Aureous

I agree completely....as I said, the 'writing is on the wall' and they don't seem to see it. As Steve said, nothing improves flagging sales better than a new model....and they aint doing it. A new GPZ doesnt have to be wholly new tech to improve performance. It just needs to be lighter, with better coil options, an actual real-world voltage to coil gain control and improved bias coding for big, deep gold and/or small gold. To achieve this with an already proven circuit would be a cheap'ish achievement. Maybe add Geosense as well... The more they dither, the closer Nokta get to the prize. In a way, I hope Nokta does kick the legs out from under Minelab with their new prospecting PI project....its going to be the only way they abandon their ridiculous $10K+ pricing agenda. Being an Aussie, of course I want Minelab to succeed, but not at the cost of their loyal customers wallets.

Yeah, thats the crunch....and the argument. Currently (and has been for almost 30 years), Minelab have only had to compete with catch-up company's in certain sectors of the marketplace. The High-end prospecting detector market has previously been theirs to exploit almost unchallenged. They also consistently push the envelope with new tech and ideas and force the other company's to catch up. But, this is now ending and the writing is on the wall....and they dont see it. Whilst we (mostly) all use ML gear and get results, we hate being sucked dry with their ridiculous pricing. To replace lost revenue, Minelab/Codans management have been given 2 choices: (1) release the long overdue GPZ replacement and/or other overdue models or (2) Ridiculously increase retail prices. They chose the dumbest of the 2 options. This now allows the opposition to more easily catch up.

Yeah I dont see any other logic behind it, seeing how their manufacture -> wholesale markup is C. 800%. When there is no-one in the board room who is a detectorist or even semi aware of the state of the game currently, then poor decisions are easily made. There are quite a lot of examples of where Minelab/Codan has lost its way recently. Leaving the door open for the likes of Nokta to fill the void.

I would also suggest that there really IS only a 'Big 3' currently..... Minelab, Garrett and Nokta. XP has a popular detector with the Deus II but is does not have any sort of a 'Line-up' and basing a manufacturer's credibility on 1 machine (although they still produce another 4 'nobody wants' detectors) somehow doesn't present itself as a credible player. I'm sure their turnover is only 10% of what the actual 'Big 3' achieve. If a detector company doesn't have a line-up of an entry level budget unit, a mid range unit, an SMF serious unit, a beach/underwater unit, a HF VLF prospecting unit and a serious PI prospecting unit...then it somehow doesn't seem like a serious company that actually wants to compete.

This is wholly and solely about the drastic drop in revenue this past financial year... Keep revenue high'ish so that the share price won't drop drastically. Aside from ML's high R&D expenditure, their cost -> retail markup is always C. 800% and they can easily absorb ANY price rises in cheap Chinese/Taiwanese parts and Malaysian labor charges. The bean counters have obviously looked at the potential decrease in sales due to a retail price increase versus the actual return. It must somehow make sense to them. But, I wouldn't want to be a retailer when sales drop by 30%. I'm sure the retailer markup hasn't increased to compensate.

Ah, they're listed on the 'portable speakers' section, not headphones.

The Ohm product is not on Qualcomm's list, so it may just be Chinese BS, not low latency at all.... Qualcomm APTX LL Headphones list

You say that being 'packable in a backpack' is a major requirement....this leads to the Axiom once again. This is something that the GPX will struggle with. I think your decision is already made for you....

100% factual. Not an opinion. TRUTH. 👍

When I lived in Scotland, I once went on a train past the Kildonan train station and saw a big patch of diggings near there....looked 'juicy' lol. Went panning at Baille an Or a couple times, the gold was actually pretty good and plentiful. The upper hills benches have been ignored.

I did similar, my modded 4500 was easily more quiet with the shield attached. It was an easy conclusion for me. Didn't shut up the noise entirely, but the difference was obvious.

I simply applied the copper tape (2x layers) to the inside of my 6000 control box cover (DD leather products). Ideally, it needs to be directly connected to the internal ground of the graphite paint shield inside the control box as well....but unless a ML tech does it for you, the warranty is voided. 😞

I wonder who put you onto that??? 🤔 The shield is actually .5mm thick copper tape. You can do this to any detector just by buying the tape for shielding electric guitars. Cheap off Ebay, Aliexpress, Amazon etc. Done it to my 6000 with noticeable effect.

Its very subjective.....which model detector you are modding, what exact size/shape gold you're hearing, soil conditions, coil design and size.... On some test patch evaluations, (pre-drilled horizontal holes, targets inserted via wooden dowel) I've seen improvements from as little as 10%, right up to almost 50%. Once you get past the 20% mark using an earlier GPX and 18"+ mono coil sizes, you're well within 'flog a GPZ' range.

The GP Extreme-> GP3500 were all just modifications to the same board and the GPX4000-> GPX5000 were also all (almost) just modifications to the same board.But since the demise of the 5000, their outlook has certainly changed. I think Steve said that a lightened and modded version of the 5000 , sold C. US$2,000 would be a massive seller....so ML don't have to stretch budgets to create a worthwhile detector.The GPX series has already made its $$ (the 4500 is the record holder for the biggest selling PI in history) and doesn't need to recoup any development costs. Add sub-boards for Voltage front end gain, frequency change selector and some upgraded timings (all just code of course) and updated, superior components and voila! Most of the post-development hard work has already been by Woody, Ismael and Mick.

I had my old 4500 modded about 4 years ago. Prior to that, I'd owned it for 3 years. In those 3 years I found only 5oz with it. Once I had it modded, I got 6oz in the 1st 12 months. The flat-wound mono coil I used certainly added a degree of 'punch' but overall, it was way more sensitive and hit deeper. I went back over lots of old territory that I'd given up on and pulled gold on most locations. The mods have evolved a lot in the past few years and have gotten better.

The first mods were done by Barrie Johnson and Ken Roberts, for the SD2000 only. Ismael Jones expanded on this with higher sensitivity frequency crystals, voltage regulator and filters, plus an amp. He then created mods for the GP's and Woody also started around the same time. Mick Spiteri came on the scene when the F1A4 mine detectors were being dumped on the market and he created the mods for those and then expanded into all the other ML PI's. Ismael still has his site up and not sure if he still does the actual mods.... he has the info on the mods for all the machines up to the GP3500 for anyone to download: Ismael Jones site

Mick at Detectronics does mods for C. AU$2K. Woody is more expensive as he's trying to slow down demand. Wait times are approx 4-6 weeks after supply of your control box.

Its all about the mineralization....lots of ironstone. All other settings there are fairly unusable. Phil's video (on my post) shows the black iron soil well. Its well accepted that the big 19 is totally useless in hot ground here... it has zero benefit over the stock 14. X coils are a different matter....Phil doesn't use them I believe.

There are a few people I am acquainted with, or know from FB, that have sold their 7000's and bought cheap'ish 5000's and got them modded. It seems the current mods with the Very low frequency, plus the front end gain can beat the 7000 by a large margin on bigger, deeper gold when using 18" or larger coils. Sounds odd I know but numerous test patch trials over the past few years have convinced some serious operators to give up on the 7000. I am tossing up on whether to mod up an old SD2200 due to a new set of modifications incl a slow timing change, plus the frequency adjust and gain. The option of selecting Channel 1 ONLY is also baiting me. When all the serious operators are demanding depth and no manufacturer is supplying it (the GPZ was released 8 years ago!), then all options become worth a look. An interesting video of a test is here:

Yes, loud, sharp erratic pings as it discharges. Ya dont wanna touch any statically charged plastic either, electric shock will occur. Maybe a trailing discharge wire will help...

Polycarb is still a plastic and may elicit a static charge from friction with soil and rocks, especially quartz. But it might not in your case, trial and error I suppose. 🤔

Minelab's biggest problem is that they don't have an actual product end-user on the board. Just like politicians, 'they don't live in the real world'. No concept of just how poorly the 'biggest detector manufacturer in the world' is regarded by PR standards. No concept of customer expectations either. Their ignorance and indifference will allow other players to etch away at their market dominance....look at Nokta for an example. There are a couple of other minor players who are developing new designs in the prospecting arena also. It only takes one super successful design and Minelab suddenly have a problem. With their decline in revenue, anyone would think that now is the time to announce and release a replacement for the GPZ..... we now have to wait until 3rd quarter of 2024 I suspect. By then, it might be too late.....

Funny about that, Jim Normandi often said wacky things in his latter years...possibly another case of that mentioned here. I was thinking perhaps he meant "A way to remove gold from your quartz specimens" instead lol 😁

The coax may still be use-able, just heavily wrap the split section with elec tape and do a test. To replace the coax cable entirely is a much bigger job....you have to use enameled coax with a braided outer core and resistance of <.1ohm per metre. Stripping the enamel off both cores will do your head in if you're not familiar with various procedures. Couple that with the complete disassembly of the coil, careful retention of the shielding paper and screen wire, ablation of the solder joint cement....yeah, you get the picture....😱