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Grey Ghost Headphones For Equinox Available Soon?


Darwoody

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Hi all. I noticed that a reputable detecting retailer here in Australia has pre-orders on offer for Grey Ghost headphones for the Equinox. I rang and spoke to him and he is hoping to have them in stock in 3-4 weeks. Nothing on the DetectorPro website as yet. Wondering if anyone else has heard anything. Cheers.

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They will be Gray Ghost Amphibians, waterproof to 30 feet, with the Equinox waterproof connector.

I was excited by these when they came out for the Garrett detectors because unlike nearly all underwater headphones they feature a volume control. Unfortunately, on my first trip to Hawaii with a new set for my ATX, the volume was so low I had to rush a set of Garrett headphones to Hawaii to use instead. The volume control is useless unless you have enough volume to control. The Amphibians were good enough for above water use but too quiet for in water use.

Long story short I still like the idea but somebody else will have to be the guinea pig and find out if the new version for the Equinox have sufficient volume. So far that has been a poor bet as regards the aftermarket phones for Equinox. Not that the Minelab phones are all that great, but at least you know what you are getting.

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I'm anxiously awaiting the GG Amphibians for the Nox as well and just as interested in reviews for same.  Given that the Nox has it's own volume control, why would one be needed on the Amphibians for a Nox?  As Steve mentions, the Amphibians won't be any louder than the available max volume produced by the Nox to start with. Seems like adding a volume control just introduces another potential point of failure.

Emails to the GG manufacturer/dealer have only resulted in sparse responses with missed market introduction dates or no response at all.  My guess is the hangup is still the proprietary waterproof connector.  Not holding my breath, but still holding out for the GGs.

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I too have a set for my ATX and found that the volume control has a narrow "sweet spot" where the volume spikes up to make them useable.  But yeah, the volume control on passive headphones is nothing more than a variable resistor (rheostat) attenuator that merely lowers the volume from the theoretical maximum which occurs at the minimum resistance setting of the rheostat.

I had "generic" GG Amphibians that are sold without the volume control and without a connector.  I had Tony Eisenhower mod them to add the Equinox connector.  But the volume was so low, he added his own Tony E drivers, i.e., the ones he uses in his custom made WP phones.  That brought the volume level up to usable levels, perhaps just slightly higher than the ML accessory WP phones sold for the Equinox.

My understanding in talking to some experts who have been working with Detector Pro on other forthcoming projects, is that Detector Pro has recognized the volume shortcomings in the previous GG Amphibian incarnations and has made some design improvements.  Suggest that unless you want to be the Guinea Pig, hold off on these until performance feedback comes in on The New Equinox compatible Amphibians.

Finally, Kellyco appears to have an exclusive deal with a company ("LS.Pelso") to sell a generic brand of yellow cupped WP headphones compatible with Equinox and at $129 they are not a bad deal as an alternative to the ML Equinox WP phones with perhaps slightly better performance and sound isolation based on my experience testing them out.

All of the above will survive a good periodic dunking (which is all I care about) but I usually keep my head above water and go only waist deep or so and have not had the opportunity to check out their audio performance while wet after being submerged (i.e., I haven't stepped into a hole or gotten knocked down yet while wearing them, lol.  I know, I know - then I'm not really trying sayeth you hard core water hunters - ha!) 

HTH

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That's good news about the possibility of DetectorPro working on the Amphibian volume, Chase.  I wonder if it's as simple as impedance matching issue (maximum transfer of power occurs when the source and load impedances are matched) or if they're going for a piezo or speaker major change.  I agree, either way I'm waiting for solid reviews before opening my wallet.  Gigmaster did a Tony E phones / Minelab WP phones for the Nox comparison in a very recent YT video and comments on the Minelab phones were enough to turn me off.  He wore them underwater as well as above.  The Tony E phones fared very well in his testing.

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Ted,

I think Detector Pro is finally listening to the complaints across their entire H/P product line.  They were at or near the top in after market MD headphones for awhile with some excellent headsets.  But perhaps relied too heavily on customer brand loyalty and reputation and maybe also got complacent in design, cheap part selection, and build quality, as a result.  Ultimately got lapped by some stiff competition including improved OEM headphone products by the larger detector manufacturers.  They may be waking up to the fact that they can't "phone" it in anymore (pardon the pun) or they are not going to survive in the MD marketplace without going back to their superior design roots.  Competition is a good thing.

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I don't think I have ever liked G.G. anything.  Poor fit, poor volume, poor sound quality.  

I bought a pair of the LS.Pelso yellow headphones for the Multi Kruzer.  I assume they are the same as on the Nox, except with a different connector. Construction wise, they are much beefier than the yellow Koss headphones and I could tell they block out a lot of surrounding ambient sound.  I never got to try them though, as they were dead out of the box and I returned them to Kellyco in exchange for another pair that I requested they test to make sure worked.  

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Daniel,

Please share your opinion of the LS.Pelso phones when you have a working pair.  Did you notice where these phones are made?  Is the headband padded?  Many thanks for yor input.

Ted

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