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Another 2022 Release From Minelab?


☠ Cipher

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They have updated ML100 headphones going into something that is coming out soon. It would be an incredible letdown to have those in any kind of new expensive prospecting machine IMO, and I think I made that clear enough a year ago with my numerous comments here which ML surely read. I would have a hard time believing they would go into a new GPZ. They don't appear to updating the 6000 headphones, they aren't for the Manticore either, so it seems likely they made a new version that communicates with an Equinox, or something like that. 

I could see them as an "upgrade" to the ML80's in a new Equinox 2 updated lineup though. And those Equinoxes "come in twos" ala 600 and 800.

As much as I'd love to see a new prospecting machine, this one looks a lot like 2 new Equinoxes being announced. I'd love to be wrong though and see 2 new prospecting machines instead though.

I'm actually pretty surprised we didn't see ML respond quick to the Axiom by dropping the price on the GPZ and 6000 to compete with it a month or more ago (they dropped the 7000 from $10,600 to $8000 right quick back in 2016 or something), and then announcing a new GPZ now to put the nail in the coffin. Their profit margin on those machines is disgusting, it's not like they couldn't have easily done that if they chose. Chin scratcher to me.

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3 hours ago, Calmark said:

I think maybe with the Axiom in the works and just out, ML may have added a lighter weight battery conversion upgrade so the gpx 5000 can lose the harness and curly cord to the battery brick.  They did similar to the SDC giving it a lithium-ion pack.

That would make it lighter and more portable and compete more with the Axiom. Imagine if they put the 5k on a telescopic CF shaft too and priced at $2995...

That's a good point, they could lighten up the 5000 with a lipo battery in a slightly modified housing to fit the battery which gets rid of the curly cable (extra weight) And the bum battery along with a carbon telescopic shaft and a new light weight ice cream container design Commander "spiral" mono coil and ice cream container Commander DD coil and they have a good answer to the Axiom right there.   Cheap for them to do that, surely they'd be able to knock up a flat wound mono coil by now to include with it in the new light weight GPX 5000 housing.  It'd hardly weigh much more than the GPX 6000 if they did that. 

If they were able to lighten up the electronics a bit with modern components they might even be able to shrink the box a bit, A lipo battery may even fit in the existing housing, a bit of room in there.  I always felt the housing helped keep the weight off the coil and the early GPX was quite light to swing, especially on a carbon shaft with a lighter coil.  Add bluetooth LL or Bluetooth LE and they've got a great detector.  Add another timing or two and it'd be even better.

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Well, here we are, Dec 1, clock ticking until 1:30 Pacific Standard Time. Actually the 2nd in half the world, so shows where the focus is with this, if Minelab is going to slight everyone in Oz as not being worthy. "No, no silly blokes, we meant Dec 1 in the US" But then they go and confuze us dumb yanks with their backwards dating system 1-12-22. Or maybe they really did mean January 12 and the joke is on us! :laugh:

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2022 AT 1:30 PM PST

Good Things Come In Twos

317730189_8649905418382932_5847970698416
 

P.S. Yes those are 2s not Zs, Minelab logo turned on edge to be a 2. People sure are desperate for a Z replacement. :smile:

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14 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

well, here we are, Dec 1, clock ticking...... ???

On another thread here it was mentioned that the announcement is (if I remember right) 3:30 PM CST (i.e. Chicago time).  Or is it 3:00 PM...??  Anyway, you USA Pacific Time Zone detectorists get it 2 hours earlier, you lucky dogs.  :laugh:

Pretty sure someone also said that's 8:30 (or 8:00) in the morning in some part of Australia (probably the Eastern states?) on 2nd December.   So, yes, that date was apparently meant for us spoiled Americans (North and South continents).  😁  But they also timed it to be daytime in Australia, maybe just to make it easy for the Minelab workers responsible for this to have already gotten to work?  Or is Minelab of the Americas running the show now?  :ohmy:

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11 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Well, here we are, Dec 1, clock ticking until 1:30 Pacific Standard Time. Actually the 2nd in half the world, so shows where the focus is with this, if Minelab is going to slight everyone in Oz as not being worthy. "No, no silly blokes, we meant Dec 1 in the US" But then they go and confuze us dumb yanks with their backwards dating system 1-12-22. Or maybe they really did mean January 12 and the joke is on us! :laugh:

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2022 AT 1:30 PM PST

Good Things Come In Twos

 

I was expecting to wake up this morning to banners flapping in the wind and a big parade on main street. Crickets. I kinda thought that being Australian based, there would be a leaning towards Australian times / dates, so I was looking about last night for anything. Nope

Well, there is a storm blowing in where I live and perhaps there is a parachutist out there somewhere having been blown off course trying like heck to land.   I'm hoping.  Always nice to see what Minelab has come up with. 

UtahRich

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9 hours ago, Jennifer said:

Whatever they come out with to replace the 5K or 4500/4800 for that matter, it would sure be nice if they made the next version of it be coil compatible with the GPX coils like they promised the GPX 6000 was going to be (then reneged on that promise). Some of us have thousands of $ invested in GPX coils that it would be nice to be able to continue to use, and to some it will be the deciding factor on if we EVER give up our 5k/4500's/4800's to take a risk on another new wiz bang detector. It's going to take at LEAST coil compatibility to win back some of us burnt customers loyalty (and $).

There might be reasons for you to be upset at Minelab, but let’s stick with real ones. There was never any plan for the GPX 6000 to be backwards compatible with other coils. New coils are inherent to the design. Minelab never made that promise, so can’t have reneged on it. Anything you read to that effect was speculation by somebody else, but not Minelab officially.

That said, I think a GPX 5000 stuffed in a 6000 case, with a better rod, and compatibility with the old GPX coils, is a fine idea. Call it the GPX 5500. Priced under the Axiom by $1000, it would not only undercut Axiom, but offer owners of older Minelabs a clear and affordable upgrade path, leveraged by a large base of existing coils. I’d probably get one myself. Put it in the CTX case so it’s submersible, and I would 100% be on board!

Not a bit of which will be in this presentation, which will be all about coin and relic detectors. 

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On 11/25/2022 at 3:03 PM, phrunt said:

I guess a new revised Equinox would make sense, it's been a troublesome detector build wise so much so that the competition was using it's quality problems as a way to market their better built detector.

If they did an Equinox 600 and 800 v2 with the leaking fixed and other problems resolved it might be a good idea, at the moment the competitor has a better value detector clone of the Nox built far better for less money, more for less as their marketing says.  It must be making it quite hard to sell the Nox for more money with less of a quality build and performance that is so close to the same.

They could strengthen the ears without a total redesign so older Noxes could fit the new stronger ear coils, that way they wouldn't need to make two sets of Nox coils and keep them compatible with each other, and the Pod could just be replaced with the waterproofing method they've learnt for the Manticore.

To really annoy the competition they could incorporate Bluetooth LE into it so it has the better audio than the competition and then they could ditch the WM08 to help keep the cost down.

I wouldn't be surprised if they did a Nox2 or EQX1K that just addressed the issues that've been a thorn in their rear since it was released (rod, weight distribution, headphones, leaks, etc).  Question is how many are will to pay say slightly more than the current EQX800 price?  It would have to make business sense for them.  I'm sure they have a 10% warranty reserve from each Equinox sale, and while they probably have a higher then industry standard defect rate, they can still siphon off the warranty reserve to fix platform failures before the warranty times out.

 

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26 minutes ago, Cal_Cobra said:

They could strengthen the ears without a total redesign so older Noxes could fit the new stronger ear coils

I think the Manticore has 'longer' ears than previous Minelab coils but I'm not sure.  This allows for easier compression without breakage.  

I see there is an announcement time.

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They wouldn't do it as an Equinox 1000, they'd discontinue the 600 and 800 and re-release them in a better quality version for the same price, they're losing sales at the moment, a lot of them to the Legend, they need to address this.  Nokta have made a mockery of the Nox and it's build quality, and made a detector you get more for less as their slogan says, more detector for less money.   If Minelab did fix up the Nox it would improve it's sales, and they'd have far less warranty claims to deal with in the future.  I'm frankly surprised it's taken this long.   Selling poor quality productions not only damages your reputation it also damages your bottom line.  They must lose so much money in repairs, the repairs themselves may end up quite cheap for them with replacement pods not costing much at all but the shipping costs returning them to customers and paying the service agents their fee adds up.  If someone does a claim or two during the life of their warranty that's a significant portion if not all of their profit gone.

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Just now, mn90403 said:

I think the Manticore has 'longer' ears than previous Minelab coils but I'm not sure.  This allows for easier compression without breakage.  

I'm looking for some type of announcement today.  Where?  I don't Facebook.

It will go on Youtube at some point soon, I'm sure you'll hear it here too 🙂

 

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