fingers_

phrunt thanks for the feedback. Like i said earlier it's a new hobby, I see you've got a wide range of gear you've used before so it's good to have someone who's had that mix of detectors under their belt to pick brains. Understanding VLF vs PI and hot rocks being a concern, the area's closest to me that being Ohpir, Bathurst & potentially up near Nambucca Heads for prospecting I would assume have a lot less hot rock density then the WA fields. I was originaly from WA, but got the old gold bug here in NSW. Is the depth from PI vs VLF significant enough to warrant a GPX over CTX given the price difference and then lack there of flexibility from the scanner? I'm near the beach so assuming I could take the CTX to the beach, then out to gold prospect as I see fit with some 'SMART' dev work and tweaking using the MLF system to hone in on a gold setting that works well. @Gold Hound even already supplied an MLF file for a starting basis and there were other CTX users that supplied the FS, FE, FA & CS, CE, CA stats on an excel sheet, hoping to run some AI over this to assist honing the frequency adjustments with the MLF for gold specifically. I guess being new I don't want to 1) Limit myself to 4-5 hour trips to use it out 2) Have the luxury, hopefully by some smarts / time and tinkering to enable it to find gold via a custom setting and still be......decent in other scenarios. All the reviews to date on the CTX have mostly been for coin etc, I was 'really' hoping that with some TLC / spending time tweaking settings it would be good enough for gold hunting out back and save myself a a few $2ish K having to go from a EQ 800 to a SDC 2300 or something also restricting my beach use? Appreciate your feedback and expertise, because right now I'm just going of online research, which is one aspect compared to those who had it in their hands and 'KNOW', also the reason I jumped on here to get the feedback from users who have been out and about with. It feels difficult to get the best of all worlds with them 😄

Having said that if there is a cheaper option that provides those kinda, tweaks and fun in my opinion tinkering then I'm all ears.

Yeah, but I'm an AI Dev and the MLF files and range dynamics that the CTX show cased you know.....made me itch 😄

Thanks for the reply so fast, the reason I was looking at the CTX is for the customization I can get specifically. Is there a new Equinox model that provides the same level of customization like uploading the .MLF files?

What an amazing post @Gold Hound, I've just joined and grabbed your MLF, don't even have the detector or applications yet. Truth is I'm really new at gold detecting I hired a GM 1000 a week back and headed out to Bathurst & Ophir for a bit of fun......Totally hooked now! Looking forward to my CTX 3030 arriving.