Headset

[GlobalGentleman 1]

Hello everyone! Nice to be here on the avsim forums. After several months of reading, researching, and lurking in general I guess ;) I wanted to ask for your collective wisdom on choosing a headset/mic for fsx.I've got a Plantronics 995 wireless, but I'm not thrilled at all with the quality, and am strongly considering going back to a wired headset (though I hate the wires!). Maybe a Sennheiser PC151? or other?I'm not sure if I should be looking at more of a 'gaming' headset, or one targeted towards voice communications.I'll be using it with fsx and multi crew experience mainly. Comfort and audio quality (especially for the mic) are paramount.Not sure if this is the right place to be asking about this item, but I appreciate any insight you can lend and I'll be happy to re-post somewhere else if more suitable.Thanks very much. Cheers!

[Kosta 122]

I own a Sennheiser PC166, one of the best headsets I ever owned. My requirement was USB, light and good mic/sound. It fills all those requirements with ease for the given price.And one thing more: I can use it for hours, and still feel nothing - no aches on the head, no specific pressure points...

[GlobalGentleman 1]

I own a Sennheiser PC166, one of the best headsets I ever owned. My requirement was USB, light and good mic/sound. It fills all those requirements with ease for the given price.And one thing more: I can use it for hours, and still feel nothing - no aches on the head, no specific pressure points...

Thank you! That's a very good recommendation....will have to give it some consideration too. May I ask if you've used it specifically for any flight sim purpose? or just general gaming/communications? Cheers!

[Glynn 405]

Hello everyone! Nice to be here on the avsim forums. After several months of reading, researching, and lurking in general I guess ;) I wanted to ask for your collective wisdom on choosing a headset/mic for fsx.I've got a Plantronics 995 wireless, but I'm not thrilled at all with the quality, and am strongly considering going back to a wired headset (though I hate the wires!). Maybe a Sennheiser PC151? or other?I'm not sure if I should be looking at more of a 'gaming' headset, or one targeted towards voice communications.I'll be using it with fsx and multi crew experience mainly. Comfort and audio quality (especially for the mic) are paramount.Not sure if this is the right place to be asking about this item, but I appreciate any insight you can lend and I'll be happy to re-post somewhere else if more suitable.Thanks very much. Cheers!

HelloI use Bayer DT-234-Pro'shttp://www.hhb.co.uk/hhb/uk/products/detail.asp?ID=1722Great quality with a very good Mic, and even I cannot seem to break them.I have also bought a set without the Mic for general audio duties.

[Gary A 8]

I do not know if my ears are overly sensitive or if it is just the design of the headphones but the last two pair I owned hurt. They all seem to make the ear cups too small and the head bands do not seem to have any adjustment to remove the pressure from them squeezing my head. I had a pair of Plantronics that had just the small ear cups that were not intended to cover your ear, just sit on them. They were light and comfortable and cheap. The next pair of Plantronics were more expensive and crap. Then I bought an expensive pair of some brand with built in noise reduction, these needed a battery that if you forgot to turn them off was dead the next morning. These killed my ears, squeezing them to death.I have Sennheiser PC330 now and they squeeze my ears to death. http://www.sennheiser.ca/live/senn/produit/en/2812/177 Lessons I learned: 1) high price does not equal high quality or comfort. 2) Comfort is as important as the technical specs maybe more so.If I was buying another set today I might look at these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826153043I want something where the tension on the headband can be adjusted to remove pressure from the ears and an ear-cup that is designed to sit lightly on the ears or completely cover the ear.

[Kosta 122]

Thank you! That's a very good recommendation....will have to give it some consideration too. May I ask if you've used it specifically for any flight sim purpose? or just general gaming/communications? Cheers!

I bought it for simming in the first place, but I do use it for general gaming (Starcraft2 online with friends), Skype...I was first afraid I won't hear much from outside, I have sim sounds on my external sound equipment and since I previously had ones going around the neck, I thought these are gonna be much more closed - oh how wrong I was. I can clearly hear everything from the outside while gaming or simming. It's a bit softer of course, so I have to push the volume just a bit, but not muffled, frequencies are almost all there, even the high ones.

[GlobalGentleman 1]

I bought it for simming in the first place, but I do use it for general gaming (Starcraft2 online with friends), Skype...I was first afraid I won't hear much from outside, I have sim sounds on my external sound equipment and since I previously had ones going around the neck, I thought these are gonna be much more closed - oh how wrong I was. I can clearly hear everything from the outside while gaming or simming. It's a bit softer of course, so I have to push the volume just a bit, but not muffled, frequencies are almost all there, even the high ones.

Hmmm, so with your external sound speakers also setup, do you have only ATC coming through the headset (and all ambient cockpit, wind and engine noise, etc coming through the external speakers)?? That would be a fantastic arrangement if there's a way to do it. Interested to hear your thoughts.... Tks!

[Kosta 122]

Yes, there is a way.I have set up engines and external sounds (sim sounds) to go to my external speakers and ATC only is going through the headset.There are many ways to do it, mine is simple: Squawkbox is running on the laptop, where headset it also connected. But you can do the same setup on one computer, if flying online.If you run the FSX only, offline, then you can set it up in the FSX, if you can take the headset with an USB - it acts like a standalone soundcard (in FSX, there is "Sounds" and "Voice" soundcard, I guess it will be separate in that case).

[GlobalGentleman 1]

Yes, there is a way.I have set up engines and external sounds (sim sounds) to go to my external speakers and ATC only is going through the headset.There are many ways to do it, mine is simple: Squawkbox is running on the laptop, where headset it also connected. But you can do the same setup on one computer, if flying online.If you run the FSX only, offline, then you can set it up in the FSX, if you can take the headset with an USB - it acts like a standalone soundcard (in FSX, there is "Sounds" and "Voice" soundcard, I guess it will be separate in that case).

Thanks for confirmation!! I'll try to play around and see if I can get it setup correctly... I do only fly offline for now, and it would be fantastic to separate the sounds and get only ATC and Multi Crew Experience through the headset, while all other ambient sounds go through my external speakers. The wireless Plantronics headset I'm using is USB, so hopefully this will work in the FSX settings...I suppose I also need to make some default adjustments in the 'control panel/sounds/' configuration?Cheers!~Alan

[Kosta 122]

Thanks for confirmation!! I'll try to play around and see if I can get it setup correctly... I do only fly offline for now, and it would be fantastic to separate the sounds and get only ATC and Multi Crew Experience through the headset, while all other ambient sounds go through my external speakers. The wireless Plantronics headset I'm using is USB, so hopefully this will work in the FSX settings...I suppose I also need to make some default adjustments in the 'control panel/sounds/' configuration?Cheers!~Alan

AFAIK, only settings needed are the ones in FSX. You can try playing with windows settings too. There is a voice section too.Also some addons, specifically FS2Crew as far as I've read, allows you to set separate sound card for its sounds only.

[GlobalGentleman 1]

AFAIK, only settings needed are the ones in FSX. You can try playing with windows settings too. There is a voice section too.Also some addons, specifically FS2Crew as far as I've read, allows you to set separate sound card for its sounds only.

Word Not Allowed, Played around with the settings in FSX and W7 last night and though it took a bit of time, I'm happy to report I've separated the voice communications in my headset from the external cockpit and engine sounds. The multi crew experience copilot I fly with never sounded so clear, and I'm hoping it'll even cut down on potential voice recognition errors (though there's VERY FEW anyway!). This should be a lot more fun now!! Also, I figured out that my wireless Plantronics headset is only having problems (stuttering reception) when used with my laptop (even simple things like utube videos). On my gaming rig, it's pretty darn good after all.... Thanks again for your tips and help!!!

[ryanbatc 12,799]

I own a Sennheiser PC166, one of the best headsets I ever owned. My requirement was USB, light and good mic/sound. It fills all those requirements with ease for the given price.And one thing more: I can use it for hours, and still feel nothing - no aches on the head, no specific pressure points...

That's what I use... except without the USB adapter. After a lot of hours it starts to hurt my ears or make them too warm. Other than that I really like it. It also holds up my TIR clip pro.

[Kosta 122]

That's what I use... except without the USB adapter. After a lot of hours it starts to hurt my ears or make them too warm. Other than that I really like it. It also holds up my TIR clip pro.

Cool thing to know about TIR clip pro. I guess it depends on the head if it hurts or not. I am used to wearing headphones, since I did that a lot in my audio engineering days, and I have the big AKG 240 Studio headphones...

[ryanbatc 12,799]

Cool thing to know about TIR clip pro. I guess it depends on the head if it hurts or not. I am used to wearing headphones, since I did that a lot in my audio engineering days, and I have the big AKG 240 Studio headphones...

The actualy clip has a bit of an issue (over time) holding onto the band. THe band is pretty wide and over time my clip broke where it squeezes together onto the band. All I did was add rubber bands around th unit - works fine.And here's a little rant:I love my TIR unit - I really do, but they've got some serious construction issues. This thing is waaaay to flimsy - the track clip pro I mean. I've already had 3 parts break on me. Thankfully the first two were under warranty so I got a new unit. But isn't it like $50 to get a new one if not under warranty? Anyway yeah they need to reinforce the whole thing IMHO.