How Important are Headphones?

kscatman76

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Dec 28, 2018
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Just got a Garrett AT PRO and i'm trying to decide if i need head phones or not? I don't wanna use them in the summer around old houses for fear of not hearing rattle snakes but i could use them other places and other times if they are really needed?
thanks in advance,
travis
 
Won't hunt without them. Only way you can be sure to hear all the tones. The stock Garretts aren't that great at canceling out background noise anyway. I'm sure you would probably still hear a rattler wearing them. If not hopefully you are swing the coil in front of you and looking at the ground so you would see it before you anger it anyway. Their coils are pretty rugged, I'm sure they would survive a snake bite.
 
what are a good set of head phones that will work on an AT PRO that won't break the bank to start with?
 
Headphones will save you batteries in long run. Also, they will help you hear quiet and deeper targets, some deep items may sound very quiet and hard to hear without phones. And you won't be making lots of obnoxious sounds if you're in a busy park!
 
I have an ATPro. I'm in the "rather not metal detect without them" camp, but I'm sure there are some situations where I would be fine without them. A fairly iron-free field, for example. It would need to be a quiet day with no background noise to not miss the quiet deep signals in pro mode. Detecting right up against old houses is one of those situations where you do want headphones.

You should be running rechargeable batteries if you're doing a lot of detecting, but the headphones do extend battery life several times over either way.
 
i'm going to ask a dumb question related to the post above. If you get the deep signals i'm assuming that means they will be quieter but will they register the same number on the screen that they would if they were higher? i guess what i'm saying is, will a quarter ring up the same at 2 or 4 inches that it would at 8 inches on the screen but just have a fainter tone?
 
If I'm way, way out in the open, away from society, I've hunted without them but mostly, only headphones for me. the smaller noises get lost and the tones are much more identifiable with phones on. sometimes they get annoying when setting the detector down to dig, but that's how it goes.
 
I never use my At pro without headphones you just wont hear all the different sounds that help tremendously to tell whats in the ground.
The 7 or 8 inch quarter which I heard one time sounded like a quiter high tone.
They say deeper coins sound like iron. Idk? Deep coins are rare around here.
 
I always hunt with headphones but I only use one side! I always keep one ear uncovered to hear the other kind of snake (tweakers and dirtbags)!! It also saves having to take them on and off when using the pinpointer.
 
should i just buy the garrett had phones or is there something else i should look for? i don't wanna break the bank if possible. i already went from a $65 bounty hunter to a $500 AT PRO after 2 weeks of starting the hobbie and now have a garett pin pointer2 on the way so i've dropped about $600 on my new found love in a very short amount of time.
 
i'm going to ask a dumb question related to the post above. If you get the deep signals i'm assuming that means they will be quieter but will they register the same number on the screen that they would if they were higher? i guess what i'm saying is, will a quarter ring up the same at 2 or 4 inches that it would at 8 inches on the screen but just have a fainter tone?

Not a dumb question at all.

Yes, the number can lower a bit due to depth. Eventually, you won't get a reading at all if the information doesn't make enough sense to the detector to wager a guess, but you will still get a mid-tone (usually).

If you're able to get the coil precisely over what appears to be a deep target you can try a few things to get a VDI reading, or a better VDI reading.

Waggle quickly and tightly over the target as close to the ground as possible. Turn up the sensitivity a notch (if it isn't maxed out) even if it gives you a little EMI noise. That'll sometimes push the VDI up a few points. Or, you'll get a VDI reading where there wasn't one previously and decide what to do next. That's more useful with the numbers in the nickel/pull tab range than anything over 70 because I'm going to dig those anyway.

Test the concept out for yourself with an air test. Default pro zero mode with nothing discriminated or notched out. Turn down the sensitivity two notches.

Put a silver coin on the ground and as accurately as possible start lifting the coil an inch at a time while swinging at a slow speed. (The speed you'd need to find a deep coin-sized target.) What happens to the VDI and tone as you slowly get farther away?

If and when the VDI reading starts to lower, what happens if you keep at the same distance, but waggle quickly and tightly over the coin? What happens if you increase sensitivity?

Turn down sensitivity and waggle slowly again and get farther away until all you get is a tone and no reading. Does the tone sound the same as it did when you were an inch away? What happens if you waggle quickly. Increase the sensitivity? Do you now get a VDI reading? Does the tone change? Is it the same as when you were a few inches away and swinging slowly?
 
Use headphones. I run an AT Pro, can't imagine detecting without headphones. Keeps all the "beep-beep" noises away from home owners while hunting curb strips and private permissions. You will still hear what is going on around you, but will be much more able to hear the faint deep high tones that promise a good coin!
 
should i just buy the garrett had phones or is there something else i should look for? i don't wanna break the bank if possible. i already went from a $65 bounty hunter to a $500 AT PRO after 2 weeks of starting the hobbie and now have a garett pin pointer2 on the way so i've dropped about $600 on my new found love in a very short amount of time.

Is your AT new?? Headphones should have came with it.
 
Yes it's new but I got in on the AT pro sport special for $488 that didn't include headphones
 
They are quite important Catman...and grow increasingly important as depth and therefore SIGNAL interpretation come into play. A quarter at 4” is NOT going to be the same signal as a rare 2 cent piece at 9”. That deep signal will have a considerably weaker response in volume and a much shorter signal DURATION. It is the duration of a signal that a DEEP COIN produces that can easily get lost in ambient noise if the audio isn’t getting straight from the source to the ear.
If you’re just getting going,you can test this yourself. Pick a small area(20x20’) and hunt it thoroughly without headphones. Then when you do get headphones hunt that EXACT area again to see if there are things you missed. The more you hunt it initially,the more conclusive the test will be IF you find that you HAVE missed things,and you can then be SURE within your own mind that headphones do indeed serve a purpose.
 
Not to argue with any of the comments on this thread as I realize the benefits of headphones... But... I never use them---just don't like stuff on my ears I guess. I seem to do pretty good without them...:cool:
 
I will state right off I think headphones are better than not, BUT I dig with JD a lot. Have never seen that guy use headphones and it doesn’t seem to affect his finds pouch at all.


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