How to Buy a Headset for the Wife?

One of the dynamics of purchasing cheaper headsets (or many other things in
life) is that a cheap headset doesn't necessarily mean you'll have
problems - but it increases the chances of getting one that will have
problems. High and Low quality items (say Bose -v- Lightspeed) are marketed
with differing dynamics. Bose will use more expensive parts and put more
into R & D - but it probably still doesn't cost them more than $50 per unit
(not counting R & D). Yes, they make a high margin, but that will be offset
by the fact that they don't sell as many of them. You'll probably find it
only costs $20 to make a Lightspeed headset - they still make a large
margin - and they sell many more because of the price - but profits are
reduced by the cost of the customer service. And the resulting reputation
sets their place in the market.

Two manufacturers taking two differing approaches to their marketing.

I'm always guided by the old saying "The memories of poor quality remain far
longer than those of the low price."

"PJ Hunt" wrote in message
...
Thomas,

Well, mine are in their 7th year and going strong.

I'm happy for you. However you don't offer any comparison to the type of
use
and abuse that your headsets must withstand in reference to what I posted
about the headsets I use. I have a cheap pair of 69 dollar Sigtronics
that
I got in the early 90's that still look and work like new. That's because
there in a closet never being used.

My point was specifically about how abused headsets get in a
'professional'
environment and I've been thru and seen many used by other operators, and
the DC consistently out perform the others for durability.

As I posted originally, if you or your passengers don't subject your
headsets to that kind of abuse, then you would probably be very happy with
some other brand.

Did the owner ask Lightspeed about repairs? Did they charge him? Didn't
think
so.

You thought wrong. The owner(s) did contact Lightspeed and were told they
were not under warranty and the cost to repair them was well into the
price
of new headsets. As a matter of fact when I made reference to my
girlfriends set, (of headsets) I realized I was mistaken. They were not
two
years old, but only one year. She received them as a Christmas gift and
they
were broken by October. They spent the majority of their time in her
flight
bag.

I like the Lightspeeds for comfort and audio quality, but as I said, my
experience has been they don't use the best materials in the manufacturing
process.

As for the Boise, they're much better made and with better quality
materials
then the Lightspeed, but the darn mic keeps getting sloppy on so many
models.

I realize that I fly many more hours a year than most people, and because
of
this and the type of environments I fly in and out of, me and my customers
are much harder on headsets than most people, but I just don't have any of
these issues with the Dave Clarks.

PJ

============================================
Here's to the duck who swam a lake and never lost a feather,
May sometime another year, we all be back together.
JJW
============================================

Cockpit Colin wrote:

..... Bose will use more expensive parts and put more
into R & D - but it probably still doesn't cost them more than $50 per
unit
(not counting R & D). Yes, they make a high margin, but that will be
offset
by the fact that they don't sell as many of them.

I have no clue whatsoever what it costs Lightspeed to manufacture their
headsets. However, having worked on the Bose X as a mechanical engineer
as they were being designed and released to manufacturing, I've got a
VERY good idea what the manufacturing costs of the Bose X are, and it's
nowhere NEAR $50. When they were released in early 1999, the
manufacturing cost (including amortization of tooling, which was to run
three years), was about $320/unit. Amortization of tooling was about
$30/unit. I would have to assume that in the intervening 5 years
there's been some cost reduction effort, but I'd be VERY surprised,
given how little the design has changes, if the manufacturing cost is
below $250/unit at this point.

And no, I no longer work there and get headsets cheap :-).

--
Marc J. Zeitlin
http://marc.zeitlin.home.comcast.net/
http://www.cozybuilders.org/
Copyright (c) 2004

Ahhh - so we blame you for the hot spot on the early models! )

I was referring more to the concept - I took a wild stab at the price (which
was clearly way out) (actually, having just had to defend someone over a
similar thing I should have known better!) - should have kept prices out of
it in retrospect.

I guess it comes down to the age-old-saying "you get what you pay for".


"Marc J. Zeitlin" wrote in message
news:PpOwd.589967$D%.177216@attbi_s51...
Cockpit Colin wrote:

..... Bose will use more expensive parts and put more
into R & D - but it probably still doesn't cost them more than $50 per
unit
(not counting R & D). Yes, they make a high margin, but that will be
offset
by the fact that they don't sell as many of them.

I have no clue whatsoever what it costs Lightspeed to manufacture their
headsets. However, having worked on the Bose X as a mechanical engineer
as they were being designed and released to manufacturing, I've got a
VERY good idea what the manufacturing costs of the Bose X are, and it's
nowhere NEAR $50. When they were released in early 1999, the
manufacturing cost (including amortization of tooling, which was to run
three years), was about $320/unit. Amortization of tooling was about
$30/unit. I would have to assume that in the intervening 5 years
there's been some cost reduction effort, but I'd be VERY surprised,
given how little the design has changes, if the manufacturing cost is
below $250/unit at this point.

And no, I no longer work there and get headsets cheap :-).

--
Marc J. Zeitlin
http://marc.zeitlin.home.comcast.net/
http://www.cozybuilders.org/
Copyright (c) 2004

Cockpit Colin wrote:

Ahhh - so we blame you for the hot spot on the early models! )

No, no, no :-). I got there about 6 months before release, so the
DESIGN was already fixed. The only stuff that I got to work on was the
stuff that just absolutely didn't work, and manufacturing stuff (so that
we could actually build and sell them - what a concept :-) ). I only
fixed stuff - I never broke it :-).

As an aside, the Bose I and Bose II series headsets never made money -
they never even broke even. The Series X is a good moneymaker for Bose.

I guess it comes down to the age-old-saying "you get what you pay
for".

Well, sort of. Bose is, how shall we say, not the most cost effective
company from an overhead standpoint. I have no doubt that in a company
that had better control of overhead, and better manufacturing/materials
control, the ~$300/unit could have been brought down to $200/unit, but
it's not going to get much cheaper than that with the current design.
Magnesium headbands and aluminum staples, along with very high quality
microphones and connectors cost $$$.....

--
Marc J. Zeitlin
http://marc.zeitlin.home.comcast.net/
http://www.cozybuilders.org/
Copyright (c) 2004