I posted this response to ScaredOfClowns yesterday, but I’ll repost it here since it was in a spot that’s not likely to get seen by others who might be interested:
Hi - I noticed that you mentioned that you used third-party earbuds with your Equinox. I'm looking to replace the headphones on my Nox with something more lightweight, especially in the summer.
What brand/model of earbuds did you use? Were they wireless?
Thanks!
Hi SoC -
The headphones are Aukey brand, model EP-B80 earbuds. Yes, they are wireless, with ear hooks (I prefer ear hooks because they stay in place far better than the type that just pop into your ear which seem to be more prevalent/popular). They are definitely AptX LL compatible, and I used them not only with the Equinox, but also the Legend, and they connected easily and have excellent sound quality. I still use them with my current Manticore, but I do need to use a third party transmitter for the Manticore since Minelab made its Bluetooth proprietary on that machine.
All that said, the headphones are a pretty old model at this point, and I don’t think they are in production any longer. I bought mine back in 2019 and 2020 (3 pairs total, 2 are still going strong, and one pair died at the end of last year only because I accidentally put it through the washing machine…they’re sweat and weather resistant, but not waterproof!)
The trouble is, the AptX LL protocol is going away…it’s a proprietary protocol owned by Qualcomm - any company interested in using that codec in their devices must pay a licensing fee to Qualcomm. Latency is a very important issue for using Bluetooth headphones of any type with metal detectors - basically, too much latency means you don’t hear the beep in your headphones until after the coil is already past the target. The delay is only measured in milliseconds, but believe it or not, delays as little as 50 to 100ms are enough to seriously screw up your eye-ear coordination while detecting. Most headphone/earbud manufacturers have moved on from AptX LL - there are newer codecs they can use which are almost as good or better than AptX LL that don’t require paying a licensing fee to a third party like Qualcomm (Bluetooth LE is a good example). So the problem becomes compatibility - you can go to places like Amazon and find plenty of headphones or earbuds that advertise “low latency” capabilities, but unless your device (whether it’s an iPhone or a metal detector) is capable of using the same codec, it’ll revert to some basic codec such as AAC or SBC whose latency jumps up to 200-500ms. And keep in mind, AptX and AptX HD are definitely not the same as AptX LL - they are all different codecs with different latencies! This latency and compatibility problem is part of the reason why many new detectors are only compatible with proprietary wireless - the detector manufacturers have better control over the latency problem if they don’t allow their machines to connect to headphones with poor latency. Proprietary systems like Garrett’s ZLynk not only have far less latency than standard Bluetooth or even AptXLL, they are obviously money makers for the company rather than an expense to a third party like Qualcomm.
Anyways, I’m getting way off into the weeds on this. Back to earbuds that can work well with the Equinox - I haven’t tried them personally, but I’ve heard others recommend these headphones recently:
HomeSpot Neckband Wireless Earbuds aptX Low Latency Bluetooth 5.1 Headphones (Amazon link)
