Upgrade Excal II To Grey Ghost or Goldmaster Headphones?

[DirtSlinger]

Hi Everyone,

I Just got the Excalibur II and really like it so far, but I need help on deciding which headphones to upgrade to, the Grey Ghost Underwater or Goldmaster Headphones?
Would like to hear from others who have used either headphone...I just cant stand the stock yellow phones!!

Also, can Minelab add a Ikelite connector for the new headphones?

Thanks for any Help in Advance..--John

 

[Finderskeeper]

Minelab will not install any aftermarket products to their detectors. I also hated the stock yellow Koss headphones and went with the Grey Ghosts. I did the Peltor upgrade but the speakers from the Koss headphones were shorting out and it was a real pain in the you know what to use them. I never really liked the audio from the Koss's anyways.

It is fairly easy to modify the Excalibur II to accept the Grey Ghosts. You will need the Grey Ghost headphones with the male Ikelite plug which are available from some detector dealers. You will need to get the female socket from an alkaline battery pack. You will need to notch the female alkaline battery pack cap to support the circuit board in the control pod. Cut the two wire plug off the original wires from the Koss headphones and solder them to the Female Ikelite connectors.

There are several threads on how to do it with photos and it is fairly easy. If you can solder, you can do this.

 

[OldBeechnut]

GoldMaster Hands Down, And I think he will do them for you also...CJC uses them...or you can make your own, I tried the koss speakers for one summer and seen that Mr Goldmaster was using the big transducers now, so I tried them this winter..they rock..tried a few other sizes.........big is better..Got some new gel ear pads, these are cheaper in cost then the peltors , 20 dollars compared to 40+ for the peltors and feel better, (twice the thickness, better compression fit to the head)............. they don't have the sticky side like the peltors so you have to put them on with aquaseal..

 

[OldBeechnut]

IK connectors and pod endcaps..........going to have Bscoop make us some end caps this winter for these type of modes, pp remote, and the ikelite connectors. endcaps will be soild so they can be drilled and tapped.

 

[Finderskeeper]

What about this......Just thinking out loud here. Instead of using the mylar waterproof speakers........

I was thinking that there are quite a few waterproof ear buds for MP3 & Ipod's. Tons of them and they sound really good. And not too expensive. They don't require a lot of power to drive them either.

Why not wire up a set of waterproof ear buds into Peltor ear muffs? You would leave enough wire to insert the ear buds into your ears and then put the Peltor muffs over to reduce noise.

You would have the standard cable from the Excalibur or whatever detector you choose and then wire the ear buds to it leaving them loose to be able to be put into your ears. The cable would be anchored to the muffs.

So in effect you would have waterproof ear buds with noise reduction. I was thinking maybe using Peltor Optime 105 Extreme's.

Is it possible? Impedance problems? Will I go deaf using them?

 

[Finderskeeper]

Went out and bought some waterproof ear buds from the Best store. Good for about 12 feet in water. Then went to the Shack and got a 1/8 inch female stereo jack.

Took my Peltor Optime 98's and took out those crappy Koss factory speakers that I had previously stuffed in them. Gutted them. Kept the factory cable for the headphones and just soldered two wires to the female stereo jack.

Plugged in the ear buds.......wow.........way better......I mean way ---- way better. Went to a local school yard that has a septic pump that runs 24 hours 365...really loud......before I could not detect around it because it was so loud. Crazy loud. Hit that area in the past with my E-trac and found nothing as I could not even hear the E-trac with all the noise. Surprised that they even allow all that noise. This school is almost 100 years old and I have found quite a bit of silver but nothing in the last year.

Took the new set up on the Excalibur and started detecting around the septic tank which is kept safe with a fence. Could not hear the loud pump with the ear buds and the Peltor Optime's. Yard is close to a road that has a lot of motorcycle traffic. Loud motorcycles. Could barely hear them with the new set up. I found I could concentrate more on the sounds now that most of the outside noise is gone. Funny how I never really noticed it till now.

Soon heard a faint signal. Dug down around 9 inches and found a nice sterling silver Saint Michael medal. Time was running out because it was getting dark.

Found out that ear buds work great with the Peltor ear muffs. Way more quiet than having the Koss factory speakers in the Peltor muffs. The ear buds sound way better too. Two wires is all you have to mess with. Tie off the shielding wires if you have the newer Excalibur II's.

Sounds are more pronounced and easier to identify than the stock headphones. Faint sounds are really coming in now where before they were not. Exterior noise is now pretty much a thing of the past.

Total cost.......$50 for the buds, $3 for the female jack and $16 for the Optime 98's. $69 total for way better headphones. Can't beat that.

 

[OldBeechnut]

Nice job steve, I like it! Should work great around the ocean noise....

 

[tonyweston]

Hi , youv now got me thinking ----- hows about just using the ear buds without the headphones ?? If the buds were (hard wired ) with an ekalite connector, then perhaps hunting may look less conspicuous and hopefully reduce the ridicule I have to put up with by British tourists whilst hunting in Spain >??
what do you think Tony Weston

 

[Finderskeeper]

Maybe so Tony. The only thing about not using the muffs would be getting your ears sun burned! There would be less sweating and you would be able to wear sunglasses without having them pinched on your head by the muffs.

I really like the muffs though as they take away a lot of noise. And with the muffs, any comments would not be heard anyways!

 

[otlew]

This sounds like a winner to me. With your setup just about any Db rating ear muffs should work fine. Probably no need for expensive ones.

 

[tvr]

Finderskeeper,
Ear bud mod is elegant in it's simplicity.
Cheers,
tvr

 

[Finderskeeper]

Thanks! But it was not entirely my idea.

I got the idea from a post from a guy who rides the subways in NY. He did not want to pay big bucks for noise cancelling headphones and wanted to listen to music. So many people on the subway have lost big buck noise cancelling headphones from theft (Bose) so he decided to go stealth. He got a pair of Peltor muffs and just wore his ear buds underneath. Nobody bothers him and he has way better noise control and really good sound to boot!

I had them out today for a few hours at a local park and they worked like a charm. I can not believe the sound. So much better than any headphones I've tried in the past. Done the Peltor / factory stock speaker mod. It was OK but I ran into the speaker going bad on it plus when it was working, the sound was not really up to what I would want. Still sounded like the factory phones. Have Grey Ghosts but they don't really have the noise blocking this does and the sound quality is a bit lacking. They are better than stock but still not as good as they could be.

I would say that this mod is so simple that anyone can do it. Just make sure you tape and seal off the end of the headphone cable that is attached to the female jack. Stuff the bud cables under the soundproofing foam and just go!

I can hardly wait to hit the Florida beaches with this set up. I follow OldBeachNut's advice and use all metal on the Excal and I am sure with these headphones, I'll be finding a lot of deeper stuff I could not even hear before!

 

[foiled again tab hunter]

n/t