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Deus 2: optimise disc settings & maximum detection depth

XP Deus 2 · practical knowledge

The Disc and its influence on detection depth

Everything you need to know about discrimination on the XP Deus 2 – from basic theory to a finished field program. Objective, practical and ready to put into action.

Beginners & professionals Version 4.1 current FMF · Stereo · Multi-Processing

What is the disc – and what exactly does it do?

The disc (discrimination) is not a simple on/off filter. It is a dividing line on the conductivity scale – everything below it is classed as iron/ground, everything above it as a potentially good target. This boundary has a direct effect on how deep the Deus 2 can detect safely and reliably.

How the disc affects depth

The higher the disc value, the more aggressively the detector filters. At depth, signals become weaker and less stable – a good target can briefly "slip" into the rejected conductivity range and, in the worst case, not be indicated at all. This is the direct mechanism behind depth loss caused by discrimination.

Conductivity instability at depth

A shallow object reliably shows its true conductivity. The same object at 25 cm, by contrast, shows jumping values – often close to the iron range. Too high a disc cuts off exactly these uncertain, deep signals before they are recognised as a good target.

A practical example Imagine this: the disc is set to 10. In the spoil heap, the Deus 2 suddenly gives no tone at all, even though a signal could be heard before. What happened? At depth, the detector estimated and displayed the conductivity as, say, 20. In the spoil – shallow and close to the coil – it now determines the true value of 6. That is below the disc of 10, so it is rejected. The object was still there.

The disc scale at a glance

Disc setting ranges & their effect

−6.4 to 0
Negative range

0–3
Close to all metal

3–6
Optimal depth

6–9
Standard

10–15
Aggressive

>15
Depth loss

Negative range: max. depth, noisy running

0–3: close to all metal, everything audible

3–6: depth optimum, small nails rejected

6–9: practical standard, good balance

10–15: strong iron rejection, depth loss

>15: considerable depth loss

Disc value: what actually happens?

Disc value	Effect on depth	Iron behaviour	Suitable for
−6.4 to −1	Maximum	Everything audible, no filter. High risk of false signals on mineralised ground. The silencer is deactivated.	Gold hunting, all metal, mineral-free ground
0 to 3	Very high	Iron audible (low tone). Good depth potential, but lots of digging. Nails come through.	Known clean areas, relic hunting without iron contamination
3.1 to 5.5	High	Small nails are reliably rejected, larger ones are still audible. Optimal depth for coin hunting.	Coin hunting, medieval sites with little small iron
6 to 9	Good	Standard range: solid iron rejection with acceptable depth loss. Recommended with a negative ground filter.	All-round, fields, parks, iron-infested ground with neg. GF
10 to 15	Reduced	Strong iron rejection. Deep objects with low conductivity (bronze, small silver) risk being lost.	Beach hunting, heavily contaminated, high-conductivity objects only
> 15	Greatly reduced	Considerable depth loss. Many good targets are rejected, especially in mineralised ground.	Only when a flood of trash leaves no other choice

IAR – Iron Amplitude Rejection: the clever depth protection

What is IAR and why is it so important?

The XP Deus 2 has an intelligent IAR function (Iron Amplitude Rejection). With it, a disc value of 0 to 5 only applies to iron near the surface – deep objects are still detected and not wrongly discriminated. This means the detector recognises whether a signal is coming from depth and treats it differently from a surface signal.

Important to know The IAR function only works in the disc range 0–5. As soon as the disc is set higher, the detector works in the classic way – the filter then also applies to deep targets. A disc that is as low as possible is therefore the first key to maximum detection depth.

Disc & ground filter (silencer): the most important interplay

Disc & ground filter – how they work together in V4.1

Since the fundamental overhaul of the system, disc and ground filter can be set completely independently of each other . The silencer remains active even when the disc is low or in the negative range. In V4.1, this system also benefits from the new Stereo Multi-Processing: channel 1 handles discrimination, channel 2 works depth-optimised – with no compromise between depth and separation.

Negative ground filter −3 to −1 Ideal for iron-laden ground. Reduces the masking effect. Mixed iron signals are shifted into the high ID range – you are alerted without missing anything good. Recommended disc: 6–9.

Caution: disc 0–1 + GF −3 If the disc is almost at zero and the ground filter very negative, iron objects can suddenly produce high tones. The disc then no longer separates iron from good targets, but ground from iron – everything above the disc value counts as a good target.

Mineralised ground – take special care If the ground/iron boundary is shifted into the negative range, parts of the mineralised ground signals slip into the audible range. The result: the detector becomes noisy and faint deep signals get lost. Recommendation: on heavily mineralised ground, keep the ground/iron boundary close to 0 and carry out a precise ground balance first.

Frequency & disc – how they influence each other

The chosen frequency directly influences how much a high disc affects detection depth. In mineralised ground, rising frequency creates a camouflage effect: a non-ferrous signal becomes a mixed signal (iron + non-ferrous) or even appears as a pure iron signal. The disc then cuts off this distorted signal – even though there is a good target underneath.

4–8 kHz

Low frequency

More detection depth, better iron discrimination. Good for large objects, silver coins and mineralised ground. Disc depth loss remains moderate.

18–28 kHz

High frequency

High sensitivity to small items, but decreasing detection depth. The camouflage effect increases. Disc losses are particularly severe here.

FMF

Multi-frequency

Uses the entire spectrum (4–40 kHz). Max. frequency can be limited to 14 kHz for better iron discrimination and ground stability, with reduced sensitivity to small items.

Gold mode

Without disc

No disc applied → full depth on all metals. Mineralised ground takes away some depth, but no signal is lost to discrimination.

Disc as a "tone break" & the new Multi-Processing in V4.1

On the Deus 2, discrimination works as a tone break: values below the disc level (ground, iron) are audible without having to lower the disc to −6.4. The iron volume separately controls the volume of these discriminated signals – listen to iron in the background and good targets at full volume, without depth loss.

With V4.0/4.1, XP goes a huge step further: the Stereo Multi-Processing runs two completely independent detection channels at the same time with a single coil sweep – output left and right in the stereo headphones. This means channel 1 (fast, discriminating) and channel 2 (slow, depth-optimised) work in parallel. You hear separation in one ear and depth in the other – and never have to resolve this compromise manually again.

Multi-Reactivity – depth & separation at the same time

In V4.0/4.1, two different reactivity values can be run at the same time: channel 1 (e.g. reactivity 3.0 + higher disc) separates iron, channel 2 (e.g. reactivity 1.0 + lower disc) brings out deep targets. It is the first metal detector to completely resolve this previously unavoidable compromise – and the disc plays its own role on both channels.

Audio Morphing & LOW SQUARE (new in V4.1)

Audio Morphing changes the tone dynamically the closer the coil gets to a target – deep targets sound different from shallow ones, even before you look at the display. LOW SQUARE is the new 4th audio type: a refined square wave with a deeper sound profile, now also for WS6 and WSA II – more pleasant on long days of detecting and more precise with faint deep signals.

V4.1: Stereo Multi-Processing – the disc on two channels

V4.0 and V4.1 are the biggest update in the history of the Deus 2. For the first time, two completely independent detection channels run at the same time – with a single coil sweep. Both channels can have different disc values and reactivities. The result: you hear depth and separation at the same time, output spatially in stereo.

Channel 1 (left): discrimination

High reactivity (e.g. 3.0), higher disc (8–12): fast iron separation, reliable target ID. Ideal for iron-infested sections of ground. This is the classic disc operation – now on a dedicated channel.

Channel 2 (right): depth optimisation

Low reactivity (e.g. 1.0), low disc (3–5) or static non-motion mode: pulls faint signals out of the depth that channel 1 would miss. In V4.1, the static mode (CH2) was improved with a subtle pitch cue – deep targets become even easier to recognise.

Scenario	Channel 1 (disc / reactivity)	Channel 2 (disc / reactivity)	Advantage
Iron-rich field	Disc 10 / reactivity 3.0 · Pitch	Disc 4 / reactivity 1.0 · Low Square	Depth + separation
Medieval site	Disc 8 / reactivity 3.0	Disc 3 / non-motion (static)	Max. target info
Park / little iron	Disc 6 / reactivity 1.5	Disc 3 / reactivity 0.5	Maximum depth
Gold prospecting	Disc −6.4 (gold mode)	Disc −6.4 / non-motion	No depth loss

Important: stereo headphones required Stereo Multi-Processing and the two independent disc channels only work with XP stereo headphones (WSA ST, WSA XL ST, WS6 ST). With standard headphones (WSA II, WS6), V4.1 runs in normal mono mode – but all classic disc settings remain available unchanged, and the new LOW SQUARE audio type and the improved MI-6 integration can be used by everyone.

Disc recommendations by type of ground

Fields / pasture (little iron)

Disc: 3–5
Low reactivity (2–2.5) for maximum depth. Sens 95–97. Ground filter −1. In field tests, this gave up to 5–6 cm more detection depth, and copper coins at 25 cm were reliably detected.

Medieval site (lots of iron)

Disc: 6–9
Activate negative ground filter −1 to −3. Reactivity 3 for separation. Small coil for getting between iron pieces more easily. More good targets next to iron without excessive trash.

Beach / mineral-rich ground

Disc: 4–8
Ground filter 3–4 for rusting bottle caps and aluminium pieces. Carry out a precise ground balance. Keep the ground/iron boundary close to 0 to avoid noisy running.

Natural gold hunting

Disc: −6.4 (gold mode)
No disc – full depth. Gold nuggets produce signals similar to iron, so a disc that is as low as possible or deactivated is essential. No depth loss through filtering.

The most common mistakes when setting the disc

Mistake 1: iron volume at 0 at high frequency At 18–30 kHz with iron volume 0, you are guaranteed an experience full of inexplicable false signals and iron finds. The detector can then no longer communicate iron correctly – you end up digging aimlessly.

Mistake 2: disc 0 + 4-tone mode This makes no sense: with disc 0, all metals come through with the same tone – the 4-tone differentiation and the iron tone are then completely ignored. This puts the detector on the level of an entry-level model.

Mistake 3: disc in the negative range without ground balance A negative disc without a correct ground balance and without considering ground mineralisation leads to extremely noisy running and masses of false signals – faint, deep good-target signals simply get lost in it.

Mistake 4: blindly adopting other people's program recommendations Every disc recommendation from forums is only as good as the base program, software version and ground type it was developed on. Without this information, a recommendation is worthless – and may even perform worse for you than the factory setting.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Yes, definitely. This has been tested and confirmed many times in the community. The mechanism: at depth, signals become weaker and their conductivity less stable. A good target can briefly "slip" into the discriminated range. Too high a disc then cuts off this uncertain signal – the object remains undetected.

A classic disc problem: at depth, the Deus 2 estimated the conductivity unstably (e.g. 20) and displayed it. In the spoil, the object is now close to the coil and shows its true value (e.g. 6). If the disc is at 10, the value 6 is silently discriminated – signal gone. Solution: set the iron volume to at least 1–2 so that these cases remain audible.

On fields with little to moderate iron: disc 3.1–5.5. This reliably rejects small nails while depth performance remains high. On clean pasture, it is even worth lowering the disc to 0–3 and searching with a reactivity of 2 – this can give up to 5–6 cm more depth.

On low-mineral ground (light sand, slate, limestone) and with a correct ground balance: yes, this is possible and gives the physical maximum of depth. On mineralised ground, however, it leads to noisy running full of false signals in which faint deep signals get lost. Here, a disc of 3–6 combined with a negative ground filter often goes deeper than full all-metal operation.

Recovery speed (reactivity) is the second big depth lever alongside the disc. The lower the reactivity, the longer a signal is analysed – which gives more depth. A low reactivity (2 or 2.5) combined with a low disc on clean ground is the strongest depth program in classic mono operation. With V4.1 and stereo headphones, Multi-Processing resolves this compromise completely: channel 1 runs fast for separation, channel 2 runs slowly for maximum depth – both at the same time.

With Stereo Multi-Processing, V4.1 brings the most important depth advance so far: you can run a deep channel (low disc, slow reactivity) and a channel with strong separation (higher disc, fast reactivity) at the same time. On top of that comes the improved static mode on channel 2 with a subtle pitch correction, which makes deep objects even easier to hear. For users without stereo headphones: V4.1 runs in mono mode like V3.1 – all disc recommendations on this page apply unchanged.