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Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones

Even though I have some hearing loss my hearing is good enough to pass the flight training medical exam earlier this year.

I wanted to get an aviation headset that gave me the best chance of hearing radio calls clearly. I heard there was a BOSE noise cancelling headset available. In Australia finding the Aviation Headset X was difficult – even harder to part with US$995 for it.


Even though I have some hearing loss my hearing is good enough to pass the flight training medical exam earlier this year.

I wanted to get an aviation headset that gave me the best chance of hearing radio calls clearly. I heard there was a BOSE noise cancelling headset available. In Australia finding the Aviation Headset X was difficult – even harder to part with US$995 for it.

I was pleased to find that the noise cancelling actually works well. The headset not only reduces noise in the normal way (with and insulated earcup) but also produces sound the opposite of what is in the environment to cancel noise.

Switching the noise cancelling on and off shows it doesn’t completely cancel the noise but does reduce it significantly. I would guess the noise cancelling alone would reduce noise by about 20 percent.

The same technology is used in the BOSE QuietComfort Acoustic Noise Cancelling headset designed for airline passengers. At US$299 this headset is not cheap but may be the answer for those concerned about listening in noisy environments. They are not ultra-compact but certainly a lot smaller than the pilot headset.

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.