XP Orx

Recently purchased the XP ORX. A family member gave me a generous dollar amount Amazon gift card. I had nothing to spend it on since I'm not a Prime customer and I was sort of missing my former Deus. I had read a lot of speculative reviews (how can you write a review without having one in your hands to use) and some really negative ones too which had lots of seemingly inaccurate information. So I was eager to give the ORX a try once it became possible, money wise.

I sold my Deus because of the lack of ID normalization for the HF coils which made coin and jewelry detecting no fun with them. Those coils were great for gold prospecting and I loved the packability of the Deus.

The ORX really does have full ID normalization for all four search modes and all of the 21 frequencies I have tried using the elliptical HF DD coil. It has a much improved numerical target ID screen and gives accurate numbers and tones down to 4" using either of the coin modes in the moderate to highly mineralized dirt where I detect in the Rocky Mountain region. It outdoor air tests and test bed tests very well on .2 gram to 1 gram nuggets and lead in both gold modes at 68kHz and is comparable in depth to the Makro Gold Kruzer and Equinox 800 (6" coil). The iron probability bar and the large numerical target ID are displayed when a shallow to fairly deep target is detected in all of the 4 search modes and the two customizable modes. There is no horseshoe graph, XY graph, microscopic mineralization bar, or small, hard to see target ID numbers on the ORX.

It comes with two gold modes which are based on the Deus gold field program. One is for milder soil conditions and the second gold program is for highly mineralized areas and smaller gold. It also comes factory preset with the Deus Fast and Deus Deep programs which work very well in my area. It also has a salt mode when needed. There are no adjustments for audio response and the silencer is adjusted when reactivity is adjusted in the Coin Fast program. It has three tone audio which may sound very limited to long-time Deus users but works very well. US nickels and almost all aluminum trash and gold jewelry down to about 4" depth register as medium tone. Zincs up to large silver coins and jewelry register as high tones. The target ID numbers are also very stable down to 4" here. They should be stable much deeper in mild soil. Modern nickels hit hard on 62-63 while most coin sized or bigger aluminum trash hits between 65 and 80 which is a nice large range. Smaller aluminum seems to hit in the 40 to 60 range while small foil hits in the 30s. I have dug several 1/4" in diameter foil wads which sounded great at 6" in Coin Fast at 28kHz. Being a micro jewelry/gold prospector, this is very encouraging. So, I can't wait to get the ORX and its gold modes up to some prospecting areas in the Colorado mountains this summer.

It comes with simplified wireless back phones that just control the volume level. I couldn't see the display on the WS4 module without magnification anyway so not having that problem to deal with is fine with me. The back phones work well. The ORX remote control has the same 1/8" jack as the Deus so that is an option for wired headphones along with using the Deus wired headphone adapter card that is an accessory and attaches to the back of the ORX back phone module the same way as the Deus WS4 puck controller. It will pair and has advanced functions when using the Mi6 Pinpointer also.

At 1lbs 14 oz, it feels a lot lighter than the Deus, has a great, easy to see target ID/iron probability display, HF coil ID normalization and is simple to setup without all of the sometimes cumbersome audio features of the Deus. The only adjustments I have made coin and jewelry hunting are slight frequency shifts and lowering of the sensitivity in highly mineralized areas. I have not experienced any EMI problems at all above 28 kHz. 14 to 17 kHz is a little more chatty of course, but can be controlled.

Despite much of the speculative and negative pre-release opinions, the ORX is an outstanding selectable multi frequency, multi purpose detector that is a joy to use and have success with, without wondering most of the time if I have it setup correctly. For me and my detecting needs, it is actually an improvement over the Deus not just a simplified Deus and it definitely isn't a DPR 600 which uses much of the same display platform as the Deus and has four single tone threshold based all metal modes for prospecting and no coin/jewelry modes.  The ORX has all of the audio sensitivity of the Deus if you were to set the Deus up in three tones. So, it looks a lot like a Deus, sounds like a Deus, detects like a Deus and swings like one too. It has been a lot of fun so far.

Jeff