Aquatic --
First off, we've been somewhat overrun by trolls here, so some members are maybe making snap judgements when what looks like another "trolling" post shows up, from a user who has never posted before and thus we have no background/history to go off of. Maybe, occasionally, someone is jumped for being a troll who really was not trying to "troll," but whose post was instead genuine, and simply misunderstood.
I will presume you were not "trolling," as it seems at this point to me that you were not. It's hard to tell for sure, as I still can't totally understand your point, or what you are trying to say. But, as far as I can tell, you seem to have been truly trying to gather information. So based on that assumption, I'll try to give you the information I think you seek, as I understand it, and hopefully can clarify the whole "waterproof right out of the box" issue.
Your first post stated that the Equinox is not able to be submerged "right out of the box." That's not true. IF you were trying to say that the Equinox is "not submersible out of the box," from the perspective that it doesn't have waterproof headphones IN THE BOX, included with the purchase, then I guess one could say it is not "able to be HUNTED WITH, UNDERWATER, straight out of the box." If you want to hunt with the unit underwater, and use headphones, then yes, you need waterproof headphones that must be purchased separately. BUT -- on the other hand, you DO have everything necessary, IN THE BOX, to toss your Equinox in the lake, or hold it underwater, AND HAVE IT REMAIN FULLY WATERPROOF. As long as you don't have corded headphones attached to the Equinox control box itself (you can still attach corded headphones to the WM08 module supplied with the 800 and have the unit remain waterproof), then the machine remains FULLY WATERPROOF, right out of the box. In fact, it could be said for the 800 model, which DOES NOT COME WITH wired headphones at all (only wireless ones), that there is no way to make the Equinox 800 NOT FULLY WATERPROOF "right out of the box."
Again, you do NOT need anything that is not supplied in the box, to safely submerge the Equinox. The waterproof headphone connector is waterproof WITH NO HEADPHONES ATTACHED, as I understand it, and it also comes with a screw-on cap for the headphone connection so as to offer a second layer of waterproofing protection (and also to keep out dust, and -- in the case of salt water, keep out salt -- from the headphone port). SO -- if you are shallow-wading a lake, hunting with wireless headphones, and you fall and your detector goes completely underwater, NO PROBLEM. It's waterproof. If you are hunting the wet sand, and using corded headphones attached to the WM08 module in your pocket, and you lay the Equinox down to retrieve a target, and a huge wave comes crashing in and fully submerges the Equinox, NO PROBLEM. It's waterproof. The ONLY time the Equinox becomes UN-waterproof, is if you plug in a set of NON-waterproof headphones directly to the unit -- i.e. phones without the screw-on, waterproof connector.
Now, you might say, "well fine, maybe I can submerge it 'right out of the box,' but I can't HUNT with it underwater 'right out of the box,' since there are no waterproof headphones included and I can't use wireless phones because you can't transmit wireless signal underwater." And yes, that would be true; if you want to HUNT underwater, you need to buy separate, waterproof headphones. BUT -- that's a different argument from what you said, which is -- "the Equinox, out of the box, needs waterproof headphones to be fully submerged." NO, it does not. The headphone connector is waterproof WITHOUT ANY headphones attached, and even has the "extra" layer of protection with the screw-on cap. So, your statement was incorrect. Hopefully, this clears up the issue, and helps to explain why folks may have thought you were just "trolling."
Steve
EDITED TO ADD -- GKMan beat me to the punch a little bit, so this post is a tad redundant now, but hopefully makes everything clear.
