I finally got to fly with the Zulu yesterday. One could not have picked a more perfect day for flying. No wind to speak of good visibility and the type of flying kept me busy with intercom traffic, ATC, and general radio position announcements as well as some short solo time.
All of my comparisons will be to my trusty and much beloved David Clark 10-13XLs. It has been far too many years since I used a Lightspeed product to properly remember how it worked. If you have read my headset reports on the red board you will note that I do not think too much of LS's product quality. An up close examination of the Zulu showed that they may have finally made strides in improving the mechanics of the headset. See me earlier report on those improvements.
Once in the cockpit and after all checks were made I started the engine. The headset was off but on my head. The Zulu does provide some passive attenuation but not near as much as the David Clark. I tried it with and without sunglasses and noted no difference. The ear seals fit around the glasses very well.
I am used to the sudden reduction in noise that one has come to respect from an ANR headset and once the Zulu's were turned on I noticed a dramatic reduction in engine noise. The ANR really sucked ALL of the low frequency noise out of my ears. I could, at least this is what I think it is, hear the rocker arms in the engine. But most of the engine noise, at idle speed, was gone.
I then made an audio test and realized that I had side tone in only ear. I had to change the headset to mono mode. This is a very small switch inside the battery case. I easily removed the battery and saw the switches, but the writing is so small I could not see which switch to move. But thankfully I now need reading glasses to see charts at night, so I had a set of magnifiers handy and figured out the right switch. Once set and battery inserted I was ready to go and all was well. I did notice an annoying click or 'attack' when audio came in on the radio. This is an artifact of the ANR. But by the end of the flight I was used to it.
Upon take off I really could hear the difference between the DCs and the Zulu. The Zulu not only took low frequency noise out but some of the medium frequencies. It probably has to because it lacks the passive attenuation of the DCs. The result is good to very good performance that is similar to the DCs over all. If batteries were to die or the set is turned off though there is little help these headsets can offer you in passive noise reduction. Get ready for a noisy cockpit if that were to happen. But it has been my experience that LS has very good battery life. I was not able to ascertain how good the Zulus battery life is.
I headed out to pick up a pax and was able to use the Bluetooth phone adapter while taxiing. It was really good and easy to operate. I could hear very well and the other party had no idea I was in the plane with the engine running. This feature alone is a huge win for me. No longer will I have to strain to hear ATC when I get my IFR clearance on the ground. There are no cables to keep track of and lose. Bluetooth can be turned on and of so as to reduce the current consumption on the batteries. In my earlier posting I mentioned that the BT switch is a multi-function switch. By the time I was done with this flight I had gotten used to it's idiosyncrasies and operated it like a pro.
I did note during the flight that if I turned my head left the right seal over my ear would break open and I would hear some extra noise. This has happened to me with other headsets including the DCs. I tried moving cords around and the headset itself but still had the minor issue. I am sure this is related to the shape of my head more than anything.
After take off the second time I was heading toward Midway airport and would be very busy with ATC while I was dodging Southwest Airlines 737s. The headset was great with all of the audio coming in. My right seater was busy talking on another radio for most of this part of the flight, we were on intercom isolate, but I could occasionally hear him over the din in the cockpit thanks to the ANR. When off of isolate I could hear the other radio that was plugged into his part of the intercom very well. and the sound levels were very good. When we were talking to each other the headset was also very good. I did notice that the Zulu did take a little extra effort to break the squelch on my intercom so I had to reset that to the new mic level. The Zulu does have a mic gain knob on the microphone itself, next flight I might play around with that.
Conclusions:
1. The Lightspeed Zulu performs very well for total noise reduction
2. Passive attenuation is lacking and not as good as a David Clark headset
3. Comfort and fit were great. I wore the headset for 3.5 hours and it was as comfortable as my David Clarks
4. The Bluetooth feature kicks butt!
All in all I would say that if you are in the market for a new ANR headset and have $850 to drop the Zulu is for you. I have not flown with the Bose Aviation X but consider that prices are basically the same, the bluetooth alone sways me towards the Lightspeed. Performance for noise was as good as my David Clarks although things did sound a bit different, but not bad different, just different.
