Bose A20 Audio Quality

I just added a Bose A20 headset to my plane, having lived with Telex noise cancelling ones before. While the new Bose A20 provides phenomenal noise cancelling, in a comparison to the Telex ones, the high frequency response is far worse on the Bose. No big deal for ATC communications, but with music it is pretty poor. Anyone else have this experience? Is my Bose a bad one?

Reinhard Metz

I have had the best Lightspeed headsets available since right after they came out upgrading each time they had a better headset.

I have owned a Bose X and now own two Bose A20 and one AKG AV100. I liked the Lightspeed Zulu 1 better than I did the Bose X.

I have liked the slightly more bass tone in the Lightspeed compared to slight treble in the Bose. Up until the PFX upgrade, I was happy with my Lightspeed headset.

Being that ANR headsets are like underwear, there will always be a personal preference. I disliked (ok hated) the PFX so much, I acquired one A20. I loved the A20 so much more than the PFX, I sold the PFX and acquired another A20. I could not tell the difference between the sound quality of the AKG AV100 and the Lightspeed Zulu 1 or PFX. The ear seal material quality was better on the Lightspeed headset than the AKG AV100. That is the only thing that I liked better on the Lightspeed compared to AKG AV100.

The Lightspeed Zulu 1 that I was going to trade in was given away to a new 23-year old pilot to get him started with a headset.

I have a Pioneer AM/FM CD player that plays MP3s. I have the stereo on playing in the background almost all the time while flying. I love the sound quality of the music on my Bose A20 coming over my intercom. The Bluetooth sound from my iPhone is also excellent if I were to use it. I have only tested it and typically use the built in entertainment system while flying.

I love the Bose A20 better than any other ANR headset that I have used. Only two complains I have about the Bose is the top hinge will sometime pinch my bald head if I do not get it on correctly and the mic boom is too long for me. Background noise attenuation with the Bose A20 is second to none.

I replaced my Bose X with DC One-X. I find the One-X to be superior to my Bose in every regard. I do a lot of aerobatics and dog fighting, and the Bose would come away from my head. The Clarks don't. The reason I went with Clark though is the customer service that Clark offers can't be touched by the other companies. And it doesn't hurt that I live 45 minutes away from where they are made, so if I drop it off in the morning, it will be ready by lunch.

N49ex said:

I just added a Bose A20 headset to my plane, having lived with Telex noise cancelling ones before. While the new Bose A20 provides phenomenal noise cancelling, in a comparison to the Telex ones, the high frequency response is far worse on the Bose. No big deal for ATC communications, but with music it is pretty poor. Anyone else have this experience? Is my Bose a bad one?

Reinhard Metz

Click to expand...

Reinhard,

Do you have the lastest Bose Bluetooth model? I have 2 - 7 year old A20's amd the Bose people at SNF told me the new one has auto/on &off along with bluetooth for the phone and music.

Although mine were not bluetooth 7years ago, I am upgrading to recieve the $100 rebate off both. Side benefit is a better mic too.

P.S. - I know they had Bluetooth, but this is upgraded too.

I bought mine a few weeks ago, and they are not the Bluetooth model - I didn't think i needed the bluetooth, have no problem wiring and powering it, and it's $100 cheaper. But it makes me wonder if even though I just bought it, it might still be older and different audio quality than the bluetooth model? Time to call Bose with a serial number and ask some questions...!

Reinhard Metz