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Equinox Wireless Technology Poll


Equinox Wireless Poll  

99 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you use the Equinox Bluetooth, the WM08 module, both, or none? Follow up posts explaining your vote will provide important information. I'd ask people make a little extra effort on this one. Please pick one of the first five options, and one of the last two if appropriate. Thanks.

    • I use the Bluetooth exclusively
      54
    • I use the WM08 module exclusively
      13
    • I use both depending on the situation (please explain below)
      10
    • I prefer to use the built in speaker
      10
    • I prefer wired headphones
      13
    • When I use the WM08, I do so mainly for faster responses
      9
    • When I use the WM08, I do so mainly to make wired headphones wireless
      11


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I use the Bluetooth exclusively

But do not use the Minelab wireless headphones because they allow a lot of ambient sound in and my moderate hearing loss makes it very difficult to hear the detector quieter tones. I use PAAW bluetooth Low Latency headphones. (I have read the newest headphone version is no longer compatible with ML BT) They block out background sounds and have a noise canceling switch that works great with ocean surf when the surf is up.

Before getting those, I tried to retrofit sound deadening into the ML phones with zero improvement. YMMV HH

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I only use the ML80 wireless headphones. I dont use the WM80 wireless module because it frequently drops out ( loss of signal ) then it is not reliable ( for me ) . 

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I probably use the external speaker 95% of the time on max volume. I hunt mostly old areas away from any towns.  Plus I like to hear my surroundings. 

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The first year I've exclusively used the ML80 BT headphones. No "real" problems, but comfort issues.. too warm in the summer and in the winter kind of bulky together with hat and headlamp.

I've researched and tried various BT headphones and came to the conclusion in-ears are not for me.

After I've found the perfect wired headphones for me 1,5 years ago, I exclusively use the WM08 - In the beginning, I never thought this is going to happen. It's "just" because there's no real choice of appropriate APTX-LL devices.. imho.

I've fiddled a bit with an external APTX-LL receiver, because I liked the feature of using the headphones parallel with the cellphone, which is not possible with the WM08. Seems to work, too. I only had the feeling, the WM08 is a bit more reliable. I must admit - it is a very cheap receiver, maybe a better one would neglect my concerns..

 

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I use the WM80 wireless module exclusively but have the ML80 headphones with me as backup. I don't like the ML80 headphones because they lag and the sound is muffled and hollow sounding to me. I prefer to use headphones I can plug into the WM80 module and just make them wireless.

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I use wired headphones that are not Minelabs. I like the extra volume. Also... I hunt predominately in water and the wireless don't worked with the unit submerged.

I used the external speaker once or twice when demonstrating to a neighbor how the machine responded to targets.

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When I first got my Equinox 800 I tried out the ML-80 headphones -- sound seemed OK but they weren't as comfortable as my usual headphones (more on those in a minute) and they definitely didn't block out the surrounding noise as well.

I actually have a summer setup (earbuds -- wired kind) to keep my ears cool, and winter, to keep them warm!  But on top of that, I own five sets of over-ear headphones (on-ear are ridiculously uncomfortable) and have tried a couple others.  One set in particular stands out for me -- Sunray Pro Gold.  They are best of any I tried at blocking out ambient noise and their sound quality (for my ears) stands out.  The WM08 module in combination with the other Eqx 800 options offer everyone 100% choice of headphones.  (Wish they had a 1/4" socket, but I get by with an adapter.)  I'll quote the cliche' "optionality is always preferred!"  I hope that doesn't change.

A few months (many hunts) after shelving the ML-80's I tried them again.  This time, with something to compare to, the sound quality left me disappointed.  That was it -- I haven't used them since.  They are backups to my two WM08's (bought a 'slightly used' WM08 on Ebay for about 1/3 the price of a new Minelab unit...)

Regarding the latency, I'm careful not to put too much emphasis on my experience.  It does seem that I notice a slight lag when swinging quickly (e.g. investigating an already found target) even with the WM08's.  I haven't done any careful studies on that although some back-of-the-envelope number fiddling indicates even the very low latency of the WM08 should be noticeable with a quick swing.  ('Quick' is equivalent to a putter head speed when attempting a 10 foot = 3 m putt at golf, so not lightning fast by any means.)  However, that isn't the reason I use them; it's just a bit of icing on the cake.

If I had to pay the ridiculous list price for the WM08's I wouldn't bother.  (I assume we're supposed to be frank with our replies.  Does anyone think the WM08 list price is reasonable??)  I have a similarly very low latency Garrett Z-Lynk T/R pair that works fine (but of course there I need to plug in the transmit module so an extra link in the chain).  I know I'm in the minority but the WM08's are a huge plus for me.

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