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XP Orx For Gold Nugget Detecting?


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Well, I tried to stir the pot but it looks like gold prospectors are giving the Orx a pass. Almost zero mention on prospecting forums. It’s getting some positive commentary from coin and relic hunters however so I am thinking the Orx is going to end up being a Deus alternative for those purposes more than a nugget machine.

xp-orx-controller-lcd-display.jpg.f7cb1b
XP ORX controller

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I thought about picking one up, but at the price point, all it really has to offer versus similar detectors is the insanely light weight. The VLF market is incredibly saturated, unless you're offering something novel, what reason is there to buy? I don't see any reason to rush out and buy a new detector year after year. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

the ORX looks like a great detector if you don't already have the Deus (like me) with a high frequency coil. I can't see selling my Deus and buying an ORX just for the warranty.......otherwise my out of warranty Deus has everything the ORX has and a lot more. I'm taking it with me to AZ next week for some prospecting (along with my Nox 800 and GPX 4800). I've got to get out of snowy, frozen Denver for awhile. Reading forums and doing back porch testing is definitely getting a bit old!

Jeff

 

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  • 2 months later...
18 hours ago, Rivers rat said:

Love the aussie accent!!!!!!!!!!!

Hang on, what?  We don't have an accent???  ??

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1 hour ago, Northeast said:

Hang on, what?  We don't have an accent???  ??

Crikey, on ya NE, we just get a wee excited around that heavy stuff.

 

 

 

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  • 5 months later...

Disregard the previous post by me. Sold my Deus due to lack of ID normalization with the HF coils and I could barely see the mineralization bar which I want to be able to see when I'm gold prospecting. Also I just don't like the Deus audio. I know it tells me a lot but it is SOOOOOO scratchy and ugly. That's just me, for the rest of you it may sound absolutely beautiful!.

I had XP seller's remorse and picked up the new ORX. I have been struggling with the audio on it too. I ditched the supplied wireless back phones since they hurt my big head after about 45 minutes. I have two sets of Deteknix/Quest wireless modules and head phones which are much more comfortable AND mellow the ORX audio enough for me to detect all day with them and the ORX. Also, I sold the HF elliptical coil and went with the new X35 9" coil. It is definitely making the ORX a better coin and jewelry detector since the X35 has the much more versatile five different frequency ranges instead of the three on the HF coils. It may just be me but the X35 coil seems to have cleaned up the audio a bit and also seems a little hotter than the HF coils.

So..........in my opinion (I still do not like the audio by the way)

-----The ORX is a pretty good coin and jewelry detector.........

-----The ORX is an excellent relic detector in heavily infested iron sites, in open fields with or without lots of iron in Coin Fast, Coin Deep or the Gold modes.

I am finding out through testing and two days in Colorado gold fields recently that the ORX with the X35 9" coil is a very good prospecting detector. It has no trouble hitting hard on small gold .2 grams or slightly less down to about 4" here and will hit hard on larger gold and non ferrous targets with the 27.7 kHz setting on the X35 9" coil. I have compared it in the field with the Equinox 800 and the Makro Gold Kruzer.  At 27.7 kHz, in Gold 1 and Gold 2, the ORX does just as well as those two excellent detectors in their Gold Modes (NOX) and Gen mode (Kruzer). By the way, don't hesitate to use the other three discrimination modes on the Gold Kruzer for prospecting if you have one. I have seen very little difference in depth of detection for small gold nuggets between all 4 modes on the Gold Kruzer except for the Boost mode which is a beast for gold prospecting!!! Like the Nox, those three discrimination modes on the Gold Kruzer have lots of helpful features for gold prospecting that are not available in the Gen mode.

 There are several methods of iron recognition on the ORX for prospecting. You can hunt with Iron Volume OFF, Iron Amplitude Rejection on ZERO and just use the numerical target ID numbers 0 to 15 or so and the iron probability bar and all ferrous and non-ferrous targets will sound similar depending on depth and size. You can turn the Iron Volume ON, set the IAR to 1 and listen to the iron grunt along with watching the TIDs and the probability bar. This basically makes the ORX a 2 tone detector in the Gold Modes. You can turn the Iron Volume ON and set the Iron Amplitude Rejection on 1 to 5 and the iron grunt will be minimized more and more the higher the IAR is set. At the highest setting (5) it is possible to discriminate deeper non ferrous targets however, depending on size, depth and amount of mineralization. You can also turn the Iron Volume OFF, set the IAR to where surface to shallow small iron targets or large deep iron target audio responses will just start to crackle and split (usually around setting 2 or 3) compared to non-ferrous targets which will sound really nice and use the target ID numbers and iron probability bar to help determine if the target's distorted audio response is signaling a probable ferrous target.

In regard to Steve's earlier review on page 1, the iron tone break point is only available in the Coin modes. It is movable throughout the entire target ID range. In fact, the ORX entire 3 tone audio system is somewhat similar to the Teknetics G2+ and the F19 in how it operates apart from not having any notch features. The low iron tone can be silenced by turning OFF Iron Volume. Otherwise, Iron Volume  does not have an adjustable volume control in the Coin Modes. Iron Volume can also be turned ON or OFF in the Gold modes. The Iron Amplitude Rejection settings do turn the volume down by default on the iron grunt somewhat with Iron Volume ON. So, the IAR acts as the Iron Discrimination settings adjustment in the Gold modes. There is no changing pitch -raising or lowering the tones to different pitches- adjustment for any of the three tones in any mode on the ORX. All the audio is similar to VCO in the Gold modes and sounds (to me anyway) like pitched VCO in the Coin modes.

The ORX with the HF 9" round coil and the X35 9" round coil is very comfortable to swing. With the X35 coil you can literally take the coil and lower stem off of the rest of the telescoping shaft, put the controller in your pocket if you like, and sweep the coil in all sorts of places like sides of washes, tailings piles or down into deeper crevices and holes that would be awkward with the coil attached. You can't do that as easily with the HF coils due to the battery falling out of the stem if you aren't careful. I like the round coils better for putting the ORX down in uneven terrain too, since the shape of the coil will help the ORX not fall over. It is next to impossible to keep the ORX with the HF elliptical coil from falling over even on perfectly flat ground.

I haven't run into any areas that the ORX ground grab ground balance could not handle yet. In my area, IAR set at 3 takes care of many of the hot rocks too.

So, if you are a dry land prospector, relic hunter or occasional coin and jewelry detectorist and need an easily back packable, extremely light weight, very good detector with plenty of features, AND you aren't grossed out by the squawky, farty audio, the ORX is a great choice and if you shop carefully dealers are letting some bundled versions of these go for less the $600 brand new if you haggle.

Jeff

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Jeff,

The iron volume thing in gold mode on the ORX is interesting AND opens up some possibilities with the ORX that I hadn't considered before.  Deus does not have a gold field mode iron volume setting.  It is pure vco pitch audio with visual TID with selectable Iron Audio Reject which tends to break up the pitch signal.  IAR is pretty much useless to me in highly mineralized ground because at depths beyond 4 inches or so, everything looks ferrous or mixed ferrous so the IAR just breaks up the pitch signal.  If IAR as implemented on the ORX simply breaks up the iron audio grunt somewhat, that makes it very useful as a "two-tone" pitch mode like I have used on the regular discrimination modes on Deus.  Going to have to give this a run on my next relic hunt.  Thanks for pointing that out.

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