Underwater Headphones Alternative (review) + My Recent Hunts

[Argyris]

Hey guys,

I've been using my Nox 800 underwater (salt water) for some days now (7 underwater hunts total, about 2 hours each), and thought I could share some first results, plus give a nice and cheap alternative to the minelab yellow headphones for underwater use if anyone interested.

My first ever snorkel-dive with Nox in my usual pebble beach was by using just the speaker (no headphones) with my head submerged, and as expected, I soon realized that this wasn't enough...even with my head underwater was very difficult to hear through the speaker due to extremely low volume even in calm sea...(however, as already posted in my first topic in the forum, I was still able to get my first whote gold ring with Nox using just the speaker 🙂). Anyway, in my second hunt I bought the Minelab's yellows, but to my experience with them, again I wasn't able to hear the signals good enough underwater due to their low vol especially after some minutes underwater when the soft earpads and the space between was geting full of water. Furthermore, the yellows are huge headphones and I need to be more descret in my beaches this time of year. In my last hunts however, I tried something different and wanted to share my experience...I bought a pair of 100% waterproof and submersible swimming in-ear headphones especially designed for swimming and watersports that had some quite good reviews from athletes around... the product is the "H2O Surge+ waterpoof headphones" (company is "H2O") and bought them for $40 through Amazon...(arrived from amazon UK). Well guys, in my last underwater hunts with them, my experience is tremendously good....their sound quality underwater and their volume is honestly out of this world, and I'm not kidding...especially when comparing to Minelab's yellows. Volume is high enough to hear even the tinniest faint signal and you feel the tone inside your ear like hell... their earplugs completelly seal the external sounds also, and their sound-tones & bass quality is very immpresive for such a small pair of headphones. These small earbuds come with a 3.6ft straight cord so at least for me were comfortable enough while snorkelling and still able to leave the Nox in the bottom (chest depth max) while relaxing in the surface with my mask waiting for the "recovery fog" to leave. Their speakers are 100% waterpoof (IPX8 rating) and can be submerged to 3.5m depth no prob. The company states that maybe sometimes they need equalization (blowing air inside them) but sinnce now I didn't need it. However the cord is thin so you mast be carefull not to stretch it, and if you feel to you can make an easy mod to seal the hole-plug of the Nox where they are inserted (I made a simple yet effective mod by drilling a small hall to the original plastic protective threaded plug of the nox, and used 2 perfect fit o-rings inside to seal the 3.5mm jack connection while screwing the plastic plug...you already know that the nox is waterproof in that point also, but better safe than sorry and made the extra mile to seal it better). As already stated, the H2O earbuds are designed for athletes (especially designed for swimming and watersports) and come 5 sets of earplugs to fit perfectly in every ear...in my ears they fit so nice and they completely seal external sounds and water from my ear canal. Don't wanna say much more about them, and waiting to see how they handle overtime, but as for now I'm totally impressed with them and their volume and sound quality, and my finds went immediatelly up.

Furthermore, In fear of flooding the Nox in the future as many other members experienced, and in order to make it more usable underwater while snorkelling, I made some extra mods. I totally water-sealed the machine by: a) using silicon paste inside the battery compartment inside the handle (removable if needed but should be a pain to remove)...b) used marine epoxy paste to seal the control box and screen perimeter where the plastic parts join together, and also sealed the point that the control pad meets the handle (critical point there).... c) completelly sealed and eliminated the external speaker (will never use it anyway)...d) made a custom shaft by modifying the original lower shaft to shorten it and also drilled a small drain hole near the bottom...I know I may void the warranty with my mods, but took the risk and now I'm using the machine underwater with piece of mind.

Results: As already said, I have used my Nox underwater for 7 hunts till now...about 2 hours each. Attached some photos of the finds. In these +/- 14 hours I have:

- 4 gold rings: All are solid gold (14k & 9k the smallest one), except the large and heavy one wich is bi-metal silver with 14k gold piece on top. (ps. the top white 14k gold ring with small diamonds is the one I posted some days ago)

- 1 crusifix (silver with gold Christ) 

- Almost €22 in change

- 82(!) old clad coins (all are pre-euro drachmas..no worth unfortunatelly, but yeap 82 of them in these 14 hours)

- Good amount of lead sinkers (including some huge ones)

- 2 spoons, 3 keys, a jank pin jewel piece, a junk watch, and a live HXP-95 military cartridge (strange to find it underwater though..!)

- Aluminum junk: MINIMUM!..we're talking almost no junk comparing to dry hunt!!! I think I gonna love this underwater thing!!!!! 😄

 

Ps. My Nox settings if someone's interested are: Beach 2, Recovery @5, Iron Bias F2@0 , 2 tones only (pitch 1 for iron / pitch 23 for non-fe), notch only -9 to -7 to avoid ground/ceramic rocks underwater (all other is open and able to hear iron from -6 to 0 in low vol pitch 1), tone break @0, sensitivity @17, GB manual by pumping sideways (have uneven bottom), no threshold.

 

That's all 🙂

Happy hunting everyone!

Argyris

[Joe D.]

Excellent report Argyris,

 You can buy a bungee wire extension that has a ML waterproof end, and a 1/8 plug end! Or make one up yourself! Just a little soldering, and the ends needed! I like the earbuds!, i may have to try those out! 

 Great finds!👍👍

[Jeff McClendon]

Outstanding !!!!!

 

Jeff

[Chase Goldman]

The only thing I caution since you water sealed it up so tight is to avoid using it in direct sun and high temps on the beach out of the water.  I think you might suffer some overtemperature effects under those conditions.  Since you are detecting in the water for the most part should not be a problem.  Also, rinse out that Nox headphone jack with fresh water after each use, even though you will probably not get a lot of water intrusion with you setup, any salt water whatsoever in that jack will eventually corrode the metallic h/p jack components.  Good luck looks like you are well on your way to cleaning up on your local beaches.  Hopefully tourism will pick up again to refresh your beaches.

[Argyris]

Thank you all!

I have miles and miles of virgin shorelines here to keep me busy for a looong time (all the finds above where recovered from just a short 100m of beach...and with same target intensity every day..will return next week there to find more staff), and also can't wait for some trips to our "hot" Greek islands (mykonos, santorini etc) in the end of the tourist session to see if I can get any "international" gold there!

The main thing that gets me so excited, is the luck of aluminum junk underwater...I mean, almost every signal is a coin or lead (ooor something even better..gold..silver..even relics) and not aluminum at all...obviously, people dont use/through aluminum junk underwater, and even the minimum amount of aluminum is so light that the waves take care of it....And of course not to mention the easy recovery underwater also (just some fanning) witch helps with time efficiency! If you remember my older comments, I had a really hard time in the dry part of my pebble beaches with all these aluminum junk and difficult recovery diging through the pebbles...the underwater conditions are completelly different and remains for me to see if other alike old beaches will behave the same.

ps. Chase thanks, indeed..the temperature issue was my only real concern before sealing everything and I was already alerted by a post of yours in another thread regarding the temperature issue..however, when underwater temp is not a problem indeed due to water-cooling effect as you say, and I really don't hunt in the daylight (dry beach or inland) in summer days..only night hunts in dry beach in summer so I will be fine I guess. Furthermore, when I reach to the beach, I try to submerge the machine asap and not leave it in sunlight in order to not have expansion/contruction issues due to extreme temp differences..And of course, same as everything that's used in salt water, a full water rinse after every hunt and some silicon sprey where needed is a total must. However only time will tell if the mods I did will give any side effects, I believe not but will see.

 

Best to all,

Argyris

 

[PPP]

Thanks for sharing your headphones modification! really appreciate if you can share some pictures of your modification for headphones connection to the Equinox jack? how do you seal that?Thanks

[Argyris]

PPP, is a really simple mod...

First, you have to pierce the original plastic screw cap in the same diameter as the 3.5mm earphones jack elastic body. The smoothness of the hole itself is not critical (I know I could do much better drilling), but the "face" of the screw piece has to be smooth and even in order to have good complete contact with the o-ring when you connect them. (see below)

Next and most important, you must find an o-ring that fits perfectly to the earphones 3.5mm jack elastic body, and is wide enough to be almost the same diameter as the plastic plugs "face". 

When you insert the earphones 3.5mm jack in the Nox jack with the above o-ring in it's body, you then screw the modified plastic plug until it's face comes flash with the o-ring and that's it. The screw will move forward the 0-ring against the jack and it will watertight it. Now the water and-or sand can only insert between the plastic screw's hole margin and the o-ring, but cannot insert the jack hole itself.

*Joe D above gave a much better alternative (bungee wire extension that has a ML waterproof end and a 1/8 plug end) that I may try also, but as you know, the Nox jack itslef is waterproof inside the tiny hole and the extra o-ring I used is already a step up. Don't forget to rinse after every use and it should be fine!

**Another option would be to use the cord and jack of the minelab's yellows that I already have (that would be a perfect solution regarding sealing and strenghtening of the earphones thin cord also, but don't wanna mess with the yellows since they are brand new and nice to have a back-up in my backpack)

 

[Joe D.]

Good pics!! Love the workaround! Too bad the wireless module doesn't work underwater, then you could do the same thing!!🤔🤔🤔   👍👍

[Argyris]

16 minutes ago, Joe D. said:

Good pics!! Love the workaround! Too bad the wireless module doesn't work underwater, then you could do the same thing!!🤔🤔🤔   👍👍

Joe indeed...everything would be so much easier if we could go wireless underwater!

Anyway, I may go a step further and buy the bungee wire extension you proposed (or use and modify my minelab's yellows cord to use with the H2O earphones)...not only for better sealing, but to also have some extra length in use while underwater, and also strengthen the first cms of the connection due to the thicker cord of the bungee/yellow's cord (in order to handle the continious bending of the cord to avoid any breakage etc)

[Joe D.]

   I know that the Equinox end (1), can be bought on the SeriousDetecting, or Kellyco website; don't remember which one, for about $30; not cheap!!  The 1/8" end can be gotten almost anywhere online! I have a few that are even threaded,  that were cheap, that can probably be made waterproof with a matching female end! ( Note: Different size diameter threads, from the Equinox end!) As far as the bungee wire, i would think that any that were shielded would do! I would not cut up a nice set of phones, unless you are just replacing the end!

  Phrunt (Simon), amoung others, can give you more detailed instruction on creating it! And maybe another source that is cheaper for the Equinox ends!

Good Luck!👍👍