Digalicious

The X-Terra Pro is an excellent entry from Minelab, but the X-Terra Voyager is, well to be blunt, "laughable". I mean, one could say, "Well, you get what you pay for". Yet, for only $50 more, the Simplex Lite goes much deeper, and is far better than the Voyager in every other aspect as well. It's almost as if Minelab doesn't even realize that they have competition now.

Hi JCR. Yes, I can see how highly mineralized ground could pose an issue with minimum recovery speed. Fortunately, I'm in bald ass prairie land with little mineralization. As a bonus, this prairie land is so flat, people can watch their dog run away for a week! Although I didn't notice any depth difference between 1 and 5, I did consider some other difference between 1 and 5. Which is why I said it was still too early to tell. I'm fairly certain I won't go above 5 ever again, so now it's going to be more about experimenting between 1 and 5, and more specifically, keeping an eye out for what you mentioned 🙂

Sinclair, you are INSANE! I admire that 😅

I really enjoy testing out various modes and settings as well. I managed to get some recovery speed experimentation in, just before the ground froze up here. More specifically, experimentation with running the recovery speed at the minimum of 1. In my air tests with the recovery speed, I found no depth difference between 1 and 5, but a huge linear depth difference of 4" between 5 and 10. In really trashy sites, I typically ran 8 for the recovery speed, and sometimes ran 10. Of course, losing 3” to 4” of depth in the process, while apparently gaining a little better separation ability. I thought to myself: With a high recovery speed, am I really digging more treasure because of a little extra separation ability, or am I digging less treasure because of significant depth loss? I mean, due to the way DD coils are designed, they already have extraordinary separation ability. Plus, even with a low recovery setting on these modern SMF detectors, the separation ability is kind of remarkable. Another factor to consider, aside from significant depth loss with a high recovery speed, is that higher recovery speeds give less accurate TID. That less accurate TID is most prevalent on the deep and old targets that we often are hunting for! For example, that deep silver may give a very low TID, perhaps even in the ferrous range, or could very well not be detected at all with a high recovery speed. Yet, a low recovery speed hits it loud and clear with a proper TID. When I’m hunting for copper and silver, I always use M3 or 4khz for two reasons: 1) The low frequencies penetrate the ground deeper, and produce a better response on high conductors. 2) Low frequencies unmask high conductors from nonferrous trash, notably better than mid frequencies like M1, and high frequencies like M2. Incidentally, M1 is weighted around 15khz, M2 is weighted around 40khz, and M3 is weighted around 7khz. That M3 weight is for Park mode. I don’t know for sure if it’s the same weight in Field mode’s M3, but it wasn’t in the beta test for that new M3. I tested in my backyard using M3 and 1 on the recovery speed. Now, countless times I’ve gone over my backyard looking for high conductors, with various coil sizes, at various angles, and with various settings. I’m sure you all can relate to that 🙂. Anyway, I lost all hope of finding any more high conductors in my backyard, but then again, I always used a high recovery speed due to the massive amount of trash. So, I spent about an hour with M3 and a recovery speed of 1, and was rewarded with a large cent too corroded to date, and a 1919 Canadian 5 cent piece. Both were very deep, and that 5 cent piece is probably about the smallest diameter, and thinnest coin ever produced. Tough to hit those! It’s still a little too early to tell, but it looks like from now on, I’m going to be using the lowest recovery speed, no matter how high the trash density is. To me, the major depth gain and TID accuracy advantage of using the minimum recovery speed, trumps the slight increase in separation ability of a high recovery speed. Coincidently, a couple of days ago on a different forum, a member started a thread titled, “DEUS 2 ZERO REACTIVITY.... THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!”. You can probably guess by his thread title, what he thinks of a low recovery speed.

OUCH! But how do you really feel about it Phrunt? 🤣

Hello. When Nokta decided to change the stock coil from the LG28 (11" round) to their new LG30 (12x9), they also went from a lower carbon fiber shaft, to a full carbon fiber shaft. Nokta didn't forget about the Legend owners with the older versions. They did some sort of discount for them if they wanted the LG30 coil and/or included the upper CF shaft at no charge. Sorry, I don't recall the exact details of the discount. I have the LG15, LG24, and the original stock LG 28 11" round coil. I mainly use the 24, and have considered getting the 30. I decided against buying the 30, because for my needs, there isn't quite enough difference between the performance of the 30 and the 28.

I forgot about that part. As you've noticed, like the detector itself, the coils are low cost as well. The 9.5x5 (LG24) is the most popular coil for the Legend. Most Legend owners who try that coil, never take it off unless they need more coverage and a little more depth. It's definitely my go to coil.

I use earbuds, but I've never heard anything negative about the Nokta headphones. Just the opposite in fact. In regards to various ground conditions, I haven't heard anything negative about that either. Jeff has used his Legend in a multitude of ground conditions. I don't want to speak for him, but he's been giving it a thumbs up for the various conditions he hunts in. Jeff typically replies to Legend posts, so hopefully he'll chime in when he sees your post. You mentioned the 900, and I know Jeff has used one for a while, but had issues with ID stability (I've heard that from many others as well). If I remember correctly, I believe that he also said that a lot of targets were giving him triple and double beeps, as if they were right on the surface. The Legends audio tones are 1, 2,4,6, full tones, and Pitch audio. Other options include Audio Gain, Tone Volume, Tone Breaks, Tone Frequency, Threshold Level, and Threshold Frequency. Check out the audio options in the following link. They begin on page 18: The Legend User Manual_55000551_EN Software V1.11 (noktadetectors.com)

I have a lot of experience with the Legend, but not in mineralized ground. Although Jeff McClendon does. He has talked about how well the Legend does in his highly mineralized ground, as does his Deus II and Nox 800. As far as EMI goes, it's no better or worse than any other SMF detector. I have heard quite a few people say their Legend is much quieter in EMI than their Nox is, but I can't see how that is even possible. I mean, EMI is all about the sources, not so much the SMF detector. The newer version of the Legend has a 12x9 stock coil and a full carbon fiber shaft. The older version has an 11" round coil with an upper carbon fiber shaft. I suggest the new version, even if you find the older version at a discount. Nokta has some Christmas deal on the Legend right now. Oh, one other thing. The Legend has a high default iron bias, so you might want to immediately lower that.

That's very unique. I'm calling it the "Peacock Rock".

A couple of days ago on a different forum, I predicted that given the recent developments, Codan is gearing up to sell Minelab within a couple of years. So, add me in to the "I told you so" list 🙂

Given the versatility, the Legend, along with a few other similar detectors, would be ideal for that type of ground and what you're hunting for. That is, if your question is actually about performance in mineralized ground. Do you have more specific questions?

I've given this some more thought, and maybe the new boost mode, won't have anything to do with increased Tx power. Perhaps it will be a mode with something like 2 khz as the primary frequency, combined with a very low default recovery speed setting.

In regards to competition for the gold fields, what about the new Axiom? Also, I don't know anything about gold hunting, but I'm seeing posts from Jeff, and he's detecting gold with his D2 and Legend, that can barely be seen with the naked eye 🙂 So, is Minelab even seeing the Axiom as competition? In addition, would a D2 or Legend in Gold Mode be even remote competition to dedicated gold detectors like the Axiom or Minelab's gold detector line up?

If not the major shareholders at least having some say in major decisions, then I would hope a knowledgeable board of directors would. Even just 3 or 4 knowledgeable people debating the major decisions would be enough. That would prevent 1 person from having a crazy idea and following through with it unabated. Anyway, I guess that's all moot, because the decision was made. Now how long before the CEO is fired, and the decision reversed? 😁

Ok, well that changes the dynamic of the decision completely. In other words, it's easy for a single individual to make a blatant mistake (the CEO), but much less likely for a knowledgeable group to do so. Within a shareholder group, there's a good chance that "cooler heads" prevail, and strike down potentially bad ideas. Although in this particular case, it seems that the shareholders have little market knowledge, and are putting their trust in the CEO.

Increasing prices, only increases profit when you have a monopoly. If Codan increases prices on their coin / jewelry detectors, then IMO, it will backfire. Reason being? Nokta and XP. The Legend has been shown to match the performance of its much higher priced competition. That should have been a wake up call for Codan to decrease their prices on their coin and jewelry detectors. Especially considering that a couple of months ago, Nokta introduced the Score models, which are Legends with a few less features. The Double Score sells for a mere $425 US, and the Score sells for $375 US. Plus, the coil costs are also much cheaper than the competition. So, I could be totally wrong, but this seems like a terrible move by the Codan shareholders. It reeks of desperation, in the same way that the rather pathetic X-Terra Voyager does.

The LG30 is not ideal for very trashy sites. I would use the LG24 for very trashy sites, due to its superior unmasking and separation ability. However, if I had to use the LG30 in a very trashy site, I would use a high recovery speed, and a lower sensitivity level. That way, I would be "kind of" mimicking the separation and unmasking ability of the LG24. Although, the LG24 is much more comfortable to swing than the LG30.

The LG15 6" round DD coil, is an amazing little sniper coil, but like yourself, I found it to be a little small for my needs. Kind of like painting a wall with a brush, instead of a roller. The LG24 is my go to coil for most of my sites (Oh oh, I just got notified that Jeff replied lol). Most Legend owners who use the LG24, don't take it off much, unless they need large amounts of coverage. For reasons Chase stated, I doubt there will be third party coils for the Legend.

Hi Little Bleeper. Are you thinking there would be some advantage of a coil like that, compared to the Nokta LG24 9.5x6 coil for the Legend? If so, what advantage might that be?

Wow George. Your "Gear in use" shows you own detectors from every manufacturer, all over the world. Since your Earthly options have run out, PM me if you're interested in broadening your horizons by going extraterrestrial. I know a guy that can help you with that 🙂

Thank you all for the enlightening technical information. That's why I love this forum 🙂 Sooo...what the heck is Minelab talking about when they claim, "The Manticore has 50% more power than the Nox 800"? Is that just meaningless marketing jargon?

That was epic, "right on the mark" sarcasm Phrunt!

Couldn't you have accomplished pretty much the same thing by raising the IF from 1 to 2? I mean with already having 10 iron bias levels, is a fine tuning adjustment for those 10 levels, really going to provide that much extra detail? Anyway, thanks for letting me know about that video. I'll check it out.

Salt water tests would be nice. Although, the Score models are simplified Legends, so I suspect salt performance would be the same. I wonder if the Score models have a salt stability setting. Anyway, I wish metal detectors didn't even require a computer to update. Have them update the same way phones do.