Then I came across Telex's H-51. Already I was interested; I've been using Telex's aviation headsets since the mid-70s, so I knew that these guys weren't exactly clueless as to what was needed.

When the headset arrived, my faith was proven correct. Everything about this headset says SOLID. The headband is a full three-quarted-inch band of stainless steel, and the headpad (yes, a real headpad!) is a stitched and padded leather-like material. The ear pieces as well show the firm's aviation history, with well-designed cups that gimbal in all axes and are assembled with steel screws, not a few dabs of glue.

The boom mike is a true noise-cancelling electret on a swivel with a boom that can be gently bent to the proper position at the corner of your mouth, and then STAYS there.

As for the wiring, it COULD be more robust, but there are at least strain reliefs on all the important points where a wire could potentially break. A ways down the wire from the headset there is a combination shirt clip and control unit that houses both a volume control and a mute switch. The volume control pot is noiseless right out of the box, and the clip itself is steel, rather than the usual plastic tab.

The H-51 uses old-fashioned 3.5mm plugs for the connection to the sound card, which in my opinion is a Good Thing as it avoids having to wrestle with the poorly-written USB drivers that seem so typical with this type of equipment. The sound is good in the earcups, to the point that I could consider these as a good stand-in for quality audio headphones. As to the mike, the output is loud and clear both on loopback/sidetone and testing via TeamSpeak.

Conclusion: The H-51 is not an aviation headset; the fact they don't sell for $300+ hints at this. But it IS built by veterans of this field, and both the overall design and the attention paid to the details shows it. Frankly, the H-51 is flat-out the best computer headphone I've ever come across, and I would have cheerfully paid twice the price that was asked.