Ear Muffs or Speaker

Hi All.
I intend to hire a Minelab 4500 for a bit of prospecting over easter.They have given me a choise of headphones or external speaker
Could someone give me a bit of advice as to which one i should hire.
Thanks in advance.
Regards Hawk.

Hi
I use two speakers put left and right on my harnes.
That way I can wear my hat.
Dont get soggy ears lol.
Regards Neale

Hey Hawk,

Think it is more of a personnel choice rather than one being better than the other. Some people like headphones as that way they believe the signal is better as there is no external noise, others, like myself prefer external speakers. If you prefer earphones but are wanting to wear a hat then pop into Jaycar and pick up a set of "underchin" type headphone.

hi Hawk, i use a speaker as i like to know what's going on around me as i have had a close call with a tree nelly landing on me when i was detecting... i reckon if i had the head set on i would off not hurd the tree cracking... i have been told that when using a speaker your detector does sound smoother, the other reason is you can turn the speaker up and down for the small signels if need to.
cheers
stoppsy

Gday Hawk

Their are of course benefits to using either an external speaker or using headphones, with the external speaker you can position it either side of your head, or in the centre on your chest, sometimes if you have poor hearing in one ear them you would of course want it closer to the good ear so it can be mounted on that side, if your hearing is similar then positioning it in the front on your chest means you will hear it quite well from both sides.

As the weather is still hot you will find that its a lot more comfortable with the speaker over the heaphones, as its also much easier to get a hat and fly net on than it is with the headphones on, the speaker can take a little getting used to and can be somewhat distracting if there are others detecting nearby when they are using them as well, so you may prefer the headphones.

With using the speaker you will still be able to hear a lot of what is going on around you too so thats a good thing as well, with the headphones you can quite easily become isolated in your own little world, one time I walked up very close to two young bulls who luckily for me where as surprised as I was and took off, with the speaker going everything for a couple of hundred metres around you will hear you coming and bolt.

cheers

stayyerAU

G'day Hawk, all , I'd hire the speaker and buy a decent set of headphones for use at home as well as detecting.....I myself prefer headphones but on one ear at a time so I can rest my ears and hear the outside world without frightening the animals away ...I've got some great wildlife pics by being quiet ...What we need is a set of phones with internal and external speakers , a toggle switch , and the capability of switching from one to the other ..The headphones could just sit around your neck when on external speakers ....cheers Paul

Another consideration is that the external speaker uses more electricity than the earphones. If you are detecting for an extended time the battery life may become a problem.

I often see reference here to not being able to hear outside noises when wearing earphones. I wear Koss TD 80 earphones with the soft pads and have no trouble hearing very small sounds around me. I have also used the Koss 30s and while they do keep out more external sounds than the 80 I can still hear a lot of external sounds. So I wonder what kind of phones you would be wearing to have evrything muffled to the point you cannot hear any outside sounds?

Cheers, Jim

Am interested to know, Jim, what other differences are there between the koss30 & 80 besides the pads.?
cheers, Osama.

Hi Osama, interestingly the U30s should be louder as they do cut down on external sound more the the 80's. But the 80s are sharper and clearer. If you ever get the chance try using a pair of 80's for at least 15 minutes then switch to 30's. It will sound as if some one has turned the volume down and muffled your detector.

Cheers, Jim

thanks Jim, seems the 80's would be better overall.
Forgot to ask - is there a big difference in price ?
cheers, Osama.

G'day Jim, where do you get the soft pads for the TD80's?
Only thing I don't like about them.

Inhere wrote:G'day Jim, where do you get the soft pads for the TD80's?
Only thing I don't like about them.

coiltek have them...other detector suppliers should also

Thanks mate.

KAEOJ wrote:Another consideration is that the external speaker uses more electricity than the earphones. If you are detecting for an extended time the battery life may become a problem.

How much difference does using a speaker make to the battery life????????

xenon wrote:

KAEOJ wrote:Another consideration is that the external speaker uses more electricity than the earphones. If you are detecting for an extended time the battery life may become a problem.

How much difference does using a speaker make to the battery life????????

I have always managed to get 2 full days detecting with either headphones or external speaker, so my experience is no difference that you would notice.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to answer my question.I think i will hire both and work out what works for me.I think for my
first trip it will all be very confusing trying to work out the signals.It looks like i will be digging lots of holes.
Thanks again all.
Regards Hawk.

Gday

Just for the record the whole point of wearing headphones is to partially muffle out external noise, so that you can better hear the signals from the detector, only superman would be able to hear perfectly with them on , but you can of course hear some things around you, and you can of course not hear some things around you, thats exactly the point of the exercise.

Anyway its all about choices, I use both an external speaker and Koss TD80 headphones, mostly using the headphones when working deeper ground or when its really cold or extremeley windy, for the rest of the time I just find it more practical to use the speaker set up.

You also cant get the full benefit of a booster while wearing headphones but you can while using an external speaker, as if you are using a minelab 4500/5000 battery with inbuilt booster it does not work with headphones only the external speaker.

I have never found headphones to my liking and was relieved when good external speakers became available, as I wear glasses and I found that they interfered with them and I was always having to reposition either the glasses or the headphones so when you are constantly fidgetting with something you are not concentrating on what you are doing, in the warmer weather your ears sweat and they slide about when you are digging a target, if this does not happen to you then you wont find them an issue like I do.

I have heard it said that our ears are better designed to hear things that are further away than close up, this may have been something that has evolved in us as we were not always the hunter, and through history we have been the prey at times also, the ability to be able to hear small sounds around you would mean that you would have a better chance of being able to detect a predator that was planning on having you for lunch, and take flight or climb a tree or whatever.

Our ears were not designed for having the noise pumped directly into them, hence many detector operators have tinnitus (think thats how its spelt) and also the humid conditions can promote fungal inner ear infections so its does not seem wise to use them for extended periods but rather use both a speaker and the headphones as needed.

cheers

stayyerAU

Tinnitus, yes sir, I have that. It's probably to due to many years around fighter aircraft instead of occasional, moderate exposure to "beeper sounds".
As I understand the long range thinking on detector theory, recognizing the subtlities of the varying sounds are what seperates "Good" from "Excellent" in results. To me that means being able to hear all the tiny sound shifts that result in success.
I'm still working on that, and all those insect sounds in my head 24-7 is REALLY distracting. Maybe that's why I prefer shoveling instead of swinging.

Hawk,you'll have to give both a try at some stage to figure out for yourself what would suit you best,Both have their positive and negative sides.

Cheers kon61.