Headphones? Yes or no?

Do you use headphones when metal detecting?

  • Yes - always

    Votes: 16 72.7%

  • No - always

    Votes: 1 4.5%

  • Sometimes

    Votes: 5 22.7%

  • Only in water

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    22
Only deep?? Nooooo. Might hear deeper. In the sense if u didn’t have them on u might miss a light bleep. Maybe coin on side. Little deeper than average. Might miss that with ambient noise. Wind,animals.. funny enough i cant wear headsets in any other part of life. I have to be aware ant anll times. Only MD allows me to disconnect. But I’m usually beach hunting and can keep head on swivel most time. Hard for someone to sneak up on the beaches.
 

Without headphones the ambient noise will mask the faint targets. I always hunt with headphones on I primarily hunt beaches, many times late at night, I'm also always armed, usually with a .45, especially at night.
 

NightHawk88 said:
I have heard many people say that you will only hear deep signal with headphones...

Is this true?

Personally I have used headphones in the past but also find them somewhat cumbersome with digging and not being aware of the environment around and all this.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Been wearing headphones for 50 yrs.
Cumbersome?
Probably some are too tight, big, some flop, some produce poor quality sound.

Though just this past year my headphones went dead on a hunt.

So I used the speaker.
Cars, trucks, trains blanked out the speaker.
So I went to a back field site.
Traffic wasn't an issue, but trains and the slight breeze was.
I still found a couple Half Penny Tokens.

But I also struggled hearing the tones correctly.
Hence I dug some iron as well.

Now for the part of the environment around you.
Half cup one ear then to make the nervous feeling of what might be around you go away.
If I can hear birds singing, mosquitoes buzzing, Chipmunks running through fallen leaves 200 ft away.
I'm not worried about it blocking the environment.
 

Tony in SC said:
First couple of years I didn't think I needed them. Tried a set in the 70's and realized what I had been missing. Don't buy cheap ones.
Click to expand...
The 1st White's detector didn't have a jack for headphones.
Then by the mid 70s they never came off the head.
 

pepperj said:
The 1st White's detector didn't have a jack for headphones.
Then by the mid 70s they never came off the head.
Click to expand...
This post is starting to bring back memories! The first detector I used was a whites 63 or 66. Big long box, lots of heavy batteries. Next was the Coin Master IV. The most high tech thing on the market at the time. That machine got me hooked for life> :headbang:
 

Tony in SC said:
This post is starting to bring back memories! The first detector I used was a whites 63 or 66. Big long box, lots of heavy batteries. Next was the Coin Master IV. The most high tech thing on the market at the time. That machine got me hooked for life> :headbang:
Click to expand...
GoldMaster, 14 AA batteries, just metal/mineral setting.
We'd use the mineral setting and sounded like the threshold was fairly high.
When it stopped we dug.
Great depth over the metal setting.
But lots of iron digging.
 

NightHawk88 said:
I have heard many people say that you will only hear deep signal with headphones...

Is this true?

Personally I have used headphones in the past but also find them somewhat cumbersome with digging and not being aware of the environment around and all this.

Thoughts? Let's see now ..you spent hours on T-net drooling and you decide your going to splurge and buy a decent machine and have spent many hours reacearching and now your on your way ...you've done everything right but now you decide you don't need no stinking headphones... I have been a detectors for 4 or 5 decades and I would never leave home without them...and...YES you will find more using your headphones
Click to expand...

NightHawk88 said:
I have heard many people say that you will only hear deep signal with headphones...

Is this true?

Personally I have used headphones in the past but also find them somewhat cumbersome with digging and not being aware of the environment around and all this.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
 

I have always used them. Except perhaps in areas with rattlesnakes, then....
 

Always... One ear out completely or half cupped..... IF signal is diluted or very weak then i cup both fully until no longer needed.
I do the ear out / half cupped thing as a norm... i do this so i can hear my surroundings as well.
which i have to have just innately ... i cannot be totally immersed out/from the world around me.. too many potential hazards exist in this world to be fully out of it i feel.

Its not really a choice for "headphones or not"...
my 2 main detectors cannot be used without headphones anyway so...
 

Last edited:
OH ! !
I almost forgot.....
I DO wear them fully on both ears ...WHEN.... someone starts approaching in a way i can see i want to ignore them. heh
Sorry but true.
But some drug addict or bum wanting money is a good time to put both on and smile .. and start detecting away like your are totally immersed / busy and cannot hear.
 

For those of us who may be a bit hearing impaired, and for beach detecting here on the Treasure Coast where there is a LOT of wind and surf noise they are a big big help. And I have made the same comment as ARC about their being helpful to ignore some people. I'm always looking around while detecting, so I don't think they interfere with my awareness a great deal. Always looking around on the beach for that green glass.
 

When detecting i avoid any and all people as much as possible for the most part... unless its unavoidable... which i lean away from.
It is my "Modis Operandi".
Personally ... detecting is and always has been a form of an escape from things and relaxing.
I like nothing more than a nice calm early morning empty beach with not a soul around... my perfect detecting enviro.
Some chit chat prior or after with a park ranger or a few others is the most interaction i care to have really when going detecting... i am focused on immersing myself on detecting and not bothering anyone or anyone bothering me...
When the flounders arrive and flop ... i am already gone.
 

Without headphones, you will not hear the deep very faint signals that just barely bump the threshold, the ambient noise with drown it out.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 4 (members: 0, guests: 4)

Latest Discussions

Back
Top