Jeff McClendon

At least for me the MS-3s have very muffled sound with no definition especially on smaller targets. I like a brighter sound and don’t mind hearing lots of spits, pops and faint whispers. So for coins and general detecting the MS-3s are fine. For small gold prospecting and edge of detection targets, they don’t work well for me.

With Deus 2 I have found wedding bands with target IDs from 50 to 67 so far. That is a pretty wide range. Deus 2 does really well giving a lot of information about coin sized target density and uniform shape through its audio whether its PWM, Square or High Square. I just memorize what a classic nickel audio response is on the surface down to about 6" and go from there. Gold wedding bands and gold rings with no big prongs or fancy designs can sound a lot like a nickel and sometimes have similar IDs on Deus 2. Broken gold rings and rings with big prongs, etc.....can sound pretty weird.

Yes, that is Garrett's proprietary wireless system for any of their wireless audio capable detectors. My issues are not so much with the wireless system. I just don't like the audio quality of Garrett's MS-3 headphones. I was experiencing some dropouts today with my Manticore and WM09 when I was turning my body away from the detector. I was also in some elevated external EMI.

At least for me in the really aluminum trashed public parks I hunt often where digging it all would be impossible, if I am concentrating on possible gold rings, I absolutely will not walk over a potential US nickel target response. I don't really mind if I skip over a really bad sounding potential nickel response with lots of other IDs and tones thrown in to the mix if the target is shallow. That's my choice. But if I hear the percussive thunk audio of possibly a US nickel that so many newer SMF detectors have, I am going to dig that target. Usually it's a nickel, sometimes it is the perfect pull tab or a piece of nickel sized canslaw that has just one main flat surface. Too many times thankfully, that target has been a 14K wedding band or a 10K or 14K class ring. So, at the moment, I will willingly dig about 5 target IDs either side of a US nickel using the Legend, Deus 2 or Manticore if the audio response approaches "right". That is my favorite gold ring/wedding band strategy and it usually nets me one gold ring per month on turf and that is a happy day for sure.

Thanks for posting that Lead Detector and thanks to Garrett for listening to their customers. As far as I am concerned Garrett can take as long as they need to get things the way the want them. Look forward to the actual finished Vortex series.

I had the audio mod done for my GPX 6000. I also moved over to the Coiltek coils as soon as I could get them. Threshold and audio stability was better but not enough for me to want to keep it. It was fine in parts of central Arizona. It was a basket case here in the much more magnetite mineralized Colorado goldfields.

Hi Dutchman. Thank you for your question. I owned a GP 3000 many years ago. I remember it not being great on smaller gold but doing well in its Normal setting. I did not care for its unstable threshold and its tendency to sound off a lot on hot rocks. The GPX 4000 has a much more stable threshold tone in Sensitive Extra, Normal and Sensitive Smooth than the GP 3000. It also has more sensitivity/gain adjustability so it can be cranked up more than I remember on the GP 3000. Whether that results in more depth than the GP 3000 on 1 gram and up sized gold, I just can't answer that. I personally really like the hand grip push button ground grab and the push button auto tune frequency scan compared to the 3000. The GPX 4000 threshold is capable of being way more stable than the GPX 6000 threshold and it handles hot rocks a lot better which are two reasons why I got rid of the 6000. The third reason is all of the coil choices especially DD coils for the GPX 4000 to 5000 series vs only one huge DD on the 6000. I know you specifically asked about depth between the 3000 vs 4000. The 4000 vs the 6000 is also an interesting comparison. I have been testing this 4000 against my Garrett Axiom a lot. There is very little difference between them which to me is a tribute to Garrett. The 4000 is really good and just an earlier version of the 4500 without the Sharp and Enhance soil timings and a display backlight Here is Gerry's take on it:

My 900 was better for gold prospecting than my 800, for ground handling, sensitivity, depth and EMI mitigation. I would pick the Nox 900 or even the Nokta Legend over the Goldmonster 1000 and the 24K. The 900 and Legend using their simultaneous multi frequency modes are just better at ground handling and target ID accuracy even on smaller gold than the GM 1000 and the 24K from my experience owning and using all four. Nox 900 and Legend are waterproof, have wireless audio and are way more versatile for lots of other detecting than the 1000 and 24K. If I could only have one dedicated gold prospecting VLF single frequency detector and there were no SMF "do it all" detectors available right now, there is nothing out there better than the Garrett/Whites Goldmaster 24K I would rather have a Manticore over all of them.

I just wish it was under 3 lbs!!!

Sale Pending, waiting for payment. Minelab GPX 4000 with 11" GP Series DD coil, two GPX 4000 batteries, three battery cables short, medium and curly, AC and DC battery chargers, control box cover, harness back pack, manual, cheat sheet of the 4 soil timings, 3 DVD by Johnathan Porter and Chris Goulson. This GPX 4000 has very little use and works great. The four soil timings are Sensitive Extra, Normal, Salt and Sensitive Smooth. Tested today to make sure everything works fine All for $750. We can split the shipping. PayPal FF preferred. Shipping will probably be UPS. Private message me for questions. Thanks for looking!

Maybe I am weird, don't know what I'm doing or just don't hunt in actual manmade iron enough. I just haven't seen what you are talking about as far as SMF's in general having false non ferrous hits a lot on iron and single frequency detectors don't. At least where I detect they both do this about equally. Maybe me being weird and don't know what I'm doing means I hunt with iron volume ON so I can hear iron whether I'm using a single frequency detector, a selectable single frequency detector or a simultaneous multi frequency detector. I can put a 1800s rusted nail on a target free surface and run my Deus 2 in any stock land based SMF program besides Relic and Goldfield that is by default using some iron discrimination, with silencer on 1 or 2, bottle cap on 0 and iron volume on 7 and I will get mostly iron response and some slight falsing. I can run over a rusted steel bottle cap and mostly get a non-ferrous response. If I switch to the default Deus 2 Mono program with some iron discrimination, silencer on 1 or 2, iron volume on 7 and frequency on 17 kHz, and run over the same targets, I will get mostly iron responses with some falsing on the 1800s nail and mostly non-ferrous responses on the rusted steel bottle cap. If I put either the 1800s nail or bottle cap under 3" of moderately mineralized dirt I get about half iron responses and half non ferrous falsing on the 1800s nail whether I'm using Deus 2 in default land based programs besides Relic and Goldfield or Deus 2 Mono as described. I get mostly iron falsing as non ferrous on the rusted steel bottle cap. The same thing happens with my ORX, Legend and Manticore UNLESS I know how to deal with the iron falsing and adjust the settings enough to know that the target is falsing iron and not something else. On many single frequency/selectable single frequency detectors there is no way to adjust them to really help with the falsing from my experience. Conversely, where I mostly detect, any single frequency detector may detect 4" or deeper non ferrous coin sized or smaller targets as a tending towards ferrous target no matter how I set them up. These latest SMF detectors except for the Garrett Apex will detect that same 4" deep or deeper non ferrous coin sized or small target as non-ferrous and will probably get the target ID and tone pitch correct too. It goes both ways and I better know how to setup my detectors.

#1 and #4 I totally agree with. #1 The MS-3 Z Lynk system has audio dropouts and stutters of various lengths when the headphones are on my head and I am swinging the Axiom normally, for no obvious reason. Batteries fully charged. #4 My comments about my 11X7" DD coil which is a replacement coil still mirror yours. My 11X7" mono coil handles bad ground much better than the original or replacement 11X7" DD. I like the 11X7" DD for detecting in mild to moderate mineralization for relic/coin/jewelry hunting. I don't like it for high mineralization nugget hunting. It rarely ground balances in higher mineralization and is very noisy because of that. The rest of your comments are things that I am not familiar with or haven't noticed. Otherwise, I really like my Axiom and consider it to be a "keeper for the rest of my life" PI.

Brian was a member here at one time I think. CD called him History Teacher. If he is still a member or visits this forum, I want to thank him for being an excellent host for that live stream with XP and for making it happen.

I will be using the M8 or M9 coil for gold prospecting with your fiber glass rod. Those lighter weight smaller coils will mitigate any added lower shaft weight. So don't worry about 10 or so grams of extra weight between the carbon fiber and fiber glass lower rods.

At least for gold prospecting, I always wished that the HF elliptical coil topped out around 54 kHz like the 9” HF. Anything higher than that was not really helpful once mineralization tipped the scales. So I personally would welcome a 50 to 55 kHz addition to Deus 2 Mono and/or to the FMF Gold Prospecting mode.