The is Faro Aviation’s high end ANR headset, replete with features to compete with the high end offerings from all of the other major brands on the market. Is it worth considering? Read on..
Faro G3 Headset Features
- Price (Mid-2017):
- Active noise reduction (ANR) with great passive reduction to boot.
- Bluetooth connectivity for phone calls and wireless music.
- Auxiliary input jack.
- Automatic airplane radio / intercom priority modes.
- Dual-speaker volume controls built into controller.
- Stereo / mono mode.
- Fully rotatable microphone and bi-directional earcups so you can wear the headset with cord on either side.
- 40 hour battery life powered by dual AA batteries.
- Automatic shut-off.
- 3-year warranty.
- 30 day return policy.
- Twin-GA (PJ) and helicopter U-174 connector options.
Faro G3 Review
The Faro G3 is a true high-end product, offering every feature we have come to expect from $600+ headsets on the market. This includes Bluetooth connectivity, automatic shut-off and an aircraft COM-priority switch. These features are all unique to the Faro G3, and are not found on the Faro G2 models. Other improvements made over the Faro G2 are a better designed controller, an improved warranty, and the ability to flip the microphone to either side of the headset so it can be worn with the cables on the right or the left.
Still, the Faro G3 is very similar to its Faro G2 brethren. A positive ear seal is made with a steel spring, which is in our opinion unsightly and can result in high head-clamping forces and discomfort during long flights. It retains the comfortable soft leather ear seals from the G2 as well as the plush head cushion on the top of the headset – both of which make solid headway towards improving comfort. The earcups on the Faro G3 also feel lighter on the ears, further reducing discomfort. Still, it is hard to get over the earcups being clamped into your head – we definitely prefer the approach of other manufacturers like Lightspeed and Bose.
The good news with the steel clamp is that the Faro G3 likely provides the best passive noise reduction of any ANR headset on the market. This is something that is often overlooked by many manufacturers, and that really sucks! It only takes one flight where your headset batteries fail you to learn to appreciate the benefits of good passive noise cancellation as a backup.
The G3 has connectivity feature you could ask for: an auxiliary input jack and a Bluetooth chipset capable of making phone calls and playing music. A switch on the controller allows you to easily toggle the headset between one of three modes: Airplane audio only, airplane audio priority (music muted when someone talks on the radio), and mixed audio. This is a fairly standard feature these days, but we really like seeing a hardware switch – it is much easier to use than the soft push buttons many headsets offer.
As with all Faro models, the headset can be purchased with both twin-GA plugs and a helicopter U-174 connector. This alone might make the purchase an easy decision for you as many manufacturers do not support helicopters without annoying adapters.
Conclusion
In the end, we think that the Faro G3 is a great headset, but that it doesn’t really push the price point enough. Despite having all the features you’ve come to expect from a high-end headset, we came away feeling like it felt somewhat “cheap” due to the spring construction and the gaudy unpainted carbon fiber. If you like the looks, we think it’s a great headset and recommend you give it a try. If you don’t, there are a lot of other great offerings in this price point that we feel have superior build quality and comfort, like the .
