phrunt

I thought I'd drop these photos here as I thought they were cool and some people might like to see them, it wasn't the 22" concentric on the GPZ the guy was using but the 17" concentric that he was using when he found this stuff, the guy only bought the coil a couple of months ago, his first X-coil and went for a 1 month Western Australia trip with it and came back with some brilliant gold, it makes me really want to go to WA one of these days. 360 nuggets for 30 days, 645grams. The biggest nugget was 320 grams. He must have a very good spot to go to as back in 2016 he also did very well there, there are his photos from 2016 with the GPZ and stock coil. Really gives you some envy for the people lucky enough to be detecting in Western Australia.

They're just marketing videos anyway, you can't really hold too much value to them. It's best to wait until users who bought the detector put up videos if you want unbiased information or if you have trouble believing marketing because often in this world marketing is deceptive, mainly by only talking about the positives and neglecting to mention the negatives. Who in charge of marketing would allow marketing videos talking about all the negatives of their product? You really can't expect that. The benefit I get from these marketing videos is I get to see the detector and perhaps learn a little about it's features. As for performance I leave that to the general public to decide and in these early times before public release I tend to listen to people I trust to give an honest opinion like Steve but you have to remember unless the person is in your ground their opinions can only go so far even if they're 100% honest.

Yes, 45 seconds for a noise cancel, it looks like it's pretty advanced in it's method, checks all of the channels, picks 5 then rechecks the cleanest 5 and picks the best, 🙂 A bit better than a random 5 second selector. I always find the GPZ noise cancel very effective but quite slow. I don't mind waiting as long as it works well. That wasn't a dig at you about the Garrett dealer thing Nenad, you're really open minded with that stuff, you do Detech, Nokta, Quest and others, it's why I like to buy from you when I buy from Austrlaia but of course for you to want to sell it the price would have to be right and there would have to be customers wanting it in the first place, that so far is a wait and see.

that's what I was thinking, if it's so high priced here it might make more sense to import one myself if that works out cheaper and just pay the taxes, duties and shipping. I mentioned that to the Garrett NZ dealer, they pointed out the problem with that is they wouldn't cover the warranty on it and I'd have to send it back to the US if it had a fault. I'll wait and see, I'm optimistic Garrett has done something to make it more reasonable priced in Aus/NZ. They are aware of the problem, as Steve helpfully pointed it out to them with the 24k whereby the competitions detectors were significantly cheaper. This being a higher priced unit it's easier to justify the shipping cost from the US more so than a VLF where the shipping was going to be a good percentage of the price of the detector.

I was going off the $4700 figure as we don't get any discounts. That ends up approximately $6800 AUD + fees/commissions (keep in mind the exchange rate on the market isn't the exchange rate you get when you do a transfer, there are fees and commissions involved of a few %) Then the dealers have to include insanely high priced US Shipping in that and customs duties and taxes, it'd be lucky to be the price of a 6000 which are advertised at $7999 AUD but of course you can get discounts on that and I doubt anyone pays the advertised price. It's a tough one but I'm thinking it's going to be very close to the 6000 price by the time it arrives. It's too early yet to know as Garrett maybe doing something with the pricing to help the situation. I'm waiting on my dealer to find out the price 🙂 Fingers crossed. It's the reason the Garrett 24k is about double the price of the US in Australia.

A bit part of the reason for the lack of excitement in Australia is that it is from the USA, not because that is a bad thing, but it means the pricing won't be good, sadly that means pricing even if its cheap by comparison in the USA to the 6000 in our part of the world it's pricing is almost the same as a 6000. If we are lucky it may end up a few hundred dollars cheaper. We'll have to wait until official AU/NZ pricing is out but at the moment just changing exchange rates it's not looking good at all.

The thing that upsets me as a customer is when I pay a lot of money for something that is not worth the money, the 6000 was a prime example of this with it's poor quality, I won't go into it here but the quality sure didn't meet my basic quality expectations. Garrett on the other hand are the only brand of detector so far I've never had to do a warranty claim on, never once have I had a fault with a Garrett, I have 4 of their detectors too, and 3 of their pin pointers and not one fault, for me that's unheard of with other brands! Every other brand I have faults especially Minelab. That's not to say people don't have problems with them, it's to say I haven't, I've had faults with virtually all of my Minelabs, almost every single product I've bought off them has had some issue. I love my Minelab detectors more than anything but their quality sucks especially on their modern detectors. The thing that bothers me is they don't change designs to fix mistakes, same old thin coil ears from the CTX are on the Nox and still snapping, I read about Garrett ATX coil cable issues, and how they replaced a cracked cable coil for a guy and he said the new cable was nothing like the original cable on his old coil. If Garrett can release a good quality reliable machine that's a big bonus and will help them with their sales, I can't imagine the African prospectors are happy about having to send their 6000 off for warranty a few times losing valuable hunting time, I doubt they have easy access to a courier facility in their remote mining areas either, the Garrett video pointed out these detectors in Africa can be used 24 hours a day, they must take shifts on them, how frustrated would they be with a substandard build detector in that situation. So I hope Garrett have their build quality up to scratch, it looks a solid build. They build in house so they can monitor the build quality from start to finish. I've had some dealings direct with Garrett when it was impossible to buy a 24k in NZ, they were exceptional, very nice people and very helpful. I hope they can now start to improve their overseas distribution model, as pointed out already they're going to have difficulty with these in the Australia/NZ market with the high USD value compared to our currencies at the moment and the other issues related with US shipping and taxes pushing the pricing sky high so they won't be a good seller in our market, that's set it stone before the release even took place.

You have to admit the Axium is the best looking of the high end PI's, sleek fancy modern design, the feet and coil shape mean it won't be falling over except on the worst of rough sloping ground and that's beyond control of the designers. It oozes the look of quality unlike the cheap feel of the 6000, it really feels like a $400 detector with it's coils being made of ice cream containers and flimsy twisting shaft and just over all cheap feel with screws coming loose etc. It's lucky they're not releasing big coils for it, it couldn't handle them. When I first picked it up yes it felt light, but it also felt very cheap especially after hanging the 7000 off my arm for a while, a much nicer solid design I thought, yes heavy but at least not cheap junky. The Garrett has the much more modern looking screen and control pod too and a solid looking design. Sure I haven't held one yet however the pictures sure make it look a nice solid modern looking build. Sit it next to a 6000 and the 6000 will look 10 years old 🙂

The video shows he was in fine with tracking off, interesting line of questioning though, the manual recommends using fine unless under specific circumstances as it's the best overall performer. It sounds like you would only use Large if the ground conditions and hot rocks dictated it's use but you'd lose sensitivity to smaller targets, overall though even if chasing big deep gold fine sounds the best. Normal, Large and Salt are more a last resort in that order if you can't get away with using Fine. They don't sound specifically better in any way on any target other than better ground handling. FINE Mode Provides the maximum possible detection on small, low-conductivity targets (such as fine gold and specimen gold) while also providing the best detection of most medium and large targets. Because of its increased sensitivity to small/fine targets, FINE Mode can be more susceptible to ground minerals, hot rocks or saltwater. FINE is typically the preferred mode for most conditions. LARGE Mode Maintains strong detection of large targets while reducing small and medium targets. Most important, this mode reduces susceptibility to highly mineralized ground and hot rocks.

You forgot coil selection. 🙂 It's likely to have very small to very large coils made for it given time. GPX 6000 is stuck with small coils and one DD, GPZ without X-coils is stuck with 12, 14x13, possible 17 or 17x12" and 19 cast iron coil, the Garrett has limitless possibilities with coils.

You would probably like the fact it has modes, FINE Mode Provides the maximum possible detection on small, low-conductivity targets (such as fine gold and specimen gold) while also providing the best detection of most medium and large targets. Because of its increased sensitivity to small/fine targets, FINE Mode can be more susceptible to ground minerals, hot rocks or saltwater. FINE is typically the preferred mode for most conditions. NORMAL Mode Provides very good detection on all size targets. NORMAL will be less reactive in highly mineralized soil but will have reduced detection of very small targets. LARGE Mode Maintains strong detection of large targets while reducing small and medium targets. Most important, this mode reduces susceptibility to highly mineralized ground and hot rocks. SALT Mode Designed for use in mineralized areas with wet salt content, primarily for wet saltwater beaches. SALT Mode may also be useful for dry inland salt lakes and goldfields with high salt concentration, depending on moisture content. But it is recommended to first try the other modes for these inland conditions.

That's typical of marketing videos, you need to wait for the raw unedited end user videos to come out.

I'm sure they'll be sitting around discussing that today, a re-release of the 4500 for the 3rd time is possible I guess, adjusting the 5000 price to be similar to the Garrett is another option but where it's going to hurt is the 6000 sales, not necessarily because it's better, but it's another option that wasn't there yesterday. I doubt they're selling many 5000's at the moment anyway, plenty around second hand to prevent people needing to buy one new so a reduction in price there might be something they'd do, but still, it's a very outdated model by comparison to the Garrett and it's modern features and lightweight design. The 6000's performance is great when it works properly, but the release has been a shambles, over a year on still high failure rates, problems that maybe by design and can't be fixed like the speaker EMI go unaddressed leaving us to speculate, not a peep out of Minelab on it other than releasing this little statement almost a year after release acknowledging the problem exists saying the speaker can cause noise and if noise cancels won't solve it put on headphones. No resolution for their twisting shafts or acknowledgement the problem exists, didn't want to have to fork out the cash to fix them all up for everyone I guess. Garrett have made a point of ensuring their detector doesn't have the same known problems as the 6000, the much better shaft design, the longer battery life etc. Even for the most avid Minelab lovers this Garrett release may benefit them in the future with Minelab's reaction to it even if they never intend to buy one. They can't just sit there and ignore it.

Isn't it funny that in the Garrett release video a large part of the video was based upon testing it in Africa and the fact the Africans prospectors liked the long battery life and light weight design along with the benefits to the African market including how well it balanced the hot African soils and their EMI. Uncanny after the conversation earlier in this thread. 🙂

I just hope it's easy to access, the Garrett NZ dealer still hasn't even imported any 24k's, I've contacted them about it this morning but don't have much hope, I'd be forced to try get one from the USA I think.

So when Minelab comes out with a new detector the early bird catches the worm, get in quick, run run run! When Garrett does, wait and see? 🙂

I've already been on the blower to X-coils begging they make coils for it 😛 Hard part will be getting the detector to Kazakhstan, although I'd be glad to ship one over to them to get the ball rolling.

I think there are endless opportunities for the aftermarket to do coils for it, AI coils, concentric coils, spirals, whatever, without chips they can go nuts experimenting making coils. This is one big advantage they have over Minelab. Instead of making out the aftermarket manufacturers are some sort of enemy Garrett can embrace them and the benefits they may bring to the detector's sales. No restrictions! refreshing.

Chipping coils may come back to bite them. I'm glad Garrett is sensible on this one and it'll be good to see what the aftermarket guys can do with coils for it.

as Geotech pointed out, only 4 wires on the coil plug, not chipped! 🙂

Well, I fell asleep waiting, either way I had full confidence Garrett was going to bring something worthwhile to market, and they exceeded my expectations, what a pleasant surprise to wake to to see the tide has turned! Thank you Garrett, what a fantastic jump into the current PI market and now I'm questioning why I have an order in for 3 6000 aftermarket coils for a detector I don't even like when I should put the money towards this puppy instead. As my order is a special order with my dealer who is bringing them in specifically for me I'll keep my order but I really think I've blown that money as I'd rather use this Garrett. It ticks a lot of boxes for me and the aftermarket will go nuts for it, why wouldn't they, no restrictions preventing them from doing it, Garrett if anything encourage it, and if they can bring even more performance to the table for it even better! X-coils could make a great range of coils for it in the sizes I'd want. People had their doubts about Garrett and ground balance after the ATX, well.... it appears it does very well there. People assumed it might have bump sensitive coils as a decade old detector they released did... I don't understand why people just assume a company can't improve a product, unless they're Minelab, which in some ways go backwards with their new products, not always forwards. Garrett has done a brilliant job by the looks it of it and I can see it having a very good market share in very short order. Maybe Minelab will re-re-release the GPX 4500 to try fight back a bit in it's price range, I know which I'd rather be swinging. And I know you must of had a good amount of involvement at least encouraging Garrett to do this Steve and guiding them towards what people would like, so thank you also. Now reading about Gerry's involvement, a big thank you to Gerry too! Good work! I also think it will be a very good seller in Africa 🙂 A happy day for prospectors. Now to have a coffee so my brain wakes up to absorb all this great news.

He didn't join up with them to make it?

I was referring the to shaft looking real good. I've been rather disappointed in my GPX 6000 shaft and I'm sure just about everyone that owns one knows what I'm talking about. That Garrett shaft doesn't look round, so can't swivel inside itself and looks to have a good locking mechanism. The 6000 shaft is a very poor design. They went cheap and even took the locking pins out of it. Garrett obviously didn't want a repeat of these problems, perhaps they learnt the lesson on the Ace 150, 250 and 350 which had a shaft that was a bit twisty, ironically it was similar to the 6000 shaft in the way it locked and was fixed up on the Ace 200, 300 and 400 by using a locking pin. And yes, I own a couple of Garrett Ace detectors, and I really like using them, I must be a real loser but the funny thing is I can do very well with them. I'm betting my Ace has more silvers under its belt than a lot of Nox's. Take things too seriously and you take the fun away from it. Steve nailed it in his post above, it's not all about running the best of the best and in many cases that's just opinions, I certainly don't agree with some of which is the best detector at the moment, some of us just enjoy using detectors and learning them and the fun of finding stuff with different detectors. It's not mining the miners by us buying products we want to buy to use for our hobby and for the fun of using them, if anyone is good at mining the miners its Minelab with their exorbitant pricing. You own a Minelab, you've been mined! This Garrett may not be the best on the market and it's highly unlikely it will be but it may have an area it excels over someones current choice of detector and that would make it useful. Garrett in my opinion have the best dedicated VLF prospecting machine on the market with the 24k, and yes it is exciting they're coming out with another detector for prospectors, a good start towards some competition in the industry.

Install your Windows updates, the fact you mention service pack means you're running Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. Very outdated and your computer is a high security risk using it online especially if you're doing banking and other tasks involving currency and you care about your data, you should install the updates just to keep your computer safer, and allow you to install the update to your detector 🙂

Garrett have done a little teaser video, looking good, looking real good. There is no way this shaft is twisting!