Gaz, all the best mate

no offense taken here. This is why I love this forum, I belong to several and always FIND myself coming back here

enjoy your posts as they are informative to all and your advice is well taken... you say you run WITHOUT a threshold? I may give that one a try, I'm not set in my ways yet when it comes to this machine so I like trying new things and different combination of settings...
I know how "airtesting" fbs machines is frowned upon by most, and I understand to an extent but when I get CONSISTENT results... there is atleast something to it but still, mostly for fun and familiarization as these same results will most likely not be duplicated "in the field". Knowing that keeps it all in perspective for me
@sugar... I believe you have the general idea of how sensitivity works and yes a "testbed" would probably be a better way to compare auto to manual because you are introducing the "groundmatrix" factor. in your example "24+3 auto" vs. "27 manual" I believe 27 manual will most likely get more depth by a little, say an inch or so. On the other hand, 27 manual may be more unstable and produce erratic signals (falsing) if this is the case then I would opt for auto... If manual works fine with little to no falsing then I would go with that for the extra depth.
Sensitivity operates on 3 different channels. Auto mode performs an averaging and sets these 3 channels accordingly to give the best depth with emphasis on "stable" operation...
Manual mode allows the user to select and "override" what the detectors processor is suggesting and "locks'' the channels at the highest value therefore allowing more depth but possibly at the cost of stable operation.
If you're going for deeep coins and relics then I would go for the highest sensitivity without falsing... also, if too much falsing, try noise cancel before lowering the sens value. you may find a quieter channel or even change noise channel manually in expert.
If the targets you are hunting are shallow, say within surface to 5" then try lowering sens to reduce power and concentrate on surface stuff so you will not be bothered by deep iron, EMI, etc...
just my two zincs
HH Dean