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New Minelab Gold Monster 1000


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Guest Jennifer

I have a couple comments I would love to share but I believe we're still bound by the NDA we signed before going into the presentation... my lips are sealed till they hit the street :(

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Hope that time comes soon. The chart they show is a little vague in ways. 

It apears to beat other current gold detectors in "sensitivity" to gold but that looks to be in a very narrow range of nugget size.  

Bryan

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It's a marketing chart, simply illustrating 45 kHz as a nice compromise frequency between 18 khz and 71 khz. Frequency choice in a single frequency detector is always a trade off. What you gain on one end you lose on the other. The trick is to try and pick what is "just right" for the desired goal. Trust me, the GM1000 will detect larger gold!

Click to enlarge...

minelab-gold-monster-1000-45-khz-operating-frequency-compared-large.jpg

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Right - if you look at the chart and not pay close attention, it does kind of look like the curves means that the GM1000 will not see larger gold. After all, on the tiny end of things there is a size so small that it wont see tiny bits - every detector has that sort of limitation. If you read it that way too literally, you'd almost think no VLF could detect a large multi-ounce nugget - but that is not the case.

Instead, I think the chart is more to indicate the sizes for which the detector is optimized for. The concept being that the GM1000 is optimized for a wider range of targets in the small gold end of nugget sizes. Like Steve says, there are always choices to be made and trade offs in the design of metal detectors. The engineers who design metal detectors always have certain product goals in mind - different goals result in different kinds of detectors. I think the chart is showing that optimizing over a wide range was an important goal. I am sure that the GM1000 will see larger gold  just like other VLFs - no problem there.

minelab-gold-monster-1000-45-khz.jpg

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I wasn't worried about it finding bigger gold. My thinking on the chart was that if it only out performs current gold detectors on the market in 0.1 to 0.9 gram range, would it be worth buying if you already own for example a Gold Racer like myself. 

There is definitely other features about the detector that make it attractive besides it performance though. 

Bryan

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Frequency creates a kind of base level sensitivity to smaller targets, with higher frequencies being more sensitive to small stuff. However, the transmit power does matter as does the sensitivity of the receiving circuit - just compare a 1987 Gold Bug at 19 kHz to a modern 19 kHz Gold Bug to see the difference between low gain and high gain detectors. It is not all about frequency by a long shot. Coil design is extremely important. Perhaps most important of all is the method and efficiency of the ground balance system. There are a lot of ingredients that go into making a detector work well at high frequencies in mineralized ground, and so far only a handful of detectors have done it well. The absolute truth is Minelab will have done the best they can, but nobody can say for sure how the machine will prove out overall until thousands of users around the world put it to use. No small number of testers will ever equal the real world as the final judge of what stands the test of time, and what ends up going by the wayside.

Having said all that, it is still just a single frequency VLF detector. Minelab is not going to put a detector on the market at $799 that outperforms its higher priced units. Detector models slot in at specific price and performance positions in a manufacturer lineup. Minelab is sending a strong message of what to expect by saying the GM1000 is replacing the Eureka Gold. It is obviously priced to go head to head with the Gold Bugs, Racers, GMT, and Lobo type detectors. The bar Minelab has to clear is not in beating other Minelab detectors but having a compelling offering versus the direct competition.

This is a 3 lb. hot 45 kHz VLF with automatic ground tracking, iron disc, two coils, and rechargeable Li-Ion battery system for $799. Compare to a White's 48 kHz GMT at $729 + 6" round coil at $139 + NiMH battery & charger at $135 for $1003. The 56 kHz Makro Gold Racer Pro Pack is about the same package at $899. A Gold Bug Pro dual coil pack is $749 without rechargeable batteries. Considering this is a Minelab - extremely competitive pricing. I am sure everyone thought the GM1000 would be more expensive.

Consider this - the machine is designed to use a broomstick as a rod assembly. It could be sold in Africa with just the control box and 5" coil, no rod, just mounting hardware, and an empty AA pack for very little, and fit in a box that costs next to nothing to ship. They could easily undercut even a base $499 Gold Bug. Brilliant really. I expect they are going to sell a zillion of these around the world.

Click images for larger versions...

minelab-gold-prospecting-detectors-2017.jpg

minelab-gold-monster-1000-with-box-contents.jpg

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 "Minelab is not going to put a detector on the market at $799 that outperforms its higher priced units. "

Exactly!

They can put out a unit that detects gold in a different way.

After all this is just a single frequency VLF machine. The frequency of the detector isn't all that important if you can't defeat ground mineralization better than what's already out on the market. Pick a frequency 19, 30, 45, 71. That's been done. They all work on gold. 

Hopefully Minelab has done that with this Detector. 

I still think it needs a threshold 

 

 

 

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I used to swear automatic tracking was a bad idea. Then I got my hands on the SDC 2300. Whether the GM1000 has a threshold or not is not important if it gets the job done. I do prefer a threshold because that has what has worked for me in the past. No saying what the future brings however.

I would not mind a machine that was just dead quiet and went beep on gold if I was confident I was giving up nothing to have that happen. I am convinced that anything I can discern with my ear should be possible with the proper signal processing if you can afford to throw enough processing power at it. Threshold style detecting will probably go the way of the 8 track one of these days.

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