External Speakers.

Hi All,
I have a Minelab 4000 that came with headphones.Can a external speaker be fitted to this unit as headphones in hot weather and wearing a hat is not the best.Has anyone had experiance with this set up and does it work to your satisfaction.Any feed back would be appreciated.

I noticed when down in Kal last time that the detector shop had hats that had slits in the side of the brim so you can still wear headphones.

If the detector has the usual headphone jack, which I believe the 4000 has, then an external speaker can be used. The headphone socket on the GP/XPs is 1/4 inch size and you may need to buy an adapter to use the speaker's smaller plug. They're not expenisive - less than 5 bucks at the most.

Having a bad hearing problem, I'm not a big fan of external speakers. Wind noise takes away a lot of the sound for me. Plus, headphones keep my ears warm in winter!

I don't like people with external speakers working near me, even if I'm not detecting. That damn beeping, booping noise drives me mad when it's not me that's making it!

Being a wearer of two hearing aids that have Bluetooth connectivity, I'm thinking of getting a Bluetooth audio transmitter to feed direct in the hearing aids. I use such a thing on a mobile phone and the clarity is incredible!

Cat

Hawk

No matter which ext speaker you use you will need a booster to run one on the 4k or the volume is poor.
Coiltek do make a boosted speaker but its bulky and has an annoying hum/buzz all the time.

G8s

Hawk, can't comment on the 4000 part of your question but, whilst I do have a speaker (as a backup), I also prefer to use headphones. To get over the sweat etc in hot weather I wear a hat called a "frillneck", its basically a cap with sides. Being very sun shy (burn easily) I find the hat provides excellent protection by covering my neck and ears and is adjustable in numerous ways. By putting it on first and pulling it down over the ears before you put your headphones on I find that it seems to provide some comfort/insulation against sweaty ears.  The times I have not worn it in hot weather I have ended up with sweaty ears in no time at all. I don't believe it impeads my hearing and in cold weather it helps keep my ears warm.
Regards
Woteva

Hawk 51 wrote:Hi All,
I have a Minelab 4000 that came with headphones.Can a external speaker be fitted to this unit as headphones in hot weather and wearing a hat is not the best.Has anyone had experiance with this set up and does it work to your satisfaction.Any feed back would be appreciated.

Yes a speaker can be used but you will need a booster as G8's said, there is the B&Z one that takes 2xaaa batteries, comes with a long lead fitted with 1/4" jack plug so it can be mounted up on one of the shoulder straps on the harness, and plugged into the audio socket on the battery, that way you can run a speaker mounted to the other shoulder strap, or just plug in the headphones if you want to use those, it will work on all sd/gp/gpx models so if you use another detector as a backup machine it will run on that as well, all the controls are on the booster box so you can adjust it on the go, the two aaa batteries last for ages, I prefer this set up as I use a pocket rocket battery for the sd2200 and can just swap the batteries out in the harness pouch and the rest of the set up stays intact.

There is also a Super Sound booster for the gpx4000 by DETacc, its an inline type powered by the detector, and it needs to be mounted to the side of the detector control box, it has a short lead to plug into the control box, your power lead plugs into the outlet socket on the booster, and you just plug your speaker into the battery audio socket as you do with the headphones, you just need to attach the speaker up on one of the shoulder straps on the harness, it will only work on the 4000 though, its easy enough to set up but also effective enough to run a speaker from.

au-fever

Thank you everyone who has taken the time to answer my question.The advise will realy help and i appreciate the the great information on this forum.I hope to be able to have some imput as i get more experiance.

On the subject of sweaty ears from headphones in hot weather - one old timer I know puts a thin sock over each earpiece.  Says it stops he sweat and he can still hear targets.
 

Annie