Chase Goldman

Said like a true detector addict in denial, Simon. And being one myself, I don’t believe a word of it.

I did, that's why I paraphrased you in my post. Basically, it's not the tool you chose to use that necessarily makes the most difference (although in some environments, like salt water and hot dirt, specific tools may not cut it) but how and where you use it. Totally agree with that, Garrett's personalized customer service in the US is unrivaled.

Good point regarding the ground conditions. Some detectors that do great on neutral ground, cannot handle that environment, requiring a different tool, usually a PI.

Knowing how Minelab will typically react, I say we call it...wait for it... THE NOKTA LITIGATOR No other detector can do it justice!

At the time Apex came out, Apex was not only the least expensive simultaneous multifrequency (SMF) detector it was also the least expensive detector featuring selectable single frequencies and I praised Garrett for finally showing up to the party with a compelling Detector to go toe to toe with Minelab. It was at the time a great value for a very capable detector. Garrett was transparent regarding what user expectations should be regarding its capabilities by appropriately associating it with the Ace product line. I considered it to be more than an Ace level but not quite as feature rich (and obviously not waterproof) like the AT series. Make no bones about it, though, the Ace series doesn't mean "entry level" and "lacking performance" it mainly means simple to operate and great value. As you say, Bob, detecting is more about having a decent site (location) and getting your coil over the target (coverage) and being proficient with and confident in whatever detector you use and less about cost and features, bells, and whistles. I grant you that when XP then came out with its SMF answer with the D2 and it's typical stratospheric pricing, especially compared to the Equinox and Apex it was fair to highlight the huge cost Delta to make an argument for comparative value. But 3 years later, it is kind of a stale argument, for two reasons. One was already pointed out but you appear to have dismissed it. Namely, there are a myriad of significantly less expensive and capable D2 configurations centered around the WS6 as the master controller. This highlights one of the most significant strengths of the D2 platform which is wireless component interoperability and reconfigurability which allows the end user to optimize value, capability, or weight as they see fit. But I'm not here to force you to eat a croissant you don't want, I just wanted to point that out for context. The second reason I would not necessarily beat the Apex value/cost drum too loudly is that Nokta came along and blew everyone out of the water with their price point for the Legend SMF, basically an Equinox 800 Plus for half the cost...with a great selection of accessory coils. And they continue to update its firmware with more capability and features to this very day. Again, I am not saying any one detector is "better" than the other here, just commenting on this whole cost, value, "3x this", "4x that", focus. Cost and value are important but each major brand offers SMF detectors (XP and Minelab included) at price points similar to Apex for their various SMF offerings. Therefore, using cost as an argument for or against is a point that is easy to undercut regardless of whatever detector you are talking about. At this point with SMF detectors basically having similar performance capabilities, hair splitting seems to be the main MO for touting one detector over the other. Getting back to basics, the best detector is the one you want to use and do use most frequently. After all the hot air I just expelled, I am very excited to see Garrett's answer to Apex. Hopefully, the gathering "Storm" at Garrett will wow me as much as the Apex and Axiom product ammouncements once did.

Iron ID/Disc/Blanking

Progress, but lets not get too optimistic on the timeline. The last time we went through a Nokta naming contest, the Legend showed up 3 years later. Contest started September 2018 Name picked September 2020 Detector Announced Summer 2021 Detector Released December 2021 Perhaps they learned not to draw this out as much this time....

What TNSS is saying is that if you have Relic set up to give you a pure iron signal in the nail/nickel/swing configuration shown (as expected when you swing down the barrell of the nail) and then you transition to any other program (other than Gold Field) and then return to relic, you will get intermittent non-ferrous audio and TIDs (that don't correspond to the nickel TID, they look to be in the high 80's when I was able to catch a glimpse of the screen). Indicating that perhaps IAR has been altered which may be causing iron falsing or some other unknown bug/issue. Anyway, despite several attempts with the same setup, I have not been able to replicate TNSS's "bug" at all. Not even close. I can make blips occur with certain coil edge manipulations (even without transitioning out of Relic) but with a normal swing down the barrel of the nail, solid iron tone and ID no matter how many transitions out of relic or other non-relic program adjustments I do. Maybe he has a coil issue or a buggy install. Though Jeff's statement that TNSS has seen this on previous versions, indicates it may not be unique to ver 2.00, pointing again to perhaps a TNSS unique hardware or configuration issue. I don't have the "issue" and really am not losing sleep over it, regardless based on my tests and hundreds of successful hours on v 2.0 Relic Program (yes, it's my "Go To" program). And I do a lot of target interrogation which has me frequently transition out of relic. I would be interested to know if anyone else has been able to replicate it (other than the one or two folks who commented on his channel who said they saw it too). I'm actually kind of surprised by people just taking these findings (mine included) at face value as gospel rather than proving to themselves whether they are present for their specific setups based on how simple the test is to set up and run. Especially since they may manifest differently for different combinations of equipment and targets. Without additional replication by other D2 experienced folks, I'm attributing this something unique with TNSS's gear. Whatever the case, TNSS has done the right thing and has passed this on to XP to sort out and address, if necessary. XP has not acknowledged an issue but they are looking into it at TNSS's request.

Not a good pinpointer. The 40 is not much better.

So do I. I like to use a specific set of phones for detecting so the WM09 allows that.

You won't get any coil interference but Garrett Zylnk is underpowered and very sensitive to placement of the TX and RX as body shadowing of the wireless signal causes dropouts. Make sure you wear the RX on the side of your body that faces the TX module (i.e., wear the RX on the same side of your body as the arm you swing your detector). And make sure the TX is not line of sight blocked by the GPX control box.

At this point I just carry a backup charge bank. They're inexpensive, power dense which makes them compact enough to slip in a pocket and are versatile enough to be used to recharge any of your devices on the go. I'm basically done dealing with single use disposable batteries.

It's ridiculously difficult. That's why I had high hopes for the magic holster, but it's wonky.

My recommendation is the XP MI4 or the Nokta Accupoint. I have the XP MI6 which wirelessly integrates with the XP Deus and Deus 2 and it is the most sensitive, easily adjustable, and reliable pinpointer I've owned when integrated with the Deus. The MI4 is the equivalent to the MI6 but without the wireless connectivity to the Deus so it can be used standalone with any detector. I also like and own a Nokta Accupoint. It's ferrous/non-ferrous ID tone works OK and as others have mentioned above, its visual display facilitates easy feature selection setup and sensitivity adjustments. But it is noticeably less sensitive than both my XP and Garrett Carrot pinpointers. At $20US less than the Accupoint, I consider the XP to be a better value. The Accupoint backs up my XP MI6. I have also used the Quest Xpointer Max with the Magic Holster that automatically wakes the pinpointer when you remove it from the Holster via a magnetic switch. I think the Nokta is better overall vs. the Quest in terms of sensitivity, less falsing at max sensitivity, controls (the on/off button is overly stiff and the Magic Holster feature is hit or miss), and I think the ferrous/nonferrous tone discrimination works better on the Nokta than the Quest. So even at about $10US less than the Nokta Accupoint, I recommend the Accupoint over the Quest Xpointer Max. But recommend the XP MI4 overall. HTH

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