Northeast

And it is great to put a face to a name Chuck 😉

They did 🤭🤣 But seriously, it does indicate that the 6000 beats the 5000 on every size of nugget. Of course it does not say in what ground and with what settings and did the 5000 have a Commander coil or an 11" NF Evo on it or was it an air test or an in-ground test, etc. And yes, you would hope that with the backlash from the GPZ 7000 40% deeper claims, the Minelab marketing department might have learnt some lessons there (I should add that I have no opinion on the 40% deeper claims and whether they were accurate or not).

In all of the vids has anyone seen an 'African' price mentioned? Do any dealers know or are able to say? The idea of 2 batteries in the package was quite appealing and to be honest I will be a bit narky if one continent is getting a package that might be deemed a bit superior for the same price I will be paying. Maybe the DD is more expensive to make and therefore the cost is equalled out?? I'm sure this was mentioned when the Equinox came out but I wonder why they can't just sell the detector, a battery and relevant chargers as the initial purchase. Then people can say to their dealer that I would like an extra battery, a harness, just the 17" coil, just the 11" coil, all 3 coils, etc, etc. Not that I ever bought a GPX 5000 but I find it amusing that lots of people purchase a 5000 and get 2 supplied coils that will possibly never come out of the plastic. To my mind Minelab are making items that are a waste of resources and an unnecessary added cost that they then have to pass onto the consumer. Many wont use the second battery, many won't use the headphones, many won't use the DD coil of the GPX 6000 - why not let client's build the package to meet their needs and let them buy extra components if/when required? For me it is not just about getting the tiny stuff. It is also about getting it to work more easily in situations that the GPZ can struggle and therefore find the bigger stuff too. And as 2 mates have GPZ's it is also about having some different tech as we know different tech will light up individual pieces of gold better/worse than others. Will also be a shame if the final version is not going to be USB up-dateable. Just my rambling thoughts for the day...🤔 😉

The 15” Coiltek for the SDC was only used by me for 1 day so can’t say that I’ve had ‘extensive experience’ or anything like that. But I was impressed for the time I did use it and it was on ground I knew well. My father in law brought a second hand SDC a few months back so a GPX 6000 Vs SDC on un-dug, likely gold targets is certainly within my capabilities. Just gotta wait on the 6000 now.

Yep. Brother in law got an SDC for Western Australia (lives there) but brought it across to Vic for Christmas 2019. He had only just got the larger Coiltek and was giving it its first run. We hit a little flogged patch that I’d already done with a stock SDC and the GPZ. First 5 minutes I found a tiny piece - crazy small. And this is a spot that has bad red clay and hot rocks that I’d struggled with a little bit with the Z. We were both pretty impressed with the larger coil and he has since gone on to find quite a few small pieces and speccies back in WA. And so much better ground cover 👍

I wonder if Minelab have learnt something through the aftermarket Coiltek 15” coil on the SDC. That is a big mono (bigger than intended for the SDC anyway) that stills somehow retains the secret sauce for working in mineralised ground and is still crazy sensitive to small gold. If the 6000 is running some of that secret sauce then who knows what is possible. Of course there are people that could tell us but they are gagged. C’mon Minelab, let the speakers speak 😩 At the moment the rest of us are just making stuff up 🤪🤦‍♂️

AFON - The occasional and random drop out when changing between Gold Modes and Ground Modes is a known issue that I don't think has ever been resolved. It is annoying in that you have to restart the detector but it seems to be not detrimental in any way. It was discussed here..... In late 2017 JP also made comment on a post by MLGDave that it sometimes happened when changing between modes and has been discussed on the Prospecting Australia forum also. It happened very occasionally to my unit over about the first 2 years that I had it and then for about the last 9 months I had it the issue didn't happen at all. It was very hard to get a video of it occurring as it was just so random. Some people thought it was to do with a firmware update, others thought it may be when not using the ferrite. I think it just ended up being a random 'surprise' for you 😉 Hopefully JP may have some newer and more accurate info for you. Cheers, N.E.

Any idea when and where?

I spent some time going through all (I think) of the GPX 6000 threads the other day and watched the vids. I saw on the vids that it had limited control options (not too concerned by that) but there was the ability to change between ground modes, change sensitivity, etc. A couple of things I didn't see but might have missed.. Was there a mention of the 6000 software being up-dateable like the Nox, GPZ and CTX? Was there an option to choose Manual Ground Tracking? Again, not really an issue until you set the detector down to dig a big hole and it is continuously tracking the same ground (or maybe GeoSense recognises that and stops tracking 😳 🤔 🤭). $6000 US correlates to about $7,900 Australian. Best start working on my "of course this is an investment, darling. It's just a couple of ounces". 😉

Great comment Walker 👏

I have not changed these settings from Default even once 🤔 I simply haven't taken the time to see what they really do. Probably to my detriment 🤷‍♂️

I have voted Steve 👍 The answer though is "it all depends". I prefer to use the speaker as it is nice and loud, I don't like headphones much and I can wear a broad brimmed hat when using the speaker. But, when I am around people the speaker is annoying for them. So, I sometimes use the supplied headphones which I actually find quite comfortable and user friendly. I also used them recently at the beach due to the wave noise and have also used them next to a river for the same reason. Ditto for windy days in the bush. I have used the WM08 several times with some Phillips sports earphones attached as it keeps me wireless from the detector, allows me to wear a wide hat and also allows me to hear my surrounds better than wearing the full over ear headphones. But roughly 80% of the time - I use the speaker. Cheers, N.E.

And this is the Gold version thus making it a relevant thread 😆

Use a urea cream, place it on at night and wear socks to bed. Usually 5-7 days of this and the problem is well on the way to being sorted. Never found general moisturiser to be much good. Eulactol is a brand we have in Aus. You would have the same or similar in the US I’m sure. You can of course put it on the morning and wear socks and shoes but that would eat into your sandal time 😉

I find that price mind boggling when you can get a brand new GPX 5000 for $4,890 AU. The SDC is great but I just can't see how the price is justified. At 4.6 lb the GPX 6000 is close enough for me in the weight dept. The price has me holding my breath 😳 Only a container load? I think they've already sent a container load to the middle east! 🤣

3.5 years Steve. That's how many years had to go by. Counting down the days now though 😃

It's always nice to have some gold left 😁 If you are going for depth then my personal opinion would be don't buy an SDC. SDC's are brilliant with tiny bits of metal and mineralised ground but depth is not their strong point. I don't know what is a better choice but it is not an SDC. Best of luck with whatever you choose 👍

So this was close. Missed out the bit about new tech - seems like there is a good amount of new tech. But which of the other 3 mentioned might have been 'on the money'? 🤔

PPP, genuine question for you and not a dig. The lack of discrimination on the SDC would drive me crazy on the beach. Is that not an issue where you are planning to hunt or what you are hunting for? Do you just dig everything and mineralisation is the bigger concern? Cheers, N.E.

Somewhere in the deepest, darkest DP Forum threads JP mentions something like 'raising Volume by 1 notch is akin to raising the Sensitivity by 2'. I wonder if it is your Volume that is causing the issues. I never had mine that high but I'm guessing Volume at 14 would make things a bit unstable. Have you tried a booster? I used the B&Z and ran my Z Volume at 1 and just turned the B&Z up to the level where it was perfect for my hearing. The only issue with boosters is more stuff on your person but done right they can still be fairly compact and user friendly. Personally I wouldn't use a Z without one. I hope you get it sorted 👍

Hi Chet. I stayed with 27 for a fair while when I got my Z but over time I brought it down to 26 and only occasionally, 25. I tried using a 'Bogenes' type of setting but did not like it. My concern is that it sounds like you have a "constant high noise level" when you are at 27? I never found 27 gave a high noise level and wonder if there is (and maybe always has been if nothing has changed) an issue with your detector? I suppose we should also ask what are you running your Volume and Sensitivity settings at (usually)? And do you use a booster of any sort? Cheers, N.E.

I'm certainly not the person to ask 🤣 I thought all video clips had to first be on Youtube and then linked to here? But really I have no idea.

If I could use my 30 likes for this post I would! 👍

Yes, but the star chart also showed an improvement across all gold sizes - just not such a big improvement as with the small stuff. My gut feeling (and hope) is that it will be the 6000's ability to cope with ground noise that brings forward more gold. I have just relayed a story to a friend via PM but will put it here as an example. About a year ago a mate stumbled upon a little reef that had been well worked by the old timers. He was looking for 'treasures' and found a 10 gram speccie. Was joyfully surprised. Went on to find another speccie and asked me come up with the QED and do it properly. Well we found a few more bits and a few bits of rubbish as well. We cleaned out as much as we could and altogether had about 45 grams of speccies - real reefy stuff with bits of quartz and iron stone. The ground there was real red clay, was usually quite damp and had some problem rocks that the QED would pick up quite easily. He thought there would be more stuff deeper if we could handle the ground/rocks a bit better and was thinking of getting a GPZ - I agreed that he should 😁 He got the Z and the first day we spent there we found 6 pieces in a small area that had not made a peep on the Equinox or the QED. The first and largest piece we found was 26 gram deep piece that gave that real nice low-high signal - nice! BUT, we had to use the GPZ in Severe most of the time and when the ground dried enough we could use Difficult. At no point have we been able to use Normal properly - even with a very slow swing speed, with a Sensitivity at 1, properly ground and ferrite balanced. The ground and those pesky rocks just don't allow it. Then 5 weeks ago I took my father in law there with his SDC. I thought we might get some tiny pieces and was hopeful it would handle the ground/rocks better - as I think the SDC is an absolute cracker in this regard. Well, 3 feet from where the GPZ found the 26 gram piece I got a real nice signal on a piece that ended up being about 5 grams at approx 8 inches in hard packed ground and then another small sub gram piece in the hole. Why? Because we could ramp the SDC up to a sensitivity of 5 without an issue. Long story but the point is - if the GPX 6000 is combining the best of the SDC (mineralisation handling beast) and the best of the 5000 (depth and versatility) then I'm in 👍 The lighter weight, 2 batteries, ease of use, 2 coils in the package, wireless, speaker built in - all that is very welcome cream on the cake but will mean squat if it isn't better at it's main purpose. Just maybe, yes. And here we were saying Minelab weren't a very good coil company 😆 I have been thinking this for days and keep forgetting to ask - has anyone seen if the GPX 6000 is software updatable?

10 X 5 - nice. 14 X 9 - fairly similar to the accessory coil that is already available - 15 X 12. Larger size again - interesting. Area coverage I suppose. I have never really looked into really big VLF coils. All spoked? Then the 10 X 5 will miss the mark for me if that is the case 😔 But thanks for the info 😉