Originally Posted by sailingfun

Another reason to own your own quality headset is the ship sets often have mics gummed up with 20 years of spit and dust. If you ever wonder why a foreign controller can’t understand you look no further than the mic on the ship set. Pilots flying with me using a good quality headset are night and day more clear on the ICS. Most pilots don’t notice because they still pick up the bulk of conversation hearing the other pilot normally. Put on a really good over the ear head set with high outside sound suppression and the crappy mics become very apparent. Delta does not track the ship sets or send them at for cleaning and refurb at the recommended intervals.
Cheaper headsets have cheaper mics that as mentioned have issues with background notice and squelch. I have poor hearing. When I see the other guy pull out a Bose A20 I breath a sigh of relief.