Buckaneer
**********
I posted this response to someone else's similar topic, but thought it would also be helpful as its own starting thread. Sorry for the duplication, but I thought it might be helpful for the new people:
I could go into a huge dissertation about whether anyone actually NEEDS a pair of $200 earmuff-type headphones that close out all sound around you to hear those mythical "whispers," but I won't. Because 1) A decent $25-50 pair of open-air style Walkman headphones or even earbuds will do you just fine AND let your hear those so-called "whispers" you'll hear with "closed air" -- or earmuff -- headphones just the same, and 2) Whether you hear "whispers" in the first place -- even wearing a $5000 pair of headphones -- will depend on your sensitivity setting at that particular moment, NOT the price or quality of your headphones.
The only HUGE difference between the big muff headphones dedicated to detecting and the everyday Walkman or earbud headphones is that the big muff headphones have a WAY thicker and springy (far more durable) wire that plugs into your detector than the spaghetti-thin wire of the Walkman-style or earbuds. Those spaghetti-thin wires are pretty fragile and easy to break. That's going to be a HUGE factor if you spend a lot of time in the woods. Plus you're going to need a 1/8"-to-1/4" plug-in adapter from Radio Shack to use non-detecting, normal-everyday headphones. Thick detector headphone plugs come in 1/8" size. Tiny-thin everyday headphones come in 1/4" size.
Still THE ONLY BOTTOM LINE for any headphone -- regardless of manufacturer, shape, or size -- is whether your detector's operating frequency -- or "what it's saying" -- matches whether your headphones are able to "hear" what it's saying. Unless the two agree, it doesn't matter how much you spend on whatever type of headphone.
So in short, here's a simplified scientific fact: A $25 pair of Best Buy headphones whose frequency response is listed on the packaging (usually on the back somewhere) between 15-25,000 Hz is going to hear EVERY signal just the same -- no matter how loud or how "whispered" -- as a $5000 pair of headphones. That's because a detector whose operating signal is 10.5 kHz (which is where 99% of all of our "regular" detectors work) is only putting out 10500 Hz of "sound" for headphones to "hear," and the higher-frequency gold prospecting detectors working at 14.5 kHz are only putting out 14500 Hz for headphones to "hear."
So a $5000 pair of muff headphones with a 15-25,000 Hz rating that basically makes you deaf to anything except the tiniest of detector signals isn't going to make you actually hear *more* signals than a $25 pair of Best Buy Walkman-type headphones with the same 15-25,000 Hz rating.
So what's all this headphone "whisper" business? It's by and large all just a business -- AND -- largely reliant on not just where your sensitivity dial is set in conjunction with your discrimination dial (remember, the two dials are inter-dependent on each other), but ALSO whether you're using muff headphones, open-air Walkmans, or even earbuds.
For all intents and purposes, those "whispers" we hear mentioned so often are just tiny, quick -- sometimes almost indistinguishable -- tiny skips of static or crackle we hear in our headphones. Sometimes we hear them from signals that are at the *very outer edge* of our detector's depth capability in that particular dirt. But most times, it comes from signals that are at the very outer edge of wherever we have our detector's sensitivity setting at the moment on that hunk of dirt. An square-head iron nail at 8" down that barely gets a "whisper" crackle on a detector whose Disc is set at 4 and Sens is set at 5 will sound out pretty clear from the same detector whose Disc dial is set at 1 and Sens dial set at 2.
In my experience -- want a really good set of really good bare-bones headphones that won't break your bank? Try these two:
1) Koss Porta Pro, around $50 (http://www.koss.com/koss/kossweb.nsf/p?openform&pc^pt^PortaPro)
2) The very thin and light JVC muff-type (which are, like, 99/100th the size of those typical, huge muff-type "detecting headphones," which I am using now and hear EVERYTHING as far as those "whispers" go and are better at canceling out background noise than the Koss Porta-Pros at less than half the price ($20) -- BUT still lets you hear most everything around you; great for beach and park hunting) and available at any Best Buy or Walmart in your neighborhood: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/JVC+-+Fl...&skuId=9182779
There ya go. Simple and easy.
I could go into a huge dissertation about whether anyone actually NEEDS a pair of $200 earmuff-type headphones that close out all sound around you to hear those mythical "whispers," but I won't. Because 1) A decent $25-50 pair of open-air style Walkman headphones or even earbuds will do you just fine AND let your hear those so-called "whispers" you'll hear with "closed air" -- or earmuff -- headphones just the same, and 2) Whether you hear "whispers" in the first place -- even wearing a $5000 pair of headphones -- will depend on your sensitivity setting at that particular moment, NOT the price or quality of your headphones.
The only HUGE difference between the big muff headphones dedicated to detecting and the everyday Walkman or earbud headphones is that the big muff headphones have a WAY thicker and springy (far more durable) wire that plugs into your detector than the spaghetti-thin wire of the Walkman-style or earbuds. Those spaghetti-thin wires are pretty fragile and easy to break. That's going to be a HUGE factor if you spend a lot of time in the woods. Plus you're going to need a 1/8"-to-1/4" plug-in adapter from Radio Shack to use non-detecting, normal-everyday headphones. Thick detector headphone plugs come in 1/8" size. Tiny-thin everyday headphones come in 1/4" size.
Still THE ONLY BOTTOM LINE for any headphone -- regardless of manufacturer, shape, or size -- is whether your detector's operating frequency -- or "what it's saying" -- matches whether your headphones are able to "hear" what it's saying. Unless the two agree, it doesn't matter how much you spend on whatever type of headphone.
So in short, here's a simplified scientific fact: A $25 pair of Best Buy headphones whose frequency response is listed on the packaging (usually on the back somewhere) between 15-25,000 Hz is going to hear EVERY signal just the same -- no matter how loud or how "whispered" -- as a $5000 pair of headphones. That's because a detector whose operating signal is 10.5 kHz (which is where 99% of all of our "regular" detectors work) is only putting out 10500 Hz of "sound" for headphones to "hear," and the higher-frequency gold prospecting detectors working at 14.5 kHz are only putting out 14500 Hz for headphones to "hear."
So a $5000 pair of muff headphones with a 15-25,000 Hz rating that basically makes you deaf to anything except the tiniest of detector signals isn't going to make you actually hear *more* signals than a $25 pair of Best Buy Walkman-type headphones with the same 15-25,000 Hz rating.
So what's all this headphone "whisper" business? It's by and large all just a business -- AND -- largely reliant on not just where your sensitivity dial is set in conjunction with your discrimination dial (remember, the two dials are inter-dependent on each other), but ALSO whether you're using muff headphones, open-air Walkmans, or even earbuds.
For all intents and purposes, those "whispers" we hear mentioned so often are just tiny, quick -- sometimes almost indistinguishable -- tiny skips of static or crackle we hear in our headphones. Sometimes we hear them from signals that are at the *very outer edge* of our detector's depth capability in that particular dirt. But most times, it comes from signals that are at the very outer edge of wherever we have our detector's sensitivity setting at the moment on that hunk of dirt. An square-head iron nail at 8" down that barely gets a "whisper" crackle on a detector whose Disc is set at 4 and Sens is set at 5 will sound out pretty clear from the same detector whose Disc dial is set at 1 and Sens dial set at 2.
In my experience -- want a really good set of really good bare-bones headphones that won't break your bank? Try these two:
1) Koss Porta Pro, around $50 (http://www.koss.com/koss/kossweb.nsf/p?openform&pc^pt^PortaPro)
2) The very thin and light JVC muff-type (which are, like, 99/100th the size of those typical, huge muff-type "detecting headphones," which I am using now and hear EVERYTHING as far as those "whispers" go and are better at canceling out background noise than the Koss Porta-Pros at less than half the price ($20) -- BUT still lets you hear most everything around you; great for beach and park hunting) and available at any Best Buy or Walmart in your neighborhood: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/JVC+-+Fl...&skuId=9182779
There ya go. Simple and easy.
I love my E-trac and other accessories. The quality there is much more important than dinky headphones.
