Steve Herschbach

Many “real” metal detectors run an 8” coil or less, making this more a handheld metal detector than a pinpointer.

I toyed with setting up my own server but poor internet connection at home was first problem, the other is my not wanting to deal with it. My hosted server is someplace on the east coast I think. I’ve not even bothered to look where Pair has it after the last move. The sad part is many website owners are paying for link spam! When you pay that outfit promising to boost your Google ranking, some do it by trying to place links to your site. Too much bother to ask or negotiate so that sometimes gets farmed out to the spammers, especially if you are paying some bottom dollar outfit who contacted you via email.

Yup, Equinox or Vanquish.

No, it is not Minelab’s issue, because this thread is not about the Minelab included headphones, it is about Miccus aftermarket headphones. The current Miccus version is different than what Minelab includes with Equinox or sells separately. There is no problem with the Minelab supplied headphone. Not in the slightest, life is good in my world, thanks for asking. Best wishes for you and yours.

It can’t work. Vanquish is Bluetooth only, and WM08 is Minelab proprietary WiStream technology, not Bluetooth.

Thanks, but it’s the members that make the place what it is, not me. The main goal on these forums is not volume, but quality. All I do is insist on keeping discussions on topic and respectful. Members attracted by those ground rules in turn produce a higher level of discussion, or so it would appear from results so far.

There are solutions for that being a problem, including letting people who can’t read pay the price. If that’s Whites excuse for failing to innovate then all hope for them is lost.

There has to be more to it than that because the official Bluetooth spec is backwards compatible. The difference between 4.2 and 5.0 is not enough alone to be the cause of the issue. More perplexing is it works for some people and not others. Don't know, but as with many new technologies some of this stuff is a bit of a crapshoot. I'm still just using my Minelab supplied phones with no issues.

Absolutely! The forum volume is such I don’t watch every post, just the newer members. Bottom line if anybody sees a post with a link to a site totally unrelated to the thread, please use the report post button. You kind of have to look for it and on some devices have to click on the post to get it to appear. Thanks! Edit: the Report function has moved to the post menu in upper right, denoted by “ ... “

I was disappointed when White’s passed on the opportunity to boost the battery power on the TDI SL Special Edition back up to what it used to be on the TDI Pro. It was considered but apparently they feel the higher power results in an unacceptably higher failure rate. The old 14.4 volt TDIs did have a lot of returns under warranty as I took advantage of a near endless supply of factory refurbished units when I was a dealer. You would think the solution would be to upgrade whatever components were needed to alleviate that issue, but apparently White’s does not think it worth the investment. Can’t take that much as plenty of people do the power boost on their own and you almost never hear of ill effects by doing so. Don’t know, but it is a shame White’s decided to go safe with TDI and downgrade it from what it used to be instead of taking it to the next level. Kudos though for keeping it light and affordable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gila_monster “The Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum, /ˈhiːlə/ HEE-lə) is a species of venomous lizard native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. A heavy, typically slow-moving lizard, up to 60 cm (2.0 ft) long, the Gila monster is the only venomous lizard native to the United States and one of only two known species of venomous lizards in North America, the other being its close relative, the Mexican beaded lizard (H. horridum). Although the Gila monster is venomous, its sluggish nature means it represents little threat to humans. However, it has acquired a fearsome reputation, and is sometimes killed despite being protected by state law in Arizona.”

Rokon is a two wheel drive off-road vehicle, I used to be a dealer for them in Alaska. https://www.rokon.com

Hard lesson Steve but I’m glad you did not break something or worse to learn it. No matter how we try to ignore age it does sneak up, requiring a downshift in expectations about what can be expected of our once young bodies. I’ve come to accept my hardcore prospecting days are behind me but that’s just fine, I got my best shots in. A two seater for you and more time with your girlfriend seems a better option than broken bones!

If the weight is an issue and you don’t need waterproof go 24K. At 3.3 lbs perfectly balanced I’d rather swing it than the lighter but nose heavy Deus. White’s is missing a bet not even mentioning jewelry detecting in their promo material, especially for freshwater detecting.

It used to be blocking spammers was easy since most were automated bots. Unfortunately most now are real people. They used to be easy to spot due to poor English. So they took to copying real posts and posting them as their own. The tip off always comes in the form of links to some totally unrelated site. They now try and get overlooked by joining and posting for a week or two, usually innocuous posts. Then, they later take advantage of the forum edit function that allows you to edit your own posts to modify their old posts to include the stupid spam links. What they unfortunately do not know is I am always lurking and have a nose for this sort of stuff, so their efforts always go to waste. I not only ban them and delete all their content but add them to the Invision distributed spam list so they get nailed elsewhere. But there is always another one who does not know they are wasting their time here so it never ends. Long story short I have limited the edit function to 30 days after posting, so you can edit your own posts now for a month, which I think is good enough, but no more after that. Be aware though these people are hitting the forum weekly, and I do catch them, so don't be surprised if every now and then an entire thread or portion of thread disappears as I nuke these people. At this time however they are only a mild annoyance so I don't think I have to do anything more about the issue for now.

I have a Falcon and it will detect tinier gold than any of my detectors, but only at about an inch and in a vary narrow area. It is more a probe than a detector. If the gold gets any size to it the detectors pull ahead rapidly.

The ability of a detector to find gold is based on the size of a single mass of gold. A lot of dispersed small gold is hard or impossible to detect. Depending on what you mean by “very small gold veins that are inside the quartz rocks” there may be no metal detector that will do the job. At best, the range will be inches or fractions of inches. There is no substantial difference between the ability of the White’s 24K or Gold Monster to detect small gold veins in quartz rock. Pick one and it will do the job about as well as the other. In general the Gold Monster is for people who want as few controls as possible, while the 24K offers more controls and a larger selection of accessory coils for advanced detectorists.

I apologize for running this Apex thread off the rails pontificating about business. It was what I did and I was good at it, but I’m not here to teach business 101.

Retail pricing has little to do with production cost. It basically costs the same amount to make an Equinox 600 and 800. You pay for features. It is simply about making money. If you sell 50,000 Vanquish and keep the cost per unit as low as possible you make more money. The lower the margin, the more critical this is. Remember that Minelabs retail is dealer cost, not what you pay. If you want to design high volume, low price detectors and retain margins that keep stockholders happy, every penny counts. Every penny. Every detector sold has to cover all costs - engineers, shipping, the box, advertising, the janitor, utilities, all warranty... the whole all in cost, and make a profit. So yes, including that battery does matter, and dozens of other things also. Consider warranty. Waterproof detectors fail more often generating more warranty repairs. Not an issue with a dry land design.

I agree Simon. Coils need not work well everywhere. We used to have mono coils for mild ground, DD coils for tougher ground, and Salt coils for the worst ground. If people can’t understand something like “recommended for low mineral conditions only” then too bad for them. I’d like “hot” coils for places that can tolerate them. Hopefully we get some more news on these coils someday. Nothing new since December. Do you have to rob another coil on the security chip to make one of these coils work or not? Simple question, no answer forthcoming.

I think it would be just fine for wading, as the GMX above water has a little extra weight, which in this case is an advantage, helping push the coil down. Be a little different totally submerged when the detector is neutral and nose light.

No. From a business perspective that would be silly. They are in business to sell you hardware. In theory it could be done via a paid software upgrade, but I doubt the circuit board will be the same to that degree. What it means is same housing, maybe compatible coils, though I would not bet on the coils. But the board itself will probably need to be different in some way. For that to really work a company would almost need to make the top product first, then dumb it down into lower price models. Like Equinox 800 was developed, and Equinox 600 is same detector with features withheld. You could in theory have an Equinox 400 and Equinox 200 instead of Vanquish, but the Vanquish hardware with AA batteries is just plain cheaper to make. Anyway, it's far harder to make the base product like Simplex+, then build it up, and have that work out without a needed hardware change messing up the plan.

Well, in that example CTX is not a fading product but a viable product occupying a price niche. It is pretty simple. If you are a manufacturer you need a product line. Lower price to higher price. Each price point must be clearly distinct and offer a clear upgrade price path. Look at Apple... look at any product line. The goal... compete with the competition, not yourself. You can disrupt the line (new tech breakthrough) but then everything in the lineup must reset around the breakthrough. I expect Multi-IQ to supplant other Minelab models like CTX when the time is right. Nokta/Makro is not ignoring this. Simplex is trying not undermining existing product. But they are an underdog trying to gain market share, and so can attempt to justify certain moves seeking to undermine the competition. They have to avoid shooting themselves in the foot in the process. They move so fast though they can reset to Simplex, abandon most other models and replace with Simplex housed models rather quickly. They already say the Multi will be in the Simplex housing. There may be others in the works. Part of it is choosing a physical platform that you want to work with.

They float. Not horribly since it is not a large coil, but they float. The coil is sold for use on the MX Sport as a submersible coil. Reminder - MX Sport coils are not GMX/24K compatible. At this point I will not complain at all about the GMX/24K coil selection. But if they do sell very well it would be nice to see a larger coil for the water hunters, like the spoked 10” round DD that comes on the MX Sport.

Where you been Scott? This was discussed extensively back in December. Or has something new been announced I am missing? Like how the coil connects to the detector?