threshold level

[moonshine]

If you have your threshold level set too high, will you miss the faint, deep targets? I have mine set so that its quiet and I can comfortably hear it, but I was reading about detectors in general and they were saying that faint targets need to be able to be stronger than the threshold level to make the detector sound off. is this how the etrac works also? now im wondering if I should turn the level down lower. I mean, if you had the threshold level set loud, and it passed over a coin, i though the detector would always sound off on the coin. my old detector was a whites 6000 and i always ran it silently. (i learned to use it when i was 12, no internet, and thats always how i ran it) the etrac is only my second detector.

the manual for the etrac is OK but it could (should) have been a lot better. For example im disappointed that the manual doesnt tell you that if you adjust your threshold pitch, it affects the sounds that targets make. I know a lot of us now know that, but isnt that something that you would think would be in the manual? I must admit i thought it was "wishful thinking" until i played around with it on the emulator. making silver scream out- adjusting threshold pitch and "sounds variability", i wonder how high pitched can you go. my ears arent that good.

really just curious what everyone else thinks about threshold (or anything else) to make sure we all get the depth we want.

just thinking out loud to my fellow tectorists.

 

[khouse]

Too high a threshold will make you miss whispers. I actually run my threshold just one click above silent. This is enough for me to hear any rise from a small or deep target. Plus I've been running 4 tone conductive and really liking it. This also eliminates me trying to decipher if the tone is silver or clad. I couldn't tell much any difference anyway. I mean I dug silver that I knew was clad and clad that I thought was silver. So for me the less busy almost silent threshold and 4 tone CO is serving me well. You might give it a try?

 

[NebTrac]

It all depends on where you have your GAIN set at. If you have that set at a low level, then yes you could potentially miss faint targets if your threshold "hum" is too loud. I will say a gain of about even 16 or 17 can be heard over a threshold "hum". So I believe you'd have to have your threshold level uncomfortably high or your Gain unnecessarily low. All this doesn't even matter if your set at Deep On.

Running a Low gain can benefit you sometimes. Like when you're wanting to really differentiate the shallower (5" and less) targets with the deeper ones - by sound. It does have a downside in that targets just off the edge of the coil will give a faint sound like a deep coin, so you have to be aware of that as well. I'm going off memory on this, I usually look this stuff up, but I believe it is correct.

NebTrac

 

[Choc-Minelab]

I thought gain amplified the original target sound. So the gain setting would works from a baseline threshold level?

 

[moonshine]

thanks guys for your input. I have lowered my threshold one notch, any less and i couldnt hear it. once i got used to it though, targets seemed a lot louder at first. i think i might lower my gain a notch or two, im not getting much of a sense of depth from the sounds. i cant even remember what its set at, probably stock/preset level.

purely guessing but i imagine gain is independent from threshold.

 

[moonshine]

well i realized/remembered that my volume limit is set to 8. the headphones that come with the etrac dont seem to be a good match if i have to set it at 8. its still LOUD at 8! with a volume limit that low wont everything sound the same......hmmmm...my gain was at 26, i lowered it to 24. i will have to play around with that outside. going soon!

 

[Goes4ever]

A lot of people say if your gain is high, a shallow coin and deep coin sound the same. I can tell you the honest truth, I have my gain at 28 and I can clearly distuinish the difference of a shallow clad vs a 8" deep coin just by the sound.

 

[khouse]

well i realized/remembered that my volume limit is set to 8. the headphones that come with the etrac dont seem to be a good match if i have to set it at 8. its still LOUD at 8! with a volume limit that low wont everything sound the same......hmmmm...my gain was at 26, i lowered it to 24. i will have to play around with that outside. going soon!

If your headset has volume control you need to have your machine's volume all the way up and then make adjustments on your headset.

 

[moonshine]

thanks for the come-backs guys. the headphones that came with the etrac have no volume control from what i can see.

its funny that for all those years with my whites 6000, i never used or owned headphones. when i got the etrac i thought for sure id never wear them. after using them for the first time, i quickly realized that i would never detect without them!

 

[Samuel_Champlain_FTW]

A lot of people say if your gain is high, a shallow coin and deep coin sound the same. I can tell you the honest truth, I have my gain at 28 and I can clearly distuinish the difference of a shallow clad vs a 8" deep coin just by the sound.

I second this. You can hear the difference, no question. I run the gain at 28 and deep off.

(Digs deep target. -- D'oh! Bent square nail..)