I have done a little research but not enough to make a decision on anything but I was wondering if the DEUS works well without headphones. Going with a wireless headset just isn't me. I am wondering of I should skip the basic package and spend an extra 500 for the LCD display
After it is all said and done, if I was just starting out with the Deus and going to have to choose between the three following options: Basic package with coil, stem, wireless backphones, "mid" range package with coil, stem, controller, and wired backphones, and the full up package with coil, stem, controller, and wireless backphones, I would choose the mid-range package if I needed to save a few hundred bucks and, if I could afford it, get the full up entire package. This is different than how I started out. I bought the basic package with the 9" coil (coil, stem, wireless phones) and then bought a full-up 11" coil package, with controller and wireless phones. I figured, if I was going to get the control box after all, I might as well get a second coil and buying a second set of wireless backphones was probably a luxury but allowed me to give one coil and a set of wireless headphones to the kids so they could hunt along side me at the beach. Though you can hunt without it, I think the controller is essential to setting up the machine beyond the default programs which are geared to European hunters looking for hammered coins and have some quirky noise reduction settings that reduce depth performance (e.g., the silencer). While the machine will work and can be effective right out of the box using the default programs as a starting point to learn the tones (and I recommend that is how you SHOULD learn the machine before you start fiddling with settings), to really squeeze maximum performance out of it, you really need to customize those default programs to get rid of some of those non-optimal settings, set up notch points, and the controller is required if you want to save those customized programs. So yeah, if you need to save a few bucks, I say the minimum setup should be coil, stem, controller, wired backphones.
A couple other words of advice, avoid the over the ear headphones (WS5's). Unlike the WS4 wireless backphones, the mini-controller on the WS5 is permanently affixed to the headphones and they are not water resistant. The wireless backphones, however, are water resistant and the controller on the wireless backphones can be detached and connected to different accessories (extra charge of course) that enable the mini controller to be mounted on your wrist or on the stem and with a mini-headphone jack adapter accessory you can plug wired headphones into it. Why would you want to do this when you can just use the coil and wireless headphones? After you custom program the coil with the main controller you can put it away in a safe or waterproof place and just use the VDI display on the mini-controller with your favorite set of MD headphones (or just go by sound with the wireless backphones). You can also plug the WS4 controller into a number of third-party over the ear headsets. My favs are Vance Muffs as they most faithfully reproduce the tones you hear in the backphones. Also, I recommend getting Andy Sabisch's guide to the Deus to really unlock its capabilities. Finally, in choosing between the 9" and 11" coils, I can't prove anything, but the 9" coil just seems "tighter" to me when pulling out target signals. I don't think there is much depth difference between the two and I seem to be able to pinpoint with the 9" coil better. Speaking of pinpointing, I almost forgot to mention that the pinpointing feature only resides on the main controller box, so that is another feature you miss out on if you just get the backphones, if that is important to you. Hope all this helps more than confuses. Good luck.
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