phrunt

Some people are clueless though, you put two products in front of them one with a high price and even though the box clearly shows it's a far worse product than the cheaper one people will buy it because it is the more expensive one. So a Simplex box in a shop showing all the fancy modern features and so on at a half the price for example sitting next to a F75 someone is likely to pick up the F75 just because it costs a lot more thinking it must be better. It doesn't help though that if you go to the First Texas website and look at some of their models their claims are a bit dubious "The F75 - The Ultimate Detector! The metal detecting industry's premier relic hunting and general purpose metal detector." "Teknetics - Deepest Metal Detectors In The World" "Fisher F44 - The Ultimate Weatherproof Multi-Purpose Metal Detector" "Fisher F19 - New from Fisher®, the best relic machines ever!" "Fisher Gold Bug Pro - The best, most versatile prospecting machine on the market! Incredible sensitivity to the tiniest gold nuggets. " I'm not one to swear, but their marketing is full of cow dung.

Do they though? They certainly don't here. It's extremely rare someone would buy an Ace 200, or a Go-Find, plenty of people are buying the Vanquish and Simplex though. First Texas collapsed in our market a year or two ago as they just no longer got any sales so the dealer pulled out, the only First Texas machine you can buy new here now is the Gold Bug 2 which the Minelab dealer picked up that model, he just imports it from an Aussie dealer to give people the option of having it seeing it's a classic gold detector. Maybe the people buying these entry level First Texas machines in the US are the sort that buy them for a kids present that gets used once then it gets thrown in the cupboard never to be seen again so they don't really care how good it really is. Nokta even pushed the boundaries with their Mini Horde kids machine making it waterproof and it's just over $100 USD I believe, it's a shame it doesn't have Target ID numbers though. Thankfully Garrett has put in some effort recently to pick up their game. I'm hoping First Texas sees just how far behind they're getting and they too try to become competitive again in the near future. I've got my eyes on their Impulse Gold but I hope it just doesn't end up a QED with a custom First Texas coil.

A lot of low end models need a run out, sell them off and stop production, they're pointless and too far behind other brands so they just shouldn't exist. It probably helps them sell more detectors having all these similar models, and up sell to the slightly higher priced model when the production cost is likely the same, with the Ace 200 and 400 the cost of manufacturing would be virtually identical yet they can make a bit more coin by up-selling people to the 400. First Texas need a massive cleanup of models, most shouldn't exist and it's the only brand that has far too many models for me to even know most of their names. The lineup is so stupid that the Bounty Hunter Time Ranger Pro is a far better detector than the Gold Bug Pro for a much cheaper price, but essentially the same detector at heart with more features. They need to consolidate models, nothing was stopping them making the Time Ranger Pro be the Gold Bug Pro v2 if they wanted to keep the famous Gold Bug name and just not making the Bounty Hunter, or killing off the F19 as it's the same detector again. They make so many detectors that are the same detector with a different name and paint job or a few little features enabled on one model and disabled on another 😉 It's ridiculous. It's coming back to get them now though, the World is moving on from their dated detectors and sales tactics... new brands like Nokta are coming in to take over their market and doing it rapidly. It's about time there was a big shake up of the industry and these dated brands selling their old technology either have to get their act together and make something modern and competitive or die off. I feel sorry for someone new to detecting that goes out and buys some FT detector paying top dollar because of the name (it used to be a good one) and think they're getting a good detector, when they could have had a much better modern detector for less money had they of known more about what they were getting into.

I agree wholeheartedly with that, the Simplex is a modern T2, something First Texas could have done years ago to have a more modern detector rather than their paint jobs as it seems they've hit a brick wall with technology 10 or so years ago. Sure it'd still only be competitive with the entry level detectors hitting the market from other brands if that but they could have got in first and taken a chunk of the pie before the others like the Vanquish, Apex and Simplex hit the market. I'm really surprised how much the Simplex behaves like a T2, the performance feels the same, it really feels like they've got the same brain, only it's better with more features that make it modern. I've been thinking for some time now these new entry level machines will make the high end machines from the likes of First Texas high end units seem way over priced and really can't call themselves high end anymore, their low end machines have fallen into the kids detector market and their high end machines are now just competing with the entry level units from the real players in the market. I'm only new to owning a Simplex but I'd never find a reason I'd pick up my T2 over the Simplex. A F75 LTD came up for sale here with two coils, guy claimed it'd be barely used since he bought it new and it looked that way too, I had to choose between buying it and the Simplex and the F75 was cheaper. I went for the Simplex, already owning two T2's I felt I'd be better off with a Simplex than the dated F75 with it's more modern design and features and I really think I made the right decision.. People won't even use a mobile phone that's 4 years old as the technology changes so much, a high end 4 year old phone barely matches an entry level modern phone, virtually any other electronic technology is the same yet detector brands think we'll put up with 10 or 20 year old technology in detectors, well that way of thinking is going to change and brands like Nokta and Minelab aren't going to play that game of selling dated old detectors forever, instead releasing "real" new models more often. I can't see any reason other than brand loyalty and nostalgia that anyone would bother buying one of the First Texas VLF's, especially new.

Yes, I'm absolutely surprised how much the Simplex reminds of me the T2, it feels like the same detector in a modern housing. Probably the path FT should have taken, if they're stuck at that level of technology at least making a modern version like the Simplex would have made it competitive with the current entry level range from other manufacturers. Nokta have done a brilliant job with the Simplex build, it's my first Nokta detector and I couldn't be more happy with the build quality. My gripes with the performance are due to my hunting environment more than the Simplex itself, coins here are deep, very deep, 8" is pretty average depth to find a coin so that's not really the ideal environment for the Simplex and it's 11" coil for someone that likes using Target ID's to dig, and it just can't keep up with the deeper detectors for that task, for someone in a different environment with more shallow coins it does maintain a pretty good ID and other performance attributes make it good for that. In my area with the deep coins it's more of a dig it all machine, I can't rely on the ID's at all for the deep normal coins I'd find. That's by no means me thinking the detector is bad, it's just not right for my type of ground. I think it's a great detector and the brands lagging behind the rest in technology like FT probably should have done what Nokta's done with the Simplex years ago, turned their current, well.... current 10 years ago "high end" models into a low end model and modernized it like the Simplex and they could have had the market these new entry level detectors are now having before they had a chance to get all these sales.

I gave both a shot, I've only had it a couple of weeks. I found on 2.78 I was getting no ID on some deep coins that 2.77 would give me an ID, albeit a pretty random one. In my area any coin worth digging in generally pretty deep. My Simplex performs about equal to my Teknetics T2 on the same deep targets, I've just been spoilt by the other multi frequency detectors that have more stable ID's on deep coins so my expectations are pretty high when it comes to good ID's. The lack of tones doesn't help the situation either. On features it's punching well above it's weight, in performance its positioned at the price point where it should be is my opinion of the detector so far. I love the design and build quality though.

Here is the July version of Garrett Searcher, some pretty good finds, good to see the old Ace series still popping up good finds regularly around the world, although this version seems dominated by the AT series finds. https://garrett.com/sites/default/files/pdf/2021-07/3500097_July_2021.pdf The last page has the advertisement for the Garrett 24K, I want one!

Unfortunately the downtime has taken away a lot of google rankings, When I do my research I normally google things and DP is normally up near the top with the answers I'm chasing, now sadly it's lots it's google rankings due to the downtime. I guess google crawled it a few times and found it down so removed the search results for DP. 😞

Good story Condor, your trips normally involve some sort of disaster 😞 when you drive up very steep near vertical hills like in that last photo it is no wonder you messed up your RV.

Thanks strick, the CTX is rapidly becoming my favourite coin detector, I'm far more confident on the Vanquish and Nox though and the CTX feels a bit alien at the moment, I've seen what it can do and it does it well, it's amazing how deep the little 6" coil is on it, leaves the other detectors in the dust. I've got the 17x12" for it which will be the coil I intend to use for general hunting as my areas are mostly very low trash. I will have to try find your coin programs and give them a go as at the moment I'm just adjusting the default settings to suit me, being mild soil as always I can crank it right up and I've just tweaked my settings to give me the best ID on deep coins, rarely are any decent coins shallow here, so depth with ID is something I love about the CTX, the Nox and Vanquish are obviously good for this too, they're incredible detectors and I'm just as happy using any of the three on my coin hunts. An Etrac has popped up for sale near me for very cheap, It's very tempting to buy it too as it has aftermarket coil support now I've realized the power of FBS detectors.

It's a shame there is no 2.79 update, anything to enhance target ID stability would be nice as my Simplex is terribly unstable with Target ID's on anything other than shallow targets, I'm wondering if putting an aftermarket coil on it might help with stability as at the moment it's my worst detector for Target Id's, even out of the entry level detectors it's by far the most unstable ID detector.

That's about how long the wife was laughing at me when she saw me wear it.

This is my turkey strapping. I also recently purchased a Hipstick, they've intrigued me for a while but seeing I don't even use my bungee and the only reason I ever use my harness is so I can use my SP01 and external speakers. I mostly use smaller lighter coils on my GPZ like the 8" and 10" and the 8" only weighs 835 grams, although I've started using the 15" Concentric X-coil the most lately so with it's weight being 1200 grams which I think is just a bit lighter than the standard 14x13" coil from memory I decided I'd start using my bungee for all day swinging just to save wear and tear on my arm. The hipstick surprised me, I thought I'd hate it as it's just another thing dangling and getting in the way but I think it's alright, not a bad little gadget. I have two of the Tough Built pick holders on my harness, Thanks to Nenad for introducing these to me and pointing out the idea of having one on the back of the harness so you can put your pick there and keep it well out of the way when you're hiking around on hillsides and having a pick hanging down low near your feet can be a trip hazard as well as keeping the pick well away from your coil. The one on the side in the traditional location is the one I use when I'm constantly digging, and I use the rear one when digging is infrequent or if I'm walking long distances. I wired my speakers so there is very little cord slack, the wires are the lengths required to fit my layout with the Sp01 enhancer and WM12. It took me a long time to get my harness how I like it, I hated the thing for a very long time, I think I've now got it to a point I'm comfortable with it. This one shows the rear clip on pick holder, I really like this idea, thanks Nenad.

Well, It's good to see the forum has returned after some prolonged downtime, in that time I purchased myself a Nokta Simplex+ WHP with the upgraded carbon lower shaft. Kac, yup there is a cell tower very close to where I am doing these tests, only about 350 feet away. I've had a bit of a tinker with it, love the build quality and features, easy to use and feels nice on my arm. The detector performance itself reminds me a whole lot of the Teknetics T2, in fact the performance seems very similar. The downside to that is the target ID's are just as jumpy as the T2, this is with the standard 11" Coil on it, I doubt I'm going to use it often enough to waste the money buying an aftermarket coil for it although one of the reasons I wanted to buy it is because Detech make the Ultimate coil for it and Nel are making coils for it, I last spoke to a guy at Nel a week ago and he said the Simplex range of coils would be released in a week, that's still not happened but obviously they're not too far away now. It is very tempting to get a better coil for it but I just know I'll likely rarely ever use it when I have much better other detectors. I filmed a video going over the same NZ $1 coins as I did with the previous detectors, even on the 6" $1 coin the Simplex can't get a stable ID, the air test ID is 69 and it seems to bounce between 68 and 74 on it, I guess to some people that'd be acceptable and considered stable but for me with the likes of the Equinox or Vanquish that will bang on it with almost a solid 21 every swing (21 being the air test number) it makes it difficult to think that's stable but the real problem is the deeper coin, which is the normal depth I find coins around here. When you go to the 8" $1 coin it drags the number right down to a very unstable 18 to 44 or so when the ID should be 69 and again on the Vanquish and Equinox it is the correct 21 ID for that coin, and very stable. This is what the T2 does also, very similar results, it almost feels like the Simplex and T2 are built off the same brains as they behave so similar in general, not just with these test coins 🙂 Anyway, here is the video, I tried on the 2.76 and 2.77 firmware as a bit of debate seems to be going on which is best for holding a target ID on deeper coins. Unfortunately it's difficult for me to like the performance of the Simplex in my soils on deeper coins and it's the same reason I don't really use my T2, I love the build quality and features of the Simplex and the vibration is a bit of a novelty that water hunters may like but the performance for someone like me that hunts in spots I have to rely heavily on target ID's to dig as few holes as possible it's just not good enough, even the Ace 300i holds more stable ID's and I'd prefer to use it for this task. This isn't to say the Simpex isn't any good, for people that don't care about stable ID's it's great, does the job nicely and the build quality is fantastic especially with the Carbon lower shaft to get rid of the shaft problem people have talked about, I haven't used the wireless headphones, I doubt I ever will but got them just in case.

Worth a read. https://www.minelab.com/community/treasure-talk/nugget-detecting-with-the-minelab-equinox

Yup, same as the USA.

A new video has popped up comparing various nuggets on the SDC, GPX 5000 and GPX 6000. Looks like they're in pretty bad soil judging by the depths they can get the nuggets at with all of the detectors. They only use the DD on the GPX 6000 for some reason.

Well my Mpow arrived today, I have to say I'm pretty impressed. I bought it with my GPX 5000 in mind as I gave up on the Pro-Sonic, not impressed by it at all. So I used the Mpow with the Equinox headphones to try it out, paired well in about 5 seconds, they're both atpX Low Latency and the response time with my 4500 seemed great, I couldn't notice any lag at all. They claim 14 hours battery life, I haven't tested that yet obviously. Now I've decided I'm going to use it on my GPZ too, I hate headphones but the Minelab ones are comfortable enough and it'd be interesting to give headphones a go, I've never really used any as they annoy me. I tried to make the MPow drop out and not once did it do it, I had to walk a good 6+ meters from my detector before any signs of drop outs, never did it drop out when in normal use scenarios like the WM12 does. It fits nice and easily into my battery pouch And when the cover goes down it holds it in place fine Very easy to use, just flick the switch to turn it into transmit mode, and turn on the Nox headphones and near instantly it's off and running. It remembers the pair very well and reconnects very quickly. It didn't seem to create any EMI that troubled the GPX in the battery pouch, noticed no difference with it there and with it gone and just using my speaker. All in all very happy with it, and it was pretty cheap, can't remember exactly as I ordered it a couple of weeks ago direct from Mpow, but about $35 Australian dollars I think shipped. Next I'll try it on the GPZ and see where I can mount it to not get any EMI. Keep in mind this product is only transmitter in atpX LL, it doesn't receive using it, so it's good for the older GPX and GPZ to make them bluetooth LL but not if you want to use it as a receiver for the 6000.

Yes, I was a bit confused by his depths too but then I don't have his soil type so I just accepted it, he was unbiased though, not trying to say one is better than the other and trying to make one look bad I didn't think, they both performed pretty well if you ignore the depth and just look at the comparison, where he struggled to get a 21 gram I'd find a 1 or so gram even with my 4500 in my soil, even my Equinox has found a 1 gram with the 11" coil at about 20cm in my gold area so I just ignore the depths in videos and just go by response differences. It's pretty clear the GPX like the GPZ is also an awesome detector and it's small gold sensitivity is outstanding. You'd need 10 videos done like this in all different areas to really make a judgement.

I can't glue any skid plate onto my coil, I also use my coil in water and I don't want it solid for that.

Planes caused crazy EMI with my 4500 when I detected at a local gold spot near an airport, every time a plane went past I knew about it 🙂 It'd sound like a police siren on some of them while others just caused instability, so planes most certainly do have different levels of EMI depending on the plane. Helicopters are buzzing around there all day taking tourists on sight seeing trips and they don't seem to cause any issues. The earlier model GPX's are a great gauge for EMI as they're so effected by it, you blink too quick and you get an EMI burst. Cars did too, at another spot near a highway I knew cars were coming before I heard their engine and road noise as they generated EMI somehow, I assumed their alternator or something. Many of the places I look for gold are quite high in EMI 😞

Meanwhile in New Zealand 🙂 Only problem is the queues are big with it being school holidays. There is gold in those gullies. That should cool you all down a bit 🙂

It's quite funny how the Kookaburra starts laughing when the 6000 doesn't pickup the 21 gram at 300mm at the 22 minute mark 🙂 Well timed, I miss Kookaburras, such cool birds. In saying that the 6000 is using a smaller coil so it's expected it wouldn't compete for outright depth. I would struggle with the noise on the 6000, I was quite happy to get away from the noise of my older GPX 4500, I really like the smoother threshold of the GPZ, especially with the Concentric coils on it. I think the guy did a decent video, sure you can pick it apart for faults but he gives a general idea. I really like the idea of the super sensitivity of the GPX 6000 on small gold, It will be interesting to see what X-coils can come up with next for the 7000 🙂

The nuggets are on the range on the other side of the valley, no nuggets on that side unfortunately!

This guy has done one, while not perfect and it was his first video he did an OK comparison I think. There are a few flaws in his methods I guess but it gives some basic information. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BGVbwBFips