Headphones revisited

[synthnut]

Ok , I just got these phones in the mail

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2272473

If anyone is looking for a set of phones that are very light on the head, and comfortable , these are your phones ....I'm really surprised at how good they sound for cheapo phones ....They have a built in volume control and really sound nice !!.... They are 60 ohm phones, and they're plenty loud and detailed .. Keep in mind that these are NOT sealed phones ....You wil hear what's going on around you moreso than using sealed phones ..........There is an issue that I want you all to be aware of however

Something I never thought I would experience with headphones is something that you electric guitarists will understand right away ....I had these phones turned up all the way along with the volume of the Sovereign turned up all the way ....Everyone said " Turn up the Sovereign and control the volume with the phones for best resutlts" Well that is exactly what I did , and was I surprised ....and not in a good way ..... When playing electric guitat , and you turn your volume knob down , what happens is that you all of a sudden loose a lot of your higher frequencies as you roll the volume down ..... It happens on a LOT of gutitars and what you have to do is install a pot of a different rating to correct this from happening ......I had my phones up all the way, and the Sovereign up all the way, and it was LOUD , but it had a GREAT tone to it ....It was VERY expressive and clear as a bell ...You could hear the tone in spades and every part of this tone ......As soon as I lowered the inline volume control on the phones , not only did the volume go down , but SO DID THE TONE OF THE SOUND !!!.... It was like somebody put a piece of foam over the earcups !!......It was now drab sounding compared to what I was originally hearing ...... What I'm saying is ...Listen closely when turning the headphone volume down ....I'm thinking that they when you have 2 pots ( the controls ) working against each other as you do when you have a volume control in the Sovereign , and a volume control on your phones, that you will end up DECREASING the higher frequencies that you are listening to when you turn the volume down , just like what happens on my electric guitars ....... Not sure what it is that is happening here , but it's surely evident to me ..... All that wonderful character that I hear in the tone using the new phones goes away as soon as I turn the volume down .....It turns to a more muffled tone, and you loose all the nuances of the tone ...... I think I"m gonna have to find a set of phones that I can run FULL BLAST and have the volume and the tone that I'm looking for ......I'm not happy with the tone I get using a volume control in the phones ...... Try it on your phones , and tell me if your tone changes when you turn down the volume ......Thanks Jim

 

[crazyman]

Jim, I know what you mean and that's why I like the Sony V-150's. At full volume without a volume control on the phones and full or near full volume on the GT the tones are just easier for me to separate than on most standard detector phones I've used. Maybe I'm just hard at hearing but using full volume on both is not overly loud to me except maybe large shallow targets which give me a jolt sometimes.

 

[synthnut]

Crazyman.
Maybe I'll just use these on full volume on the inline volume and turn the Sovereign down and see how that goes ..... I"m sure that my hearing is not the best , but I can differenciate tones ..... Again, sounds like the V-150's might work welll for me ....I have to try the phones that I got in a more quiet setting .....I find that I can concentrate more with SEALED phones better than I can these .... As I said earlier ,they are good for somene who wants to hear things going on around them as well as a great sounding set of phones for detecting ...... I know Critter was saying that the Sony's had a bit of distortion turned up all the way ....I"m hoping if I get them that I can just back off a touch on the Sovereign and have a good sounding set of phones ......

OK ...I'm in luck !!......I turned the inline volume control all the way up , and backed off the Sovereign to the 3 o'clock position and all is well !!!......I , like you , do get that JOLT when the target is close to the surface , but that's more of a limitter issue that Critter speaks of and is working on ......I'll say this much , you sure do get the true character of the tone with these cheaper phones ..... It really must have a lot to do with the impeadance of the phones .... I went back and forth between these and the more costly Koss phones that come with the E Trac , and these surely do give me a better indication of what's down there !!..... Jim

 

[Critterhunter]

If you think the tone quality is as good as it gets when you have full volume on the GT and on the headphones then that's where a limiter would come in, to keep shallow or large targets from blasting you.

You know, I think a lot of the good and bad when it comes to headphones has to do with being used to what your hearing. At first the audio might sound "bad" but more than likely it's just different, and will take a little time to adjust to. So far these Sonys with volume all the way down give me the best audio possible. If I crank them all the way shallower or big targets distort and are way too loud. Maybe I'll try creeping the volume up to about 3PM and see if that's comfortable. You're not the first who seems to key in on 3PM on the audio dial. I've heard others state that as well. I've got to throw my first limiter together for this thing. The simple diode design first, and if I don't like that I'll try something else. Will update when I have some findings.

 

[synthnut]

Crtter ,
I think you're on to something with this limmiter .....When hunting all we listen to is threashold until we ht a target ...We can control the threshold ...The only thing that is bothersome is the surface targets that REALLY get our attention when we come up on them .....I think that the tone problem is exasperated by running phones with yet ANOTHER volume control AFTER the volume control that is already on the Sovereign ....If we can use the volume control on the Sovereign ONLY , and then have an inline limitter or compressor for the surface blasts, I think we'll have a better way of hearing and determining targets .... These cheaper phones really bring out the actual timbre of the tone ....They're much more defining than the larger more expensive phones ... It's almost like the higher end phones have a filter in them to smooth out the tone that you really don't want smoothed out when detecting ...You really want to hear the raw tone !!....Jim

 

[deanosaur1972]

Just come across these headphone's (seen on another site), any thought's???

Headphones Go to the tab CP3 PRO

UK based I know so the special 'warp' on hammered coins is not useful for the US but would like some thoughts as they seem to be specially designed, features a limiter and looks to have variable impudence?

Also if you can create a special 'warp' signal on hammered coins why can it not be done on Gold???

Over to you...............

 

[Critterhunter]

That's odd that they claim to warp the tone of hammered coins. I suspect they mean that instead of the low grunt you get a changed pitch that is easier for some people to hear. Of course anything in that tone range besides those coins is also going to be morphed I would guess.

One thing I always thought would be useful on an Amp circuit along with a limiter for loud blasts would be a way to tag the various depths. If all signals are amped to a certain loudness level and anything real loud gets clipped to a lower volume then obviously there wouldn't be any easy way to now judge depth. I realize it's true that often limiters provide a distinct "click" or "pop" that tells you the signal is being cut down in volume, but if an amp was also involed then things get less clear. What would be cool would be some kind of audio tag that gets attached to the signal based on the original signal strength. Perhaps a certain beep for shallow targets down to 5", another beep for targets between 6 and 9", and then a third unique one for targets past that depth. I'm not talking about changing the tone of the target, but rather some kind of audio "tag" that gets added on at the end to indicate depth. Make it so this tag is only reported after the signal say every 10 or so sweeps over the target. That way you don't constantly hear this depth tag with each and every sweep over it. If you keep sweeping over the target the audio tag isn't reported again for say 10 or so sweeps. Also, when nothing is swept over for say 10 seconds then the tag resets and is ready to report it's self again along with the first time a new target is heard. Something like this should be fairly easy to build because it's basing it's self on the initial unamped signal from the detector before it's boosted in signal. Supply a tuning pot that can be tuned to adjust for signal strength, that way you can calibrate it for the depths you want to separate along with being able to adjust it for various machines. Anybody makes this thing I want 5% of the profits.