PhaseTech

Hi all, 

Just a bit of a video I put together reviewing the Gold Racer. Got a couple more coming.

Go for the AccuPower AP6000 batteries. I sell them here in Oz, and Rob Allison sells them as well. Very good batteries. 

Sorry but the 9500mah ebay one's are cheap junk. 

Bring on the Impact (higher end), and PI gold machine...just not tomorrow :-) 

The Gold Racer can certainly find the bits, and I meant small. Pinged this one today, barely 

Nice work Brian. Will be taking one for a hunt tomorrow, looking forward to it

On October 13, 2015 at 1:34 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

Carry my Garrett Carrot every day. In rucksack on upper back, no problem.

When doing a frequency scan have the pinpointer turned on a few feet away, and it pretty much eliminates interence when operating the pinpointer while detector is turned on.

That's it Steve. I use the Deteknix Wader Li when swinging the 7000 or 5000 with any coil bigger than a 12". If you don't do the trick above, and your detector settles on a bad frequency, then the Deteknix may interfere about 5 feet away. But Noise cancel so the Pin-pointer is taken into consideration and you can get quite close.

No issues with hot ground with the Deteknix either, and 4 Sens clicks and a retune if you really want to home in. Still hoping I'll need to use that Retune button on a mother of a deep nugget though  

The new coils definitely have a sharper response, and a bit more depth, mainly because the signal is so sharp. A bit of placebo coming into it, yes definitely as with any new gear. But I'm seeing this more so with new users, but it's working for them so all good. The one thing I love about swinging a GPX with pretty much any coil, is the severe lack of lead shot finds (and deep ferrous when in Fine Gold), compared to both the SDC and GPZ in the same areas. Yes, you will find leadshot with a GPX, but no where near the amount you'll get with an SDC or GPZ. I reckon in some spots it's like 10:1. But this can be both a good thing and a bad thing. On one hand, it can be a bit boring and a total confidence killer walking around for hours not digging anything with a GPX, pull out the SDC, start finding targets and then you ping a bit of gold or two. On the other hand, you are using the SDC, finding lead shot after lead shot and haven't walked ten metres in 2 hrs. Pull out the GPX and you're away, covering ground, and bam 1 grammer at good depth. 

So at the end of the day, they're all tools, detectors and coils, it's up to us to put them to good use. 

In my lounge room, the 15 kHz CoRe chatters away, the 19 kHz Gold + has a slight chatter, 20 kHz 18000 is totally quiet, 60 kHz goes bonkers, 56 kHz Gold Racer purrs like a kitten. Customer just brought in an old Goldmaster II, and it too was quiet as a mouse. 

F75 I tried a few times in different areas. One suburban park it was going nuts. Turned the CTX3030 on (which theoretically should be worse) and it wasn't affected at all. In the same spots that drove the F75 crazy, I can use the Fors CoRe without a problem. 

Detechs as with most modern coils work, and work well. I think it all comes down to one's preferences for size, colour, shape, price, build quality, and a lot of the time if a particular coil just looks "cool".  But yes a coil can improve the detectors response to a particular range of targets, but it cannot alter it's base technology. 

I often get asked: what coil should I buy for my GPX5000 to match the SDC. Well that is not a simple answer. A 6" Detech mono is the closest you are going to get to SDC sensitivity, but it all comes down to the gold as I said in my very first YouTube comparison vid. If the gold is solid and lumpy the GPX and 6" combo will match and possibly even beat the SDC for depth, but on a prickly/specimen piece the SDC will have the edge. 

GPX users are really spoiled for choice which is a fantastic thing.

You want to find really tiny stuff - 6" Detech or Coiltek or 8x6" Sadie

You want to find really small stuff with a bit more depth potential - 8" Detech or Commander, 12" Evo, 12x7" NF or 11" Elite

You want a good patch hunting coil, good coverage, sensitivity, but lightweight - 12" Advantage, 15x10" Detech, 14x9" NF & Coiltek, 

You want a good coil with great sensitivity but extra depth on gram + pieces - 14" Ultra Detech, 15" Evo, 14" Elite

Or if you want to go deep on big lumps, think DD and Normal timing. 

This one was reported to be a 36 grammer at 20". Posted on Detech Australia Facebook page

I spoke to Pete the Australian distributor for Detech a few weeks ago, and he said he tried the 14" Ultra on the Whites SPP, and said that it performed very well. Any Aussies wanting to know more should get in touch with him. 

On 2/23/2016 at 2:22 AM, nvchris said:

One good reason to hang onto or buy used a ML XT 17,000, its 32 kHz " the sweet spot" for gold.

Yeah Minelab must have known something about this many years ago, as the XT17000 and Goldstriker were running on 32 kHz, maybe just out of the troublesome zone for EMI??? I've done a lot of comparisons on the XT18000 in 20 kHz vs the 32kHz Goldstriker, and on most bits the goldstriker hits them so much sharper. BUT, the 60 kHz on the 18000 and Eureka is better again, particular on the 0.1s and smaller, but obviously ground handling suffers. Need to do some comparisons against the Gold Racer at some point 

I was just about to post a reply, but Argyle has beat me to it. Spot on. This is THE coil to get for small gold in hot ground for anyone using a pre-GPX machine. 

Thanks for the good wrap up Argyle. 

I can vouch for Stinky Pete being a straight shooter and a good bloke to boot. I get my Detech coils from him, and he has to be one of the easiest guys to deal with. The 15" Spiral is one of the best DD's for the GPX series and also works great on the GP3500. It's really the only modern Litz wire DD, and being spiral wound gives it extra sensitivity. I also love the 8" mono, not a spiral wind but great for thick scrub and still very sensitive and doesn't false.

At a lower frequency than the Racer Gold and slightly lower than the Fors Gold +, with the 11x7 coil that I love so much on the CoRe, one would think this Racer 2 (now with iSat) will have a kick ass deep seeking all-metal mode for larger targets. 

Looks like they addressed my few niggles about the original Racer and then some! 

1. Same slick coil as the CoRe

2. Ability to save settings

3. iSat

4. Ability to notch is a welcome addition, perfect for modern parks when you want to knock out any pesky items

5. I really dig the colour scheme, gives it a more pro look in my opinion. 

6. Adjustable tone break

Very very cool, thanks Makro for listening and delivering.

Pretty refreshing I think

Cool finds, well done Dean. 

Okay,  question for those who have used both, which is probably not that many. 

Ignoring all other features, which detector would you chose if you HAD to take one hunting in some bad dirt:

Makro Gold Racer or Whites GMT? 

Yep, i haven't heard of too many positives with mod's in recent years despite the constant peddling of them, iv'e read of the filters being thrown in the bin because of no noticeable improvement, iv'e seen in the past independent people offering to compare a super dooper modded detector vs a standard one only for the modder to brush them aside and say they won't give an unbiased report.

Yes, I was one of them that put up my hand. Many people backed me up saying they will trust my opinion. 

I like it if it's legit. Would have preferred controls above handle and bulk of control box under the armrest ala GMT, but this is Eureka Gold / olds chool Goldmaster style which means hipmountable!! But that coil cable is too short to allow that. Interesting to see what becomes of this... 

curved shaft with separate handle like Fors and X-Terra. 

Although for bigger coils, the straight GPX shaft is perfect. Could never get used to a straight shaft for my chest mounted Sovereign, so went back to the S-bend. 

Or maybe they just aren't selling, so Garrett are hoping potential buyers may just consider the ATX. 

If this new coil can fix three issues of 1. Coil Flop, 2. Falsing, 3. Balance, then the ATX will be a half decent machine. 

I still don't rate the audio quality, or the dual battery compartments though. 

Yeah, good point. I recently tested my Bandido II umax in all metal mode with stock donut coil and it did surprisingly well on smallish gold. I can only image it would do much better with a smaller coil. 

I've been using a Fors gold + for a little while now, but we're in the middle of a really hot summer, so I've had limited time with it in the goldfield. I've sneaked in 2 short hunts to date, and have done some tests in my mineralised test tub (really bad dirt!), but have done a lot of general coin hunting with it in suburban park type environments. 

As a coin shooter, I kind of miss the 3rd tone I get with the CoRe, but when searching for modern coins, or in areas where I'm only going to pop out shallow targets the modulated audio of the 2-tone modes is awesome. I've had equal success with BOOST or FAST modes. Can't really pick them apart in a park environment.

In the goldfield I was curious to see if the iSAT helped to smooth out the all-metal mode compared to the CoRe. I'm happy to say that yes it does - well actually, turning it up doesn't seem to have any ill effects which is often the case with any type of filter, so I'm well pleased in that regard. Still, if you overcook your Sensitivity you are going to get an erratic machine, so you still have to set it to suit the conditions. 

In my mineralised test tub testing on a range of nuggets is where i saw the benefit of the FAST disc mode. It just hit targets a little cleaner, allowing me to reduce the Sensitivity a bit more for even better response - yes, less is often more :-) 

The small coil in Fast is going to sniff nuggets out of thick trash like nothing else, as long as the nuggets aren't too deep of course. 

Does anyone know if you can switch off the "QUARTR" display? That will only be useful for users in the US. 

I really like the general look of the MX sport, colours, coil, pod. Interesting Deus-like handle 

Not sure how I feel about the TreasureMaster style display though. Seems quite bulky sitting up in the air on such a sleek detector. I actually liked the MXT's more minimalist and lower profile display. 

Hopefully the gold prospecting side is improved, would make a nice all-rounder. 

I've used the Severe setting in Victoria, on an ironstone outcropping, that was shedding down a gentle slope. 

Any of the Difficult settings were not giving much joy. Severe handled it like a charm. 

Severe still has a lot of sensitivity, but you do sacrifice a little depth over HY/Difficult, but in areas where it is called for (not too many), then I wouldn't be shy to use it.