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Threshold Poll


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Seeing that most of the regular posters are experienced detector users, I'm a little curious what type of threshold  you prefer.

I've noticed there seems to be 3 main choices for threshold.

1. Running hot, detector sounds a little unstable but still a target stands out from the rest of the sounds.

2. Running smooth and steady listening for any change in sound at all.

3. Running close to, or actually silent with a target the only sound made excepting an occasional EMI burst.

And second are you using headphones?

I run my 7000 close to silent, and my discrimination detectors with a smooth threshold.

I use headphones on everything.

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I`m all over the place, from no threshold to plenty, with the GPZ I leave it on 20 sensitivity mainly(but not all the time) and leave screen on threshold setting so as I can adjust quickly. I believe it has got more to do with my tolerance at a particular time of day rather then ground conditions and whether I`m patch hunting or patch cleaning up. On coins I love the Deus and it has a silent threshold, very rarely touch its sensitivity. No headphones on both if conditions allow, but believe it is purely a personal thing based on your hearing and what works for you.

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Same, my threshold level ranges from 5 to 30. It depends on what my other settings are and what kind of ground I'm over and how much EMI is around. I only use headphones if it's breezy/windy but my hearing is decent.

It's basically how I run all my detectors from X to Z to GB2, the ultimate goal is to get it as sensitive as possible for the prevailing conditions while also reducing the ground noise and EMI without diminishing target response, which takes lots of knob fiddling and button pushing. To me, for any detector, that is the primary goal in adjusting settings and I think every detectorist owes it to themselves to experiment enough to find that point in every environment they work in. In mild to medium ground though I feel there is a pretty tight range of settings that accomplishes this goal most efficiently in most goldfields I've visited from NV to AZ.

I see it said that running high threshold gives you "ground information" that is valuable, but I don't feel there is any more information to be gained from the ground past a certain point. After that I feel the noise increases exponentially and the target response only increases linearly and it's possible to lose targets by running threshold too high unless you move glacially slow, at which point unless you are patch cleaning, time is better spent covering more ground from an economic standpoint.

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I basically run the stock settings on my GPZ, with the Sensitivity turned up just a little. Depending on ground noise I switch between Normal and Difficult soil. 90% of the time I have Auto-Smoothing Off, depending on EMI in the area.

I've never had what I'd call a "quiet" threshold with my GPZ. I typically don't use Normal soil setting as much as I used to because I feel the high threshold in that setting masks targets.

I pretty much just ride the faint wave of sound till I hear a waver or chatter. Dug some deep targets before from an odd "breaking" noise I've gotten in the threshold before. I read some good advice on these forums about digging anything that's repeatable and disturbs the threshold, not just obvious metal target hits.

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My ears prefer the low hum of the threshold usually around 5-10. 18-20 on the sensitivity. I know I've walked past gold...but who hasent ? :)

 

strick

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Always #2, and external speaker unless the environment is extremely noisy...next to a traffic laden freeway, for example...in which case I will resort to headphones.

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I run my threshold so its just audible so I can hear any break in the threshold on fairly clean areas when I run the machine quite Hot and also it allows me to be aware of what or who is around me,, But in junk filled sites I turn up the threshold to help counter any false signals or I might lower the gain a little to aid Target IDing and dig those good repeatable signals,

I normally use Grey ghosts NDTs or Nugget Busters NDTs, But this year I am using Whites Pro Stars which are the same but with a fixed lead and Black in colour and are 3/4s of the price of the other two and have very Fine clicks on the volume knobs which I like and have a rubberized feel to them where as the other two have plastic knobs, But I would be happy with either model,

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