setting, settings and more settings

Some out there might not agree with what I'm going to write in this blog and that's fine by me but I feel I need to point out my thoughts on the subject. This is something I've touched upon in the past on both my videos and blogs. The topic is 'Settings', people appear to be completely obsessed with settings to the point where it seems to be more of a priority than actually getting out metal detecting. I believe this subject actually confuses more people than it does benefit, especially newcomers to the hobby.

There Are No Secret Settings 

The above statement might sound simple but it appears that some really think that there are, I get so tired of hearing the word "settings", it's like some people are totally obsessed. I get it though, the more options you have on a detector the more you can sell it for. I explained when using my Equinox 800, you really didn't need half the options available to you and then giving them the label 'advanced features' really made it sound like you had something special. I've said it before and I'll say it again, there were no advanced features on the Equinox, they are only advanced to inexperienced people that have never detected before.

Since using both the Golden Mask and Vista X on the Thames foreshore, the "settings" word has reared its head again, if you're hardwired from using digital VDI machines then I can sort of understand it but on all my analog units there are no settings. What Do I Mean By This? simple, you have ground balance, threshold, sensitivity and discrimination, that's it, nothing more, nothing less. If hundreds of settings are so important then how am I managing to operate these machines on one of the most challenging terrains that you can get? Easy, it's because the whole 'settings' thing is overblown hype, now don't get me wrong, you obviously need to have the basics. On both my Legend and Equinox I used the main settings such as sensitivity, recovery and discrimination, basically the same as what I use on my analog detectors but for me, everything else was pretty redundant. 

On the flip side to the above paragraph "if you want to cherry pick" then I can see how a lot of the settings can come in handy, I totally understand it from that point of view. But for someone like me that will dig everything nonferrous I still stand by my main point of not needing a great deal of the options available. 

In my opinion, along with the settings mentioned above, the tonal options can come in handy, I personally believe the biggest development with metal detectors are the tonal options. But playing devils advocate, Do You Really Need Anymore Than Two Tones? this question is debatable, in certain scenarios it might come in handy. Living in the age that we do where technology is advancing at an alarming rate, we like to feel that the tech that we possess has the answers to everything. To put it bluntly, it doesn't, take smart phones for instance, I can take videos, photos, browse the net and download endless apps that pretty much cover everything and anything. The only thing I can't do on my phone is actually have a phone call that doesn't end up cutting out at least 10 times in 5 minutes. My point here is simple, sometimes it's the pointless shit that distracts us from the main reason we're using something. In a day and age where we're subjected to an overabundance of the meaningless, some times less is in fact, more. 

The video below was made with all the above points in mind, What Do I Mean By This? simple, the Legend is setup exactly the same to how I use it on the Thames. It isn't setup to pass the test this is a really important point, your magical settings are irrelevant if they're not the ones used in the fields. All the other machines included in the video are single frequency and hardly have any settings at all, just the basics. You can judge the performance yourself but how come my analog machines perform so well being outdated single frequency units without an endless amount of amazingly complicated settings? I'll tell you why, because a vast amount of the options on the digital units aren't actually needed but it gives the consumer a lot to play with and it creates this illusion of value. Do you really think the companies could get away with selling their machines for the money they do if they only had 3 or 4 settings on them, of course not.

In the grand scheme of things, none of this really matters, what does matter though, is the shills and sellouts who are either paid or on commission by the leading companies to peddle their "our detector is superior" bullshit.