HEADSET REVIEW

Listen up…

Ian Fraser reviews the SEHT SM1 and SH40-60 headsets

If you have just read the Cockpit Audio (Part III) article on the previous pages, you may well have been somewhat bemused about the fact that one of the headsets I tested was a Sony. But, I can hear you say, Sony aren’t into aviation headsets, are they? Well not directly, but SEHT, a small UK company that manufactures a range of aviation headsets, recently sent me a couple of their products to review.

Included in the samples was a device they call their

SM1 Microphone System for HiFi headphones, which retails at £240. The SM1 comprises a flexible boom microphone and all the electrical interfaces to connect a domestic headphone to a GA aircraft. The boom fixes onto the headset with either a tie wrap, sticky pad or both, and a jack lead plugs directly into the GA headphone sockets on your aircraft. It takes only a couple of minutes to install.

Depending on the headphones you choose, the assembly behaves just like a normal aviation headset.

This gadget really opens a Pandora’s box for the aviation headset industry because I looked at several HiFi active noise reduction (ANR) headphones and found that the best technology out there is roughly the same, and can be as good as, a top aviation ANR set – for less than half the price.

The headphone I used to test the SM1 device was a

Sony WH 1000 XM2, listed at £300 and considered a top scorer in their normal domestic market. With the SM1 they form a neat, light, compact and tidy package. In my tests they matched the audio performance of a Bose A20 for a combined price of just £550. Need I say more?

Interestingly, the XM2’s successor, the XM3, is advertised at under £250 bringing the potential price of a top-of-the-range aviation headset to under £500.

It’s been a long time coming but this neat SEHT product opens the door to headphone competition from a much more commercial, competitive and technologically advanced market. Well done SEHT.

Below SEHT’s SH40-60 mid-priced ANR headset is a good choice if you want to maintain a comfortable degree of engine and warning noises in the cockpit.

Inset left Beth tries the SM1/Sony WH 1000 XM2 combination on for comfort and performance. Noise reduction

The other headset they let me test was their SH40-60, a mid-market active noise reduction headset for just under £500. It is light and comfortable, with very low headphone grip pressure and its measured noise reduction was adequate, slightly less than my Lightspeed Zulu 2. It is biased to the low frequency range, so was very good at enhancing speech clarity. However, it required more volume input than some others to achieve that.

In last month’s Cockpit Audio article, I suggested that individual volume controls on intercoms are beneficial, and this is an example of why. Subjectively, it was fine to fly with, although its microphone seemed noisier than my regular Lightspeed (as was the SM1).

One of the key points I made in my overview of headsets is that too much noise reduction for the pilot can lead to failure to spot problems until too late.

This headset is a good contender for that pilot seat compromise but, for the quietest passenger experience, I would spend the same money on the SM1 microphone boom and Sony HiFi headphones. ■