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Minelab Official Gold Monster 1000 Availability Announcement


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7 minutes ago, jasong said:

I'm trying to figure out what the excitement with this machine is, I can't see anything new or better than what we already have? Am I missing something?

Aside from having fully automatic operation, it looks like the thing that makes the GM 1000 unique in the gold nugget VLF market is it's sensitivity to a much wider range of nugget sizes and depths than any other single frequency VLF gold machine. 

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Well, from a technical perspective and just my own personal opinion, no new induction balance metal detector without a new patent number attached is going to be able to find objects that can't possibly be found with some other existing VLF type model already on the market. That would however totally discount the value placed in features and how you can rearrange those features for a better user experience.

Example - my old cell phone made phone calls as well as my new cell phone. But my new cell phone has some usability features that make me prefer it over my old cell phone.

The key thing I would focus on with the Gold Monster 1000 is the potential of a higher frequency induction balance detector coupled with Minelabs state of the art ground tracking technology. High frequency machines are more responsive to hot ground and hot rocks and generally require more expertise to operate in tough conditions. The GM1000 is aimed at total novice detectorists with the goal of making them able to achieve professional level results with minimum effort. Here is the key marketing quote:

"The GOLD MONSTER 1000 turns beginners into experts with fully automatic operation in an easy-to-use, high performance detector."

Whether that appeals to you or not is up to you to decide. And at the risk of sounding flippant, it is a new toy. Lots of us like new toys!

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7 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I wonder if in this age of microprocessor controlled metal detectors this means we will see one upmanship in marketing like with the old PC ads touting processor speed?

I wonder what "24 bit signal processor" really means, and if it is actually new.  The lead in to that bullet point in the ICMJ ad is "Faster Processor", but it doesn't say what it is faster than.  Just because it has a 24 bit highway doesn't necessarily mean it's fast, although that's usually the reason for the bigger pipeline -- to get data in quickly so it can be processed quickly.

Here is an excerpt from volume 4 of Fisher Research Labs World Treasure News (2013) in an article written by First Texas engineer Jorge Saad titled "The new Gold Bug History":

In threshold mode the Gold Bug has its composite gain/threshold control on a single knob, just like the Omega.  It has a unique variable discrimination tone break setting, pinpoint operation with approximate depth reading and retune capability, TID reading and signal strength bar graph.  Speaking of TID, 13 bit A-to-D to 24 bit A-to-D made these routines much more powerful; it has been reported that the Gold Bug is noticeably more accurate than its predecessors IDing faint targets.

It sounds like he's talking about the discriminator side with that 24 bit A/D converter, so I don't know if this is an apples to apples comparison or not.  BTW, you can find this article on the Fisher website, but when I tried to download the .pdf to my browser it crashed so I wasn't able to link that here.  But the parent link is: 

http://www.fisherlab.com/hobby/product-resources.htm

 

 

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The inevitable push for tech products to go backwards and lose functionality in favor of appealing to a wider audience...

I personally hope that isn't all we see as far as innovation goes with detectors now. Are we getting to that point, like we are seeing with computers where of the updates and new releases tend to be concentrating on "user experience" rather than raw power and configurability? 

Of course this is just one release, but there were echos of this philosophy in the GPZ and certainly the SDC design too. Maybe it's a good thing when it comes to detectors, I guess I'll sit back and see. I just hope we still see some effort in developing more power rather than just concentrating on a good UI experience from here on out.

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Equating complexity with power is not always be true. I see no value in complexity for complexity sake. Give me a detector with an on/off knob that outperforms everything else and I want it. The key is getting the performance and if that can be done without sixteen interacting settings, all the better.

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Right, I don't think anyone would disagree if such a machine existed. But my point is that once companies start down this path, often the focus only becomes the user experience itself and any other innovation halts because it's easier and cheaper to do that instead and keep selling new models with minimal research invested. It's a rut that few companies ever get out of, happens all the time in the tech world.

In the end you rarely end up with a machine with 1 setting that "just works". You end up with 1 setting that kinda works in some situations and doesn't work at all in others where you really need a 2nd knob, but each new release just gives you a redesigned knob style and a new color rather than making it actually work better. Because it's cheaper and people will buy something because it's now stainless steel and not black plastic, and next year because it's black plastic and not stainless steel, and simply doing this over and over is more profitable than innovation.

Anyways...not saying that's what's happening. It just concerns me because it seems like there are echos of this being considered, especially considering I've only ever seen 1 truly new detector (the GPZ) released in my entire gold detecting career. Who knows, maybe this detector will surprise me, I'm just grumbling waiting for something to be profitable enough to go back detecting again.

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Going by the fact that minelab compare quality and performance based on there own existing line up, I'd imagine the new monster performance is compared to the Eureka gold which it will replace...

If the monsters performance is better than said Eureka gold I think it will be quite impressive or atleast having the ease of use that every user will get the full use of its performance' unlike the Eureka gold' very few men knew how to shake the power out of it especially in bad ground.

id imagine it will still take user skill to determine those small tackers at depth in hot soil.... iv been wrong before tho.

 

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Actually thinking about getting one and hitting some of the mountain streams here in southwestern Virginia.  Wonder how it would do for ring hunting?

 

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On 4/30/2017 at 10:47 AM, Lunk said:

Aside from having fully automatic operation, it looks like the thing that makes the GM 1000 unique in the gold nugget VLF market is it's sensitivity to a much wider range of nugget sizes and depths than any other single frequency VLF gold machine. 

Except the gm 1000 is not unique.

White's GMT operates at 48kHz so it is in the same range.

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Over on Rob's forum Rob himself is saying he has a large shipment has come in but until he can pick it up who knows. He thinks it may be the GM 1000 but won't know till Monday. Like Minelab said come Monday the GM 1000 would be out.

I'd call this a positive note.

Chuck

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