A question from JOE

[Denverjoe04]

Was wondering...do head phones make a HUGE difference? Is there soft sounds that pick up that you would not normally hear and its hitting a good target? If the object is deep will it only make a light sound only picked up on head phones. Also light sound or not would it still pick up on the indicator? I have excellent hearing was just wondering if adding headphones would allow me to pick up stuff im not hearing....

[MinelabMan]

In short I would say probably, especially if you're going for deeper targets. For one thing, they conserve your batteries, less to power head phones than the external speaker.

The also help eliminate ambient noise and allow you to hear faint signals where as the display may not show such subtle differences.

[BukkDigger]

Being a newbie, I was wondering the same.... I think I'll get some and give it a go. One of my places is near a (small) highway and I can't hear squat while traffics flowin'.... Today my lovely wife was with me at the lake, I managed to squeeze in about two hours of detectin' however I was wishin' I had some earphones on...
JUST KIDDIN'.

[EBCIII]

I wear mine all the time. I like hearing the sounds better, and keeping out the other external noise. I really like using them, for picking up those faint sounds.

One word of caution. With headphones you tend to get "very" tuned in to the detecting. The other day I was digging my little hole when I noticed a pair of shoes standing right next to me. It was a lady wanting to see what I was finding. I never heard, or saw her walk up. Now she was a nice little lady, but could have been a thug. Just a FYI, Beale.

[JCWhite]

What Minelab Said.....

Headphones are a very important and necessary piece of equipment in my opinion.

[anne]

In my opinion Headphones are a must,they enable you to hear those faint signals that you would normally miss and your batteries last longer.
Also if you don't want to be bothered you can pretend that you didn't hear the kids shouting to you....Hey Mister What You Got

[johnj45586]

I view headphones as an option, but sometimes they are a necessity.
They do help conserve the batteries - much less power drain.
When detecting around people it may be better to listen on headphones.
I search the beach and the surf can be very loud and I either have to stop when it crashes or use headphones.
There is an Amtrak along the beaches in California, lots of trains, and I can't hear without headphones (or stop).
There are maintenance workers around the beaches/parks with leaf blowers, trucks, mowers, etc.
When I am hunting with someone wanting to learn metal detecting obviously I can't use headphones.
I really like the Sony headphones that are really earphones. They fit in the ears and the band can be worn over the head or under the chin. They can be placed loosely in the ears so you can hear sounds around you, but the detector sounds are loud and clear. If I am wearing a cap I can wear headphones over it, but a hat I can't.
I also have a set of wireless headphones ($15 from Big Lots). They are really neat - no cable from the headphones to the metal detector that is dangling or pulling when you go down to dig.
I use the ACE 250 which really blasts through headphones - you have to get the ones from Radio Shack with a volume control - or solder a 2,000 ohm resistor in each of the signal lines to cut down the volume.

[pris]

The Ace250 doesn't really have "faint" tones, but I would say that headphones are a must just so you can hear when you're pinpointing. You will need a volume control with your headphones, though, as John said.

I wear my headphones so that one ear is covered and the other ear is not. That way I can hear if someone is walking up or talking to me.

You can either go the expensive route and buy headphones just for MDing or you can go with a pair that is cheaper and lighter. You could even get a summer pair and a winter pair, so your little ears are warm when it's cold.

[grasshopper]

definitley. i used to never wear them and now i do and it's so much better.