Ultimate Detector Headphones

[Anonymous]

OK, I recently slapped an advertisement for headphones that claimed to overcome ground interference. Many of you have come forward with some really great posts on the subject of headphones since then. In all fairness, I feel that I should put in my 10 cents worth as to what I peronally think would be the best headphones for metal detector use.
Metal detectors are used almost exclusively outdoors. The noise level in many areas where we hunt is very high. As an example, the noise level on a beach is terrific. There are many places where the noise level is high enough to cause a real problem to hearing weak target signals.
The first thing we need to do is to design a pair of headphones which incorporate active noise canceling. A tiny microphone about the size of a pea is attached to the outside of each headphone. The signals picked up are amplified and mixed with the audio going to the headphones in such a way as to cancel the noise the microphones pick up. Helicopters and many military vehicles use similar methods to cancel the roar from their engines. The noise reduction achieved can be phenomenal.
I plan to convert some headphones very soon to incorporate this method. I will post the results. I will also be adding an impedance matching device and a subminiature audio equalizer to the design.
Although the above design will not cancel the ground signal for you, I believe that it is the direction we need to be looking in for detector use. Any extra input or ideas will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Anonymous]

Dave,
I have the Sony noise canceling headphones. They are expensive and not as good as passive noise canceling ones like Timberwork of Grey Ghost/ The max active noise canceling is about 10 db over a narrow band. the passive types have 24 to 29 db isolation, also only in particular frequency bands but it works better.
Try this. Get some sensitive inner ear headphones and put a good pair of ear protectors over them. This make the most senesitive combination that I have ever tried. Add some good audio post processing with a limiter to protect you ears and you have something that will catch the faintest whimper of a target response.
Look to the Samson web page for a device called the "Ear Amp" and down load the manual which is in a PDF file. If I has my choice of spending $199.00 on noise canceling headphones of the Ear Amp, I would choose the Ear Amp (it comes with ear buds) and sound isolators to put over the top. It also has a volume, treble and bass controls and the very important adjustable limiter.
With this set up you would be attacking the signal to noise ratio issue from two directions: reducing the noise and incresing the signal.
Let us know what you try.
bbsailor