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Returned My Equinox


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3 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

While we're pitchin' a bitch, I'm going to put in my 2 cents.  I wasn't an electronics engineer/tech but my work involved using lots of their services.  One thing I learned is that every non-soldered connection (and even some of them) can fail.  The more you string together the more likely it is to experience a failure.  Minelab has for quite a while (at least since the Gold Monster 1000 release, and I complained then) felt that going with the 3.5 mm jack system was preferred.  Why??????  At that time (and still now with one recent exception, see below), the quality aftermarket headphones have the 1/4 inch male plug.  So if that is your choice you have to use an adapter.  That's an extra connection to fail.  I can't say anything about Minelab's overpriced adapter but I've suffered from poor quality mating of connectors, even before the Equinox, with the Deteknix (renamed 'Quest' to hide the fact they got caught counterfeiting the Teknetics T2).  First Texas had what I consider a good idea when they included both 3.5 mm and 1/4" female connectors on the Greek Series (Tek Omega, etc.) and Fisher/Tek Gold Bug family.

The pure RF route (M80 wireless headphones of the Equinox, for example) does alleviate the multiple failure points, but your choice of headphones is limited.  The WM-08 module (my preference) requires *2* connections for me to use my favorite aftermarket headphones.  To be fair, when I go with my Sony corded earbuds (in the hot months) with 3.5 mm plug I'm down to one.  Buy why not do like FT and give me both to choose from?

This problem isn't unique to Minelab.  I recently replaced my Deteknix T/R system (similar issue, but worse since it required 2 adapters meaning 4 connections!) with the Garrett Z-link (https://www.garrett.com/hobbysite/hbby_z-lynk_en.aspx) but even they could have done better.  The detector-to-transmitter connection, which could be hardwired, actually has two adapters, one for the  proprietary waterproof AT connection and one for the industry 'standard' (I wish) 1/4".  They could have made two versions rather than requiring an adapter.  And the receiver module with just the 1/4 inch female jack takes care of me but not those whose headphones have the 3/5 mm male, including some that Garrett themselves market(!).

Recently Detector Pro (https://detectorpro.com/gray-ghost-gold-series-for-minelab-gold-monster/) released a new model headphone with 3.5 mm male plug.  (According to their blurb, they also enhanced the output to improve picking up weak signals.)  But that just means buying yet another set of headphones, and ones that may not fit my head and/or hearing.

I'm basically on the other side of the fence on this one. All my earbuds and quality over ear headphones are 3.5mm, as I imagine most none detector ones are. Computers, phones, music players, etc have all been 3.5mm for, well, basically forever. I'd have to go back to stereo systems 20+ years ago for any piece of gear I had that used a 1/4 plug other than the other detector I have.

I like being able to plug earbuds and standard 3.5mm headphones directly into the 800 or the WM-08 and have them just work. It vastly increases my affordable options as I dont have to buy "detecting headphones" which are much more expensive, as any specialized,  small market item is.

I do understand the frustration of people that have already spent $100+ on detecting specialty headphones, but the rest of us can get comparable quality for half the price or less with the 3.5mm.

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56 minutes ago, Lacky said:

I'm basically on the other side of the fence on this one. All my earbuds and quality over ear headphones are 3.5mm, as I imagine most none detector ones are. Computers, phones, music players, etc have all been 3.5mm for, well, basically forever. I'd have to go back to stereo systems 20+ years ago for any piece of gear I had that used a 1/4 plug other than the other detector I have.

I like being able to plug earbuds and standard 3.5mm headphones directly into the 800 or the WM-08 and have them just work. It vastly increases my affordable options as I dont have to buy "detecting headphones" which are much more expensive, as any specialized,  small market item is.

I do understand the frustration of people that have already spent $100+ on detecting specialty headphones, but the rest of us can get comparable quality for half the price or less with the 3.5mm.

I understand your PoV, but why not provide both (female) connectors and let the user choose.  FT did it (although not for every model detector).  I guess by providing options, though, you don't make money selling $45 adapters.

 

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14 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

but why not provide both (female) connectors

On the Nox they probably didn't consider it at all because they're ML, but if they did it might have been rejected because it just presents another water intrusion vulnerability.  I think putting a 1/4" jack (or both) on the WM08 module would have been a good idea.

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Since the WM08 isn’t water proof anyways, provision for 1/4 plug would of been nice. The proprietary water proof plug is kind of an annoyance, but inline with what other  manufacturers are doing. The price they charge for the “official” head phone adapter is pretty ludicrous, even though it is pretty high quality, I wonder how much it would of affected the price just to through one in with the detector.

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I did not know you could return a minelab metal detector for money back? you must have a very nice dealer to take back a used machine ? Minelab does not state in their warranty that they refund money back...sorry to hear it did not click well with you as it's one of my favorite machines. 

https://www.minelab.com/usa/support/product-warranty/warranty-conditions

strick

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