phrunt

Sorry to hear that Rob, we've been largely so sheltered from it in this part of the world it's very easy to forget it's even happening. It makes some sense that could be the issue.

Minelab Australia is always outstanding and they respond to emails very quickly, the NZ service agent is fantastic too (A&E Electronics). You took the right step contacting ML Australia when you were having troubles as it makes them aware subcontracted people or their own business in a different region isn't up to their high standards or are having difficulties for whatever reason. if you have no luck elsewhere contacting the place you purchased it from is always the best step. It sounds like Minelab Customer care in the US isn't functioning as intended and Minelab head office in Australia may not have been aware of that but will be now.

It seems I caused a bit of a stir ? While the guy has his own opinions about things like iron bias his general thoughts were similar to mine, I'm not overly clued up on iron bias, I never really had a need for it as we don't have much iron junk in our soils around here so I just set it to 0. I don't see how iron bias would limit depth but I find recovery speed does affect it. Maybe he was meaning with certain iron bias settings the ID's become less reliable so you may pass on some deeper targets thinking they're junk? I've used my CTX on my local sports field which as some know was a very good producer giving me hundreds of silver coins, I knew there would be more, I seem to never get them all ? The CTX did surprise me with how well I did do in a short time. I always was a cherry picker though, for me to dig a silver I had to have a pretty good ID that it was going to be a silver or I didn't dig, the reason for this is I didn't want to dig hundreds of holes in a public area. I wanted to keep my digs to a minimum. When I went back with the CTX after doing some basic air tests to get the numbers I was chasing I found quite a few missed silvers quite quickly. Almost all the silvers in this field are deep, regularly at about the depth of my Carrot. The CTX wasn't finding coins I'd missed with the Nox not getting the depth, I just think it was giving me a better ID. Now, why I think the CTX is possibly deeper while still providing a good ID is last weekend i took my daughter detecting at one of the local ski fields, we end up doing this once a year for a bit of fun, she mainly wants to do it as shes so excited about ski season starting so she just wants an excuse to go there, the deal is also that she gets any money we find ? So I put her on the Vanquish, and basically just told her only look for ID's 21 and 22 ignore everything else. That gets her our gold $1 and $2 coins and that's all she'd have the patience to dig. I used my Nox and 11" and had the CTX and 11" with me that I found targets with one and checked the targets with the other, not on every single target, just the deeper ones. I found the CTX was doing a great job on ID's at depth, but so was the Equinox. Only some targets the CTX gave a more reliable ID and often the shallow targets on the Equinox were more wild with their ID like a $1 coin buried at only 1 or so inches was less of a reliable ID with the NOX than one deeper. The CTX gave good ID's on various depths even the really shallow ones. I'd never noticed that before with the Nox how the ID's are a bit less accurate wth very shallow coins and perhaps that was just the soil type at the ski field causing that. There was one particular deep $2 coin that the Equinox was very erratic with the ID on while the CTX was quite stable and easily identified it as a $2 coin. The beginners areas are always best, they fall over the most ? So in my very mild soils I think the CTX is great as a cherry picking detector, so is the Nox and Vanquish though. Even my Ace 300i is pretty remarkable with the stability of target ID's in my soils as long as there is only 1 target under the coil. I think in my area a person could do almost as well with any main manufacturer detector that have target ID's, they may have to dig a few more iffy targets but I personally think I could do just as well on coins with any of my coin capable detectors. I'm confident if I used my Ace 300 I wouldn't leave much for the Nox to find afterwards if I was willing and able to dig every potentially good target. We all have different soil types so our opinions on things can vary wildly. She managed to get 70 something dollars for her efforts on the day, mostly my finds ?

It does seem a weird problem like when the speaker is engaged it becomes some sort of antenna or powering the speaker when its very close to other electronics that are very sensitive is generating noise, very odd it would make it to market like that. I'm sure it's something that will just be remedied in the background without notice and later purchasers won't notice the problem with it as much as earlier owners. It would bother me as I'd likely be an exclusive speaker user forced to find an alternative to the speaker. Maybe they were aware of it and it couldn't be fixed and it's just how it has to be, like many things in metal detecting a compromise, at least it has Bluetooth so there are easy workarounds that are likely better than using the speaker anyway so for most it won't be an issue.

The biggest oddity is the bolt holes being different so you can't use an Equinox bolt, you have to use the Coiltek bolt. Why they'd do something like that just makes no sense to me and all it would have taken is the bolt hole to be an extra millimeter or so bigger. I normally have just used the same bolt for everyone of my coils, keeping the others from the other coils away as spares. Not If I take my 6" and Coiltek coil on a hunt I need to take both sets of bolts. Not a big deal but an annoyance for no reason. That's as far as the standard Nox bolt goes. The sizing is a bit different to advertised too, although I prefer the size than if it was 10x5" It's pointy noise is really good in rocky areas, and it's the most sensitive part of the coil by far to small targets so great for prospecting and can get into places the 6" can't. The 6" is most sensitive to small targets in the center of the coil so the benefits of the Coiltek really shine when in a rocky or bushy area.

I think the chip shortage is affecting the US more than elsewhere, it's certainly not hard to get video cards in our part of the world, even the high end ones are mostly available. This is the business I used to be involved with, not an issue at all there getting stuff. They carry stock in the hundreds of each card though so a shortage is less of a problem than businesses that stock 1 or 2 cards replacing them from the distributor each time they sell one. https://www.computeralliance.com.au/video-cards The shipping backlog is hurting more than the chip shortages. I guess the world shouldn't reply on one small island prone to typhoons and flooding and at high risk of a China takeover to manufacture the worlds chips though ? Over the years Taiwan flooding has caused us involved in the IT industry many headaches with shortages of CPU's and Memory regularly taking place due to events in Taiwan, mostly related to weather.

Yes, really enjoying the CTX and currently looking into the Coiltek coils for it. The 14x9" Nox coil might be more popular with the water hunters, it seems it was specifically designed for that purpose with the extra weight being heavier than the 15" perhaps being beneficial for in the water? I'm not much of a water hunter, the waters too cold here for me to be flapping around in ?

Yea I quite like my 10?x5" Coiltek. Thanks for doing your posts Chase. There seems to be very few people reporting on their experience with the Coiltek Nox coils anywhere even though it appears they're very popular.. I found the 10x5" to be slightly less sensitive to small gold than the 6" but I guess you would expect that, it's like comparing the Gold Monster 5" coil to the Gold Monster 10x5" coil, everyone is very aware of which is best on small gold. Other than that I've found it to be an excellent coil and I'm glad I've got it. I'm going to give the other Coiltek coils a miss. I've had a friend get the 14x9" and indicated he wasn't overly impressed with it finding the 11" deeper and give better ID's and the 15" seems to not overly give more depth than the 15x12" which is a shame as that one is one I wanted the most for more depth on coins. My dealer had me one there but I backed out of it and let him sell it to the next in line when reports were coming in on no real extra depth benefits. The 10x5" seems the best of the bunch I think.

If the question is does the GPX 6000 have iron discrimination like the GPX 5000/4500 etc, then the answer is no. It doesn't have iron discrimination.

Glad you've got it sorted. I quite enjoyed watching El Nino's video, the tones on the V3i sound like an old DOS game using the PC Speaker. ?

You could invest in a Coiltek Anti Interference coil, they run far better than a DD in cancel, in fact they run really well and maintain quite good small gold sensitivity, I use the 11" and it's small gold sensitivity and depth is very similar to the DD 11" Commander coil and they're outstanding in high EMI areas. Coiltek claim the performance drop by using a AI coil is only around 5% over the similar size DD in your normal settings (no need for cancel). Here are a couple of videos I've done with my 11" AI Coil showing how well it handles EMI and it's sensitivity.

I found this little write up on the Equinox 800 vs CTX 3030 to be outstanding. This person really knows how to explain the differences and why one isn't really better than the other, just different and I think that's what I'm experiencing using my CTX. Sure, I surprised myself that I'd missed quite a few silver coins and I'm sure there is plenty more missed ones yet, however someone with a better understanding of the Nox knowing the soil conditions and target variety in the area could likely have tweaked the Nox to find most of the missed ones and perhaps it did hit them for me but didn't give me an obvious enough reason for me to dig them. https://nwdetectors.com/blogs/news/minelab-equinox-800-vs-ctx-3030 I'm just happy to have both as they certainly complement each other.

Thanks for doing this thread, It's great to have access to information about things that aren't so mainstream, sometimes they turn out to be a real gem, and this one is sounding very positive.

Yes I thought because the CTX just feels slow with it's recovery, again I have no idea if it's good or bad in trash I haven't taken it to a bad place yet other than my front yard that has a lot of roofing nails and it seems to do well there. Maybe I do need to get the little coil for it too then. It was just an assumption it won't be as good in trash. I'm enjoying learning it, and it feels right at home on my arm being almost just a slightly lighter GPZ. I really like that design I'm glad the GPX 6000 has taken it onboard too. Something about It just seems more professional and oozes quality and looks expensive compared to the standard designs like the Equinox. It feels like it justifies the price a bit more than a little pod on a stick. That's obviously just my personal opinion and the little pod on a stick design is without a doubt the clear winner for those that are concerned about weight. My favourite detector to swing for comfort is my T2, and it's heavier than a number of detectors but you wouldn't know it they nailed the design on that one until they released the 15" coil for it and made one of the most memorable mistakes in detecting history ? I am certainly not bothered at all by the weight of it, in fact because of the GPZ the CTX feels so light. I think after a while you build muscle memory because the first few weeks swinging the GPZ it felt a bit heavy, but I grew into it and now it's fine, I keep getting told to use the bungee with it too and I never do, naughty, I'll probably pay for it when I'm older but I mostly do use significantly lighter coils than the standard one. ? I haven't even clocked up 12 hours on the CTX yet. We are just introducing ourselves to each other and it appears it was love at first sight but I can also see how some would find plenty of things about it they don't like. I think they need to lower the price a bit just because there is a new kid in town that has a better value to performance ratio so I doubt CTX's are flying off the shelf but they won't, as when they bring out a newer model they'll want to maintain that price point without causing a stir.

CTX 3030 for $1200 USD? I say hell yes. I recently purchased one and couldn't be happier! I'm still very much an absolute beginner on it and have virtually no understanding of anything with it yet ? I took it to my old sports field I've hammered with various detectors and found 14 silvers in a couple of hours. This was using the stock 11" coil, I didn't even try my big 17" sucker on it yet, I have done some testing with the larger coil and in my soil the depth is noticeably better too so I have high hopes for that coil. My sports field is relatively iron junk free so really it's just a case of sorting the trash which is mostly pull tabs, zippers, football boot spikes and bottle tops from the coins. I found in the Default coin mode it was a pretty poor performer, I copied that to a new profile and changed a couple of settings and deep coins are showing that do not show in the default coin mode. I'm so new to the CTX I can't even remember what the settings were but I could find out by firing it up I guess. I also noticed in the manual it states not to use the ground balance unless your soil requires it, mine doesn't so I assume doing it is detrimental to performance? I'm very happy with the CTX purchase. I can live with the current price, the build quality is very nice and feels terribly light compared to the GPZ I'm used to swinging so the weight of it doesn't bother me at all. I'm contemplating buying a smaller coil for it, I just don't know if it's worth it as I guess for the trashy areas I'd be better off using the Equinox, switching to the best tool for the job at hand. In the wide open relatively junk free areas a slower than my usual swing with the CTX appears to be paying dividends.

Yup, I think they've pulled the update for some reason, perhaps it was causing issues as people put it on units that didn't need it. Probably some sort of compatibility problem between a certain batch of headphones and the detector. This update 0.1.1 corrects the loss of pairing between some ORX remotes and the WSA wireless headset. Only apply this update if your previously connected WS Audio headphones will not pair when you turn on your remote and headset. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LyWp3qLytskz6jTGUZWgvMDNzqf8Bu83/view Don't install it unless you need it, you're meant to contact them via email and they see if you need it or not before giving it to you.

If you look at the settings they use as marked by their pen on the housing ? Fixed GB, Coil type - Double D, Ground type - Normal, Search mode - Custom They seem to use the DD coils the most, they're the ones that come very worn with the detectors. Perhaps with the desert being quite salty? I don't know. I guess the 6000 will be the same, they'll want the DD coil in this particular area. I think when a gold rush is on, everyone wants the new latest and greatest thinking it'll find them more gold. The GPZ wasn't really known as a good salt detector I guess as it doesn't seem to be the detector of choice in the area. Don't Minelab not include the DD for the African and Saudi Arabian market? ? It's how the ball rolls!

In Africa at the moment there is quite a massive number of GPX detectors going up for sale and trade in possibly with anticipation of the GPX 6000, it seems the African prospectors are very interested in the newer easier to use detector than their GPX 4500's and 5000's. A guy in NZ who is friends with a dealer in Africa has been importing trade in GPX's to sell on the NZ second hand market. Even with including the crazy expensive price of shipping them from Africa they've largely been selling for well under $2000 NZD at auction (around $1400 USD). I was able to secure a GPX 5000 for much less than that and it even went into the NZ Minelab service agent to get a new case on it to replace it's worn case from it's life in Africa as part of the price I paid. This is a story about the particular area the GPX's are coming from. It's really worth the watch, quite an interesting insight into the African gold rush. And this is another must read about the particular gold rush in the area and a side perk of it. It demonstrates just how many GPX's are over there in use and why Minelab focus on Africa so much, this is just one small area with gold rushes like this happening all over the place. https://observers.france24.com/en/20200127-gold-rush-mauritania-sparks-illegal-trade-archeological-objects So in Africa, in the middle of their gold rush it's not a good time to sell a detector, the market is flooded with them and they're selling very cheap. A lot might be to do with the GPX 6000 coming out which is primarily marketed towards them or it might be the large numbers who bought into the gold rush and invested in a GPX 5000 and found they couldn't make much of a living. The Africans use these things as a tool, they're not well looked after and protected in a fancy canvas pouch like we tend to do in our part of the world. They hold up to the abuse well though. Here are photos of one I was going to get taken by the dealer in Africa. See the switches ? Note how they mark on the housing the settings to use (switch positions) in the first photo. This is why the GPX 6000 is great for them, I'm told most don't understand or use the settings, they get told where to put it and leave it there. This is the one I ended up getting. This is after it went into the NZ service center for a checkup and a new housing. No pen marks on it now to show where the switches go ? Pretty good condition now. The service agent did a good job restoring it And what it did look like So while It might be a good time to sell in some parts of the world, it's certainly not a good time to sell in Africa. Based off the price I paid for mine, minus about $100 for shipping and then the African dealers cut, along with the NZ importers cut they must be getting paid around $500 USD for their used GPX 5000's, there are just so many available over there flooding the market.

To me it seems like the prices of the legacy GPX series... particularly the 4500 and 5000 have actually gone up a bit in Australia lately, Most people selling a GPX 5000 are putting them around the $5000 mark with a few coils, the new price of one in Australia is $5000, and they appear to be selling. They're reliable workhorses though, people buy them with confidence they're not going to be breaking down constantly even though they're out of warranty. I am a bit surprised prices are creeping up not down with the release of the 6000 though. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how it seems.

Geez there are GPX 5000's in OZ with a few coils selling for more than that.

This is JW's pick to the left, my pick to the right.... you can tell who has done the most prospecting, instead of breaking they just wear down over the years, they started off both the same size ? These are Gold Digger Picks. They seem invincible especially with the way I treat mine using it to lever and flip big rocks over all the time, it's crazy how strong the wooden handle is. It spends a lot of it's life smashing up bedrock too. Australia seems to have some really good strong durable hardwoods and that seems reflected in the prospecting picks coming out of OZ. I couldn't agree more buying a good quality pick is well worth the investment.... I started out on the cheaper ones, the amount of times I replaced my cheaper one for a slightly better one before giving up it on too I'd spend more on junk than it cost to just buy a good one in the first place.

It's even worse in NZ as without all the incoming flights from various countries full of tourists most cargo is coming in with ships, but our ports could not handle the extra capacity for all of the extra ships coming in so there is a queue of ships sometimes in a holding pattern for weeks docked offshore to get into port to unload which has caused shortages on things, especially new vehicles out of Asia. This problem was compounded by people not having their regular overseas holidays due to restrictions so having money to burn and wanting to buy new Cars and Caravans to holiday locally, but as they're all manufactured overseas they needed imported on ships! Fortunately we are right next door to Australia so ships can unload some stuff there and as passenger flights are constantly traveling between the two countries with both countries accepting tourists from each other so cargo can come in on those planes. It appears the World was very unprepared for a pandemic ? The next thing will be dealing with will be price inflation. The second hand detector market may shift with more price rises soon.

The World is in a mess, factories having to be closed on and off with various Covid restrictions, freight problems with shipping with a shortage of capacity, the cargo that used to be put onto passenger flights now needs to largely find some other method of transit with far fewer flights meaning very slow shipping in container ships, this has even lead to shipping container shortages. Then, there is the microchip shortage to top it off. This story explains it well. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/19/chips-with-everything-how-one-taiwanese-company-drives-the-world-economy I think it's going to get worse yet! This is just the start of it.

I'd fully brand it Garrett and have a logo on the box saying Powered By Whites Technology or something and a little Powered by Whites logo on the detector with the old Whites logo image, let people know it's had Whites influence although I'm sure anyone who that matters to already knows. They should stick to being Garrett only I think not take on both names. Nokta Makro is a mouthful and I always just refer to them as Nokta. Garrett White's just sounds ridiculous.

That is true, the International market is where they need to focus on the most with this one with the marketing and there will be plenty of people who want a Garrett 24k, maybe they just don't know it yet. They need to look at the sales figures from the competition at where their products are selling and go for it. Garrett is not really a big name in prospecting detectors and will need to focus some effort into making people aware they've really got something special here. They have the opportunity to take the market lead for a prospecting VLF in performance and sales and I really want them to do it, it would be wise to do it quickly though, who knows what the competition have up their sleeve. I always thought the 24k came a few years too late, a bit earlier and we'd likely all have one so the Garrett 24k needs to make people want to upgrade. This one is open for the taking, a rare opportunity. Good Luck Garrett! You can do it.