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My compliments to Skate on his post and I'd like to add just a little more to it. The metal detecting industry is more susceptible to speculation, both positive and negative, than any other industry I can think of. Every time a manufacturer is even remotely suspected of having a new machine coming this same pattern shows up. You get antsy, "kid on Christmas morning" folks who just can't wait, you get doomsayers who can't wait to pick the product apart, and you get others who speculate endlessly as to what the machine will do and how it will do it. For me, this is fun to follow for a little while and then I get burned out on it. It reminds me of the off season in pro sports, when for months all you get are analysts resifting the same sand over and over until the season starts. I commend Rick., Le Jag and Alexandre for sharing their info, and Steve for providing insight and also some much needed discipline to the conversation. But honestly, the only voice I really care to hear is that of Fisher to simply say when they will offer the Impulse AQ for sale. Followed by the voices of people who actually buy and use this new detector. Now that will be interesting.

I found this 1946 $2 gold coin in a pendant today. Found with a kruzer in 3 tone mode, disc3,notch 4, gain 92, pp 8 inches, GB 81, range up 25 to 27. Thanks for looking!

It seems there is a divide happening with regards to the AQ. It seems there are those who want to pick it apart to the point that if it doesn't find a ring every swing it's a failure and they just can't wait to point the finger and say I told you so. On the other side are those who are wide eyed like a kid at Christmas dreaming of how much fun it's going to be going to the beach. I've been watching the discussions here and on the other forums and depending on what side your on Rick is either a snake oil salesman or a prophet. Bottom line is if you want to know what it'll find you're going to have to buy it and go hunt and be prepared to move a lot of sand. No matter how good the detector is the detectorist has to be even better, more resilient and more willing to do the work necessary to find anything of value. If you're struggling finding gold it's simply because you're either looking in the wrong places or you haven't dug enough holes yet and the AQ won't change a bad plan or weak resolve. As for me I'm a buyer as I'm that 54 year old kid who just can't wait. I apologize if this is way off topic but it seems like things are getting beaten to death.

Hey Guys! Remember this thing that I found on Florida’s Treasure Coast a couple weeks ago and posted about? I was so disappointed there were no visible markings to link it to the1715 Spanish Fleet that sunk during a hurricane. Well, I decided to carefully try to separate the silver sandwich with a paring knife, and was successful with minimal damage. The inside surfaces were dark and thick with corrosion but I kept working on them(rubbing on wet aluminum foil did the best...very time consuming. I don’t have an electrolysis setup yet). So glad I did it! I’ve definitely found my 1st Pieces of Eight finally (1/2 Reales likely)! Minted in Mexico between 1700-1715 during Philip V’s reign in Spain, if my research is correct. They may be little, but I’m tickled pink with them! 🙂

Reading through this thread, the consensus is towards an ergonomics, lightweight, cheaper discriminating gold detector. I am hoping that ML can produce such but for me I hope they continue to produce a flagship gold detector that continues in the direction that has made ML the worlds leader in gold detection. The GPZ"8000" for me can be in the same box/shaft as it currently is, ( a lighter/ergonomic one of course if possible) the weight/ergonomics as is, is not a big issue for me, no need for incorporating a GPS unless done with say an android color sunlight screen with popular moving map software that allows downloading/uploading/saving of existing/new data offline. I have no need for discrimination, main need is for more power and GB to penetrate deeper in noisy variable ground. In the coil department I go with the consensus, a range from say 8" round/elliptical up to whatever, and ML if you can`t give us those coils let the aftermarket fellows do it, that is the one concession I ask for. The 8000 priced as ML has been tops at, to allow for R & D financing of future flagship gold detectors, a producer as all previous MLs have been. I just hope there are enough potential GPZ8000 buyers who seek the above to ensure ML produce a more powerful refined gold flagship detector as is their tradition since the mid 80s.

Most of you are aware of gold being found with detectors in NV, CA, AZ, AK and even OR or WA on occasion. But the majority (including many who live here in this geological wonder of a state) do not know much about or detect for the elusive Au in Idaho. So I've decided to share a Holiday Special with you, as it is Golden as glee can be. This little glimmer of Au comes in on my postal shipping scale at 1 pound 5.7 ounces = approx 22 oz which is then turned (if my math is correct) to 20 ozt. I did not get a specific gravity test done, but can assure you this astonishing mosaic is about 97% Au. History of this discovery. I'll not provide the name of the finder or site for security purposes. It was found with the Eureka Gold and I know many good pockets of wire gold came from the area. it was unearthed at a location already mined and was missed by the old timers. It is one of the biggest pieces of Idaho gold I myself has ever seen, but I have heard of larger pieces coming from the area. To put a twist on it and to add some beauty to this post, I'd love seeing some of your Idaho Au diggings. No worries about size, value or other as I would (and I am sure many others) enjoy seeing some more Idaho gold.

Recently the GPAA has had six shows per year, four in the US West in the Spring and two in the US East in Autumn. This year they are changing that pattern, with eleven shows all in the first five months of 2020. I haven't read their intentions but I'm sure Kevin Hoagland and crew will be explaining the strategy in their publications. I've gotta think it's good for everyone involved. I've only attended two so far but with 11 on the calendar I'll be disappointed if I can't find a way to make my third this year. Open to the public for a nominal fee ($5 ahead of time and $10 at the door).

I'm the 73 year old kid on the Oregon Coast who in no way in h-ll will ever pay for this thing by finding enough gold in ten years but still wants one to play with! Like Skate says, I'm the only one who's going to know if it works for me or not. If I don't like the damn thing I'll sell it. GaryC/Oregon Coast

It has probably been over a year since I've used my 3030. Tonight I used it for a bit over 2 hours and I got the hang of it again. It is a much different sound than the 800 and now I remember why I had a learning curve about hearing targets. One of the things that came back very quickly is the ability of the 3030 to be 'played' like a violin. By that I mean you can get a target and swing on it and make the detector 'sing' really loud. This was what was happening with the many tent stakes I found. You could tell that it was a mostly iron target because it was down in the lower right of the screen. I still dug most of them and some of the other iron pieces were just the same. The 3030 has clear identification of the target and that lets me choose to dig it or not. If I was getting better targets then I may not have dug so many of those stakes. When I get tent stakes with the 800 it kinda blanks out rather than sings out. The depth was good with the 17. One of the quarters was 13-14 inches. I use it with the Minelab harness because it is a bit bulky and heavy. When I first got the 17 years ago I used it without a harness for the first 3 weeks and I got something akin to tennis elbow. That took about 6 weeks to heal and I've never swung the 17 for more than 20 minutes without the harness since. The screen now has a flaw down the right side where it doesn't show data but I can live with it as a backup. The battery didn't last too long. We'll see what happens after this charge up. It was a real pleasure being able to turn on the GPS and see where I had found rings in the past. Many I had transferred but a few are still there and that made me slow down in those areas. This was an end of the weekend, end of the day hunt and I saw where several detectorists had been out before me. I'm ok with the results.

Good lesson for newbies. You've got to kiss a lot of pigs first! GaryC/Oregon Coast

I agree Alain about a chart, and I have a good start on one, but without actually having a detector it's only educated guesswork on my part based on what Alexandre and LE.JAG have posted so far. The one I posted was just a quick and dirty illustration. Hopefully they or Fisher will do something official before release, otherwise you can be sure people will eventually construct some at a later date. I was hoping for one detector that would do both land and sea, something I liked about my ATX. To be honest I think Fisher will have a hard time making a detector more powerful than a GPX 4500 or GPX 5000 let alone a GPZ 7000, and few people who already own those are willing to give up any power, even if the detector is lighter and costs less. Minelab means gold prospecting to a lot of people so Fisher has a tough road ahead there, and they have let Minelab have lots of advance notice what to expect.... I doubt the engineers down under are asleep at the wheel. The AQ model however has only a couple detectors, the Garrett ATX and Beachhunter TDI, that are truly equivalent product. For me at least, having none of the three at the moment, the choice is pretty clear. I am fed up with 7 lb detectors that have $500 coils, and the Impulse, using the TDI as a starting point, simply has to be better, or Fisher has wasted a lot of time and money. I sent Dave Johnson a TDI (big box version) years ago and Carl worked at White's so they know what they need to beat to succeed. Fisher Impulse AQ vs Garrett ATX vs White's TDI Beachhunter

Hi Alain, I went ahead and deleted the post and the chart. I put several disclaimers in the post that the chart was for conceptual purposes and was not intended to create an absolutely detailed, accurate, and definitive target response chart. I was assuming some degree of interpretation/interpolation by the viewer. Part of the problem is it is being taken out of the context of everything I have posted on the subject in the last ten days. I explained previously in this thread ahead of the chart that ferrous covers the entire range so I obviously agree with your conclusion since I have explained that exact thing so people would know it to be the case. I included both ends of the ferrous range in the chart and did actually include a portion of the bottle cap range that you must have missed. Long story short since the chart is being taken as definitive instead of conceptual despite the disclaimers, leaving it up is misleading or confusing people, and so deleting it it is probably for the best. I halfway knew when I posted it this was going to happen.

Steve, thanks for posting the video of Jimmy Sierra and Digger Bob. In which they introduced the TDI SL. Seeing them both brought back many good memories of the times that I shared with both of them. Mahalo, Terry

Brother-in-law has recently got himself an SDC and got the 14X9 Coil tech for it. Had a go over a very well flogged spot. Christened it for him with a real tiny bit of gold, maybe a 0.01 gram piece. Ran perfectly on sensitivity 5 in areas of hard pack clay and some with hot rocks that really annoy the QED. He went on to find another 4 tiny lead shot pieces in about a 20 foot X 20 foot area that should not have had anything left in it. I thought the larger coil coil might have lost some sensitivity to the really small stuff but it seems not. Very impressed 👍

As Reg said "Galena" that is a combination of lead and silver and usually it occurs in crystal format.

Dug this hair barrette from a very old home site.

Lots of beaches pay big bucks for beach cleaners. I think a "Saving the Environment & Your Feet" T-Shirt and raking up trash would be a great public service! You might even find something good by accident while performing this great service.

Steve I find you absolutely right! The other big question is when will it go on sale?

It’s all missing the point. It’s not about what can’t be detected. It is about how well the small gold that can be detected will signal, and there is good reason to believe Impulse will improve in that area. On any small gold that the Impulse can detect in saltwater, it should do so better than other existing products. In theory, subject to independent testing. We have had detectors that can easily detect thin gold chains since at least 1995. We don’t use a Gold Bug 2 in saltwater. Why? It’s not rocket science. A decent nugget detector is so sensitive to a conductive salt signal they will detect your hand, let alone an ocean. Any detector that is tuned such that it gets a bare salt signal is tuned as well as is possible for small gold in saltwater. That is the limit and we have been there for at least a couple decades. Saying anything will do better in that regard reflects a lack of understanding about the issue. When I hear claims about improved ability to find thin gold chains in saltwater I just ignore it as nonsense. I did hope the Impulse on dry land could run full out at 7uS but being locked into salt mode negates that possibility. It may be a practical limitation of what can be done at the analog level, something to hope for in a future digital version. Or it may be a marketing move to differentiate the AQ from the prospecting version, which by nature has to remove that limitation. Whatever, it is what it is. Once we eliminate salt though there is still small gold we can detect. The question is “at what depth?” For the small gold that the Impulse can detect in saltwater, how well will an Impulse detect it by comparison to the competition? That is the real question. Personally I don’t care much about finding the smallest gold in saltwater. I will be hunting the largest gold I can find, not the smallest. Micro jewelry detecting has always been a thing people talk about more than do. I don’t see troops of people on the towel line with Gold Bug 2s or Goldmaster 24Ks or even Equinox with small coils. If hunting micro jewelry is so great why is everyone not doing it? Answer - micro aluminum. Micro jewelry detecting is actually aluminum detecting and gets old pretty quick for most people. Those 1 carat diamonds on a post are a lot rarer than you think. If you want to hunt thin gold chains in the water get a rake. and another.... https://youtu.be/zbXNcUqLAM8

I've been thinking about it for a while, however to reach low prices it would only be ALL METAL. No magnetic ground effect compensation. I also drew it completely. It would of course have all the settings ... delay, freq, volume, threshold etc ... a waterproof version 60 meters

For information Manta was 4 years ago. There have been a lot of things done since ! 😉 The biggest technological advances were made in 2019, if I look back on the past 10 years for me and for Le.Jag when we dicuss together.

Well, since I wrote those words about a year and a half ago, I guess I get an opinion on what I meant. I meant simply salt water - sand wet with it, wading in it and coil submerged to some reasonable depth. I stated that the ability to find small gold would surpass any existing detector in said salt water - due to it having the capability to operate at shorter pulse delay settings in this environment. Since I wrote that - based on what I have read, I have used AQ prototypes breafly in salt water - including with the coil submerged in running salt water. I found no need to adjust the pulse delay from the setting I was using - 8 microseconds of I recall rightly. Also however, I have tested the AQ against tiny gold targets such as small posts and earring backs. I found it to be less sensitive to these than something like a Minelab SDC which is targeted at tiny low conductors like gold nuggets. In discussing this with Alexandre and in subsequent posts he has made, he made it clear that a degree of insensitivity to tiny low conductor trash like foil bits and tiny melted AL fragments from beach bonfires. This of course means that hunting for tiny 10k crucifixes is pretty well out. It is well documented that as the quantity of salt a detector sees increases, the ability to operate at very short pulse delays is lost. Diving PI detectors have quite long minimum pulse delays I believe. When Alexandre was questioned why no pulse delay longer than 12 microseconds was available, he answered, as best I recall, that within its submergence limits, the design of the circuitry and coil made that unnecessary. The proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof. You stated that “So it now appears that “in the water” this detector will provide little additional benefit against existing products.” Time will tell if you are right.

Dew..... if you are implying I don’t have experience at this you are mistaken. I am a scuba diver with dry suit, night, zero visibility, ice diving, and instructor ratings. I’m fairly proficient at breath hold work and have recovered a lot of jewelry while doing so. I have been water detecting for 40 years; started in Alaska as a freshwater lake diver and graduated to saltwater 20 years ago. I have done so in zero visibility conditions as well as in heavy surf using 40 plus lbs of lead weight. Water so rough that simply staying on the target with 40 lbs takes great effort. I have been knocked off my feet plenty of times. Chest deep? I often work to tip-toe depth using mask and snorkel and breath dive to recover targets in water that deep. If chest deep I am often in surf so heavy I can’t see the bottom. I almost never use a scoop in those conditions as I have to recover targets by hugging the bottom to stay under the waves. I then recover the targets by hand, digging and fanning. I have plenty of time on scoops though, often in zero visibility conditions. Suffice it to say I have had a hell of a time recovering some targets! In retrospect probably at more risk to life and limb than was really warranted... but I lived to tell the tale. My first water machine was a 1280X when they were new to the market. Main water machines have been the 1280X, Surf PI in various versions, Garrett Infinium, ATX, and CTX 3030 plus minor use of CZ-20 and Excalibur. I am quite familiar with what a DD coil is and how to use one. The Infinium had a 14” DD stock and I have probably got close to 100 hours running the CTX 17” coil in the water. So I’ll repeat. From my perspective a 12.5” mono is not all that large so I’m not too worried about it. The 8” mono will be a piece of cake. Geared up for surf with Garrett Infinium - note dual weight belts (not recommended, dangerous) My scoops - heavy duty stainless on left my favorite by far Infinium finds from one Hawaii trip Two weeks in Hawaii with ATX - 28 rings, 11 of which are gold or platinum, gold bracelet Closer view of better finds from trip above

I believe that is for a woman's shawl, it would be missing the pin that goes through the material. I have seen similar pieces before, it should date around the late 1800's to early 1930's. Most were made out of silver or silver plating. Very nice find.

Sometimes there is something better than a detector.... Another one (won’t embed)... https://youtu.be/zbXNcUqLAM8

I purchased my Tarsacci in February of 2019. It is # 000029 R1. Does anyone else care to share their information? If you are a salt water hunter I recommend this detector to all. It’s negative side for me is no additional coils are available and the 8” x 11” just seems small out of the water. This is only my opinion.

I agree totally with you Flak, let us hope ML are considering this threads posts and can make the GPZ8000 the lightweight, ergonomic, cheaper, discriminating detector this threads consensus want with the power and refinements I and I believe many others want. Alternatively if they cannot make a single gold detector that can satisfy all, they make two detectors and satisfy us both. I`ve had a boo peek at the innards of the GPZ7000 with the aim of modding it to be more lightweight as I did my SDC2300, but I could not see how I could do such as the Zs case is much more lightweight then the SDC, thus putting its electronics in another case would achieve naught.

Every one was a gold nugget.... until it was not!

Ok Steve but I think that your initial idea is good , such a detailed chart is very interesting because it is very simple to understand so I think that fisher labs should provide one in the AQ user manual , so that people know exactly what the AQ can do ( or not do ) . This will avoid a lot of misunderstandings and frustations . Also from what I read here the AQ is a new generation machine that works differently from the previous ones and everything must be very well explained. BTW unfortunately for me , it looks like the AQ is not adapted for moderated mineralization ground prospecting ( I am a coin shooter, inland ) , so I will have to wait the future Fisher RELIC machine , I hope it will come soon because the VLF machines do not evolve any more in terms of depth performance since several years and I need some extra depth :-) ... Thanks for everything , Alain

Isn't there a GPX 7000 on the way.......

Yes GB, it IS good for everyone involved. By expanding the number and scope of Show venues the GPAA reaches out to more old members and many potential new members. As you know, education is a high priority for the GPAA, and the virtually non-stop seminars on a wide range of auriferous topics are of great value to most attendees. By doing the same venues (such as Las Vegas) no more frequently than alternate years, a wider range of venues can be considered. I began attending Shows in 1983, and since 1994, with the release of my first book, I have been a vendor at 138 Shows. I am planning to have booths at Pomona, Phoenix, Sacramento, Concord and Columbus. Members of this Forum are cordially invited to stop by. HH Jim

Nice to see some reviews coming in!

Forgot to mention PM Coils also produced a limited number of coils for the Whites GMT, possibly other brands and models such as the Infinium , Scorpion Stinger etc. They were happy to experiment, that willingness to 'have a go' is sorely missed, since no current coil manufacturers have yet stepped into the possibly very profitable gap left by the Bigfoot. We can all dream can't we? Karelian

Hello there... sorry to hear that you had to send your unit to the repair center. Normally, the shipping charges to the repair center is paid by the customer and the return of the unit to the customer is covered by the manufacturer. This is standard for almost all manufacturers BUT reading your post, I would also feel bad as a consumer if this happened within the first couple of months. I will re-evaluate this for 2020. Meanwhile, please contact me at dilek.gonulay@noktadetectors.com directly. Need to follow up on your case and would like to ask you a few questions.

Wow super find, congrats!!

White's is fabulous on parts and best contacted by phone. I'd call and would be very surprised if they won't sell you one for a nominal fee. https://www.whiteselectronics.com/contact-us/ It's a female 5 pin connector but I don't have a part number. This is from one of my V3i coils, which are interchangeable with the MXT.

Now what I really wanted from this style of coil is something like a 'bigfoot' for the beach. My current beach coil is the Jimmy Sierra Digger 14 x 8 mono coil made for him by Miner John. Well balance and light with a good footprint it is a winner. I've given up trying to find a bigfoot coil for either my MXT or XL PRO machines, too old and rare plus the prices are a bit high.. A nice Razorback Beach Hog would be great but again too rare and hard to find in Australia whilst perfect for my Tdi machines. As luck would have it I am waiting for a Nuggeteer 18 x 6 mono to arrive. Not my first choice but for this style of coil we have few options and opportunities are not to be missed.. Coverage is the key goal, decent depth but not too much... if nothing else it should just eat up large areas fast.. Full review to follow.. Karelian

I recently used the "after" picture in another thread, but while I was looking for the after picture I also found the "before" picture. The product I use is Ali Brite. I have no idea if it is available in the States but it is described as a "etching type acid". Be careful with the stuff, above all, don`t get it in your eyes, and if it comes in a plastic bottle, use a plastic container to soak your speci`s in. And you have got to be patient, I left these pieces in acid for several months. Anyway, this is the before and after. Dave http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/Product/Septone-Ali-Brite-Aluminium-Cleaner-1-Litre/1747

heres 2 very small nugglets i just found with the coiltek its a hot coil

Actually they were all black with the hard coating inside, couldn’t see any markings...but several hours of rubbing on wet aluminum foil safely took it off and showed the awesomeness! I felt like the kid in Karate Kid...”wax on, wax off”....HOURS of rubbing them on foil lol! Surprised I’m not sore! 😄

Here's a video of the Minelab Vanquish 540, Equinox 800 and eTrac comparing some targets while relic hunting. The area is challenging because there are not many targets left and the EMI is terrible. Steve if this should be under Comparisons feel free to move the post. Thanks

The SDC is a great machine and has found me a lot of gold over the years. I mostly use it in washes and to screen vertical walls (breccia, etc..). The signal response is decent once you get used to the noisiness. I run sensitivity usually at 2, sometimes at 3, rarely higher. I also use Nenad's Steelphase which works great for the SDC and gives me about 20-30% more target ID's. Pinpointing is easy, thanks to the 8 in round coil (just lift up and tilt). I also like to hike a lot to remote places, so having a detector that folds and fits into my backpack is great. The weight balance is not ideal and I end up using a bungee fairly quickly. Regarding the Zed, I still love this machine, even with the 14 inch that everybody seems to hate. I think more coil options would be beneficial, but I hesitate to believe that just switching coils (like on the GPX) is always leading to the same optimal ZVT performance overall. I am aware that ML is heavily criticized here, and I don't want to comment on that. However, I do believe they do have great engineers and I would hesitate to trust aftermarket solutions that may or may not be aligned with the overall engineering concept of the machine. Once ML comes up with something I will buy into it, not before. That is just my personal preference. Like I would never trust aftermarket tuning of a car to get 100 more HP if that would not be balanced with the rest of the engineering. The Zed still finds me gold after all.

I did a test with my 4500 against my mates 7000 on both tiny gold and larger bits. On the larger bits i was able to match the 7000 but my settings were questionable as to whether they were usable (very noisy). On the smaller bits i wasnt able to hear them at all no matter what timings/settings i tried. it was at that moment id realised id made a big mistake for the last 4 years holding off buying the 7000. On a recent trip with another friend i got him to try his 5000 on 3 targets id found with the 7000 (standard gpz coil) They ended up being small gun pellots at good depth. We had to scrape off heaps before he could register a response.

I use both the sdc and the Zed. In high yield/normal/smothing off the Zed is an amazing machine that will find gold so small that even the sdc will hardly find ,especially in difficult ground. Note: you will need metal free boots!! Both machines have a different target profile with respect to the ground your hunting. In the open field the Zed is King by a large margin and superior over any other Gold Detector that's out there

My bad! I was trying to say I do not need more depth... I need discrimination to the full depth we already have. I'm digging deep enough, I just don't want to dig any more nails at that depth. Forget GPZ even a GPX with 18" mono coil finds nails deeper than I want to dig anymore. There really are some hard limits on maximum depth and getting just one more inch is like a moon shot. Discrimination at depth has not begun to catch up. We know the depth is possible because we are already there. Surely there is a way to get better discrimination than what we currently have.

Peg, Very nice piece of gold that you have found, keep up the nice work! I have loved seeing all that gold from Idaho and hope to make it there sometime.

Got out again today since I had it off from work. Could not resist. Found this ring that rang up 12-13 on the EQ800. Although it looked promising there are no markings on the ring. Where there should have been a marking it looks "repaired" in that area. Can't figure out whether it is plated or just some old junk ring. Will try to get it tested at a jeweler tomorrow if possible. Also found a quarter, couple dimes, some pennies and loads of can slaw with wonderful pull tabs. I also noticed since updating that corroded clad pennies ring up low, 17-19. The previous version never did that for me in the couple times I used it. So dunno if I will stick with the update or not. For fun I also ran this ring over my Teknetics T2 and it read 55. *shrugs* it may be a low karat gold but will not know til it is tested.

Totally cool! fred

The Tarsacci is what people commonly call a VLF. VLF just means Very Low Frequency and was once meant to apply to a certain class of induction balance detectors. There are only two basic types of detectors. Pulse Induction, and Induction Balance. Or another way of looking at it, Pulse Induction or “Not Pulse Induction”. People through common usage now call Induction Balance detectors VLF detectors. Pulse Induction is easily identified by the current to the coil completely shutting off and back on in an alternating pattern. If that is not happening, it is not Pulse Induction. Induction Balance has a continuous current flow to the coil. Minelab recognizes that Induction Balance as a term has fallen by the wayside and now refers to “Not Pulse Induction” detectors as Continuous Wave detectors, a nod to the continuous current. These two methods got confused when people started calling Pulse Induction “Time Domain” and Induction Balance “Frequency Domain” in a reference to how they normally process found targets. The problem is the terms are not mutually exclusive. You can apply Time Domain processing to Induction Balance detecting. So called Hybrid detectors use Time Domain processing techniques in an Induction Balance or Continuous Wave detector. Minelab has done this for a long time in all their multifrequency detectors starting with BBS and on up to Multi-IQ. It’s not new nor is it magic. Various marketers and tech heads want us all to think so and so keep it all hidden behind confusing terminology and vague explanations. Do not be mislead. There is only Pulse Induction or Induction Balance/Continuous Wave as the basic technologies. The magic then is in signal processing, and that can be frequency domain, time domain, or a combination of the two. Standard VLF is frequency domain, standard pulse is time domain, hybrids use both. Tarsacci is a Continuous Wave detector employing Time Domain processing. Multi-IQ is a Continuous Wave detector employing Time Domain processing, as are all FBS and BBS models. Minelab purposefully obscured this for a long time as it is their “secret sauce”. To sum up, detectors are either Pulse Induction or Not Pulse Induction. Not Pulse Induction detectors are referred to as Induction Balance or Continuous Wave detectors. Continuous Wave detectors that use Frequency Domain processing are commonly called VLF detectors. Continuous Wave detectors can also additionally employ Time Domain processing and historically this has been obscured by the manufacturers. These detectors are now trending towards being called Hybrids. I get the sense that Tarsacci have purposefully kept sales slow and quiet initially because the early buyers were actually late beta testers. Tom said as much on his forum. Keep it slow while the bugs are worked out rather than have a bunch to recall. They may also have limited production capability. Now that the design is being locked down they will probably ramp up the marketing. I will be surprised if they break out however. Five years ago while prices for everything were all still high they had a better shot, but we are entering a period of intense price and performance competition that will make it hard for Tarsacci to be anything but a niche detector with a small audience at the higher price it is being sold for given the rather basic user interface and complicated operation.

Now if they can just get around to stuffing the V3i into their WP chassis!!!!!!!!