Do you really need a display?

[UncleVinnys]

Excellent Question!

Here's my take on it.
Once you get a detector with VDI numbers, you quickly learn the sounds and number combinations, especially for coins and pull tabs. After a few years and few thousand coins (and tabs) you start relying on the sounds alone, and you can decide whether or not to dig based on the smoothness of the tone, how it rises and falls, how much static and broken up clips and chirps you hear, and soon you know when to dig or not without looking at the display.
So it's ironic, but once you learn what to listen for you could go back to a sound only machine
and be happy as a clam. Look at the reviews for the Tesoro Silver Umax, and you'll see what I mean.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

. . . once you learn what to listen for you could go back to a sound only machine and be happy as a clam.

Perhaps for some. My Minelab Musketeer LOVES aluminum and will give good signals for square pull-tabs and aluminum bottle caps unless they are crushed. And the darned juice lids with the foil liner defeat it at tot lots and picnic areas. Sometimes you can figure out the trash by lifting the coil while sweeping and noting how the signal changes or drops out. Sometimes not. I still dig two to three times as much trash with the Musky as my F75.

 

[Digger]

Well said UncleVinnys.

I believe a display can help greatly in reducing the time needed to learn a detector. Experience will teach you how much you can trust both the VDI and sound. Over time you'll tend to become a sound hunter and not VDI dependent as some claim. I know I use the VDI on my DFX but only when the sound tells me I need to look at it.

 

[jeff of pa]

My opinion
they are too misleading to count on.

I Only use mine to help
with Pinpointing.
When the Number locks on
I Know I'm centered.

& For locating lost items
when asked to.

Even so it Dosn't hurt to have one,
& Last time mine Went bad I Bought a New one
because I Felt I needed it.
(Mine is only a Number meter. No
fancy little Icons or bars)

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Do I need a display? Nope, not a bit. I couldn't even tell you what the numbers or smart finding readings on the screen mean on my explorer. I'd find less if I looked at it.

Ditto.

Besides, I can't even see my screen any more if I wanted to. Coutesy of the NC saw grass and other abrasive plants in the bush.

I like to search places where the average guy dosen't .....Right Diggin buddy's?

Dig it all!

Oh yes. Remember what we found in the briar patches Mike? Most people would have avoided that area and you got a nice eagle button in there. I hunted years ago when you had to learn the tones. There were no displays on the machines back then. Some had meters but everybody hunted by tones. I have the DFX and I am still having better luck listening to the tones than watching the display. If you concentrate solely on the display and dig just the good targets you will pass over many targets that read trash. Example would be a ring target. It shows as foil or pop top on most displays. Dig it all and you will be more successful.

Yeah Randy I remember.
I still have scars on my body from that one!
No, preferably no screen for me.
I wish they still made car stereos with knobs.

 

[biguglydude]

Excellent Question!

Here's my take on it.
Once you get a detector with VDI numbers, you quickly learn the sounds and number combinations, especially for coins and pull tabs. After a few years and few thousand coins (and tabs) you start relying on the sounds alone, and you can decide whether or not to dig based on the smoothness of the tone, how it rises and falls, how much static and broken up clips and chirps you hear, and soon you know when to dig or not without looking at the display.
So it's ironic, but once you learn what to listen for you could go back to a sound only machine
and be happy as a clam. Look at the reviews for the Tesoro Silver Umax, and you'll see what I mean.

It makes sense to think of the displays in this manor. A tool for learning. Even though it is only 80% in most cases as I'm hearing. After all the research I've done and advice I recieved, I settled on a Whites MXT for my first MD. Thanks Spooky for the Saltwater heads up. I committed this morning to buying a used machine a few years old. I did borrow a friends 6000/Di this week to play with. This is awesome for a 25+ year old machine. I can understand why they are still selling for $200 and up on Ebay. If the Whites quality in older units has carried forward to the newer ones....I'm happy! After 5ish sweeps with this thing, I found a 1969 penny 3" deep in the flower bed out front of work! A very cool feeling even if it was just a penny. Anyway, I can't wait to get started with the MXT. I'll report back after I find that box of jewels!

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Ain't it grand we live in a society with choices.

The path to happiness is to have options so you can have what you want; but the key to happiness is to want what you have.

 

[UncleVinnys]

Good advice, Charlie - Hey I like that icon of yours . . .
Make it look like you have a golden halo around your head -
- which is befitting for the moral advice

 

[DKinPA]

BigUgly this turned out to be a great post and thread to follow, just reinforces my thought that the best, most knowledgable and most willing to help are right here at TreasureNet!!

Good luck with the MXT, I have a buddy that started with one last year and did quite well, it's a very good machine!

Dave

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Good advice, Charlie - Hey I like that icon of yours . . .
Make it look like you have a golden halo around your head -
- which is befitting for the moral advice

Thanky. It was actually a surprise gift from two other forum members here. I helped one of them out of a dilema and for a while he was calling me a "saint".

Hardly, but I do try to be helpful.

 

[Blind.In.Texas]

Hi, I’m new to the MD world. After several months of investigating, I’ve decided not to do the entry model and jump right into the $500 range. Question, what are the pluses and minuses of a display? Do you really need one? Does it help or is it a crutch?

I use a Bounty Hunter 3300. After I zero the general location of the target I pinpoint it iwth a very thin screwdriver. I make due with what I have. Although I believe the more expensive machines do have some benefits, there just aren't enough for me.

http://picasaweb.google.com/blindintexas911

 

[OldOwl]

What's a display? The only display I have is a 55 gallon aquarium with sand, a piece of driftwood, and piles of silver coins, and gold jewelry in my living room.

 

[Iron Patch]

What's a display? The only display I have is a 55 gallon aquarium with sand, a piece of driftwood, and piles of silver coins, and gold jewelry in my living room.

Listen to the wise old owl!

 

[biguglydude]

Ok, day one with the new MXT. I searched the front yard and in a wooded lot next to the house (teenagers like to hang out there during the summer). Still some snow on the ground and very muddy! All I found in the wooded lot was Pop cans, Beer cans, and foil type trash. The display was pretty good with identifying that stuff. Most of this was all grunts and overloads I heard. After a while in the front yard I got an ear for the sharpe pings made by the coins. The MXT was right on with what I found. I found 3 pennys, 1 dime, and a latch handle.......This is addicting.......

 

[luvsdux]

Yes, it can be VERY addicting. As to the original post, I agree that one doesn't "need" a display, but after detecting for years with beep and dig machines only, I now have 2 with displays. I listen first, then use the display to help in my decision whether or not to retrieve the target. I do especially like the extra info from a display when detecting in areas where the less disturbance to the grass the better. My two bits.
luvsdux