is the dicrimination level affected by the ground?

[Koala]

On the old analogue machines I always thought that the ground balance affects the discrimination.


However I was using my 1265 at the beach. This has a fixed ground balance.


Heard a slight noise. I could see something on the surface. Turning the discrimination from 5 to 3 and it gives a nice beep. At home it discs way past the normal 5 at 7. Item was half a two piece button


Is this normal.

[Davor]

It is a bit complicated to explain, but that's normal.

Old machines usually have GB and All metal phase bumped together. There are a few examples where all metal is separated from GB, say King Cobra, but otherwise at high GB settings traditional IBs behave erratic. Especially so at beaches, where ground response is at about foil response. In such cases ground heavily influences discrimination.