In-Ear Aviation Headset – FARO AIR

Updated 30/3/2017: An ongoing review of the Faro Aviation AIR headset, so far tested in an Extra-200.

Having lived with a dodgy Bose X (military to GA conversion) and a Sennheiser HME-95 (great, just noisy), I decided that it was time to move on to something a little more purposeful.

I had been looking at a few options and got quite a bit of feedback from Instagram friends on their own experiences. These included the Clarity Aloft and Quite Technologies HALO. Included in this was the FARO AIR, after I saw it posted by @alainaguayo.

Like him, I took a bit of a leap of faith in ordering something that I hadn’t heard much about. I based my decision primarily on user-submitted reviews on the Faro Aviation website and the price point (389.99USD).

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Faro Customer Service

I have to say (and I’m writing this of my own accord), their customer service is damn good. I initially wanted to purchase the headset on a MasterCard and this wouldn’t work, so instead I headed to the pub and emailed them on the walk down. By the time I’d reached the pub they had replied, along with a 10% discount code for the problem!

Set Up

The headset comes with 6 pairs of foam ear tips that screw on to the earpieces. They vary in size and I found the smallest suited me. They have a hard inner core which you can notice if you push too hard, so be careful!

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The headset also has extra cushions that fit over the wire to improve comfort. I didn’t see a point in not fitting these and the unit seems perfectly comfortable.

First Flight

It took about 30 seconds for me to completely forget the headset once it was on in the aircraft (Extra-200). It’s light (<30 grams), no tugging or pulling when moving your head around and the earpieces aren’t that noticeable.

The first real difference that I noticed was the bass. The earpieces really increase the bass in audio and I admit that I struggled to understand the tower frequency at first. This wouldn’t have been helped by the fact that Peterborough Conington’s ‘tower’ sounds like a man in a tin can anyway.

Intercom between me and the instructor was fine. Wind and engine noise were low and far, far lower than I know I would have experienced with my passive HME-95.

Audio input comes via a 3.5mm aux-in, with a high quality cable supplied. Music sounds good (Classic rock and hip hop, at least!).

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