "gets this" and has DIP switches inside the box to do exactly that for old folks with high end hearing loss from too many years without ANR. ;-)
jesse
Touchdown! Greaser!
I looked at it closely and determined there was no point in upgrading from my Zulu 1. They did give me a free leather microphone cover to help cut the wind noise in the Flybaby which I appreciated.
bnt83
Final Approach
That's a smart move. Next, design aviation headsets adjustable where you or your audiologist can tweak it for your hearing loss via ipad app.
denverpilot
Tied Down
Not a bad idea at all. They've been doing that for hearing aids for about a decade now, although not via iPad so much as via the overpriced $20K test suite unit in the audiologist's office.
Jay Honeck
Touchdown! Greaser!
And the "audiologist" is often just a small business owner wearing a white coat. A buddy from my newspaper days started one of these hearing aid shops, took a ten week class to put some letters after his name, and is making a freaking fortune selling in-ear hearing aids for $3400 that cost him $240.Not a bad idea at all. They've been doing that for hearing aids for about a decade now, although not via iPad so much as via the overpriced $20K test suite unit in the audiologist's office.
He paid off his test suite in a year.
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mike444
Filing Flight Plan
Does anyone have any other experience with the PFX?
Neal Howard
Cleared for Takeoff
Ditto. I spent a fair amount of time playing with them at Osh, and especially since there is presently no trade-up program for the PFX, I'll just keep my 2 sets of Zulu 1 headsets for the foreseeable future, since they're working perfectly well in the noisy RV.
Neal Howard
Cleared for Takeoff
Can't do that in Texas however. To practice as an audiologist here now requires a doctorate degree from an accredited university and to pass a state licensing board exam. Hearing aid fitters and dispensers also have to be licensed as well. A couple years ago some get-rich-quick hearing aid shops started popping up around here and the state promptly shut them down. The state even went after Walmart for unlicensed hearing aid sales.
denverpilot
Tied Down
Booth dude said the Zulu 1 trade up will begin in the fall. I assume in time for you to grab a Christmas present for yourself.
Neal Howard
Cleared for Takeoff
Booth dude said the Zulu 1 trade up will begin in the fall. I assume in time for you to grab a Christmas present for yourself.
That really depends on what trade-in price they decide to give on the Zulu 1. If it's not enough then I'll keep my original Zulus a bit longer as there's really not that much difference in performance. The Zulu 1 is still a great performer, they hit a home run with the original release.
mike444
Filing Flight Plan
Has anyone received theirs yet? If so lets see an unboxing video
I've been flying with my PFX's since OSH14, probably about 30 hours or so. I upgraded from the Zulu 2 which I had been using for the previous year. I haven't yet contacted Lightspeed but at this point I'm fairly disappointed, to the point of being ready to "trade down" to Zulu 2's. I'm not sure if the problem is specific to my own hearing, but what I'm experiencing, I think, is that the PFX noise cancelling is SO quiet that all I hear is airframe buffet. It's become quite annoying, actually. I've had other people wear them and they don't hear what I am, but to me it's quite loud. I also don't like the larger control unit, and my hopes for longer battery life were dashed. So not only is it larger, heavier, bulkier, and use twice the batteries, my guess is the batteries last half as long as the Zulu 2's. We've also experienced a few quirky shutdowns that are unexplained. But the Bluetooth phone feature works much better than the Zulu 2 ever did for me. So I'm not sure yet what I will do, but I may end up calling Lightspeed and asking to trade my PFX's for Zulu 2's.
Can the poster of this comment, or someone else, explain this comment? I am interested in this headset because I fly a noisy airplane (RV) and might get a noisier one, so I want the best passive and active noise canceling available. Why is it that in noisy aircraft you can only use the first level of ANR, rather than the second level with the increased ANR? If that's the case, and assuming the first level is only equal to the previous version Zulu, then it would seem there is no reason for me to consider this headset.
Thanks.
Vaflier
Pre-takeoff checklist
I bought a set of these at Oshkosh this year and love them. I only wanted to try them out at Oshkosh and there was no way I was going to spend that much on a new headset, but was really blown away by the sound quality. They were so good that my friend who loves his headset decided to try them. I warned him not to because if he did he was going to buy them. He swore that was not going to happen and tried them anyway. Yep you guessed it, he bought them as well. After a ten hour flight home they were comfortable enough that I fell asleep at about the 9 hour mark. Another poster mentioned that they needed to boost the mid range frequencies for improved voice communication, you can customise the freuency response through the Ipad Flightlink App to suit your taste and in fact they have a specific setting to boost voice frequencies to better hear the controllers. This works very well. These things are amazing and I like them more each time I fly with them. A tradeup program is supposed to be annouced this fall. Something that people may not know is that Lightspeed has a discount program for flight instructors and it is easy to sign up. They can buy I think 2 headsets per year with a nice discount. For the PFX it is $150 off per headset. Fortunately my friend was an Instructor. We paid $950 each. Yes they were worth it.
RandyP, thanks a lot for your pirep. Hopefully this thread will get more pireps as more pilots try the PFX.
I just called Lightspeed to try to get an answer to my own question and found out a couple of things people here might be interested in. First, as of yesterday they've included the PFX in their trade up program (their website has the details). I know some people have been saying they'll hold off on considering the PFX until Lightspeed includes it in their trade up program.
Second, the Lightspeed rep did confirm, as Bcm25 posted, that there are two ANR settings on the PFX and the first level provides ANR that is "very comparable" to that provided by the Zulu 2. (I take that to mean basically the same.) That is a fixed noise cancelling that is "hardwired" into the headset at the factory and does not change, she said. However, when you switch to the second level, the headset samples the surrounding noise through microphones on the ear cups and then adjusts the ANR in response to the specific type of noise it detects occurring in your environment, giving you a "customized" ANR that's supposed to be better than the base level.
I asked about Bcm25's statement that you had to stay in the first level of ANR if you are in "loud open cockpits (cub)," and she asked me if I fly an open cockpit aircraft. I said, "no, but I fly in a noisy aircraft," and she said that would not be an issue for me and that the PFX would provide the best noise protection I could buy for a noisy aircraft (obviously the last part is a salesmanship statement I'm not able to confirm, but I'm just repeating the conversation). The headset has microphones on the exterior of the ear cups that sample the ambient noise and if you are flying an open cockpit aircraft where the wind stream really rushes over the microphones, you may have to stick to the first level of ANR. But she said that is not the case in all open cockpit aircraft, just in some; it depends on just how much wind is rushing over the microphones.
Anyway, that's the info I received. I'm not a Lightspeed rep and don't own a PFX - just someone with the Lightspeed 3G series who is considering trading up.
I just called Lightspeed to try to get an answer to my own question and found out a couple of things people here might be interested in. First, as of yesterday they've included the PFX in their trade up program (their website has the details). I know some people have been saying they'll hold off on considering the PFX until Lightspeed includes it in their trade up program.
Second, the Lightspeed rep did confirm, as Bcm25 posted, that there are two ANR settings on the PFX and the first level provides ANR that is "very comparable" to that provided by the Zulu 2. (I take that to mean basically the same.) That is a fixed noise cancelling that is "hardwired" into the headset at the factory and does not change, she said. However, when you switch to the second level, the headset samples the surrounding noise through microphones on the ear cups and then adjusts the ANR in response to the specific type of noise it detects occurring in your environment, giving you a "customized" ANR that's supposed to be better than the base level.
I asked about Bcm25's statement that you had to stay in the first level of ANR if you are in "loud open cockpits (cub)," and she asked me if I fly an open cockpit aircraft. I said, "no, but I fly in a noisy aircraft," and she said that would not be an issue for me and that the PFX would provide the best noise protection I could buy for a noisy aircraft (obviously the last part is a salesmanship statement I'm not able to confirm, but I'm just repeating the conversation). The headset has microphones on the exterior of the ear cups that sample the ambient noise and if you are flying an open cockpit aircraft where the wind stream really rushes over the microphones, you may have to stick to the first level of ANR. But she said that is not the case in all open cockpit aircraft, just in some; it depends on just how much wind is rushing over the microphones.
Anyway, that's the info I received. I'm not a Lightspeed rep and don't own a PFX - just someone with the Lightspeed 3G series who is considering trading up.
Vaflier
Pre-takeoff checklist
I believe Lighspeed also has a 30 money back garauntee. Try them and if you do not like them send them back.