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When it's a slow moving ship to release it gives people plenty of time to jump off, and other brands are pricing their models to encourage this. Those are lost sales.

That's mostly old ad copy being recycled, kind of like the detectors. But yeah, they have low operating costs and can continue to milk the old product for a long time, dropping prices as much as needed to keep the sales going. Especially if they sell direct cutting out middle men.

I am very tall so the D2 rod was never really long enough, and the flex was ridiculous. So, 100% worth it for me. For us seasoned beach hunters there is nothing out there that does not need some tweak to make it bullet-proof. If companies were smart, they would consult beach hunters on their equipment standards.

John is right twice over on this - if it is a good product at a good price it will sell. I've seen people complain endlessly about detecting stuff only to be first in line to buy when the time comes.

Yes it certainly does Lanny. Good on you. D4G

A fault that makes it run fine yet not be as sensitive as the competitor's coil 🙂 With the background of the story behind it they had the opportunity to replace it if they thought it was faulty, but how would that go when the replacement arrives and I put up videos of it in comparison again being no better? Better to leave that shadow of doubt in people's heads than take that path. Anyway, old story, new story is people who have the same X-coil have since had the same results, you can check on the X-coils facebook group with the users if you like. NF are excellent at making spiral coils, had they been able to make the Z-search a spiral I'm sure it would be different story.

But.... what if it was faulty? You will never know now. I also wonder that the people that go on about the Z Search, have they tried any X coils? If not, then they will never know either. So, does it become an us & them thing? D4G

That's why you made such a good detector tester Steve, don't mind telling it how it is even if feelings get hurt. I'd rather someone that picks on every possible little flaw testing my detectors than someone that's out to please and trying to ensure they continue to have the testing role in the future. I'm quite sad to see the tide turn on Garrett on social media after this Storm event, and it did go from excitement to resentment. Fan groups have turned against them because of this delayed marketing method.

Time... aren't you on holiday? Connections.... most places you stay at will have free wifi. Even MacDonald's has free wifi. D4G

How about a nugget or two? I am sure he would like that more than a flake or two. If detecting fails you could take him panning down the Arrow or by the Oxenbridge Tunnel on the Shotover & almost be guaranteed a flake or two from my experience. D4G

Correct, I thought it was a lemon because it lacked performance compared to the 12" Spiral I was comparing it to, it works fine, but is virtually no more sensitive than the stock coil. The previous owner had X-coils and bought it to compare, had it a couple of weeks and sold it to me as he didn't see a need to have it, it came with receipt I could have sent it in for warranty, he could have swapped it out at the dealer it was so new but neither of us think its faulty, we just think it's not as good for performance. It was a given that a shadow of doubt would be put over my coil being faulty as I was putting up videos showing it lacking performance compared to the competitors right as it first came out. There is a story to go with this but I'll not put it here.

From my understanding he got one 2nd hand, considered it a lemon & chopped the chip end off it to make an adapter for his X coils. There was a long standing debate from JP that it may have been a faulty coil from production but Phrunt just roasted it & gave it no 2nd chances. D4G

Yes, I have the 12" Z-Search, had it since it first came out, if we ignore the CC's as they're vastly different and we go 12' X-Coil vs 12' Z-Search the stand out factor is of course the 12" X-coil is a spiral coil, the Z-Search is a bundle wound coil the same as the stock GPZ coil, so that's the main difference. It's also why I don't understand people saying the 12" NF is far more sensitive than the 14x13" stock coil, they're both the same windings, only slightly smaller coil and from all my testing they're very similar on small gold sensitivity just like jumping up a size on X-coil is, such as the 8" is very similar to the 10" X-coil for sensitivity, both bundle wound coils due to their smaller size. If you have used a Spiral coil on the older GPX, and then used a bundle coil of the same size you would have a bit of an idea of the difference in sensitivity or you could use something like the 12' EVO vs the 11' Commander for an example. The Commander being smaller should be more sensitive, yet it's nowhere near it. Somewhere on Youtube I did a video showing the 12" Spiral detecting a small bit of gold under rocks, then I showed the Z-Search doing the same, the Z-Search was very disappointing compared to the 12" Spiral. I also did a shotgun pellet test between the two in another video, again vast difference in performance. This is only for someone that cares about small gold. As gold gets bigger the two coils probably even out a bit...

Yea, I'm a little peeved about buying a Manticore in Feb 2024 for $1699 and seeing it on sale two months later for $1199! Well, it has paid for itself several times, already (yes, in 2 months). But still! Hmmm, I currently have an 800 as back-up but warranty will soon expire and I've drowned 3 over past 4 years...Haven't drowned the Manticore, yet, but it is good for 6 meters. Perhaps a good time to consider another Manticore for back-up, particularly because of water.... Perhaps this is an opportunity instead of a curse...

After the second week, I'm still a newbie with this machine, but apparently, applying the basic good principles the results are yet on another level. There's a place where I hate to dive, due to terrible shaped rocks that can destroy elbows and knees if a minimum wave push me against it when I'm in between and searching. The fact is that those traps helps to keep the stuff really good. This stretch of a private beach it is made of solid rocks more than moving boulders and with some erosion affecting the spot, it means really few brave people able to swim and as a direct consequence, nothing to search after the summer... But, I tried again today after being there months ago with every detector I have in my shed and surprise surprise 🫢... I named trust building this post cause the two gold pieces I pulled up downthere are a clear evidence of a better time management during the session. This morning I tuned the Manticore to be scary quiet and just stopped the few times a pure "non iron" signal it was requiring attention. The number of people that searched in this spot since always, left so few targets to listen that most of Us never even talk about or try to go again...It just don't worth the effort... Well, the picture proves different🫢. I'm not overjoying and I recognize the small M8 advantage between tight crevices, but after the 6" and the Ctx... Here's the moment when I can say goodbye to my old trusted sniper rifle.... I never tought this could happen one day...

Price is a little more than half of what I purchased one for in Jan. of 2014 but included Doc's battery system and 4 coils. Given inflation and all, 10 years, perhaps 20% de-valuation of the dollar, still less than 5K seems to me not to bad. Cool that Minelab came up with some for the US market.

It was registered online here https://register.minelab.com/index.html#/form/product It appears maybe he looked for warranty under the email address I used to report the issue which was different than that used to register the detector. Or that's my guess anyway as to why he could not find it. That makes little sense though as all records should be by serial number as it is the product that is under warranty, not the owner. The same serial number would track claims under multiple owners assuming the product changed hands while under warranty. I did supply my serial number, name, address, and phone number in the orignal report so it should have been easy to find. The good news is I got an answer back within the hour after sending my registration confirmation copy, along with an RMA number. I of course get to pay the shipping to send back the defective coil, always a happy feeling. Coil shipped 4/26 USPS Ground 12"x12"x4" 1 lb 12 oz $9.99 expected delivery 4/30 to: Minelab Americas Inc 3565 Butterfield Rd. Unit 121 Aurora, IL 60502

Yeah, I found that out when the main battery went bad on my year old 900. At least they aren't too expensive or difficult to install.

Ditto. I played around a bit with both the Deep Target settings and Beast mode, but otherwise have been sailing along in the usual Park M1 or M3. Performance seems unaffected by the beta updates.

OK, Simon. I know you often identify detectors in photos, on TV shows, etc. I see three here. What's your conclusion of the model families? (IMO, one is easy; I have a guess for one, but the third I have no clue.) Others should chime in, too. I just address Simon because it was his post and I know he's done similar ID'ing previously.

15 inch evo rarely leaves my 5000

I would have thought for sure you would have said the 14 inch round.

Hi Ron, Going back to early SD thru the GPX 5000, my favorite overall size was the 14x9 elliptical. I found it was sensitive enough to small gold, covered a fair amount of ground per swing and still maintained decent depth. Over the years this coil was either the Coiltek Goldstalker or Coiltek Elite or NF Advantage or EVO. On the GPZ 7000, my favorite overall coil for prospecting is the NF 12" Z Search Round. This coil is much lighter than stock 14x13. If I think their is potential for depth, then stock or NF 17x13 Z Search. On my GPX 6000, my favorite is the NF 12x7 Exceed Mono Searchcoil. You can still find very small gold with the stock 11" Mono for sure, but you get a bit of an edge in my opinion on small gold with the NF 12x7. What most need to consider when purchasing any detector is not only looking at the unit itself, but what is also available out there for it, aftermarket coils and accessories. Minelab has always been the main detector that everyone want to build stuff for, whether that is headphones, signal enhancers, speakers, control box covers, battery systems and a huge amount of searchcoils options that many other manufactures will not ever have. Just my thoughts, Rob

'Disappointing' is too mild of a description for this. I assume you are dealing with Minelab of the Americas. But also presumably the data you uploaded went to an all-encompassing international (headquarters) database? If ML keeps shooting themselves in the foot they soon won't have a leg to stand on....

I agree that most of us are not 'rational' most of the time. Someone "important" at Codan's sales projections have proven to be over optimistic! I like the old saw "Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is king".