GPX6000 information

It is here at last. The one that people have been waiting for. The GPX6000 is now available to the public and that brings up a few new scenarios. The supplied headphones are very good and can be connected by cable, or wirelessly as the operator chooses. For those of us that prefer to use a speaker set-up it presents a dilemma. How do we enable a booster/speaker arrangement to run with this new detector? I like the harness that I use as it has a hydration bladder to allow me to drink and stay hydrated while I detect with the tube assembly and bite valve, and it also has a booster/speaker arrangement on it that I use on every Minelab detector that I swing. There are a couple of options currently. We have organised a cable that will connect to the detector’s audio socket that steps it up to the standard 6.25 mm size (1/4”) and that lets us plug our booster cable in to get the speakers happening. The drawback is that we are now tethered with a cable and will need to disconnect it to walk away or remove the harness that the speaker kit is attached to. I personally am not a fan of having to disconnect (unplug) the patch cable every time as I believe it will cause un-necessary wear to the audio socket over time, and removing the harness is not always a good option. We can Bluetooth a device to the detector. The GPZ7000’s WM12, CTX3030’s WM10 and the Equinox WM08 are not suitable as they are wireless and not Bluetooth devices. The Receiver module from the Minelab Pro-Sonic kit is suitable as it is a Bluetooth device. It is not low latency (there may be a small delay in signal response time) but as it works fine on a SD/GP/GPX machine and the SDC2300 , I don’t see why it won’t do the same for the GPX6000. I have blue- toothed one to my GPX6000 and while I haven’t been out to use it in the bush it seems to be fine. This receive module has a volume control on it, but the advantage I see is that it also has the standard ¼”audio jack that we can plug a cable to a booster into. Then we use our speakers from the booster and we have a speaker arrangement like we had in the past. My harness is se up like this so for me, it is a simple job of using the Pro- Sonic receive module instead of the WM12 I use on the GPZ7000. Changing over. Once connected via Bluetooth, the module automatically connects when it is turned on, and the detector speaker takes over once the module is shut off, so operation is automatic. Because we are using a harness to house the booster and speaker, it could be used for anyone who really wants to use a bungy cord, but the detector is very well balanced and light, so I personally won’t be using one. We will update this page as I test the set-up out shortly.