Bose, Clarity Aloft, David Clark, Lightspeed, Sennheiser and Telex all have fanatical devotees. Picking the best fi t for your head is the critical choice.

By Jeff Van West

One thing from our survey was crystal clear: Most pilots love their current headset. An astounding 90 percent of the over 900 pilots who answered our survey considered their headset to be a good value after using it in the field for some time. Considering the majority of respondents had their headset for more than four years, that’s saying something.

When asked if, knowing what they know now, would they go out and buy the same headset again, 86 percent said they would. Several of the "no" votes were just because they wanted to upgrade to active noise reduction (ANR), Bluetooth or a cell phone interface. …