This hobby's full of trade-offs, and disc is one of them. Maybe someone Monte-like can give a more technical explanation, but the quick and dirty answer is the more you use, the more depth you lose. It's a built-in technological misfortune for a lot of (if not all, even) detectors which translates into we're screwed if we use it and we're screwed if we don't. Why any of us even bother with this friggin' hobby is beyond me <img src="/metal/html/wink.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt="
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Your bells and whistles won't go to waste if you use them for the kind of hunting they were built and marketed for: Casual coinshooting in trashier general-purposes places like parks and schoolyards, and really, notch is pretty darn peachy for those who don't like to work too hard. Most stuff there is found well under 5", so disc really doesn't hurt much -- if at all -- in that sort of an environment, and as a general rule, casual coinshooters like to recover a lot of coins fast, so surface machines suit them fine enough. For deep coins and relics, well, let's just say there are machines better suited for that sort of hunting if you do or plan to do a lot of it -- and all of them, I might add, with their own individual set of annoyances large and small.
If you want to use your bells and whistles and still get some "additional depth," crank down your Sens just enough to keep your machine stable in your particular ground. Keep cranking it down until your detector seems to start giving you all sorts of odd audio responses, such as a lot of fast false signals while swinging the coil, making a sound like a little motorboat engine, etc. Many people like to hike the Sens all the way up, but most would be better suited -- and find more stuff -- by turning it down, just like you discovered.
Also, you don't necessarily have to hunt in All Metal. People who hunt all the time in All Metal are in the minority, I believe. I usually hunt with my Disc at just over 3 when I'm hunting for the deeper coins with my Silver Sabre II because I'll gladly sacrifice a little depth perception to not dig a lot of chunks of tin foil. Hunting with your Disc at just over 1 will knock out a lot of the little iron bits found in a lot of sites and still get you pretty close to what you'd get in All Metal. Then when you hit a good signal, thumb your Disc dial to see where the signal drops out. I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of the Golden's notch, so you may just be able to switch over to it to get a better idea of what the target might or might not be.
I dunno why your machine spazzes out when you play with the notch in All metal. Like I said, I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of notch, so maybe someone Monte-like could post the answer.
Scott
