Dual Field ear-phone Mod.

From that day back in August of 2009 when I bought my Dual Field I have enjoyed using it and have water hunted with it as my main machine ever since.

The only thing that bothered me about the DF was the ear-phones and how they would not block out the sounds of waves/wind etc. when I was water hunting.

I have never had a problem with the quality of the sound I got from the phones, but needed to be able to hear those signals better.

I knew the headset was designed for diving where minimal protection from ambient noise wasn’t likely to be a problem and that White’s wasn’t designing the DF for hunting above the surface.

I am not and probably never will be a diver who uses the DF, so I had to come up with a way to quiet down the ear-phones so I could hear those deep signals while wading.

The hollow ear-cups have three vent ports to allow water pressure to equalize for diving and they also allow outside sounds to enter the mechanism.

The first thing I did was block the small ports with silicone sealer, which did reduce noise, but not enough.

I then covered the ear pads with a soft fuzzy cloth which made them more comfortable, but wasn’t enough noise reduction, but it did help a little with wind noise.

Then I ordered a pair of thick gel pads to provide a better seal around my ears. They are a lot more comfortable than the ones that come with the DF and seal the ear-cup very well, but there was still a noise problem that convinced me to take the next step.

Yesterday I finally decided to do something drastic and open the earphones to see what I could do to solve the noise problem.

I pried open the DF phones by tapping the edge of a knife blade into the seam where the black and yellow parts join to separate the cup from the sound board.

I then glued the air ports closed inside and out with a better glue than the silicone I had used before which I was able to easily remove.
I used the same "Liquid Weld" glue to seal around the plastic wire grommets (again inside and out) that aren't water tight.

I removed the tape I had around the pads and ran a bead of the Weld around the contact point where the outside of the new pads and the ear-cups meet.

Next I found among my plumbing supplies a piece of closed cell pipe insulation which will not soak up water and trimmed it to fit the cup to add sound proofing.

A bead of Weld Glue in the groove around the edge of the sound board would seal that point with a water-proof joint which should make the work look like new.

On reflection I realized the job would have gone better if I had waited to install the ear-pads after all the glue was dried, but they were installed for almost a week before I decided to add the foam etc. (The pads have some glue spots, but work just fine.)

Both ear cups were glued and quick-clamped closed and allowed to dry over-night.

This AM I hunted along a hundred yards or so of the water’s edge at a local beach where the waves were making plenty of noise and found the headset to be quieter than the expensive phones I use on my GT.

I think this is a must do mod as the phones quiet down the outside noise and the headset is waterproof in case it gets dropped in the drink!!!

They, of course, can never be used for diving after this mod and Whites will surely void any warrantee related to these phones, but I've had these way past the time limit anyway.

I hope this will solve the noise problem for other hunters too.

CJ