Excal headphone question

[NEMeanderer]

I would like to upgrade my stock blue headphones on my excalibur. From reading this forum it seems like the gray ghosts are the headphones of choice. So I contacted Minelab to get an idea what it would cost and the turn around time. Spoke with someone named Bill who informed me that the company has changed its policy about two months ago and does not switch out headphones unless they are being replaced by minelab ones. My question... is it worth switching to the yellow Koss? Are they that much better? I would still rather replace them with the Gray ghosts. Any suggestions?

 

[Gulf Hunter]

Try this Findmall sponsor, http://demarcodetectorsales.com/index.htm to see how to get around it. I did EXACTLY what you are fixin' to do already. I had an '06 Excal 1000, with blue headphones and they were crap. Would not hardly even stay on my head the bracket was so loose. The tonal quality was decent on them though and thought I would try the "upgrade" to the Koss. They ended up stripping the brackets and getting loose on my head too, but they were a slight improvement, but certainly NOT worth the cost.

The Gray Ghost Underwaters are on all 3 of my Excals now and they are significantly better in most every way, over old blues AND Koss. They fit better on your head, the brackets are more sturdy and comfortable, wind noise is virtually non-existent AND the tonal quality is sharper and clearer. I believe I can hear more signals with them. The headphone cabling is a bit more fragile, than the stock headphone cabling though and care must be taken, not to damage or overstress it. They also are slightly more trebly, over the stock headphones too, but I do not feel like it impairs their ability to hear the loot in any way. Get a set, you'll never go back, imo.

 

[NEMeanderer]

GH : Thanks, I will call them tomorrow and see what I can do.

 

[Steve from Ohio]

Get the Gray Ghosts and then get an alkaline battery pack. Use the top of the battery pack as the female connection for the Gray Ghosts. It is easy to do. Take apart the connector from the control case by removing the plastic cover with a bent paper clip. Then take out the two allen set screws.

Then all you need to do is notch the top of the battery pack to fit the circuit board into. Very easy. The Gray Ghosts are already wired with the male Ikelite connector. The connector will have to be taken apart to wire it correctly by changing the wires around as per the instructions that come with the Gray Ghosts to adjust the headphones for the correct impedance. Otherwise the Gray Ghosts will be way low in volume to be of any good. The wire change is very easy to do.

Cut the wire to the battery connector and Wire the battery pack top to the 2 wire clip that goes on the circuit board. I always solder the connections and shrink tube them.

Use plenty of plumbers silicone grease and make sure the O ring is in straight and level. Insert the battery pack cap into the control pod attaching the white clip on the two prongs on the circuit board.. Tighten down the allen set screws and then put the plastic cover back on with some clear silicone caulk making sure that the ciruit board fits correctly into the battery cap top which you notched. You may have to play with that to make it fit so the allen set screws will fit correctly.

Make sure you tie down the Gray Ghost's cable to the Excalibur because it will pull out if you put too much pressure on the cable by pulling on it. Believe me, it will happen especially if you are in the water. Tie that cable down.

It is very easy to do and can be done in less than an hour. Just make sure that you Excalibur is out of warranty because Minelab will cancel the warranty when doing this.
Done correctly, this is a very rewarding upgrade. Shame Minelab has not done this for us. The Excalibur is awesome, but the peripherals are shoddy.

The problem areas with the Excalibur are the mounting shaft....very uncomfortable, the headphones...we all know that, and the coil. The coil on the 800 is OK...but there are better alternatives. It would be nice to be able to change the coil for different circumstances.

 

[Tony from Tidewater]

Karl: I've used the Red, Blue and yellow head phones, and have not used gray ghost on the Excal. I think the blue ones have the best sound, but the quality of them are very poor. The yellow ones are built with better quality, but the sounds are not as good as the others. I called Demarco and e-mailed him last month to ask him about it, but never got ahold of him. I use gray ghost on one of my land machines, and like them. I think the GG will sound a little more clearer then the yellow koss head phones. If you contact him, let me know what you find out.

 

[NEMeanderer]

Steve: Thanks for the instructions. If I cannot get the switch done by a dealer I may have to operate. I did speak with Joe from DeMarcos who was very helpful answering my many questions. He said that he has received several calls regarding replacing the headphones and said that the only thing that is stopping him from doing it is that he would like to be able to pressure check the work once it is done. I'm sure he realizes that there are a lot of people that are interested in having this done and he wants to make sure that when you get your machine back that it will not leak. He said that he is working on it. So Karl, and everyone else who missed the boat when Minelab was doing it, please give Joe a call!

 

[Steve from Ohio]

Feel free to E-mail me if you have any questions on how to do it. It is very easy but there is just a few little things that you may have a question on.

 

[NEMeanderer]

I will. Thanks

 

[JOHNMARKHAM]

OK i to dont care for these yellow headsets, so my machine is under warranty since i just got it in October, can i send back to minelab and have them install a good pair of headsets??

 

[Harold in NC]

[sup]Grey Ghost is the way to go, i've used them for years,
make sure they are the underwater ones, HH[/sup]

 

[Excal1]

No, they will not install any third party products on their machines and if you have someone else do it it will void the warranty. I sent mine in last week to have Grey Ghosts put on and was informed rather rudely about the new policy. I had even called prior to sending them and they said it was no problem, but when and after I paid 52.00 to ship them and had the dealer send the headphones, they wouldn't do it, even though the day I sent them it wasn't a problem.

 

[Excal1]

But they will no longer attach them.