Hi Mike, I think you misunderstood me. My hearing prefers the gold tones of the blue phones better than the yellow. As you probably know, as one gets better with an Excalibur one learns to hear those tiny gold signals on small and deep gold, a novice might pass right over. I know slowing down with an Excalibur, I'll hit deep gold at a beach we already hit 3 or 4 times. That just comes with Excalibur experience- as you know. I was not always able to do that and even though I'm finding more gold now, when I scoop up a gold or platinum ring in the Caribbean and see it glinting in the sun/in my scoop, I get Gold Fever and want more!
As I said the fellow who finds the most gold in our group (not trying to brag here) finds well over 100 pieces in a week on a good Island! (Yes we get skunked sometimes- but not too often) The only time I can out hunt him is when I used his machine and he uses mine. His blue Excalibur with yellow headphone transplant is clearly louder, which is why he is alerted to those deep and small gold signals. All in our group know his HOT machine is why he consistently finds the most gold. Even if I try to cover more ground than he does by hunting longer, (I still find less) I can't dig those tiny gold signals if I can't hear them, like he is able to.
That is why I am experimenting with my blue machines. Before he had the yellow headphone transplant and coil change, he said his machine was no better than any other. Something happened to his Excalibur to make it louder and I am trying to duplicate his machine now. (if that is possible). Why, because returning with some 20 plus extra pieces of gold is worth the effort if successful. Since I discovered turning a 1000 to 800 has nothing to do with a machine being louder, the only thing left for me to try is going to the yellow headphones. And even though I do not like the yellow headphone tones as much as the blue phones, if the yellow phones turn out to be louder on small gold signals, I'll live with that "tone thing".
It only took seconds for a Minelab Bench Tech to say "Yes, the yellow headphones are louder than the blue headphones" and "No the Tornado coils are not more sensitive than the older BBS coils". (I did not mention what I was trying to do) I have always had good relations with Minelab. I own a small business and understand as a business one can not always be perfect. But for the most part Minelab has given me good service. So when they say the yellow phones are louder, I have to believe them. Well at least believe them enough to give them a try on my older blue machines. If they do not work out it is not the end of the world. Though if my machine is louder because of them and can hit on some 20-30% more gold, then I have everything to gain and be worth the expense and effort. Plus I can share my findings with all here. If the yellow phones turn out to be a mistake, I will let everyone know my opinion. Again the yellow headphones on the Excalibur II might not report those small gold sounds because of the new shielding? (That's touched on in Clive's new Excalibur book). But perhaps those yellow headphones on a machine without shielding will report those small gold sounds louder? That is what I am going to find out and the only way that I know of is to try it. Most reviews on the Excalibur IIs I have read are good. You have made your yellow headphone opinions perfectly clear (and you may be right). But for fun it would be interesting to see a poll here on both the yellow headphones and on the Excalibur I vs. Excalibur II. Minelab might be interested in honest user feedback. I have always been hoping for the next new FBS Excalibur along with notch discrimination, factory balance rod, changeable coils, 1500 batteries, rapid charger and a threshold re tune button. I might be waiting for a long time
Detecting can be fun and relaxing and when home that is how I detect. But when I travel to detect it is all business and I'm looking for every advantage I can get. CC.