Once limited to $600 and higher, you can now buy decent ANR for under $300. Left to right, Flightcom, SoftComm C-90, LightSPEED 20XL2, XL15, Headsets, Inc. EM-1 and LightSPEED QFR.

by Coy Jacob

Has it really been more than a decade since active noise canceling headsets first hit the market? Longer, actually. We were first wowed by the Bose Series I ANR headset in 1989. Since then, the market for ANR headsets has practically exploded, with more players and more models than ever.

Although Bose shocked the aviation world with a $1000 price tag for a headset, the market has since become much more price stratified. Where it took a grand to play ANR a decade ago, you can now buy a decent—actually impressive—noise canceling headset for a third of that. In this article, we’ll report on our flight trials with…