February 2007 - American Bonanza Society

PRODUCT REVIEWANR headset evaluationsBY STEVE WALKER, REDMOND. WASHINGTONThe Pacific Bonanza Society Air Safari lastSeptember was the perfect opponunity to conducta long-term evaluation of the newest Active NoiseReduction (ANR) headsets. David Clark was contactedto let us evaluate their new X II (l ist price,$864.95). The LobsterFestiA ir Safari traversed almost6,500 mi les over a period of two weeks. Temperaturesranged from bitter cold in Sheridan, Wyoming, to hotand humid in Americus, Georgia.As with our previous tests (reponed in May 2006ABS M{/ga~ille , page 9605). the headset was evaluatedfor comfon, ease of adjustment. size, weight, appearanceand quality of construction. active noise reduction,passive noise reduction, audio quality and microphoneclarity. Additionally. the testers were asked whatthey liked most and least about the headset.Because of the demand for the new XI I headset,it was a bit difficult to obtain a test unit. After using itfor almost 50 hours, it is easy to see why. David Clarkhas hit a home run, scoring a perfect "5" for comfon,ease of adj ustment, size. weight and appearance, andwith a strong second-place finish in the quality ofconstruction. active noise reduction and microphoneclarity categories.Leg lengths varied from 15 minutes to over fourhours in both VFR and lFR conditions. With its featherlightweight and exceptionally comfonable fit. theX II just seemed to disappear. It was almost as if onewas notweanng a headset at all, even after a four-hourflight. Simply remarkable!As with the previously tested David Clark HIO-13XL. the only area where the X II did not lead thepack was in audio quality, rated by some testers as"slightly muffled or distant." Funher investigationindicates that its output was slightly lower than that ofcompeting headsets, accounting for the "slightly distant"comments. When used in a nontesting situation,the user would simply turn up the volume.The bottom line is that, although the LightSPEEDTwenty 3G comes out best in both value and performance,we feel the David Clark X II is the most comfonableheadset the Pacific Bonanza Society has testedto date, with the cell phone interface and performanceexpected of an A R headset in this price range.Oh, by the way-after listening to 50 hours ofrave reviews, my wife purchased an XII for mybirthday!@ABS February 2007HEADSET RATING SYSTEMAll headsets were ruled In each 01 12 categories (Comfort. AudioQualify. 811:.) on a scale all 10 5 with "5" being !he mast favorable ruling.So. II a headeeI scared a perfect "5" In all twelve categories. !heIrPerformance ruling _Id be 60. Performance rulings shown In Figure 1.The Value rating (figure 2) Is derived by dividing !he Performance ru!­Ing by !he rnanufaclurer's Iisl price. For IIlIIImpie. you can see 1haI !he XIIscared an Incredibly high 53.88 pe!formance rating. As It Is a veryexperIIlve headseI at $864.95. !he XII wlue (for money) rating 01 6.23(53.88 + $864.95 x 100 = 6.23).60.0050.0040.0030.0020.0010.000.00Fl(llMel8.006.004.002.00 +-i1 W,0.00Figur.2PBS Headset Performance ComparisonHeadset" LightSPEEDTwenty 3G• SennheiserHMEC-400c David ClarkH10-13XLc SennheiserHMEC-2SKAS• Telex StratusSO-D" FlightcomClassic ANR• FlightcomDenalic David ClarkX11PBS Hea dset Value Comparison " LightSPEEDTwenty 3GHeadset• FlightcomClassic ANRc David ClarkH10-13XLc SennheiserHMEC-400• FlightcomDenali" Telex StratusSO-D• SennheiserHMEC-2SKAS" David ClarkX11www.bonanzo.org Page 10065