A
Anonymous
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Had a few chances to try out the FOD phones last weekend and this week. My usual beach detector is an Elite with Sunray S12, and my daily phones are Koss TD 80s, but although they are great for use with the Sovereign and have very crisp sound, they aren't made for the outdoors environment and haven't held up well in the salt sand and water environment. So I was looking forward to seeing how the FOD Phones would work. My first impression was how great they blocked out the surf sounds. These phones are the best noise blocking phones I've ever used. That blocking comes with a downside that they do fit tight to the ears and tend to squeeze your head after a few hours. The audio response is very good, but not quite as responsive on the highs as the Koss TD 80s are. I'm not sure that's a downside since they didn't seem to blast my head off as the Koss phones do if I don't remember to turn the volume down a little. Even without a volume control, the FODs seemed to be just loud enough to be comfortable and feel like I wasn't missing any weak tone changes. I've used Killer B's in the past and these are very comparable to those phone, albeit with a slightly better signal response. The notes FOD included with the phones mentioned you seem to have acute hearing after you took the phones off. That was almost instantly noticeable after the phones came off, but I also noticed they had pressed a little too hard against my ears too. The most impressive feature was the blocking of the winds we had during the testing. These phones blocked out all the wind noise completely - a real problem sometimes when beach hunting.
<p>Here's a photo of the finds from a few days of hunting 2-3 hours at Daytona. Lately we've been able to snag some older silver coins being uncovered due to several days of gusty winds. Also found a few buffalo nickels, wheaties, an old spoon found easily at 10-12", copper token, brass key tag, and a normal amount of clad coins.
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<center> <img src="http://www.findmall.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10028/Day-One.jpg"> <p>
Day two I found a few more silver coins including war nickel, merc, another buff and more wheaties, a couple of jewelry finds, silver ring, antique silver bangle style bracelet, a couple of silver ID bracelet plates, and a few other typical finds found at 5-9" in wet sand.
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<center> <img src="http://www.findmall.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10028/Day-two.jpg"> <p>
On the third hunt I found a silver ring, two silver earrings and a very small silver pennant with blue stone, an old brass child's ring, Mickey Mouse ring, key, bullet, 1934 3 pence coin from Britain (holed), another deep spoon and more clad. The unidentifiable objects in the center left of picture are clad pennies. Some come out completely encrusted with shells and corrosion and these two were extreme examples I thought I'd share. As you can see, the smaller brass objects in the bottom center demonstrate the FOD Phones had no problems responding well to small objects at least as well as my Koss phones.
<p>All said and done, a good set of phones, FOD. One or two minor gripes - the phones would benefit by moving the ear pieces a little farther back in the cups to keep them from pressing on the ears and a lighter cord will keep me and others from catching them on the scoop handle which I did several times during the tests. Thanks much for the opportunity to try the the phones. I'll definitely be taking them along on windy days.
<p>
<center> <img src="http://www.findmall.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10028/Day-Three.jpg"> <p>
<p>Here's a photo of the finds from a few days of hunting 2-3 hours at Daytona. Lately we've been able to snag some older silver coins being uncovered due to several days of gusty winds. Also found a few buffalo nickels, wheaties, an old spoon found easily at 10-12", copper token, brass key tag, and a normal amount of clad coins.
<p>
<center> <img src="http://www.findmall.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10028/Day-One.jpg"> <p>
Day two I found a few more silver coins including war nickel, merc, another buff and more wheaties, a couple of jewelry finds, silver ring, antique silver bangle style bracelet, a couple of silver ID bracelet plates, and a few other typical finds found at 5-9" in wet sand.
<p>
<center> <img src="http://www.findmall.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10028/Day-two.jpg"> <p>
On the third hunt I found a silver ring, two silver earrings and a very small silver pennant with blue stone, an old brass child's ring, Mickey Mouse ring, key, bullet, 1934 3 pence coin from Britain (holed), another deep spoon and more clad. The unidentifiable objects in the center left of picture are clad pennies. Some come out completely encrusted with shells and corrosion and these two were extreme examples I thought I'd share. As you can see, the smaller brass objects in the bottom center demonstrate the FOD Phones had no problems responding well to small objects at least as well as my Koss phones.
<p>All said and done, a good set of phones, FOD. One or two minor gripes - the phones would benefit by moving the ear pieces a little farther back in the cups to keep them from pressing on the ears and a lighter cord will keep me and others from catching them on the scoop handle which I did several times during the tests. Thanks much for the opportunity to try the the phones. I'll definitely be taking them along on windy days.
<p>
<center> <img src="http://www.findmall.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10028/Day-Three.jpg"> <p>