External speaker for gpx 4500

Can anyone suggest a good external speaker for the gpx 4500. I know that head phones give a better signal but I'm afraid I'll go deaf after a short time using the head phones. My hearing is very good and even after a short time detecting when I take the head phones off there is a slight buzz in my ears that takes a few hours to go away. Lucky strike has the GME external speaker for $45 and miners den has a different brand for $29.95. I'll still use the head phones but also use the external speaker for times when I need a break from the head phones. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

G'day Snapperhappy

The GME speakers are pretty popular and are good quality, you can either use them as single speaker or you can also get them set up with two speakers, not sure about the other cheaper speakers you mentioned, but be careful as poor quality speakers tend to sound tinny and that could cause you to not hear feint gold targets, external speakers are more comfortable to use than headphones in really warm weather and are good when conditions are quiet, but you may find they can be harder to hear when its really windy and you have lots of bush noise going on around you, in normal conditions you can also better hear what is going on around you more particularly if there are other people about or vehicles to look out for.

Headphones are better to use when conditions are noisy or really cold and I reckon better for hearing the really feint target responses, some may disagree but it all depends on your level of hearing, if your hearing is really good as you say you will probably find that external speakers would suit you better in most conditions than the headphones, but if conditions change its easy enough to just go back to the headphones but just remember to re adjust your detectors volume and target response controls as they have to be set differently for using the speakers as they would be for using the headphones.

cheers

stayyerAU

What's the advantage of twin speakers over single speaker? Anyone out there using twin speakers with good results?

Snapperhappy said:

What's the advantage of twin speakers over single speaker? Anyone out there using twin speakers with good results?

Click to expand...

G'day

The twin speakers mounted on the shoulder straps of your harness or spaced apart on the chest straps to the front give a clearer all round sound quality than with one speaker only, when combined with a broad brimmed hat which traps the sound better you don't have to use as much volume to the speakers which will also lessen the risk of distortion of the speakers output sound.

cheers

stayyerAU

Thanks stayyerAU

most use UHF radio speakers regards john :Y:

Agree with you old hand.
I made up a speaker from a defunct UHF transceiver which, when compared to the typical unit as supplied for the GPX range, has a far more crisp and identifiable response.
Much prefer it over headphones in all circumstances.
It also cost nothing too, which was an added bonus

How do I go about making up a UHF speaker? Sorry for being dumb

Quite simple really.
Find a scrap UHF (usually the speaker will be still ok). Unsolder the terminals, remove mounting screws and carefully remove the speaker. I then made up a compact aluminium box (drilled holes through for sound to emit) to house and mount the speaker with a clip to attach to the 4500 battery harness (top LHS loop)
I used very flexible 2 core cable, one end solder to the speaker terminals, other end to a plug identical to the headphones.
Plug in and hey presto.......nice crisp sound response

This was our early set up, a SP01 was added later.
With the speakers high on your chest and wearing a brimmed hat, signals are very clear. On VERY rare days on WA goldfields when the wind was unbearable, resorted back to headphones. Like Boobook has mentioned, if $$'s are tight, scavenge a speaker or two or buy just the speakers and wire them yourself.
If using dual speakers connect the two across your chest and hard wire one and have a plug and socket to connect the second. That way you simply disconnect the plug to remove harness. We had this setup for the 10 years we swung the GPX-4500's.
The Camelbacks, removed majority of the harness leaving enough strap to sew velcro to the ends to fasten to GPX harness.

I agree with Nightjar, we used the same setup for years and years, still use the setup with the GPZ7000 as well.

The speakers are GME SP01 and if you buy them from the radio shop you will need to fit a 1/4" jack to the cable and a belt clip on the back, but if you buy them from a detector shop this is usually done and they are then plug and play.

The detector shops sell them as a single use speaker, or already setup as dual speaker system, like in the link below for example.
http://phasetechnical.com.au/product/steelphase-dual-speaker-set/

cheers dave

have a look on ebay gme speakers for $25 to $35 you just have to put a 6mm plug on it, can not remember if its stereo or mono to operate the amp in the battery regards john
i

The GPX battery has an inbuilt amplifier.
When a correctly wired (as above) speaker is used it will detect it from the wiring & automatically increases the audio level.
The battery can automatically detect (sleeve connected or not) if headphones or a speaker is in use (depending on wiring) & adjust the audio level to suit.
Headphones are wired TRS (tip, ring & sleeve). Speakers that will be or might be used plugged directly into the battery should be wired TR (tip & ring) only to switch on boosted audio.

Hi Snapperhappy. I bought the GME speaker you mentioned in your post (for no other reason than my CB radio was GME and was always very reliable). I have found the speaker to be very good quality and seems to be quite robust as mine has taken quite a bashing from time to time.

Think the speaker and headphone wiring details are in the Minelab free manual download.
Used headphones rarely from when starting out, spent 100's of hours scuba diving resulting in divers ears. Excessive sweating on warm days with headphones caused ear infections.

Ordered twin external GME speakers this afternoon from Reeds in Perth, $95 plus $14 dollars postage, got the mono ones as I'm still not sure i like the SP01 , anyway all i need now is somewhere to go gold detecting, my trip to the Pilbara is still on hold, yesterday my darling little wife suggested Victoria which I didn't even think of. So Victoria could be a good plan B. Thanks for all your help fellas ,l don't know what I would do without you all.

Gday

One other tip I can give you is to solder a resistor between one of the speaker terminals and a small toggle switch and then you can use it as a bypass so that when you are busily digging or trying to pinpoint a target only you can hear whats going on and you wont alert others from miles around to what you are doing, someone on here might have the wiring diagram for it, I did mine years ago and can't quite remember what size resistor I used?

cheers

stayyerAU

mbasko said:

https://www.prospectingaustralia.co..._screenshot_20200527-121735_adobe_acrobat.jpg
The GPX battery has an inbuilt amplifier.
When a correctly wired (as above) speaker is used it will detect it from the wiring & automatically increases the audio level.
The battery can automatically detect (sleeve connected or not) if headphones or a speaker is in use (depending on wiring) & adjust the audio level to suit.
Headphones are wired TRS (tip, ring & sleeve). Speakers that will be or might be used plugged directly into the battery should be wired TR (tip & ring) only to switch on boosted audio.

Click to expand...

"Tip, Ring, Sleeve" is a blast from the past, and not a phrase I thought I'd come across again!