I saw davidb1982's post and it prompted me to start a thread on a subject I've thought a lot about.

Has any here made their own headset? Surely we have a few pilots here that are gifted in the ways of electronics. As I understand it, the issue is one of impedance matching, whatever the hell that is.

Here's the motivation...

This gaming headset has a noise canceling microphone. That's pretty much it's only geewiz feature. It costs $20.
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This headset has the same. It costs $525.
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I get the whole economies of scale angle but it still seems like a huge ripoff. Surely there's a way to make the $20 headset do the job of the $525 set.

This is a problem that must be solved. Now who's gonna solve it with me? And when I say "with me" I really mean "for me".

tag

Tag.

Just don't get caught with your non TSO'd headset.

This sort of exists. This guy sells ANR retrofit kits for various headset. You could buy a cheap old headset off of ebay and install one. So you could end up with a decent headset with ANR for under $300

http://www.headsetsinc.com/anr_kits.html

I have made headsets for non-aviation radio communications before. I don't know the specs for aviation headsets off the top of my head, but I think they use dynamic microphones, where all the headsets you find for computers, video gaming and cell phones use condenser microphones. The critical difference is that condenser microphones require a DC power input, dynamic does not, so if the aviation radio doesn't supply that power, that microphone can't work without some kind of external power supply.

There may be other issues with impedances etc as you mention, I'd have to do some research.

ETA: found this page which has some info...
http://www.acousticom.com/2015/aviation-headset-information-specs/

The earphone impedance definitely looks different from typical headphones/headsets, the microphone is a little different also.

That's a funny aspect to all of this. I can't recall if there's a specific far that requires tso'd headsets for 121. I don't think there probably is. My last airline mentioned it as a requirement in their flight crew operations manual. My current airline has no such requirement listed anywhere. The only difference between the Clarity Aloft "classic" vs the "pro plus" is another $200 and a tso stamp. That's fuggin ridiculous. Either way, I have never once in my aviation career heard of a fed ever giving a second glance at a pilot's headset let alone ask if it was tso'd. I can't even count how many times I've had fed rides yet nobody cares about the non-tso'd CA classics I've been using. At this point, to avoid wasting money, I'd gladly wear one made from a coat hangar in front of the Administrator himself.

If the gaming headsets can't be adapted, then surely this place would have everything needed to bootleg your own quality headset on the cheap. http://www.shure.com/americas/products

Agreed, the TSO is a stupid requirement tacked on by some airlines. And probably a couple of anal Feds somewhere.  I just use the company provided headset anyway.  Gotta save my money so I can blow it on something else.