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More news...I have purchased another GPZ 7000 and couldn't be happier with the performance. Like night and day! ....but so is the weight. Back onto multiple targets with the 7000 instead of target free ground noise from the Axiom. I have some new x-coils on the way and might Frankenstein the 7000 internals into a custom design to combat the weight with smaller battery pack. Who knows??? To Garrett's credit, their unwavering customer service in the face of disgruntled customers (AKA - "me") they are sending a replacement (not new because they have their hands tied in Australia as to what they can deem faulty???) detector which I eagerly await testing to see if it is an idiosyncrasy of the detector or the detectorist....?

Hi Jeff, An update...2 of us have sent our Axioms back and waiting for a response. I hadn't heard anything after a week so emailed Garrett Australia. I got this "We have received the machine and I will be testing through the week." - so obviously we are not a priority to them. I spoke to a Garrett dealer last week and mentioned the issues, he remained tight lipped and just rolled his eyes and said he was about ready to rip their sign off the wall. I also spoke to a detector repair technician and again, same response - they didn't think much of them at all indicating their performance was sub par to the price. Word obviously is getting around and Garrett don't seem to be interested in listening. From what I can see - their ground handling ability is the first major problem and without that, not much else will work. Being that the majority of detector basics come from a component level - looking for a software fix isn't going to be easy without changing the electronics. The GPX 6000 has a lot more that needs to be corrected than the EMI speaker system fix. That's just the official recognized problem. A company called Detectormods here in Aust. offers the upgrades at a rather steep fee $$$. https://detectormods.com/news/20/all-about-the-new-2020-upgrades The guy "Woody" had a YouTube channel and explains further short comings of the 6000. Be aware, he rambles on for about an hours to part with 15 minutes of actual information. To his credit, I applied some of the mods from one of his videos to my old 7000 and is ran so smooth and quiet, I had to "kick the coil" to see if it was still on. I run bogenes so is dead quiet till it hits a target. ..........."Basically, I feel ripped off by these two giants of the metal detecting industry more often than not."............... At least with the GPX 6000 you have options and a company that admits some of the detectors faults. As for the DD coils, people are always talking about needing them and our coil manufacturers "usually" listen....eventually. I'd say hang in there and maybe contact Nugget Finder, Coiltek and X-Coils to see where they are at? Garrett just plain deny there is any problems although they always counter with "we are happy to test the detector for any possible issues" then get our detectors back "No Fault Found"???? I'd strongly suggest selling the Axiom and use the 6000 until a successor for the 7000 comes out - which could be some time yet. Maybe even send it over for the mods to fix the issues with the money from the Axiom, you will be happy you did! I'm pretty sure that is currently the only place offering them. Ahhh, the life of a detectorist..............................

Hey Jeff, looks like you did well price-wise on the Axiom. The Axiom retails here in Australia at $7,385 or on sale at $7,185 which is not only way overpriced, but unfair that Garrett charges international buyers such a premium. It's the same for coils - so at $3kUSD you got a fantastic bargain! Also, there is a growing amount of us that are having endless problems with the Axioms not to mention faulty coils. I went out and got another Minelab GPZ 7000 yesterday as the Axiom has been nothing short of disappointing for the last 6 months, and useless for 90% of your prospecting day. We have collectively sent back our detectors "again" to Garrett Australia for testing. I personally wont ever use it again. The GPX 6000's are known for poor EMI shielding, but aftermarket modifications to fix the shielding and earthing removes those issues from the 6000. Also, more after market coils for the 6000 have been released and keep coming. Minelab applied a conductive coating to the inside of the GPX 6000 box but "forgot" to earth it back to the PCB properly amongst other things. One thing for sure, the Minelab range really is without competition. They were built and designed by people who live and breath gold prospecting, especially in the Australian environment. My plan is to strip back the 7000 and Frankenstein it into a lighter body and lighter battery. My research says it can be done, especially running the lighter X-coils....If the Axiom worked anywhere near as good as my wife's GPX 6000, I'd probably would never had got another GPZ 7000 - but they are such a good detector, you can't loose!

If only they were about a 7000 successor!

Yes, unfortunately - that's the way the cookie crumbles, and my detector certainly has. The problem though is I've had a bad coil, so was over a week without my detector before they sent me a replacement. Then when I sent the whole Axiom and coil in it was over a month. I know it sounds a little petty, but I'm on medical retirement/disability mainly due to my mental health. And this is what I do once a week to keep my head in check - gold or not, it's basically the only time I leave the house. It use to be surfing but I have degenerative neck and lower back issues now and rattle around with more medications than I'd care to mention. So you could see how happy I was initially to get my hands on the Axiom moving away from the heavy GPZ 7000. I went out a couple of days ago and it was the worst experience with a detector I'd ever had, 90% of my day over 3 different locations the Axiom just wasn't usable at all, then for no apparent reason it worked perfectly for the last 20-30 mins of the day? And I mean like all the advertising claimed it would (though still a little less powerful than my wife's GPX 6000). Just so random, ground balance=terrible, EMI=terrible, hot rocks=the worst ever sounding like true nugget targets. It was a long challenging day but I spent some time on the 6000 which was a lot of fun and more rewarding. As far as a refund/warranty is concerned, I had previously spoken to management at Garrett Queensland about refunds, who quite abruptly washed their hands of me with a definite overtone once they heard it was a second hand purchased detector. I was directed to: Returns/Warranty Garrett detectors purchased from an authorised Garrett Australia Dealer are covered by Garrett’s 3-Year Warranty* So I saved $800 off a new Axiom detector price and have ended up with a lemon. Fortunately, when speaking with their much friendlier "Service Department" I got a different story and they even supplied a pre-paid return for the detector. I'm not happy about being without a detector for so long, and the wife, though she does share her GPX 6000 with me, would prefer detecting herself. This leaves me with a conundrum - and the ball is in my court. I have a little money coming to me soon so am going to wait and pick up a used GPZ 7000 then I will send in the Axiom for assessment. If the Axiom comes back again as "no fault found" I will butcher it and with some creative construction will lop off the Axiom panel and install the GPZ 7000 display, remove the Axiom electronic (basically cut it close back to the frame and either 3D print or use a aluminum enclosure to take the GPZ boards with custom battery). All within my abilities having years of experience in electro-mechanics and repair industries over the years. Of course it will be weighed up first to see if it's a viable solution. I have stripped down a GPZ many a time for inspection, repair or modification so am very familiar with them. X-coils can make a custom one off coil for me at a cost, or I can just use spacers and 3D print adapter for the coil. I'm not fussed as I wont ever sell it. If the Axiom gets replaced - then it becomes a backup detector for when we travel to W.A. and just in general as it is a great go-to design for all occasions (if only it worked). I'd feel guilty selling it to an unsuspecting buyer as I now have zero faith in it. Yes, then I still would convert the GPZ 7000 into one of the aftermarket detector bodies I have found coming out of China which are light weight carbon fiber, plenty of parts to choose from or custom design. Either way - the GPZ 7000 running X-coils is the only detector I ever had 100% faith in and it alone found most of the gold I have ever found. As per the recent rumor of a successor the the 7000 coming out and being $18k??? well, Minelab Australia have yet to confirm this, and I doubt it was reliable scuttlebutt anyway. On another note - the 11x13 DD coil acts very much like a concentric but I find little if any detecting ability off the front/back/sides unless you can do a full swing - so I have one highly sensitive noisy 7x11 mono coil and effectively a 11x13 concentric - which is good, but means I really can't have a decent coverage stable DD patch hunter in hot ground. There is little room to improve overall penetrating power over the GPZ 7000 with Woody from Detector Mods (see YouTube channel, the guy can ramble, but knows his stuff) also explaining that the areas of improvement with today's technology are going to be in the form of higher quality filtering and lowering noise levels when processing signals to effectively "gain depth" through a cleaner signal. Unless someone can claim they have something better than ZVT?

I'm pretty sure x-coils have completely dropped any idea of producing an Axiom coil based on performance and popularity. I'm switch back to a 7000 anyway. The Axiom is rubbish, can't compete with any of the Minelab range, old or new.....

Hate to say it folks, but having exactly the same issues, but happens randomly. Had one faulty 11x7 coil replaced. The whole detector has already been back to Garrett QLD once for poor sensitivity (GPX 6000 was 130% better depth). Was returned with "No Fault Found" after about a month. Massively frustrating, worked for a little while (half hour) in the morning. Then troubles all day. Sometimes it just sounded off screaming all by itself. Yes, tried all different settings and coils. Ridiculous piece of junk in my opinion. Tried Maryborough South, ground too hot for it and wouldn't settle. Tried Dunolly, ground to hot for it and wouldn't settle, ended up going to Talbot at a sandy-clay place for lower mineralization, same again. After multiple noise cancels, it worked perfectly for about an hour, at the end of my day. Pretty much every strong signal target I got when it worked was hot rocks or hot ground. Found a few lead shot on the surface but that was it. Would not hold ground balance for more than a few seconds, if at all (most of the day it was if the machine didn't have a ground balance function). Sometime the noise cancel would work, but not for long. Wife was with me swinging her GPX 6000 and had a great day landing some good gold. I'm sick of this junk Axiom and am buying a GPZ 7000 again. Because I have back issues, the Axiom was great for its weight and I could swing it one armed all day. But now I'm going to pull the control panel and 2 inside circuit boards and make a custom battery. Gut the Axiom, throw the electronics in the bin, and morph the GPZ into the Axiom body with some custom crafting and custom coils from X-coil. I have a mate, John, who has the same problems with his Axiom and now leaves it at home and uses his 25 year old F1A4 which kicks the Axiom's arse!

I used the wife 6000 last week. That stupid shaft twist was annoying as hell. The speaker pointing backwards is no one's friend. I did like using it, you felt confident you wouldn't miss much with it. Now in saying that, and reading all of Minelabs short comings - my Garrett Axiom build quality is 100% spot on - in quality control, tolerances, weight and balance, etc... I have also had some necessary dealings with Garrett Aust and USA and it has been spot on. Going over and above to look after me, a single customer with some non critical issues. It really saddens me that Minelab WAS a brilliant, forward thinking, Australian company, but now, has slipped in so many ways. The ONLY thing they have going for them is the technology aspect of their detector business. The rest is just plain crap, marketing, customer relations, build quality and quality assurance etc.... I cautiously await a succession to the GPZ 7000, already thinking how I could take the internals out and putting them in a better platform. Surely I can't be the only one thinking this? Which should worry Minelab about their companies direction in the market.

Garrett coils for the Axiom here in Australia are close to double the US cost. It's actually a couple hundred dollars cheaper to buy from the US and have sent here even after USD conversion. Go figure? I think Garrett Aust really need to rethink this part of their business or loose a lot of on-going sales for coils. My 11x7 already has a touch sensitivity issue I thought I'd overcome - seems faulty now. I had 7 X-Coils for my GPZ 7000, it proved very useful tuning a detector to an area in differing circumstances. I did get a tester and with the results, happily paid the almost $2k price tag each for more coils as they did exactly what people were saying they did - got more gold! Paying for themselves along the way - so having as much invested in my detector as I did in my coils just made sense. Am I buying the 8 for the Axiom as soon as it's available? You bet I am, I won't hesitate for quality. And any that may come after. The Axiom coils are good, the x-coils are great, simple.

Minelab are for marketing.....Garrett for people, go Garrett.

I've been using the Axiom for quite a while now, it certainly is built 100% better than the 6000. It certainly is in the new class of all in one compact PI machines, and certainly is "similar" in performance using stock coils. Minelab have always had an edge on performance, usually at a cost - ie; stability, weight, build, etc... The Axiom seems to be the detector Minelab "should" have built after the 4500/5000 days. I absolutely love this Axiom detector (never thought an Aussie would say that about a Garrett?). The only improvement I really wanted to see was coils, and they are slowly in the works - so would I ever go back to a Minelab??? Show me a ZVT PI that's this light and well made with optional coils....and I'd consider it. But Minelab have become more of a sales and marketing team. Why make a new detector to fill a $10k void that really isn't there?

Very exciting! I am eagerly awaiting their release. If they improve the Axiom like they have the 7000, we are in for a real treat. TEASER VIDEO 8 INCH DOD:

I guess as a part of this question, is there anyone who can explain if/how you could use a GPX coil on the Axiom? I'm not looking for the mechanical connecting, but the TX/RX values and compatibility etc as a road to getting even better coils for the Garrett Axiom. I find my 7x11 ridiculously bump/pressure sensitive at times, though I love the size and shape - would like a little more detection sensitivity. Has anyone had to send their 7x11 back? As an option, my ultimate dream for a larger coil would be to have an 18 inch NF Advantage coil. It was my favorite and best performing and light weight. Also it found my biggest nugget to date (25g). The standard Axiom coils are good, I'm not knocking them and kind of enjoy the 11x13 central hotspot. Thoughts???

So I've been using my Axiom for a few months now. The ergonomics and construction are A A A+++ and the weight, particularly with the 7x11 coil is amazing. Lighter than my wife's GPX6000. That alone was the reason I purchased it over my GPZ7000 which I sold to buy the Axiom. Having extensively used the Gold Bug, Equinox 600, SDC2300, GPX5000, GPX6000 and GPZ7000 with all of the optional coils available, yes, I was a coil junkie! I can tell you that the Axiom does indeed fall short in many ways of performance compared to the Minelab range. This is partially to do with the coil, partially the software/settings available and partially to do with my one eyed Minelab preference. It really does not excell in any one particular area, but averages out over the full range of operating parameters. The unfortunate thing with the Minelab's were that they were NEVER packaged as good as what their price tags led you to believe. Coil options evolved out of necessity, especially with the incredibly sensitive x-coils. Nothing is perfect though - after a while, I was finding the x-coils less than robust, appearing with cracks and wearing through skid plates at astonishing rates then not being able to get replacements. The x-coils though, found me A LOT OF GOLD. So where am I going with this? Um...the Axiom is the closest thing to a near perfect detector that I have ever used, if only it had a bit more ground punching power. Due to my neck/back/tendon injuries - this is the only detector I have been able to swing with out pain, so I love it because it keeps me in the game, but until the thing performs a "little better", stick to the sub par ergonomics and support of a Minelab.

.....also, as you bought it up, the wireless is lacking and while I was on the phone to them (Garrett Australia) today, they agreed it was not ideal and to follow all the suggestions as you have posted. I'm just surprised that GPZ7000 wireless 2015 and Axiom wireless 2022 are pretty much on par. A few years back they started making small, cheap guitar transmitter and receives selling on Aliexpress from $30 for 2.4g up to $70 (approx) for 5.8g and just as fast, but will transmit easily 50-100ft without interference or drop outs. I took some of these and ran the GPZ headphone jack direct into them and made a few different designs with amp boards and audio compression on some etc...with incredible results. Just saying!