Steve Herschbach

Sorry to hear about your issue. Honestly, making a detector with wireless coils then requiring a wire to make the coil work is a silly design. Give me regular wired coils any day, double that if for underwater use.

You get no manual in the box when you buy a Manticore, just a Quick Start Guide, but you can download a full pdf manual online. Yet 10 months after the last software update, the manual does not mention any of the updates at all. I get that not printing and giving us a manual saves Minelab money, but the one benefit we could get from that is an updated manual when changes occur. When new models ship that already are updated, will new owners downloading this old manual even know that some of these new features exist? In the past there was also an actual pdf that outlined the update details but now we don’t even get that. Best there is now is an “official” YouTube video apparently farmed out to a third party. Stabilizer - All-Terrain Multi IQ - Reduces falsing on iron in heavy iron sites with mild ground mineralization - Adds a tonal nuance to iron to help distinguish good targets from iron - not recommended in normal conditions. Can only be used while in Multi-IQ and in an All-Terrain Search Mode. Stabilizer Filter - Makes the audio weaker and thinner on targets affected by stabilizer Red Target ID - All Metal Mode Only - Target ID is red if iron is detected New Options in the Softkey Menu: Speaker Mute/Unmute Search Mode Recovery Speed Frequency Sensitivity Boost Clear ID Map Flashlight ON/OFF Display Brightness Goldfield Mode – Fixed an issue with small gold sensitivity & discrimination depth. All Audio Themes are now available in Goldfield Mode Beach Mode - Ground Balance has been improved for dry sand. Default Recovery Speed in Beach Low Conductors and Beach Deep have been increased to 4 Audio Boost for Underwater Headphones Default settings for Tone Pitch for Targets IDs in the Coke range changed from 2 to 1 in All Terrain Fast, All Terrain Low Conductors and All Terrain High Conductors UI Languages support added under General Settings (Czech and Hindi added, minor updates to other languages)

All I know is if you run the updater, which claims to have the latest update, you end up with 6.20.0 +73 There is an older 6.16.0-3.71 in a screenshot but I’ve not seen the one you are referring to.

I did get the machine only when the 5x8 became available as I like small coils for noodling in the trash. And with Manticore I know it will be a small coil with depth as good as some other detectors large coils. In that regard no big deal. But that does not mean I don't want the 11" coil I paid for! It will still be the coil to use in less target rich areas.

Well, just the 11" coil but if that's all I had I'd be seriously irritated. As it is the reason I got the detector was the 5x8 coil finally being available, so I got both at the same time. The 11" coil worked for two seconds, then gave a Coil Disconnected Shutting Down error. Disconnected and reconnected several times same result. 5x8 coil works fine. Did the software update with the 5x8 coil and did a reset. 11" coil still acting like it is not connected, 5x8 coil working fine. Probably a bad chip in the coil. Luckily I had the spare coil or I'd not know if it was the coil or the detector. I just sent an email to Minelab Service 3:30pm today so I will update with how the process goes with getting the coil replaced.

Yup, it's make an offer - see the Fisher Forum for a few deals people have been getting. If you offer too low they will counter offer. In fact if you are logged into eBay and simply look at the page, you probably will get an offer. This way they are not breaking their own MAP rules. Impulse AQ is listed at $1999 guy offered $1200 and they countered with $1300, which he took. $700 discount and free shipping. $200 under the super duper introductory price that only the first 100 buyers were supposed to get.

Nobody is blaming them for an anniversary since nobody including Minelab cares. It’s just a marketing tool and not why they are blowing the Manticore out the door at deep discount. I’ve been too deeply involved in how the corporate world works to be anything but cynical about stuff like this. They are not anyone’s friend and not doing anyone any favors. It’s all pure cold hard business calculations at work.

I'd love to see the whole new lineup. But it smacks of liquidation sales in that they are burning bridges with dealers. That and seems like most of marketing was fired or quit. None of that is laying groundwork for a big release, but I could be wrong and hope I am.

Assuming it’s an overstock you get that inventory down and get very cautious bringing in more. In my business inventory control was every bit as important as sales. That’s cash on the shelf and you can go broke sitting on dead money. Reality bites in business and if the Manticore is not selling as hoped it may need a price reduction. More likely they flush the overstock and things go back to normal, albeit with lower sales. No gravy train last forever and all businesses have ups and downs. If the down gets severe enough you lay people off and/or close facilities. I think hard times and hard choices are coming in metal detector land. Tesoro is gone, White’s is gone, First Texas likely to be the next exiting the business.

I doubt it has anything to do with the Storm. I worked sales all my life and you only do something like this when you find your inventory is way out of whack. Minelab USA must have vastly overestimated demand for the detector and got caught with a warehouse full. So more likely that Deus 2 and Legend had an impact than worrying about a detector that is vapor so far. Companies don’t give profits away for no reason and clearing an overstock fast is the only reason that makes business sense here. The fact it puts a hurt on the competition is likely just a happy side effect. That’s why you only see it happening here in the states as inventories elsewhere are probably more in line with what they should be.

I don't disagree. We all are used to things going on sale, but what is different here is the magnitude of the sale on a relatively new product. A full 30% discount. $100 or $200 off would be more the norm and a couple hundred bucks usually enough to goose sales. A discount of this magnitude does go overboard as $500 is not a trivial sum to anyone, and so the risk as you are pointing out that they are going to really piss some people off. Minelab in particular has a large number of users who like the products but really dislike the company for various reasons. If they did not maintain the technogical edge they have a lot of people would jump ship. Unfortunately metal detector users have a long history of getting mad about things, but in the end performance wins out most of the time. People complain but not enough will actually switch brands that it matters. Unless the powers that be see it hit the financial bottom line complaints will fall on deaf ears. Minelab is not alone in this at this time. First Texas (Fisher, Bounty Hunter, Teknetics) is selling factory direct on eBay at prices that actually undercut what dealers pay for the detectors. Not only are they giving dealers the finger, but anyone that bought one in the last year is now seeing people getting them for half what was paid just a short time ago. A guy just got a F75LE with two coils for $355. The value of used First Texas product is plummeting fast.

So yours is a 21 Simon? Mine is not the latest from the factory, more like a last fall model.

Under General Settings and the Software Version you will also see the Hardware Version listed. Mine is Hardware Version 21 - anyone see anything different? I'm not saying a higher number is better as I don't know what this really means. Maybe different countries have different hardware versions for some reason? But if we all have 21 then it's moot. I thought it was interesting though as usually something like hardware changes, more common than people think, are kept secret. Otherwise people tend to go nuts over it. The Gold Bug 2 for example has had many hardware changes from early days until now due to changing parts availability.

Yup. The silence is deafening. Is it so hard to just tell us what is coming and about when it will arrive? I have the attention span of a gnat and have already moved on.

Except the market is not about what any one of us desire. Fact is far more people want to see something to compete with the other top SMF, expecially since Axiom was the last release. Chances are you have to be satisfied with the SDC 2300 and me with the empty spot where my Impulse AQ was sitting.