I'm a student pilot and I just bought my first own headset because the standard one in the plane does not really fit me.
I got a david clark h10-13.4. My instructor uses either his private Bose A20 or the standard (active) Aerostar that is in the plane.
Today I tried my DC-headset for the fist time and there was a problem: I could talk just fine and the mic worked great but I could not hear my instructor anymore. He had to yell into the microphone to activate the intercom and even when he was loud enough, the sound quality was aweful. This was the same for both the A20 and the Aerostar headset. Also others could not hear him when he tried to communicate with other aircraft over radio. They said there was just noise transmitted.
As soon as I switched back to the Aerostar headset, everything was fine again.
After today's flights I tried to use my headset with a handheld radio and the quality of my transmission was good (both ways).
My first idea is an impedance- or level-mismatch; but I thought, all fixed-wing aviation headsets had about the same impedance. Are there ready-built circuits to adapt my headset to the intercom?
I really don't want to stick with the standard headset. Neither do I want to blow 1k€ on a Bose as I really like the H10.
Apart from it being a Becker I don't know anything about the radio in the plane but I've been told not to mess with the configuration of the radio, as it works in all other setups.
Edit: After having found a datasheet for both the A20 and the H10-13.4 I'm more confused than before.
DC-Headset-Datasheet: http://www.davidclarkcompany.com/files/literature/10-13.4.pdf
On page 38 of the A20's datasheet there is the technical data with the microphone output levels. It sais:
Typical output is 600 mV at 114 dB SPL
The David Clark sais:
Mic Sensitivity: 400mV+/-6dB into 150Ω load @ 1kHz for 114 dB SPL input
which seems to be tested under the same conditions. But the amplitude of the Bose is higher. Shouldn't the effect we have seen be the other way around? With his mic working and mine not activating the intercom? Or with him being very distorted due to clipping in the amplifier? Hope someone knows better than me.