Vance headphones. Is it just me?

[Fire Fighter 43]

I recently purchased a used Deus and it came with the Vance phones. I have put about 25-30 hours on the Deus with the Vance phones and I have to say in my 40 years of detecting they are the most uncomfortable headphones I've ever had. My ears are killing me after a couple hours. I was wondering if any one else has any thoughts on the different full size phones. I use the SunRay Pro Golds with my CTX and have no issues with them. It almost seem like the pads on the Vance phones are too thin. I even ordered replacement pads and they did not help.

 

[sprchng]

There have been dozens of similar comments made about the Vance muffs here by others as well as myself,,,,too tight and too thin on the ear pads.
Since you are not the original owner and you cannot return them for a refund the best course of action is to modify them as they are worth the effort because they do sound good if you can wear them. I snapped my headband trying to "stretch" it to a comfortable tension so had to modify them by buying the largest pair of Harbor Freight ear muffs and swapping out the HL headband with the plastic one from the HF. Both headsets use the same type of design so the swap out is fairly easy. It worked well and I was able to glue the HF ear pads directly to the Vance muffs to put some softer/deeper pads onto them as well. They have no resale value now but they are okay for the occasional hunt in high wind or noisey areas where the backphones allow in too much ambient noise.

 

[Low-Boy/LCPM]

Very tight don't fit me

 

[martygene]

i wish Vance wound use some other headphones rather than the Howard Leight ones. the sound is great but those muffs aren't good at all. I'm sure there are other ones that are comfortable and inexpensive that would be easy to modify with the speakers that he uses. I almost did that myself with some cheap earblocking muffs at Harbout Freight but got a deal on WS5's so i grabbed them.

 

[HuntinDog]

I Bought a pair about two years ago....
Used them once to try them out and didn't find them comfortable..
They have been in a my equipment box ever sense.
about 6 months ago I tried to loosen them up by opening them out flat and weighing the band down.
Left them that way for a couple of weeks... Didn't help...

I use the WS4s when I want head phones.

 

[D&P-OR]

Good post/thread!-----Which has the best tonal quality---the WS5's or the WS4's?

 

[sprchng]

I bought a used unit with WS5s originally but traded down because I wanted the WS4s after I discovered the adapter clip and the ability to use headphones of one's choice. In all honestly , I thought the WS5s sounded just as good as the Vance muffs but there was a period of time in between so my memory was not that fresh,,,,comes with the number of decades. As I have stated before , it seems the best tones , to my ears , come from speakers with the 32 ohm rating. 150 ohms seems to be the standard for most of the higher quality regular headphones like Sun Ray and GG and the tones through the adapter clip with the WS4 module seems muted/muffled/lazy.
It would be nice to know what the rating on the Vance muffs are but I have messed with my pair enough that I'm not going to take them apart to find out.

 

[Sleepyjim]

I got mine and they are fine, no issues, maybe you got a fat head?

LOL


Jim

 

[Dalpal]

The Vance headphones can be stretched back around a round (pipe or similar) to loosen the fit. It may take a couple of tries but it will work. Mine now are comfortable. The sound quality is worth it. Also they are a good value and it is not that difficult to stretch them out.

 

[Fire Fighter 43]

Thanks for all the advice and no my head is not fat, LOL. I have them stretching over a wide box for a few days, I'll see if that helps. If I can't get them to be more comfortable then I think I'm going to pull the trigger on the WS5's. I have some gold I can cash in for the $$.

 

[D&P-OR]

Maybe you got a skinny head Jim? ------Seriously--there has been a LOT of complaints (over an extended time period) from many (supposedly) "normal" size head users as to the Vance phones being too tight.

I got mine and they are fine, no issues, maybe you got a fat head?

LOL


Jim

 

[sprchng]

Head size has nothing to do with it. I wear a 7 1/8 to 7 1/4 hat. I left my set stretched around a 5 gallon bucket for a week and they never backed off a bit. After a couple hours of detecting I would have the mesh pattern inside the ear cups imprinted on my ears. Since some people seem to have no problem with them I think it is either a quality control thing with Howard Leight or Vance does not consistently use the same model headsets to do his adaptation.

 

[whitepraun]

They were rather uncomfortable when I first got mine. My solution to my particular pair was I took the
Ear cups off of my Gray ghost headphones and placed them on the Vance muffs. They r still a lil tight
But definitely more user friendly as far as comfort to wear in the field. Every one is different and may
not have a pair of Gray ghosts to allow them to do this but if you do then it definitely will make a difference.
There may be other brands that you have and are more to your liking. Try swapping those ear cups and see
If it doesn't make them more user friendly. The sound quality is very very good in the Vance muffs and are worth
Trying to keep them for use in the field. Just my 2 cents.

 

[martygene]

The other problem I had with them is that they are narrow and not round. so i had trouble getting them over my ears as they wanted to pinch the back part of my ears. I had to mess with them every time i put them on, which was often as i had to take one ear off to hear the probe. It became a real PITA after a while.