Need Clarity Aloft questions answered...

cwoods798

cwoods798

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Chris W.
Alright gents, I've been reading up on Clarity Aloft headsets and am VERY interested...I think. My only real concern is that the noise cancellation won't be sufficient for flying small airplanes (172, mooney, bonanza, etc). Can someone please lend me some educated opinion on this?? I am going to buy a new set soon but torn between light speed zulu, bose, and now clarity aloft. If clarity aloft will provide competitive nose cancellation then I think I will go that route. Thanks in advance guys
 
Do it, you will never look back. I've used clarity Alofts for over 2000 hours of flight time, over 1000 of that in small piston aircraft 172/182 etc.. I wore it as a flight student, flight instructing, my current airline job, and when I fly my 182. I dislike active noise cancellation. My favorite things about the clarity's are not being over the head, there is no clamp so it's not fatiguiging. Another benefit if your like me an optically challenged (need to wear glasses) you can wear whatever you want and it doesn't break the seal. They are very lightweight as well. The noise cancellation is phenomenal and far better than any passive noise cancellation headset I've ever used, and comes pretty close to some active noise headsets. The sound quality is also good since it is quite literally in your ear, so the sound quality I find very superb. Another thing I like is I can have it on without the plugs in my ear, so I can still use the boom mike, and have it ready to go when needed, or when flying the jet at work just have one ear piece in if I want. I've only had to send one of my pairs in once for service and I had it back in less than a week, the customer service was great. I've said this to many people, you couldn't pay me to go back to an over the ear headset.
 
My wife has a Clarity Aloft and I use it from time to time when I give my headset to a passenger that doesn't have one. I have zulu.2.s

When properly inserted in your year there are as good as any ANR headset in my Navion (which is noisier than most 172's, on the par with the later bo's with the similarly sized engine).

I don't particularly like the in-your-ear style, but they work fine and my wife likes them because they don't interfere with hats, glasses, earrings, hairsyles, etc...

I've had ATC at IAD tell me that the microphone clarity on the CA's is the best he's ever heard.
 
My wife and I both use them. Your putting earplugs in your ears with them.
 
cwoods798 said:
Alright gents, I've been reading up on Clarity Aloft headsets and am VERY interested...I think. My only real concern is that the noise cancellation won't be sufficient for flying small airplanes (172, mooney, bonanza, etc). Can someone please lend me some educated opinion on this?? I am going to buy a new set soon but torn between light speed zulu, bose, and now clarity aloft. If clarity aloft will provide competitive nose cancellation then I think I will go that route. Thanks in advance guys
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I use Clarity Aloft in an open cockpit radial engine powered airplane. It works better than most other headsets. Also works well in a twin engine Baron.

I am sure it will perform fine in a 172.

The term 'noise cancellation' can be misleading. Clarity Aloft is not electronic noise canceling like a Bose headset. It is passive protection accomplished through earplugs. That is the only potential issue with Clarity Aloft- some people don't like wearing ear plugs.
 
I have been using CA for 6 years, over 600 hrs. I will never go back to a headset. Noise reduction is very good. I have compared my wife's Bose A20s,the noise level is about the same and you just can't beat the lightweight comfort of the CA.
 
After I tried the Clarity Aloft headset it became my primary headset and my Zulu 2's became my passenger headset. The only problem I have had with them is shortly after getting them I forgot I still had them on because they were so light. I exited the plane with the headset still plugged in and ripped the cord out of it. Clarity Aloft repaired them quickly at no charge.

I use them in a 172 on a regular basis(over 75 hours since January) and have used them in a Cub where they performed much better than the Zulu 2's.
 
Yup. What all those guys said.

Audio quality in and out is stunning. Weight is about zero. Noise reduction is excellent, especially at the higher frequencies where ANR becomes ineffective.
 
I tried a set for a couple weeks - really like them except.....I'm one of those people that can't tolerate ear plugs (shape of the ear canal). Clarity has a 30 day trial, IIRC, so give them a try.
 
Put me in the CA camp, too. Better then 90% of my hours are in a 172M, and the CA is more than up to the task. They are so comfortable that once I have actually tried to leave the aircraft without unplugging because I forgot I had them on.

The only question is whether you have some personal discomfort with wearing foam plugs for any length of time. I don't have a problem with it. The foam tips are replaceable items, so you can always try out a pair.

You should also investigate Quiet Technologies' Halo headset. They weren't on the market when I bought mine, but they compete with the CA at about 40% less. I've heard positive reviews of them as well.
 
Note that they make the eartips in two different sizes and two different foam densities.
 
I use the QT Halo's. Same idea. I like them better than my Lightspeed Zulu's. My wife agrees. Less expensive than the Clarity Alofts, and some would argue better.

Would not go back to the clamps.

EDIT: The only downside to the earplugs vs. clamp cups is the speed in putting them on. If you frequently take your headset on/off, the clamps are much easier than the entire pop-the-earplug-in routine.
 
Like all the above posters, I've enjoyed my Clarity Aloft headsets. As Justin mentioned, wearing glasses doesn't affect the noise attenuation like it does with "conventional headsets, which is probably why they're the quietest headset I've flown-including ANRs.

My Maule is one of the noisiest airplanes I've flown...far noisier than a 172. I used to wear earplugs under David Clarks until I went ANR, and those were promptly trashed when I got the Clarities.

I used them for probably 7 or 8 years for work and personal flying.
 
I've never used them....the DC clamps are paid for free and clear. :D

I'll spend the $500-600 on fuel....TYVM.
 
Don't forget temperature!

My Bose and DC's are less comfortable on a hot day than my Clarity's. No ear sweat (even with the fabric comfort covers)
 
I have 2 sets of these as well as Bose a20 and Zulu.2's. The Definitely are Not as good as having ANR, but they work well if you dont want to mess up your hair. If im going to a meeting, i wear the in ear, otherwise i prefer the ANR headsets.
 
Fearless Tower said:
I use Clarity Aloft in an open cockpit radial engine powered airplane. It works better than most other headsets. Also works well in a twin engine Baron.

I am sure it will perform fine in a 172.

The term 'noise cancellation' can be misleading. Clarity Aloft is not electronic noise canceling like a Bose headset. It is passive protection accomplished through earplugs. That is the only potential issue with Clarity Aloft- some people don't like wearing ear plugs.
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A few years ago I compared the perceived noise level of my Clarity Aloft with a few different Lightspeed ANR headsets in my B55. My conclusion was that the CA was comparable to the second generation LS (i.e. 25XL) but the third gen LS (Thirty-3G) was noticeably quieter and the LS Zulu was considerably quieter.

That said, for airplanes with higher than typical impulse noise (e.g. AT-6) almost any ANR headset will overload at high power settings, especially if the earcup to head seal isn't perfect (e.g. when wearing sunglasses) and the passive CA cannot overload so it will be quieter in such cases.

I use my CA in the fabric covered 65HP taildragger I fly occasionally because the combination of fabric, short unmuffled exahust, and thin plastic windows (often left open in flight) provides enough high impulse noise to overload even the Zulu if I'm wearing sunglasses.

Aside from the reduced noise attenuation compared with high-end ANR the only downsides to the passive in-ear headsets I've tried (CA, Halo, Telex) is that the mic boom is far less stable than what you get with an over the ear design. No matter what you do, the mic will move relative to your mouth in turbulence, or when you move your head around significantly. Normally this isn't a big deal but it is a negative.
 
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One other failure of the ANR vs. Lightspeeds is flying in the Navion with the canopy open (I suspect other open cockpits also fail) is that the wind lifts the each cups away from my head enough to make the ANR feedback (you can simulate this by just pulling them away by hand). The CA-style are pretty immune to that.

My biggest gripe with the CA's (other than the in-your-ear-ness) is the metal band that holds it to your head and supports the mike boom doesn't fit me comfortably.

On the other side, the volume (at least on my wife's first generation one which just has a knob to change the volume as opposed to the fancier bluetooth pairing box) does allow a lot of volume compared to just about every ANR set I tried (a problem for me with the GDL69A which seems to be rather anemic in audio out).
 
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Thanks a lot for all the input fellas....from what I have read I think I'll give the clarity alofts a shot, especially knowing that I can return them if I don't like them for some reason. I'll let you guys know how it goes
 
Fearless Tower said:
I'd have felt the same way, but needed something better for the open cockpit.
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I am looking for a solution to my "they can't hear me" problem when I fly the Stearman. Does the CA have a good mike to cancel wind noise?
 
GAZOO said:
I am looking for a solution to my "they can't hear me" problem when I fly the Stearman. Does the CA have a good mike to cancel wind noise?
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It is a good mic, but you will want a leather mic cover to put on it for open cockpit stuff.

The CA with leather mic muff works very well in the biplane.
 
+1 for the QT Halos. It's now my primary headset for the last couple years and work fantastic in my Christen Eagle and Pitts.

Lots of the aerobatic crowd are moving to CA and QT for the lightweight comfort.
 
Fearless Tower said:
My experience is that ANR sucks in many open cockpit environments. The ANR will often battle the wind buffeting and it just makes things worse actually.
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I'm personally torn with what I want to get, so for now I'm sticking with DCs. One time I tried A20s I didn't like them. Comfortable enough, but I could not understand anything ATC was saying(I wasn't PICing). The sound is very weird and when ANR is off, it's not good at all. Sometimes ANR gets confused and shuts off for a second. Perhaps I just need to get used to them.

I have in-the-year headphones for using when riding my motorcycle and generally like them. I think, in principle, it's a better design than ANR. But I have a small ear canal and it took a while to find ones that fit at all. My ears eventually start hurting after wearing them for a couple of hours.
 
Clarity aloft is a passive system, don't let this deter you.

ANR is needed because the space inside the ear cups of over the ear headsets tends to resonate with the cockpit sounds and (to me anyway) seems to amplify the droning noise. Passive headsets have this space filled with foam to cut down on the noise.

With the clarity aloft or other in-ear headsets, there is no open space for this resonating to take place. So ANR is not needed.

This is my unscientific explanation
 
Fearless Tower said:
My experience is that ANR sucks in many open cockpit environments. The ANR will often battle the wind buffeting and it just makes things worse actually.
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My ANR bose X headset goes bonkers when I am taxiing the swift with the canopy slid back. The buffeting definitely messes them up.
 
Fearless Tower said:
My experience is that ANR sucks in many open cockpit environments. The ANR will often battle the wind buffeting and it just makes things worse actually.
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My Flightcom is fine in the Fly Baby, but I tried a Lightspeed once and got the kinds of effects you're referring to.

Probably depends on the cockpit, as well.

Ron Wanttaja
 
I've used CA for 8 years now, and I can't imagine wearing head-clamps ever again, even the ANR kind. CAs are light, comfy, quiet, and my sunglasses don't interfere with wearing them.
 
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