Who remembers acoustic headsets?

[codash1099]

I am pretty sure I came across these in a TAA B727 in 1969 when i was a uni student.

I'll vouch for that.

 

[here2go]

Used them on the JAL A300s HND-CTS in Dec 2007. Went well with a glass of Skytime.

Not that it's a competition I think I win so far in terms of most recent use. Can anybody beat JAL in 2007? (can't recall return flight Jan 2008). Prior to this I would have used them on the QF 747SP doing the run BNE-POM 1982-84, and the inaugural Air Niugini A300 POM-SIN in 1984. Prior to that, I was too young to remember - did the Air Pacific 1-11 BNE-Noumea-Nadi have them? I was 11 months.

 

[risky]

I remember doing the big round the world trip with the family in 1980 when I was 9-10. I couldn't see the screen, and parents wouldn't spend the exorbitant rental fee anyway, but you rest your head on the armrest and hear the soundtrack there!

 

[jetlagger]

Yes. I distinctly recall several AN & TAA flights with the 'technologically advanced" acoustic variety.
The actual best part was enjoying the fine spectrum of music of that era...
Bee Gees, Rolling Stones, Dolly Parton, ABBA, Etc..

 

[crm911]

The foam earpieces were disposable and wrapped around the inner hard plastic tube, which would poke through at times, making it a painful experience. As we do with electronic plug malfunctions, sometimes those acoustic ones also didn't have any sound.

How did the volume work on them? Did a wheel squeeze some tube tight for lower volume?

 

[Ewing]

I remember acoustic headsets from when I was a child flying on AN (I'm now 29). It wasn't all that long ago.

My first QF flight was in 2001 so they were long gone by then. There are some QF aircraft (734s) that still have what I suspect are the holes for the acoustic headsets next to the new(er) electronic socket.

I can remember when a theatre organist would pop up through a trapdoor at the front of economy.
Ah, those were the days.

There is a cinema in Sydney (Hayden Orpheum in Cremorne) that has a Mighty Wurlitzer and still has performances before some sessions. It's quite marvellous.

 

[sjd]

I remember them from two Alitalia trips to Europe in the '90s, back in my student days. Certainly got sore ears on long haul. Also the smoking section up the back of those 747(probably 200's) was very hazy. If was like walking into a pea-souper.

 

[travelislife]

Not that it's a competition I think I win so far in terms of most recent use. Can anybody beat JAL in 2007? (can't recall return flight Jan 2008). Prior to this I would have used them on the QF 747SP doing the run BNE-POM 1982-84, and the inaugural Air Niugini A300 POM-SIN in 1984. Prior to that, I was too young to remember - did the Air Pacific 1-11 BNE-Noumea-Nadi have them? I was 11 months.

You flew between HND and NRT? That would have been 15 minutes at most I would have thought?

 

[here2go]

You flew between HND and NRT? That would have been 15 minutes at most I would have thought?

Oops! HND to CTS - corrected.

 

[trentusjuventus]

I remember them from my childhood. TN (Australian Airlines) had them too. Actually it's a good question to ask, I always assumed I flew on their 737-300s - did the 737-400s (which transferred to QF and are nearly all gone now) ever have them?

Yep I concur with this. I remember using them on my first ever flight MEL-PER on Australian Airlines.

 

[harvyk]

I remember using them on a trip SYD-HNL-LAX vv on CO in 1991, CBR-SYD-MEL-PER-ADL-MEL-CBR on QF in 1994 - 1995 and DRW-BNE-CBR on AN in 1998.

I also remember once been given a tour of CBR airport thanks to my old scout leader and we went on board one of the QF 734's (this was in 98 from memory), where I got to sit in a J seat for the first time (pity the plane wasn't going anywhere). The big thing I remember was seeing the electronic headsets in J whilst Y still had the tubes. I was thinking "gee electronic headsets, those lucky enough to be in business class get it all... "

 

[badseed]

I recall these from flying CO on the MEL - AKL - HNL run in the late 80's a few times.

One of the flights was very turbulent and with every shudder the plastic tubes jabbed painfully into my ears. Fun times.

 

[significance]

I remember them from childhood, and how they hurt my ears. The second part of in-flight entertainment in those days was the free deck of cards you could get on every flight, if you asked. And instead of the activity packs for kids that they have these days, kids were given little winged brooches with the TAA logo - metal at first, plastic later on.

 

[toowongman]

Twice - in business class on an Australian 727 in 1992 and the hover Mirage in 1988.

 

[cirqueboy]

All the Ansett flights I took in the 80's and early 90's.

 

[goingboeing]

The QF BAe 146's still had these in the late 90's is memory serves me correctly?

 

[[email protected]]

I also used them but they weren't too good, so I had a standard set of headphones that through a little amplifier plugged into those 2 holes. better

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I found a classic photo of a colleague taken on a TAA A300 between SYD & MEL in the mid-1980's with his headset on sideways holding a Transair inflight magazine in one hand and an alcoholic beverage & a cigarette in the other. :mrgreen:

 

[serfty]

I found a classic photo of a colleague taken on a TAA A300 between SYD & MEL in the mid-1980's with his headset on sideways holding a Transair inflight magazine in one hand and an alcoholic beverage & a cigarette in the other. :mrgreen:

No trouble visualizing that one- once flew with a smoking mate on a Bali trip in the late 80's. We sat in "smoking" - had a photo of him fa_gin away with green tubes in his ears (FWIW, half the back on the aircraft lit up with 'clove' cigarettes on the way back ... seeming unlimited bintang to go with the passive smoking - admittedly it was only 5 months since I had quit ... .

 

[JohnM]

I found a classic photo of a colleague taken on a TAA A300 between SYD & MEL in the mid-1980's with his headset on sideways holding a Transair inflight magazine in one hand and an alcoholic beverage & a cigarette in the other. :mrgreen:

Any chance you can scan and post it? It would be great for the nostalgia (cough, cough) .