phrunt

You're right there, my best option is switching to the DD but the problem with that is its a pretty big coil and there are no smaller DD options, it'd be cool if Coiltek and NF duplicated their Mono GPX coil sizes and also made them in a DD, the 10x5" DD would be ideal for me. Even if Minelab released an 11" DD it'd be better than the 14". It always comes down to lack of coil choices! 🙂

The chips are in the coils, not in the detector, the detector itself seems safe from counterfeiting, although there are fake GPZ 7000's under the hood they're not fake GPZ 7000's and just poor performing detectors, with the easier to clone detectors like VLF's there are fakes that are virtually identical in performance, with I would guess worse build quality. So the aim of the chip on the GPZ coil cable, and inside the GPX 6000 isn't to prevent Chinese from making fake detectors, it's simply there to prevent coils being made by anybody outside of Minelabs control.

GR Guy, the GPZ is not old technology to someone who goes down to their dealer today and buys it, it's the top of the line most expensive detector Minelab sell. If that's how it should be looked at they need to pull it from the market. It's not old technology, it's the current technology. If anything the GPX is old technology, it's a hotted up to little gold and dumbed down in settings GPX 5000. I think your chain of thought is more something that someone at Minelab would have, you're not thinking like a customer, customers don't care about that stuff you're talking about as much as Minelab would, they care about how the equipment they buy works and how it benefits them above everything else.

Thanks so much for doing that Aureous, I really appreciate the time you took to do that. Ok, so it's a bit better than mine but that could just be due to locations I'm detecting with EMI around. Mine certainly has its good days and bad days I guess I've just been so spoilt with the consistency of the GPZ threshold where every day is the same and it's just so much more stable overall. I hope mine improves a bit with a smaller coil taking in less EMI, and I can see a concentric coil for mine in my future which WILL make it run smoother.

I think if Minelab gave X-coils the chip the GPZ would suddenly be the hottest thing in town, people would be rushing to buy one so the funny side of it is it's Minelab that are holding back the sales of the GPZ, if people could just plug an X-coil into their GPZ and go detecting the GPZ would be selling like hot cakes. People have been selling their GPZ to buy a GPX as they want to find the smaller gold better, wouldn't it just be nice to save some money and just buy a small coil and I believe exceed the 6000 on small gold by doing so, I guess that would eat into 6000 sales massively though. So it's quite funny that Minelab themselves are limiting the sales of their flagship detector to a trickle when it could be selling many of them with one simple change. People could get their tiny coil, their really big coils, concentric coils and the list goes on. NF, Detech and Coiltek would start pumping out coils for it too to bringing even more options, if anyone thinks NF wanted to take years between each Z-search release they're kidding themselves, something is holding them back. It'd be like the good old days again when you could easily get a coil to suit your needs. I wonder how the shareholders feel knowing Minelab themselves are the reason the GPZ isn't selling near as well as it could be. I think it's widely known the GPZ is the better of the two top end Minelab detectors, it's just locked up in a cage, set it free and then let's see which one people want to use. The GPX is better on smaller gold you say? Is it... or is that just want Minelab want you to believe. I guess I'm overly optimistic Minelab would come to their senses on this one day, but I think why they'll never do it is they need to leave something in the tank for the next model, and a way to do that is restrictions on coils, it's pretty easy to release a GPZ 8000 which technically is very similar to the GPZ 7000 with more cosmetic changes than anything but with improved coil designs and different sizes and people will buy it. If everyone is swinging X-coils and other brands of improved coils they'd really have to work hard to make a GPZ 8000 viable.

The dangerous world of illegal mining in South Africa Every day they go to work, they have no idea whether they will return home alive. Poverty forces them beneath the earth to search for gold. Some will be arrested for illegal mining. Some will die. BBC Africa Eye meets the migrants who risk everything to go deep underground in South Africa’s dangerous disused gold mines to make a living. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-61609559 If you go to the BBC website there is a 9 minute video, it's worth the watch.

That's the issue mine had from new, initially it wouldn't turn on, tapping it resolved that which I suspect was the battery pins being stuck inside the detector which is common it seems, but the second problem I had was that error and pulling the battery was the only way to turn it off too. This problem seems intermittent as it comes and goes, mine did it a few times at the start, then once a few days later and it didn't happen again after that for some time.

The first time I used my Torus I don't think I had the problem at all I came away super happy with them so I really don't think I'd not notice it that time, it showed on the second use and has remained ever since. Sorry to hear about your 6000 issue. After doing some research it seems the popping problem with aptX low latency is something that is not unusual, they've had it with their bluetooth speaker too, https://avantree.com/knowledge-base/orbittc580-firmware-patch-v2-fix-crackling-noise-on-aptx-low-latency-headphones/ Their solution was a firmware upgrade to disable aptx LL on the speaker though 😞 Note: The cracking noise was only happen under aptX LL mode, pls note that this DFU fixes the problem by prioritizing FastStream or aptX codec than aptX LL. Which means when you completed this upgrade, they will not work under aptX LL codec. If you mind this, pls DO NOT upgrade. I do wonder how many people wouldn't even notice it on the GPX 6000 as it's so noisy anyway so whats a few little pops and crackles in among the threshold, if you plug it into a computer with a Bluetooth low latency transmitter and play some music you'll notice it a lot more than a noisy metal detector. The pops and crackles are a lesser volume than the threshold.

Mine are 21F1, both of ours are made in 2021, there are lots made in 2022 but we both have older stock, either way they're both models running the latest firmware but if yours doesn't have the problem it might be something with my lot number and not yours and the support person just didn't want to acknowledge it, part shortage and substituting parts maybe. I'll see what they come back with in a couple of weeks then return them if it all goes badly.

Must just be my GPX 6000 luck coming through again 🙂 Out of interest what lot number are your Torus, it says on them on the left hand side. The problem might just be with the current revision and not older ones, the support person didn't indicate that the problem is only with new build numbers though. Seeing mine have the latest firmware I guess I'll be waiting a couple of weeks to see if they resolve the problem and if they do it will just mean flashing on a new firmware I guess.

I wish the 6000 had some settings, I liked the motion setting on the older GPX models, I was quite surprised most people just banged it on Very slow and left it as that forever, fast actually gives better results on small targets and no doubt bigger deeper ones too but lets in more EMI so you had to be in the right area to speed the motion up, it also allows you to swing faster so it's very beneficial, never understood why whenever you see peoples settings they're always on very slow. I guess Geosense is meant to do all of this for us, it just doesn't seem possible that it could, I can't imagine the GPX has a motion sensor checking our swing speed. I've noticed the GPX 6000 easily misses small targets if you sweep too fast over them.

For those considering getting a Torus I would hold off and see if they can fix the issues they've got with it, mine are just new and the latest version with the latest firmware and I've noticed crackling and popping sounds on the GPX 6000 when connected using aptX low latency. I then connected with my Mpow atpX low latency transmitter on my GPZ and used them with it and noticed the same crackling and popping sounds, they were happening every few minutes, sometimes worse than others. The sound quality on them is excellent, at first I was putting the crackling noises down to detecting near power lines and getting interference on the Bluetooth frequency but Ive since ruled that out by using them in a remote location away from any major source of EMI and the problem is exactly the same. I'm very fussy with audio so others with them may not have noticed or just don't care, but I do, I hate any audio problems like hissing, crackling or popping sounds, they drive me crazy. I contacted Avantee about the issue which they acknowledged exists with the Torus. See our chat transcript below Visitor 15895070 May 29, 2022, 18:31 PDT Chat started: 2022-05-30 01:15 AM UTC (01:15:34 AM) Visitor 15895070: Hello (01:15:35 AM) Avantree Support Desk: Welcome to Avantree! Let me find an available agent for you... May we have your name and email please? (01:15:37 AM) *** Avantree - Sara joined the chat *** (01:15:45 AM) Visitor 15895070: Simon is my name (01:15:45 AM) Avantree - Sara: Hello (01:15:55 AM) Visitor 15895070 is now known as Simon. (01:16:06 AM) Avantree - Sara: Hi Simon, what can we help please? (01:16:23 AM) Simon: I have just bought some Torus wearable speaker from Amazon and when I connect with atpX low Latency to them I get regular popping clicking sort of static sounds, connecting without aptX I don't get this problem (01:16:52 AM) Avantree - Sara: May i know which device you pair with the Torus? (01:17:20 AM) Simon: I have tried two things, a Mpow atpX transmitter and also a Minelab GPX 6000 aptx Low latency metal detector (01:17:35 AM) Simon: both cause the cracking popping sound that happens every few minutes (01:20:26 AM) Avantree - Sara: we have noticed that there is some pop noise in LL codec. And the only way to fix it is getting them paired with aptx codec (01:20:30 AM) Simon: the problem only occurs when using aptX low latency (01:20:58 AM) Simon: if I use other atpx low latency headphones I do not have the problem (01:21:39 AM) Simon: I have noticed there is possibly a firmware upgrade, it is possible to try this to resolve the problem? (01:22:04 AM) Avantree - Sara: https://avantree.com/product-support/BTSP-NB05-BLK#nb05-troubleshooting-poor-call-quality-low-mic-volume-dfu (01:22:06 AM) Avantree - Sara: do you mean this one? (01:22:47 AM) Avantree - Sara: May i know the Lot NO. of your Torus please? (01:23:15 AM) Simon: 21F1 (01:24:38 AM) Avantree - Sara: The one you have should be with the latest firmware already (01:24:44 AM) Simon: Ok (01:25:10 AM) Simon: so there is no solution to the problem, other bluetooth low latency headphones work but the torus will make crackling sounds? (01:27:16 AM) Avantree - Sara: our engineers are still working on this. the only way now is letting them pair with aptx codec:( (01:27:37 AM) Simon: Ok thank you. (01:28:01 AM) Simon: I will return them to Amazon (01:28:23 AM) Avantree - Sara: may i know your email address? We will contact you once there is a solution (01:28:34 AM) Simon: my email is simon@############## (01:28:42 AM) Simon: if you think you'll find a solution I will keep them. (01:30:44 AM) Avantree - Sara: we will email you within one or two weeks and let you know the result. And you still could return them to amazon if we still can't find a solution then. (01:31:13 AM) Simon: Ok, thank you very much, I appreciate your help. (01:31:25 AM) Avantree - Sara: You are welcome. Bye for now (01:31:29 AM) Simon: bye (01:31:37 AM) *** Avantree - Sara left the chat ***

I didn't really know where to put this but for Nel coil fans such as myself it looks like they're coming back! I really hope so. They have updated their website with this notice. It's sad what has happened to them but I'm glad it looks like they're going to survive it as a company.

Wow, that ground is insane. That's the first time I've understood how bad soil can be. The Nox was the clear winner to me but certainly a dig it all detector with very little depth in that ground. If you shut your eyes and listen the Legend sounds exactly like an Equinox that is being troubled by EMI. I think the GPX 5000 would be the best for that soil. My takeaway from that is you have a lot more patience than me Jeff, I'd not enjoy gold hunting in your ground at all! Even with the GPX 6000 and people promoting it showing a little nugget they've just dug and showing the depth they got it at all proud how deep it was and they're saying they're amazed with the extreme depth it's getting them I have a chuckle as I'd get double their depth at least with my 6000 easily and not be all that excited by the result, sometimes the depth they're amazed by with their 6000 I could get the nugget with a few of my VLF's. It just really demonstrates the differences in soil around the world and how much our results vary and why we are always bickering about this sort of thing as our experiences differ so much it's crazy. Your video was a really good demonstration of this and it's lucky I don't live where you do or I'd dislike all of those VLF's for prospecting.

I think time will tell, they've each said they're going to be releasing three coils with no sign of more to come, Coiltek released three Nox coils and two CTX coils if history is anything to go by on chipped coils. So there are three confirmed sizes from each brand which seems a coincidence all similar sizes to their competitor but different enough that they're not having to compete with each other, that was well planned seeing they didn't release their sizes to the public until they were near ready for sale so they obviously conspired in the background to ensure they were not competing with each other or it was a huge fluke as I'm sure Nugget Finder would have wanted to make the 14x9" being one of their more popular GPX coil sizes. It seems like Coiltek got the first pick selecting the commonly popular sizes of 10x5" and 14x9". Being far more simple coils to make you'd think they'd come out with the best first for their brand to encourage people to buy others in their range. NF is near the point of releasing their second GPZ coil, and their website updated to reflect this after saying that size will come shortly after the 12", then it changed to coming in 2021 and stayed that way well into 2022. Finally the website updated a couple of weeks ago saying a new larger size is coming soon in 2022 so struggling to get it across the line I guess. I'm quite happy with the range of 6000 coils available, plenty of sizes in the sizes I like, I would love a concentric coil though as it might tame the beast and add some depth. I think if there are no constraints Nugget Finder sure missed a lot of opportunity with the GPZ by doing what they've done.

Yes I should have borrowed JW's coil for a bit but I didn't know his was operating so nicely until the end of the day when we were driving home 🙂 Maybe next time that'd be worth trying although the Coilteks should be out very soon and we're coming into ski season so my GPX will be put in the cupboard for a few months. That's odd the theory about the little wire segments, I've not found one with the GPX yet as they're not all that common here and I've not put near enough hours on it but on the GPZ wire sings out like Tina Turner a few too many drinks, it's one of those targets that shocks you how small it is for how loud the signal response is. Same with the little metal shards I was finding the other day with the GPZ, much smaller than a pellet but a lot better signal than a pellet gets. I've lots to learn yet on the GPX.

I think the difference is the coils, as JW was commenting his new replacement 11" coil which arrived Friday just in time for our Saturday hunt was working really well, and he didn't need to do a factory reset all day yesterday and to be honest mine was a piece of crap working the same area at the same time as him and I hated using it and he only did a few noise cancels although they weren't desperately needed, yet his old coil he was needing factory resets a lot and noise cancelling often, in fact it died when he did a factory reset to try calm it down coming up with the coil error on the restart. That's why I want to buy an aftermarket coil ASAP to see if things improve with mine as at this point I really don't enjoy using it when I can use the GPZ with it's wonderful stability by comparison. I just don't understand this easy expert rubbish, it's one of the hardest detectors to use I own with how unstable it can be and it would confuse a beginner beyond belief.

yep, why kill the GPX sales and investment by releasing another detector quickly when with no competition they really don't need to, they can stretch out the sales of detectors as long as they want, it's a few years away yet is my best guess. I am not bothered, I'm as happy as I could be with my current equipment. All these rumours of a GPX 8000 next year I believe are rubbish. Competition would drive faster releases, when the market is completely dominated they can milk it for all it's worth. Their next detector will be a coin and relic machine, surprisingly that's where the money is at the moment, previously it was the gold detectors bringing in the cash. Times they are changing as their investor reports clearly point out.

I'll think we should just wait and see what the future holds. 🙂

Can you put up a video of your threshold at some point? It's not that I don't believe you it's more that I want to know what is considered a super quiet threshold on the GPX. I can't get its threshold anywhere near as stable as my GPX 4500, 5000 or GPZ 7000, not even close even if I dumb it right down to minimum sensitivity it's still a noisy beast. The videos I've seen on Youtube seem to be similar to mine and JW's one seemed just as bad as mine to me when I borrowed it to compare to mine. It could just be that we all have a different definition of a stable threshold I guess. I see a lot of people say the SDC 2300 is a ratty noisy detector yet others say it purrs like a kitten so I think some of it is how much noise a person tolerates. Mine maybe noisy as all hell but you can still hear the small shallow dinks over it as they scream out.

I don't think the problem is IF a 6000 can run a concentric coil, it's more so if it will be ALLOWED to run a concentric coil. With X-coils not really interested in continuing making GPX coils with the freedoms that they have by not being approved then it's up to Nugget Finder and Coiltek with whatever restrictions if any are upon them to make the coils for it, will they be allowed to pursue coils outside of a set configuration? That's the big question. I'm not surprised by X-coils not following through with GPX coils, they chase bigger deeper gold where they hunt and the GPZ is the more suitable detector for them to use personally, and the whole reason they even made GPZ coils was to give themselves better options, with them not wanting to use the GPX themselves the motivation wouldn't be there the same as it was with the GPZ. I hope they'll make a few friends and long time X-coil users some Concentric coils for the GPX some day, at the moment they're flat out just trying to keep up with orders, it seems the GPX being released has sparked a lot of interest from GPZ owners to just buy a more sensitive coil for their GPZ rather than an entirely new detector.

I think the poor build quality of the Equinox is over exaggerated. Yes, it has it's flaws like the occasional one drowning and coil ears breaking off but if you consider the VERY large number of them out in use of course they're going to show more faults than the Legend which has far less hitting the soil, although if you look on the Nokta Facebook groups there are a bucket load of faulty Legends, not due to poor structural integrity so much as due to bad electronics and faulty coils. So while there is an impression the Nokta is better quality I honestly don't think it is. Both have a 3 year warranty so if you run into problems you get it replaced anyway and by the end of the warranty I'd be hoping a new model is out so me personally I wouldn't care if it had troubles at that point. If your control pod dies out of warranty on the Nox Minelab will sell you a replacement pod at a very reasonable price too, not sure how Nokta will deal with this situation.

I use products he doesn't sell 😄 It'd be like me working at a Ford dealer wearing a Toyota T-shirt 🙂 I was just watching this video by abenson and I would not trust my pellet rejection method in his area, it seems there is a lot of small shallow near surface gold where he is hunting and my method would likely lose a lot of gold there as where we are these nuggets are not on the surface like he's finding them, it works here but certainly not there. It was interesting to see he has a lot of the same troubles as I do with the 6000 like the speaker and even quite reasonable size small nuggets near disappearing in dig out piles if they end up on edge in the piles or towards the bottom of the pile. This behaviour is so different on the GPZ. I can see why people hunting in this area he is at would love the GPX over a stock GPZ, it's hyper sensitive to small surface targets so these nuggets would stand out.

Yea sure I'll film it next time, I avoid them with the GPZ too as with the 8" you get the double blip as you pass them, it's mostly an odds game, pellets are often on or near the surface, with the GPX it's pretty easy to avoid them in this scenario as it really ROARS on them when they're right next to the coil, so if I do a few scrapes with my pick and signal is no longer in the same place and moved into my dig pile then it's less likely to be gold, combine that with the GPX losing the roaring target signal as soon as the pellet has any depth by being buried in my dig pile under a few inches of soil and the GPX signal becoming much more faint or even disappearing on some smaller lead pellets then I write it off as a pellet. Gold tends to keep its signal strength better than lead pellets. We don't have many surface type nuggets around here unless on bedrock so this only works when there is a decent amount of top soil on the bedrock. As you can see by how many pellets I dug a lot of them are too deep for this trick to work. These were all pellets that survived past the first few scrapes and could have possibly been gold. I rejected just as many as I dug I would guess.

I went back to this spot again yesterday with JW, this time we were both better equipped, he finally got his replacement GPX 11" Coil, it just appeared in the mail with no notice it was even coming! He's now put that funky tape all over the top like others have seeing it was a new coil he wanted to protect it from scratching to bits. I haven't done that with mine, if I wear a hole in the top of it Minelab can replace it for me under warranty. We arrived and I zoomed straight over to where I found the two nuggets in the bedrock last week but this time I was using the GPZ and 8" X-coil. I had slammed that little area last week with the 6000, spent almost half a day on a small area of bedrock making sure I'd done every inch of it so this was to see if the extra depth on small nuggets I know the 8" coil gives would find me another one. It turns out it wasn't the extra depth that found me another one, it was the smaller size. It is hard to see in this photo but above the scoop is a crevice in the bedrock, below the scoop are 3 big rocks (it's on a downhill slope so my aboves and belows may sound confusing by the photos) those rocks were positioned either side of the crevice making a bit of a bridge across it, I was able to poke the 8" coil up under them and got the signal, quite clearly too, it was very obvious and I'm sure the GPX would have hit it too, if the 11" coil could have fit up under the rocks, but of course it couldn't. So in this instance the find was more about coil size than detector performance. This was the little nuggie So, I checked the rest of the area and the 6000 had missed nothing else, even though I'm confident the 8" is deeper on small gold for this to be realised the gold has to be in that 20% or so range outside of the GPX depth and within the 8" depth so for me to find a nugget in that exact scenario and know the nugget was found because of that scenario is probably not overly likely very often. I'm never the best at covering every inch of ground 100% effectively too so I'm unlikely to say the GPX missed this but the GPZ got it, I just know which I have more confidence in. I walked over to JW who was detecting about 20 meters away with his 6000 at the perfect time, he had a target that was likely not to be a pellet, too deep for a start for a lead pellet and not a booming signal by any means so I hung around for the recovery as I was sure he had gold. It took quite a while to get it out, the GPX is difficult to pinpoint so he was messing around a bit, I offered to go get the GPZ to recover it but he persisted, practice makes perfect I guess 🙂 He eventually got it out and into the scoop and narrowed it down to the last bit of soil in there and said damn, a pellet as there was this round little rock in the scoop. I said nope! look there, I saw a little glisten of gold. Indeed it was, a pretty small bit for it's depth too. With that mission complete I switched back to the GPX and went off exploring new to me areas, not new areas as there were dig holes evidence everywhere from JW and some other person that's been going to the area. I spent an hour or two scouting around digging and avoiding pellets and struggling with EMI and then I detected over the top of flat piece of schist and had a signal, I scraped the surface off it to clean off the plant life and soil and the signal was still there, very faint but consistent, Some of these schist rocks have a green or iron type stuff inside them so I wasn't sure if that was setting it off, the GPZ gets troubled by the green ones so I was going to blame that but I thought I'd try lift the rock out just in case, I used my pick to leaver it up and it snapped in half but I was able to move the half away and the signal was indeed under the rock. I recovered it and took a little video. I was pretty happy with that, yes I think the GPZ would have got it too, but I'll never know. JW came over shortly after while I was recovering a pellet and said it was lunch time so we went and had lunch, he was up to 3 nuggets now from memory to my 2. I decided I'd had enough of the 6000 for a while, I just enjoy using the GPZ more, I love how stable it seems compared to the GPX, I'm now running the sensitivity on the GPZ at 20 all the time, I used to run it on 18 as I felt going to 20 made it less stable and I prefer stable but now after running the GPX then 20 on the GPZ feels incredibly stable by comparison. My other mission was to go work right under the power lines, this is a big advantage of the GPZ, it just does the job and the 8" is awesome under power lines. I don't need to drop my sensitivity or put on a DD coil to work there, I can run my normal settings which are maxed out normal/high yield/20 gain and continue on as if they're not there. I walked up there and found JW's scoop on the ground, he'd lost it when he walked past to another spot so I put it in my pocket for when I next saw him, I had no idea where he now was I couldn't see him. I normally listen out for the pick noise hitting the bedrock but couldn't hear it so he was quite far away. I continued on detecting under the lines and was recovering lots of little tiny shards of metal and I was wondering if they were something to do with the power lines when they installed them, a digger bucket or something. I also ended up getting a nice target sound, a boomer really but it's depth continued down to the bedrock. A nice size nugget, at first when I dug it I thought it was junk, one side of it is covered in iron stone or something, very weird for around here to have a polluted nugget. That's so weird for a NZ nugget from what I've seen! The other side looks almost normal. This was when I look up from where I found it. The dig hole to the right of the coil. And a little video I took after the recovery I was using the ML-100's on the GPZ using a MPow aptX LL transmitter and oddly the hiss I'm always complaining about with these headphones on the 6000 doesn't exist with this setup, I'm now wondering if the hiss is caused by interference to the Bluetooth transmission from the GPX, it's obviously not a fault with the headphones, so weird. My biggest of the day! Shortly after finding this and covering that small bit of open ground under the power lines I swapped back to the GPX, I took it up to this spot but didn't have my DD with me and tried the 11" but it was far too unstable, even on lowest manual sensitivity I just couldn't justify using it there but I persisted and checked the spot anyway and found nothing I'd missed, the only pellets it found were ones in my scrape and rejects and no other targets I'd missed. And my junk for the day The tiny little junk targets at the top were with the GPZ and they were the little bits I suspect are from the digger bucket when they cleared the area to put in the power lines. I'm going to give the GPX a rest now I think, I'll start using it again once I get an aftermarket coil for it and see if I like it better then. I was going to get a NF and the Coiltek and now I think I'll just get one and see if I find it any better for my needs then before buying the second one, no need to throw more money at it unless I start to enjoy using it as that's what it's all about, if you don't enjoy doing it there is no point doing it and I really enjoy the GPZ. JW ended up with 5 nuggets for the day to my 3 but because of my bigger one I might have the most weight.