araratgold

You say I am being negative, I say I am being a realist JP. I have a nice selection of very expensive coils for our current GPX that just won't fit the new 6K, and a selection of X Coils for the ZED. I don't want to be locked into Minelab's limited coil offerings again. $8K plus is just taking the Mickey as far as I am concerned ! Mine the miners ! I can see the appeal of this detector to new chums, who don't already have a heap of equipment. PS : Apologies to Goldcatcher who first put the chart on. Rick

Adam, I was seriously keen initially, but the price tag, for what it can and can't do compared to my ZED and 4500, just doesn't warrant $8K + outlay. We don't want to chase 0.1 gram flypoop! We have a 17x13 and 24x12 Evo that are perfect patch finders, that won't fit the new 6000 ! PS : Don't let Reg see you telling me that you sold the QED for the same failings that I found, he will be all over you like a rash ! 😃 Rick

You heard it here first : The SDC is to be discontinued ! My reasoning : There is no way Minelab will let it continue, at the expense of the " greatest show on earth " ! BTW, " the greatest show on earth " is impressing me less and less, now that I have seen the full performance chart kindly provided by JR Beatty ! The stock 7000 beats it on all but sub gram stuff, and I'm tipping that my ZED with 12 inch X coil will match it on 0.1 gram crumbs ! Not that I want to chase crumbs that small ! 🙄 Rick

And that is what I meant when I said comprehensive. That chart doesn't tell you a whole lot ! Rick

IMHO, Minelab should provide comprehensive test data before release so that us mug punters don't have to spend $8K AUD to " suck it and see " ! Rick

Thanks Lunk, That will make it difficult for many ! I find it extraordinary that for the price they are asking that pitch can not be changed ! 🙄 Rick

Lunk, could the threshold tone be changed ? Particularly important to a lot of folk who have hearing loss at various frequencies ! Cheers, Rick

Me thinks someone made a booboo ??

Nothing in that manual enthralls me much at all ! These bits concern me : " The GPX 17 Mono coil is the top choice for covering large areas of ground quickly and efficiently. It is the top performer when searching for large deep nuggets in less mineralised ground. Like all monoloop coils, the GPX 17 Mono is susceptible to noise in conductive ground or when there are high levels of EMI " I thought this new u beaut super expensive machine was going to rid these problems, but seemingly no ! Less mineralised ? That wipes out most of Western Australia ! I saw no mention of threshold tone control either ???????? Rick

Do you have the GPS turned on ? Having it on slows the whole process down, must be RAM hungry on the CPU ! I found the whole thing very slow when the GPS was running and ended up not using it at all because of the lag ! Cheers, Rick

You mean like at 3:30 in the vid ? Coil was VERY stable JP, especially considering sensitivity of 16, no smoothing, damp ground and not far from the Red Hill Lookout.

Righto guys, Just did a quick, simple test of the 17 spiral and 17 concentric, mainly curious to see how the new concentric would run. Nothing scientific, just the 2 coils running over the same ground to show differences. Settings were not changed, other than between normal and difficult. Bear in mind I was on the edge of Kambalda, near Red Hill lookout which has several towers and electrical infrastructure on it, and we have just had 3 inches of rain, so ground is very damp. Sensitivity 16, threshold level 21 and tone 37, semi auto, high yield only, audio smoothing OFF. Concentric was much sharper on the small 0.3g ball of gold, really noticeable in difficult. Concentric will need much closer overlap of swings when cleaning up a patch, but I have no doubt it will punch deeper and have better sensitivity to small stuff than the 17 spiral ( which is pretty good anyway ) . IMHO, it will be no good for patch hunting, but great for cleaning up a patch. Neither coil suffered from EMI, considering how close I was to the aforementioned electrical equipment. Concentric balanced over the ferrite, although as stated numerous times before, I don't use the damn thing ! Overall impressions ? Top rate finish on the coil and new coil cable is spot on. No heavier than the standard GPZ14. No emi problems. Runs beautifully, no bump sensitivity and more sensitive to small gold than the 17 spiral, which is already very good. Elnur, you have outdone yourself comrade ! Full disclosure, I was gifted this coil to try out for being a loyal customer.

You don't have to be old to get heel cracks. I commercially fished from age 28 to 40. Feet getting wet / dry / wet / dry caused terrible and painful heel cracks. Lots of Nivea moisturiser to get rid of them. If you've avoided them till older age then you have been lucky ! Cheers, Rick

Performance chart, impressive if true !

Yep, I have been griping about Minelab's short shafts for 20 years, but they just don't give a damn ! You could say we have been shafted ! Rick

The big thing with the previous GPX's is that longer aftermarket shafts are readily available. Why the hell do Minelab persist with shafts that they know are too short for people over about 5'10" ?????????? How freakin difficult is it to supply a better length shaft ? Rick

I'm with you JW. What I've seen so far of this machine doesn't even remotely interest or excite me ! The fact that it is also shorter in the extended length than a ZED is a big downer. I have been calling on Minelab for years to make the shafts longer, but alas, they are still too short ! Also, there appears to be no provision to run speakers like we can with the ZED and current GPX's, as it doesn't have a wireless module ! Rick

I notice from the specs that it is 57 inches extended, whereas the ZED is 60.1 inches extended ! I already find the ZED too short, so this would appear to be worse ! 🙄 I also note that it uses a 3.5mm jack, which is smaller than the usual 6.35mm jack. Is there any adjustment for the threshold tone ? I only see threshold ON / OFF mentioned ? 😕 What the hell Minelab ? Rick

I'll be adopting a wait and see approach to this one. I'm after a third detector to always have a spare when we are miles from nowhere. However, this might have too much irrelevant crap on it for my liking, such as wireless headphones, which I will never use, and possibly too much " automation ". I'm expecting it to sit midway in pricing between a 5000 and ZED, so it won't be cheap either ! A good used 5000 might be in order, to complement our 4500, and ZED with X coils ! Cheers, Rick

Simon, My adaptor is extremely well made by a professional and includes full heat shrink wrap. My concern is that with the stresses involved with changing of coils that it may fail one day, with possibly catastrophic consequences ( or none at all if I am lucky ! ). I have been prepared to take the gamble, as my machine is a week one release and has paid for itself at least 20 times over. Not everyone is in this position, and the thought of possibly bricking their new ZED would put a lot off the X Coils. Not so with the N/F. Rick

X Coils undoubtedly have better performance than the stock coils. I have two of them, and will not be getting rid of them, they are just that good ! They are however expensive and there is always that nagging question, will my adaptor, as well made as it is, fail, and fry my machine ??!! This is where N/F will win the battle. No adaptor required, superior warranty ( 3 years vs 1 year ) and the sentiment of Aussie made ! And as Matt alluded to, Rohan would not have released the coil if there was no competitive advantage ( other than weight ). It is a slightly smaller coil than stock, so one would hope that it was lighter ! Time will tell. There will be a lot of people who won't fork out for the 12 inch, but probably will for a bigger one, or a 10 inch. Rick

https://www.finderskeepersgold.com/product/nuggetfinder-12-z-search-coil-new/?fbclid=IwAR1g1pJldbUZS9XUxeI4ytnu-zmSS7cirXI6y7NIODdllBMSvlzEHbUmEr0 Conveniently priced below the X Coils, but still very expensive, and too close to the standard coil size for my liking ! Big plus is no adaptor lead. Unless X Coils become significantly cheaper, there will be no more market share for them, given the benefits that the NF coil will bring. Rick

Well that's a bummer ! I was hoping this new machine would well and truly be on the market and reports coming in before the next detecting season in WA. That looks unlikely now ! Thanks for the update. Rick

Simon, I firmly believe, and have for a long time, that Minelab don't give a damn about coils, or their betterment. They leave it to the aftermarket, which is fine, but in the case of the GPZ they should have supplied the chips to the aftermarket makers from day one ! Just an act of corporate bastardry IMHO ! Rick

I too am waiting for these long awaited Z coils, but for the life of me I don't understand why Rohan has started with one so close in size to the standard ? Maybe a 10 inch, or 17 inch, would have been a better option to give current users a different size coil ?? One thing I do know about Rohan, he won't release them until they are perfect, with any bugs ironed out. 👍 Rick