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Bluetooth Transmitter And Headphones


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I have asked some and received their ideas and suggestions 

if you are running wireless which transmitter and headphones are you using. 
 

What kind of run time are you getting out of the ones you chose ?  
 

Sound Quality? 
 

I can get the Z-Link or the Minelab sets up but thought someone might have a really good setup they have ran across

Thanks 

Jim

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I have tried many different brands and models and have settled on the Quest offerings.  They seem to provide the best balance of cost, ease of setup, flexibility, audio quality, and signal reliability.  Plus the transmitter and phones are water/weather resistant.  Let me run through the list:

The Minelab Pro Sonic is a solid kit with the advantage that the receiver has a built in loudspeaker which enables headphone-less operation if desired.  I have found the audio quality to be excellent and unlike the WM08 receiver that comes with the Equinox, the Pro Sonic is relatively immune to signal dropOuts.  The big drawback is cost.  Frankly, at $270 US, just way overpriced even for this solid system.  You are laying down nearly $300 and you still have to plug in your own phones.

Garrett Z-Lynk - At about half the cost of the Pro Sonic you get a solid system that has similar capabilities as the Pro Sonic.  You do lose the built-in loudspeaker but you also gain the ability to pair Garrett's wireless AT Z-Lynk wireless pinpointer to the system so you can hear the pinpointer through your headset.  I found the responsiveness of the pinpointer in wireless mode to be a little laggy and did not really care for the wireless sound of the pinpointer so it never really grew on me.  Perhaps I am too used to how XP implemented their wireless pinpointer system with the Deus and Orx which works pretty well and has multiple audio options.  The Garrett Z-Lynk transmitter and receiver are water resistant and can survive a rain shower.

Bluetooth APTX-LL "home brew" setup.  I find Bluetooth APTX-LL to have acceptable low latency for metal detecting (generic bluetooth protocols have too much lag which throws off your ability to "visualize:" where the target is under the coil due to the lag in audio vs. coil position during a normal coil sweep - it can give you the impression you are swinging over two one-way targets.  The effect is worse if you are doing rapid coil waggles to zero in on the target).  Pairing a Bluetooth APTX-LL transceiver connected to the headphone jack of the detector directly up with a pair of BT APTX-LL headphones means you don't have to have a separate receiver in which to plug in wired phones which means less cables to deal with on your end.  Sometimes the pairing gets a little wonky especially if you are sharing the pairing duties of your BT headphones between a BT transceiver and a detector such as the Equinox that has a built-in ATPX-LL transmitter.  Also, the battery life of the BT transceiver (which is tiny, the size of a matchbox) is limited and can't typically last for a whole day's worth of detecting (the headphone batteries are pretty robust though).  This is definitely the least expensive and perhaps most compact setup.  Problem is, the weatherproof BT-APTX headphones I have found are earbud style and, ironically, a Quest BT APTX-LL model set of phones.  

I have recently switched to the Quest wireless system using the Quest Wirefree Pro Headphones and a Quest transmitter.  All the components are compact, water resistant and pair up immediately with great audio and reliable signal quality.  Batteries for the receiver and phones last all day long.  I use this setup with my Tarsacci and with my GPX 4800 and highly recommend it.  The phones also have a hardwired plug port to enable you to use them as passive phones plugged directly into your detector or a wireless receiver.  It costs less than the Z-Lynk unit if you factor into account the fact that the wireless Garrett phones are an additional $100 and they are not water or weather resistant.  There is also a version that comes with a wireless receiver in lieu of the headphones similar to the Z-Lynk setup in function and cost except that the Quest does not feature wireless pinpointer compatibility. 

In summary, all of the above setups work well.  I might have given the Z-Lynk the overall nod if I had really felt the wireless pinpointer implementation was done well, but really did not care for the laggy response and pinpointer audio.  Also, I have mixed feelings about wireless pinpointer implementations there are times when I just want to hear the dedicated pinpointer audio and detector audio during deep target recover without having to switch the pinpointer on and off to do so.  And the fact that the Quest setup with wireless phones is cheaper than the Z-Lynk system overall, sealed the deal.  The BT APTX-LL solution is a great "poor mans" hack but suffers from lack of weather proof components, sometimes finnicky paring, and low battery capacity in the transmitter.  The Minelab Pro-Sonic is solid, like the built in loudspeaker for headphone-less operation and video demonstrations but at a ridiculous price point and to top it all off, you are paying that price for a non-weatherproof system.  C'mon ML!

My Overall Wireless System Choice:  The Quest Wirefree Pro system with weatherproof wireless headphones.

 

 

Quest 1691-1703102_1f.jpg

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13 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Let me run through the list:

Nice review, Chase.  Is it accurate to break the latency into three categories (from longest to shortest) as follows:

1) standard Bluetooth,

2) APTX LL,

3) all proprietary systems mentioned?

And more specifically, do the proprietary systems have similar latency, within say 10%?

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19 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Nice review, Chase.  Is it accurate to break the latency into three categories (from longest to shortest) as follows:

1) standard Bluetooth,

2) APTX LL,

3) all proprietary systems mentioned?

And more specifically, do the proprietary systems have similar latency, within say 10%?

Yes, I think that is a fair breakout.

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Chase 

if a person chose the pro sonic due to having other detectors and other headphones, could a person purchase a set of wireless headphones and pair the pro sonic with the Tarsacci ? 

Sorry for all the questions just want to buy once and cry once.   Kind of like my other hobby thermal hunting buy the best you can afford and move forward 

 

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12 hours ago, JimT said:

Chase 

if a person chose the pro sonic due to having other detectors and other headphones, could a person purchase a set of wireless headphones and pair the pro sonic with the Tarsacci ? 

Sorry for all the questions just want to buy once and cry once.   Kind of like my other hobby thermal hunting buy the best you can afford and move forward 

 

Jim the Pro Sonic system comes with a transmitter that you plug into the headphone jack of the detector and a receiver unit with a clip.  The receiver unit has a 1/4" headphone jack so you can plug any wired headphone type of your choosing into it.  Unlike the Garrett, Quest, and even the "homebrew" Bluetooth systems, there is no set of standalone wireless headphones that are compatible with the ProSonic system.  It only works with a wired headphone plugged into the receiver unit.

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