In the longitudinal wave reflection method of shallow seismic exploration, the traditional moving coil wave detector has very limited anti-interference capacity, and hence the signal-to-noise ratio of the received signal is not high. With the high damping wave detector, the signal to noise ratio can be greatly improved, and the data acquired have higher and more accurate confidence. This paper dealt with various specifications of the high damping wave detector, analyzed the feasibility and superiority of its application to the longitudinal wave reflection method in shallow seismic exploration, described a series of relevant experiments, and gave an engineering example concerning the search for faulted zones. A comparison with other types of wave detectors shows that the high damping wave detector has higher precision and signal-to-noise ratio, and is hence obviously better than the traditional wave detectors.