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A Tiny Bit With My New Steelphase


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  1. Good to her about the sP01, I have been considering purchasing one, waiting to hear more reports before I do though, Thanks.
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Glad you like the sP01. Its been very successful over here in Oz. The biggest piece found (that I know of anyway) using the sP01 on a GPZ7000 with 19" coil, was a 68oz nugget. 

We have lots of success stories on our Facebook page if others want to see results. I am still in the process of putting up a gallery page of photos people have sent me, but its well over 200 photos now so I'm a little behind.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask here or through the Facebook page.

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2 hours ago, SteelPhase said:

Glad you like the sP01. Its been very successful over here in Oz. 

Yes I do, I’ve never used any type of booster before but a couple of things changed my mind. First was a post by Scott about buying his and that got me thinking and put the thing on my radar, second my youngest got me playing a little “Pubg” on Xbox an increadibly immersive battle royal not for the faint of heart and I upgraded my ear buds to a boosted audio enhanced gaming headset looking for some advantage against my opponent and the difference in the gameplay was profound over using the Bose earbuds, so I thought hmmm perhaps I should reconsider with the 7000. I was a preorder with the gpz and never swung the gpx and have become comfortable with the chatty zed, that and the fact I paid an ungodly sum for that piece of kit (lol yes, kit... I like my zed) and kind of felt it should have pretty darn good audio on its own, that and it has no trouble finding tiny tiny trash and gold so I’ve resisted. I am a convert and now realize my folly and regret not getting a signal booster years ago as it made a difference for me. Battery life was also good, I started day one with fully charged batteries in the 7000 and the sP01 and halfway into the second day my battery indicator on the gpz changed color with one bar so I quit for lunch. I put the batteries on chargers, the sP01 was full charge hooked to a small old iPhone usb charger in under 45 minutes, I’m guessing in the day and a half I used less than half the available battery life.

Rained the day before my trip and conditions in the gold fields were less than ideal with the soil spotty damp going down a couple of inches and an abundance of hot rocks as well. I’d read the links you posted and kept my settings conservative on the advice of others, the tips were right on and my detector was as stable as it has ever run filtering the chatter and tightening targets so I spent less time going back and forth scraping the ground and kicking hot rocks. The end result it was nice to get a little bit of color, but really the big advantage for me was in the increased ground I covered and not being as fatigued mentally filtering by ear, physically was another story... a lot of those little rusted chunks I was hitting were fairly deep the cramps in my arms a painful reminder I’d befrinded my prospecting pick far too long.

3 hours ago, phrunt said:

I'm considering an audio booster too, the sp01 seems like the one for me.

 

No, you’ve too much gold now, lol. Really, I doubt you’ll regret, I waited for a lot of reasons that turned out not to be issues.

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There is a big difference between the sP01 enhancer and the current range of audio boosters on the market.

All of them will amplify the signal making feint targets louder. The difference is that the circuitry in the sP01 also puts more of a sharper 'edge' on target signals making them easier to hear over threshold, ground noise etc. This makes it easier to hear deep targets that only give a very slight change in threshold.

 

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4 minutes ago, phrunt said:

Is it difficult to get one in NZ, would I just order off your site? 

You should be able to order directly from the steelphase website. NZ is set up in the shipping section but if you have an issue just msg me and I can do an order manually for you.

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1 hour ago, SteelPhase said:

There is a big difference between the sP01 enhancer and the current range of audio boosters on the market.

All of them will amplify the signal making feint targets louder. The difference is that the circuitry in the sP01 also puts more of a sharper 'edge' on target signals making them easier to hear over threshold, ground noise etc. This makes it easier to hear deep targets that only give a very slight change in threshold.

 

I'd be very interested to read how the sP booster manages to magically do that? No offence Pat but this kind of rhetoric seems more akin to devining with a forky stick than amplified audio. 

Folks because I make a competing product I've kept away from this type of discussion, at the end of the day they are all audio amplifiers. A good one increases the loudness of the audio with minimal distortion and clipping giving the user a finer resolution of control via the volume pot. The volume control on the Minelab units are very coarse, once you get above certain point they clip, a good booster helps a lot to avoid this.

I have a sP booster and it has a nice mellow sound but is heavily filtered, I've used it with headphones and speakers and preferred it for headphone use. I'm not a fan of the aluminium box because the GPZ can smack it at a great distance, but all in all it's a really nice booster.

Steve I know this post is a little inflammatory but felt it needed to be said, especially on here. 

JP

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3 hours ago, Jonathan Porter said:

I'd be very interested to read how the sP booster manages to magically do that? No offence Pat but this kind of rhetoric seems more akin to devining with a forky stick than amplified audio. 

Folks because I make a competing product I've kept away from this type of discussion, at the end of the day they are all audio amplifiers. A good one increases the loudness of the audio with minimal distortion and clipping giving the user a finer resolution of control via the volume pot. The volume control on the Minelab units are very coarse, once you get above certain point they clip, a good booster helps a lot to avoid this.

I have a sP booster and it has a nice mellow sound but is heavily filtered, I've used it with headphones and speakers and preferred it for headphone use. I'm not a fan of the aluminium box because the GPZ can smack it at a great distance, but all in all it's a really nice booster.

Steve I know this post is a little inflammatory but felt it needed to be said, especially on here. 

JP

Hey JP

No offense taken and  no magic either. I fully respect you as a prospector and would love to do a training day with you.

My electronics background is working with, repairing and designing audio electronics so I know by using a form of audio compression you can put an edge on any signal. Although its labeled 'filter' it doesn't really filter as such. It selects a band of frequencies to compress. Unfortunately I should have called it 'mode' rather than filter, but it is what it is. It is primarily designed for headphone use as I feel with using speakers I lose a little sensitivity due to background noise. The B&Z would be as good (maybe even a little louder) when using speakers. 

Be great to catch up one day in person

regards Pat

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I have a B&Z (has always worked well and I believe makes a difference over just the WM12 on the GPZ) and have been wondering if an SPo1 may give a further edge.  An audio booster has certainly helped the last 3 days in the GT - it has been VERY windy!

Pat, I love your honesty that the SPo1 may not give much of an edge when using speakers - as that is all I use.  Hate headphones/earphones.

I also love the fact that 2 manufacturers of a similar product can have a discussion about their products on a public forum for the benefit of the members.  Thanks to Steve for providing such a framework. 

Pat, this little sentence here...

On 10/16/2018 at 6:49 AM, SteelPhase said:

The difference is that the circuitry in the sP01 also puts more of a sharper 'edge' on target signals making them easier to hear over threshold, ground noise etc.

...is still making me think that an SPo1 may be of help.  But, I am wondering how it puts an edge on 'target signals' that are true, actual signals from metallic objects yet doesn't put a similar edge on ground noise? 

Thanks  ?

 

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1 hour ago, Northeast said:

But, I am wondering how it puts an edge on 'target signals' that are true, actual signals from metallic objects yet doesn't put a similar edge on ground noise? 

Thanks  ?

 

I don’t have any idea the magic, could have been any number of reasons this trip I didn’t dig any ghost signals every hole produced a target. One time I thought the signal was disappearing mineralization, but spotted a thin short strand of rusted wire adhering to the magnet on the end of my pick. I did wonder if I was missing anything but never hunted this time without the sP01 and can’t offer any comparison with/without however I was finding every bit I expected so I rationalized I should trust the equipment? The area I was hunting has been hit hard and I picked up small bits of old trash in spots where the junk is gone, hard to know much about what you don’t find? I did only use mine for 4 days and am not comparing the equipment to any other because I can’t, but so far I really liked using it with my GPZ and am looking forward to getting up into northern Nevada soon and try it out on the salty ground of the desert.

 

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