Hombre91

Thank you XP for providing tone volume especially in full tones. This works really well for me!

Query a site with the Legend and then pound it with the D2.

Congratulations Merrill!

He has a way of providing concepts that transfer. His descriptions of fill allowed me to understand my own parks non point source drainage in addition to being able to identify fill areas. I think that saved me a lot of time under the learning curve sun. I also appreciated his detailed description of beach sand erosion and the way to identify eroded areas, again that helped me to understand my own landscapes where wind can get down to surface indicators of old soil.

Merrill is in a location where the modern climate has allowed him to learn how to hammer the gold out of the coast. That fundamental condition and talent is something to invest in if you are XP.

He is very capable of producing entertaining videos that educate new detectorists as an artist and a teacher himself. He is not afraid to ask basic questions, and if cannot figure it out he will dig down until he gets the answer. He will get better with the D2 as time goes on. There will be plenty who learn with him in the years to come.

From the video:

"First thing I wanted to do was hit him (ageist) upside the head"

"But you know here I am out here detecting in my (dinged up) 60's"

That spoke to me here in my dinged up 50's.

My use case for an S2 would require a 9x5-ish coil with initial purchase, or such a coil available, with the ability to buy the detector only, new.

If i may ask, how are you guys Ground Balancing with the puck attached to the headphones in a stand alone set up? 

I wonder how long before they offer better coil options with initial purchase. When I think of 13" coil size I think of it as an add on potential need option rather than as a standard. I am not sure I would ever have a use for a 13" coil enough to justify buying one. 

17 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

You make two strong but qualitative statements without any references.  Care to include some kind of link?  Wikipedia is my go to source so that would suffice (i.e. if you don't want to hunt down a journal reference -- although Wikipedia usually has those included anyway).

Actually only one is a qualitative statement, the other is a theory. For the qualitative statement i will cite the evolutionary design of our ears as proof that our brains understand sound moving toward us better than sound moving away from us. 

10 hours ago, Erik Oostra said:

Good point Hombre91, I've also wondered why the speakers on modern detectors don't face forward.. I mainly hunt on beaches and in waist-deep water.. I normally don't wear headphones and rely on speakers and target ID.. I don't like wearing headphones (not even wireless ones) or being tethered to my detector.. But if I'm on a really windy beach or the speakers keep getting flooded by rouge waves, I'll use headphones with a waterproof connection to the control box or otherwise a WM08 module.. The second option keeps you untethered.. I do have wireless headphones for both the Equinox 800 and the Deus II but I'm not a great fan of either, especially the awful behind the head horror-shows that XP came up with.. I guess I'm a bit old-school in my distrust of wireless technology, especially for detectors used in the sea.. On the beach, I dream about forward facing speakers and vibrating handles.. We're nearly there with vibrating handles becoming normal as just another feature, all we need now are loud 'in-your-face' speakers.. 🙂       

There are potentially significant performance upgrades in this vein. I have not done any testing but i do know the brain understands sounds directed at the head better than sound moving away. Direct sound should improve pinpointing for example vs HP because it is at the speed of sound not the speed of processed sound.

It sounds like people are passing up sites where they cannot use HP, that is a limiting factor in the urban or industrial environments for example.

The water scenario is a good example where the rear facing sound waves are subject to reflections from the directional contours of the constantly changing water surface and also the varying surface  distance from the detector. 

Front In your face speakers are a worthy goal of experimentation. IMO. 

I understand that Sod but for those of us detecting in areas where it is a practical matter of personal safety to forgo HP having a signal that is not secondary to mufflers, children, and car stereos for example would be very nice. 

I am a late comer to the hobby, and sound quality has become a primary interest. There are areas where headphones are not feasible and in those conditions we are relegated to listening to tones that are moving away from us and subjected to reflections before reaching the ear. That is the farthest thing from sound quality that I can think of. Furthermore the volume has to be elevated because the speaker is not facing us. 

Where metal detecting is tonal and in many cases tone is or should be a higher priority than a VDI I am at a loss in 2022 to understand this design flaw, or lack of it being an option. Weight? No. Space? No. Electronic Capability? No.

What gives?

Thanks.

I was able to try the Deus II. The night I received the D2 I did some indoor bench testing due to weather, and set up a Mono program (Rock Audio) and a FMF program (Custom Sensitive) based on my experience with regular Deus and the Anfibio under my local conditions, and learning operational concepts via Jeremy Paystreak Superfreak youtube channel.

 I customized the tone frequencies based on my relative experience. I used the equalizer to adjust dynamism associated with my tone breaks and achieved decompression across the selected range with some room to spare. 

The next day it was windy and cold but I knew a place to try the custom programs and audio. I would hunt a little and warm up awhile. In one brief hunt I nailed three nice old coins out of the trash by ear only in my custom sensitive program.

I want to give feedback about the bone conducting HP as an inland hunter with hearing and ear issues. Your HP eliminated the affect of those issues on my metal detecting during this hunt.

Folks need that same technology for use with regular Deus and Anfibio, etc...

Thank you for listening and congrats on a fine machine.

Hombre

I failed to mention bottle cap rejection. Anfibio has it. It is called the 9" concentric coil, time after time it calls out bottle caps with an accurate signal fluctuation of the TID. That is a sweet sweet coil in some site conditions. A silver magnet especially in consistent strata, if there is silver to be had.

Another fairly easy test is lifting the coil looking for abrupt signal attenuation to indicate it is not a bottle cap, if the signal extends when you raise the coil it is likely junk. Anfibio seems better at that for me than the Deus in general, however the Deus is more accurate with multple targets under the coil. You seem to have more detailed info on each target under the coil, therefore better discernment of whether your desirable co-located target drops off. The Deus on the other hand seems better at revealing a junk tail as you back the coil away from the target. As long as there is not adjacent targets to interfere with the signal as the coil departs the original target response area, and the target is not at the edge of detection range.

Anfibio also gives accurate target size information when pin pointing, and I am finding 99 Tone to be a pay streak of target information. You want to get started with the Anfibio, learn to use 3 Tone and 99 Tone with available coils smaller than the stock 11". The depth advantage of the Anfibio is a catalyst for the small coil operation success to a significant degree in my opinion. In depth the Anfibio/Multikruzer small coil options advantage has been overlooked by the market in my opinion. The historic detector release timeline pre-empted nailing down some of that functional discovery by the general market place in my opinion.

Speaking of pin pointing I want to talk a little about Merrill: Detecting NYC. Merrill is right up there with Jeremy Paystreak Superfreak as far as top shelf content that I subscribe to. They both offer conceptual and practical information that is very very helpful, and are both are entertaining (smile inducing) to boot. I want to mention Merrill digging unwanted iron junk (like nails) with Nox. The Anfibio is not immune to that but with a iron target composition of something like a nail, the pin point function can be used to accurately by an experienced user, to determine that it is junk. With discipline and practice, once after you pin point the signal, if the signal moves from the original pin point location you may as well move on, to avoid the disappointment of digging junk iron. 

Deus at a new site type, broke on into the sixties. Still learning, no remote, and what a blast! 

Deus across all sites and some exploration, only old clad pictured, two wheaties , a war nick, silver ring and dime.

Anfibio across all sites, clad not pictured 15 wheaties.

Update: I have decide to keep the regular Deus.

I want to get one last site type for RD under my belt before I post some pics of the two machines finds. As I said before this experience has taught me that these two products are complimentary to each other.

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

It is burl, and my apologies. I’m just burned out on the Deus 2 as a subject, so canceled my order, and am getting back to what I know and love best… gold prospecting. Best of luck to everyone with their new detectors. 

Yep. SNR control.

If you are going to notch, notch volume is the way to go, that way you do not completely lose those targets.  On some machines the notch attenuation also brings a distinct change in tone or pitch, allowing the ability to obtain worthwhile reference toward dig no dig decisions. So I have heard. Literally.

I would not want to be the guy that sold their Nox recently. Not that there are many out there who took such a radical path, perhaps some did on the way to a D2.

Nox will hold its value, and apparently so will the Regular Deus and other machines in the nearby peer competency group, if this trend of sporadic underwhelm-meant  of new models continues. 

Thanks, and best of luck at the site!

Have you had other detectors at this site? Does the D2 outperform them on any measures?

I appreciated the inclusion of Audio Response and it seems to have enhanced performance over the regular Deus. A louder machine with perhaps a wider dB range for the Audio Response. If so that could be a useful upgrade for folks as Jeremy demonstrated, and under other scenarios.

@Mick93

How about a picture of ye old metal arrowhead if it isn't too much trouble. 

Well this test drive thread with the Regular Deus is coming to an end; perhaps a week of use left. The bench time helped me get more desirable targets out of the ground and it is a good machine with the potential to be very good with a very good user, same as the Anfibio. I could complain some more but i wont as those complaints trend more toward personal preference and to a lesser degree, performance. I ended up being happy with a Deus "light" set up; no RC.

Neither the Legend  nor the D2 are poised to knock the Anfibio out of the toolbox unless they can eventually provide effective smaller coils.

A group finds pic is on the way to close it out.