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Hi Jeff, An update...2 of us have sent our Axioms back and waiting for a response. I hadn't heard anything after a week so emailed Garrett Australia. I got this "We have received the machine and I will be testing through the week." - so obviously we are not a priority to them. I spoke to a Garrett dealer last week and mentioned the issues, he remained tight lipped and just rolled his eyes and said he was about ready to rip their sign off the wall. I also spoke to a detector repair technician and again, same response - they didn't think much of them at all indicating their performance was sub par to the price. Word obviously is getting around and Garrett don't seem to be interested in listening. From what I can see - their ground handling ability is the first major problem and without that, not much else will work. Being that the majority of detector basics come from a component level - looking for a software fix isn't going to be easy without changing the electronics. The GPX 6000 has a lot more that needs to be corrected than the EMI speaker system fix. That's just the official recognized problem. A company called Detectormods here in Aust. offers the upgrades at a rather steep fee $$$. https://detectormods.com/news/20/all-about-the-new-2020-upgrades The guy "Woody" had a YouTube channel and explains further short comings of the 6000. Be aware, he rambles on for about an hours to part with 15 minutes of actual information. To his credit, I applied some of the mods from one of his videos to my old 7000 and is ran so smooth and quiet, I had to "kick the coil" to see if it was still on. I run bogenes so is dead quiet till it hits a target. ..........."Basically, I feel ripped off by these two giants of the metal detecting industry more often than not."............... At least with the GPX 6000 you have options and a company that admits some of the detectors faults. As for the DD coils, people are always talking about needing them and our coil manufacturers "usually" listen....eventually. I'd say hang in there and maybe contact Nugget Finder, Coiltek and X-Coils to see where they are at? Garrett just plain deny there is any problems although they always counter with "we are happy to test the detector for any possible issues" then get our detectors back "No Fault Found"???? I'd strongly suggest selling the Axiom and use the 6000 until a successor for the 7000 comes out - which could be some time yet. Maybe even send it over for the mods to fix the issues with the money from the Axiom, you will be happy you did! I'm pretty sure that is currently the only place offering them. Ahhh, the life of a detectorist..............................

You are one of the optimists Jason. Just because you have been saying something for a decade does not make it true. I’m more in the Simon camp when it comes to a new detector actually having enough of a leap in performance to make an actual real world difference in the gold being found. The GPZ 7000 was a true advancement over what came before and made dead patches come alive again. The 6000 picked up the crumbs. This next go I think we will see improvement more in the ergonomic side than anything else. I place my bet that there will not be genuine performance that outperforms substantially on what we can currently get with the 6000 and 7000 combined, or even just a 7000 with a proper set of aftermarket coils. Metal detectors have a basic limitation in how far they can detect gold items. From http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/200TrCcts/MetalDetectors/MetalDetectors-1.html “the sensitivity is roughly proportional to the cube of the object diameter (as expressed as a function of the search coil diameter). Sensitivity is also inversely proportional to the sixth power of the distance between the coil and the object. All this means is that if the object size is halved the sensitivity is reduced to one-eighth. Also, if the depth is doubled the sensitivity is reduced to one sixty-fourth. It’s easy to see why all metal detectors which are designed to pick up small objects use small coils, (150 to 300 mm diameter) and really only skim the soil surface. If the search coil is doubled in diameter for greater penetration the sensitivity to small objects falls to one-eighth. You rapidly encounter the law of diminishing returns.” Famed metal detector engineer Dave Johnson reiterates this in a different way at https://web.archive.org/web/20230719232930/http://fisherlab.com/hobby/davejohnson/davejohnsonjohngardinerinterview.htm “Getting extra depth out of a VLF, multifrequency, or PI machine is very difficult, because these machines follow an inverse 6th power law relationship between signal voltage and depth. If everything else is maintained equal, doubling the depth requires 64 times as much signal. If this is done by increasing transmitter power, doubling depth requires 4,096 times as much battery drain. That’s the basic reason why depth increases come so slowly in this industry.” That is where I think we are now and why the GPZ 8000 has been slow in coming. Much to Minelabs credit they don’t release a machine unless the engineers can point to data showing some real performance improvement differences - you know, those 30% things. But there is actual real world data in hand to back up those claims when they make them. I think in this case the most they might eke out will be a marginal gain they can point to in detection depth on multi ounce nuggets. That’s enough to sell lots of detectors but in the end I think it will be greatly debated whether this new machine is any better in big gold at depth than a modded GP/GPX or 7000 with a big X-Coil. And for anyone but those few still finding the big ones deep on a regular basis nothing that will change anything. Most U.S. patches in particular simply don't have those monster nuggets at depth that people dream of. The 7000 and 6000 have already bled them close to dry. We have hit the wall not only in electronic terms but even more importantly in geological terms. Peter Charlesworth picked a very good time to retire. Go out at the top of your game. I have a ton of respect for Peter and his retirement is a message of sorts for those who follow the business of business. Long story short, next generation my prediction is a small gain at best, so small it won’t make any real difference over returns being seen with machines that we already have at our disposal. I actually hope I am wrong, and I hope I am eating crow and apologizing to you, and acknowledging you were right and I was wrong. Nothing would make me happier!

More news...I have purchased another GPZ 7000 and couldn't be happier with the performance. Like night and day! ....but so is the weight. Back onto multiple targets with the 7000 instead of target free ground noise from the Axiom. I have some new x-coils on the way and might Frankenstein the 7000 internals into a custom design to combat the weight with smaller battery pack. Who knows??? To Garrett's credit, their unwavering customer service in the face of disgruntled customers (AKA - "me") they are sending a replacement (not new because they have their hands tied in Australia as to what they can deem faulty???) detector which I eagerly await testing to see if it is an idiosyncrasy of the detector or the detectorist....?

Yeah we are tripping over semantics. When I and the other guys sit around the campfire and talk PI detectors and the detection "hole" what we are all referring to is the gold that is lost in the "holes" in different timing scheme. From our perspective every GPX 5000 timing has a hole of some sort, in that gold you miss in one timing can be detected in a different timing. The gold "falls in the hole." So when people are talking here on this forum that is what we mean by the term "hole" - a layman's definition as opposed to an engineers mathematical definition. I am sure I do not know the exact reasons why this happens but it is easy to show in the field with a GPX 5000 and it's multitude of timings. The problem historically is most 5000 users really did not know the timings scheme well enough to do more than half guess at what they should be running, and often a favorite setting got used everywhere. The only way to do it right was to hunt a patch multiple times with multiple settings. For me personally it feels like an over filtering issue. In bad ground with hot rocks I can apply progressively higher levels of ground compensation. As I ramp up the ground cancellation the machine gets quieter, but at the same time my gold responses drop off. My tuning methodology usually involves riding the edge as close as possible and dealing with some noise and some hot rocks. If I kill the ground completely, kill the hot rocks completely, I will inevitably do a full reset and start over. The Axiom in particular with its hot rock window I can force higher levels of ground and hot rock rejection, but then all the sudden I know I have gone to far, and do a reset. I just know for a lot of years of doing this that the more aggressive the ground cancellation, the more gold that gets missed. Gold grades imperceptibly with depth and mineralization into the ground signal until they are one and the same. The GPZ 7000 was a direct answer to that in attempting to get a machine that would find as much gold as possible in a single pass with as few settings as possible. Garrett referred to this issue on the 5000 and earlier GPX models in their ATX advertising...

I didn't sell it but decided to return it to Algoforce for a refund. The Sadie is the recommended coil Algoforce its even in the manual. I also tried a Nugget finder 18", a Coiltek 9" Elite as well as my Minelab 15" semi elliptical. I did side by side target comparisons with 7000, 6000, 5000, 2300, equinox 900 and gold monster. It on air tests it it was only beaten by the 7000 and the monster and Equinox 900 which with their small coils could our smallest piece of 0.006g. On targets in the ground it saw every target the 6000 and 2300 found again it couldn't see one target in a larger piece of quarts that a monster found. For me the biggest issue is the ground balance, hunting mulloch heaps were the ground from each layer discarded can be completely different I would keep getting me the appearance of clear targets but end up being just ground noise. There isn't a dedicated ground balance button or trigger, in fact the ground balance is the second function of the right arrow button to toggle through the function menu. A long press on thus button activates ground balance you can release the button at any time but I likes to wait for the two confirmation beeps from the machine. This could take a very long time easily over twenty seconds sometimes. As I want a machine I can work fast to cover more ground, l don't like having to look at the screen to check how far the ground balance is out, then waste time re ground balancing every few meters. On consistent ground I am sure it will do well. Just for me, on the same ground one after each other with the E1500 always going first I found substantial more gold with both the 2300 and gold monster. We all want a new machine to find us more gold than our old ones, so this the ultimate reason why I am returning it.

Difficult and High Yield can run at the same time. If changing from High Yield into General (or vice versa), I check my ferrite balance. Now I'm usually in Semi Auto GB, so I can ground balance by just pumping the coil, but the ferrite balance needs to be done with the Quick Trak button. So if I'm not getting a response from the ferrite, I just pump the coil and go. If I am getting a response, then press Quick Trak and sweep over the ferrite until it's no longer responding. The machine saves a different ferrite balance for each Ground Type/Gold Mode combination, so you only have to do it once.

I don't think you're supposed to peel that sticker as that might be a long term concern regarding adhesion. , You're supposed to actually pop the speaker. Make sure the silicone grease you used was food grade and not petroleum based. This was posted awhile back on how to do the Manitocore/900/7000 battery changeout: Regarding the potential vulnerabilities, warranty should cover it if its a design or manufacturing issue but I am unaware of any drowning issues with the 900 like those reported for the 600/800. HTH

Hi Red Bluff, I’m just north of you in the Siskiyou’s. There are a lot of factors involved, like is the weight of the machine and cost an issue? If not then next question is do you primarily detect in the creek or rivers and backpack in, if so then an SDC 2300 is a good option. Do you detect quite often and can get really familiar with your detector on dry land and want a very versatile detector, then the 5000, Algoforce, or Axiom is a great option. GPX 5000 does struggles on porous specs though and is a detector that’s requires a lot of learning time to get the most out of it Do you detect rarely and want a turn on and go detector like the Goldmonster then probably a GPX 6000, especially if you primarily find specimen gold or smaller shallow gold. Do you want a detector that can go deep on larger nuggets and also find specimen gold, then a GPZ 7000. I offer free training if you want to come up for a day and I’ll show you how simple the 5000 can be.

Unless you're going to areas that haven't seen much detector activity, they've likely seen the older GPX series go over them many times, and that's the problem, it's going to be hard to find much gold if any. The GPX 5000 is a brilliant detector, but it's not going to find something that it's already found before and that's where newer detectors and even coils have helped people, finding gold that was missed with earlier models. I'm not saying you won't find gold with a 5000, you likely will, especially if you put the effort in and perhaps find some ground that was missed for whatever reason, it's a big country, surely a coil hasn't covered every drop of gold bearing ground. Your odds are just higher with a detector that hasn't had so much use in the area. Around here the ground I've detected was heavily hit with the earlier GP and GPX series, I came along late to the party and tried with the 4500, while I did find the occasional bit that was missed for whatever reason it was a struggle, changing to the GPZ and 6000 changed that and I was finding way more gold than ever before. I preferred using my Gold Monster and Equinox over my 4500 for this reason, they were finding me more gold than the earlier GPX detectors. I don't know how the Axiom would go for you but if it finds gold the 5000 misses which I believe it does, then it may be a better choice, and Gerry from Gerrys detectors has one for sale at the moment for a great price. He also has the 5000, 6000 and 7000 for sale in that lot, with the 6000 and 7000 worth looking into if they meet your budget.

changing from difficult to high yield would need a GB again, do you use ferrite ring and quick track together to go through again or just pump the coil? Thanks.

One of my customers just shared last weeks finds. 4 days in AZ swinging the GPZ-7000 and recovers 42 pieces. 39+ grams of beautiful chunky nuggets. Largest was a 1/4 oz'er. Depths of the varying nuggets was from 10" to 24" deep. Just goes to show there is still gold out there. If you're new to the game and want to speed up your game, contact me as we have a 3 Day Field Training session coming up in April at famous Rye Patch, NV.

For various reasons I'm going over metal detecting stuff and gun stuff at the same time. And it occurred to me that an analogy could be made. 95 percent of people that hunt can't shoot as accurately as their gun can. Buying a sub minute accurate rifle for hunting is generally a waste of money unless you practice and are dialed in to your rifle at at all ranges. Spending the money on a $1500+ dollar rifle is not going to make you any better if you don't improve your own game. How many of you out there are hoping to to find the big nugget because you spent $7000 + dollars for new technology that you don't learn to use? I'm not trying to bash anyone, but rather encourage learning the machine you have to to get optimum results. And there is certainly a cost/ benefit equation. I don't detect enough to justify a gpz but have used a used 4500 enough to to get my money out of it if only for the satisfaction of the hunt. My wife and I have spent countless hours using an Equinox 800 and have been fully rewarded for our efforts if only for the time spent learning the machine. The ultimate goal is to come away with a profit ( monetary or historical ) and that is why it is worth while to pursue. I want to find gold..but I know that I have to research, practice and spend the time with the coil to the ground and pay attention to what I'm doing, hearing, and the results I get. I know this isn't technical and a deep dive into electronics but i would like to hear back from some you that make a living or spend a lot of time dedicated to this game.

and another spot that I have been getting small gold from that was very close to or had been gone over somewhat last year with the Zed and the 17"cc x-coil. So the last two days on this next patch had yielded 32 bits of gold so far and have another go at it today to see if there might be a few more.

Calm down ladies, if this was a Minelab battery it would be using USB-ML not USB-C with a funky connector that is different to anything you've seen before? They would put a chip in the battery so it can only power the Equinox, Manticore and other Minelab USB powered detectors, Its plastic would resemble the Strawberry Ice Cream container you opened to tuck into your desert tonight and last but not least the USB-ML connector would twist wildly when you tried to plug your USB-ML cable into it. This thing is cheap compared to a Minelab battery for the 5000, 6000 or 7000. ?

I had a chance in 2010 to buy the best detector, a 5000 and start doing something I'd never done before. I started going out into the desert looking for gold. To say I didn't know much about it would be an understatement. I did think I could get the best detector and I would find things easily. That is not what happened. The detector was fine but I didn't know where to use it and what to listen for. About a year later I found my first nugget in a tailing pile. That somewhat satisfied the where part but I still had a problem with the what to listen for stuff. I couldn't hear gold and I couldn't hear little meteorites. I wasn't adjusted right. At this point the ability to think and perform a bit outside of the box became worthwhile. I got lucky with finding a nice nugget in a non-nugget location. I kept that in mind and when I upgraded my coil I went back to that same area and I got 'lucky' again with another larger nugget. Upgrading to the 7000 was not the same type of increase in nugget size. I've mostly gone back to where gold has been found before and sizeable nuggets just are not there. Enjoy your walk-abouts. Carry a detector and you will find some missed gold but go one canyon over and you might still find a big nugget.

Yep watched them, I'd like to see the 22" concentric X-coil on the 7000 compared to the modded 5000 with some similar sized coils. Also a modded SD2200 compared with a modded gpx5000 with the same large coil on a larger, deeper target. At the moment my fully modified SD2200 has the edge over my standard gpx5000 with the larger coils and a deep test target. Would the modded 5000 equal the modded SD2200 or better it? If it's better by how much?

I'm debating whether to sell my gpx5000 or get mick to mod it. I've got a modded SD2200 and would love to see a comparison between a modified SD2200 and a modified gpx5000 with the same large coil on a larger deeper target. If the results were similar I'd probably sell the 5000 and get the large concentric X-coil for my 7000. Then again I'd like to see a comparison between the modded 5000 with similar size coil and and a 7000 with the X- coil. Sitting on the fence at the moment. ?

Just a reminder. Minelab offers a 15% discount on any Minelab metal detector from the MAP (minimum advertised price) to U.S. active or honorably discharged members of the military. Proof of past or active service is required and must be verified by providing a copy of a DD 214 or Military ID to qualify. The discount applies only to a metal detector purchase - parts and accessories do not qualify. With discount the $799 Gold Monster 1000 is only $679.15. The Minelab GPZ 7000, normally $7999, ends up being $6799.15, a savings of $1199.85

Well without getting much into this it's both. My TDI vs MXT was comparing a low power PI to a good VLF. Even with high power PI it is a generally known fact that PI compares poorly to VLF in air tests because it is the ground that accentuates the difference between the two. But target size is also very important, and as the targets get larger a PI will pull ahead of a VLF even in the mildest soils. There is also the wild card of the GPZ 7000 to consider. Some might be considering it a PI, and if so it does beat VLF across the board easily even in mild soil on all but the tiniest targets. But it's not actually a PI per se but a whole different beast, Zero Voltage technology. This is one area where air tests are applicable as being the same as the mildest of mildest soils. Test a GPX 6000 on a dime size target against a Manticore and see what you get. Other than that seems like a tempest in a tea pot. PI people usually like PI and VLF people like VLF and whatever floats your boat I say. In general, for most people my old saying does work pretty well "Use a VLF when you can and a PI when you have to." Thanks for the plug Chase.

I hope they call the next generation E1500 the E1600, that way I can get the detectors for $1,500 & $1,600 ?and still be able to use the interchangeable coils and battery systems. When backpacking in the outback all I would need to do is bring one detector with two pods, then switch out the pod when going for smaller gold and vice-versa for deeper gold detection. This Algoforce has so much potential to expand. Currently most top end Pulse Induction detectors such as GPX 6000, GPZ 7000, SDC 2300, Axiom, Garrett ATX, have no interchangeability with coils or shaft systems., so if Algoforce can bring back the good ole days of SD/GP/GPX interchangeable components, then zippy do da. All the way. ?

Yep, this is just the start and what a start it is. Thinking further, 6000 owners will appreciate the E1500's hot rock handling, it's EMI handling, they don't need to throw on some crazy 14" DD coil and maybe they'll find a use for the Target ID's for prospecting, if not for general use they are great. 7000 owners will be appreciating its light weight, super light weight I should say, ability to run a zillion coils of all shapes and sizes that the GPZ severely lacks so they will benefit greatly in areas where they couldn't even get their coil to the soil. There are likely plenty more reasons too, I'm just learning it now, I haven't even experimented with big coils and bigger target depths, and switching into the normal or large gold modes.

It could easily be AlgoForce who is the next big name. Just think in Spring 2026 the E-2500 for $2500. If such happens, if? It could be a detector with GPX-6000 or GPZ-7000 depth capabilities. At least we are now being provided an option from a company that was silent a month ago, at least I had never heard of.

Simon, I feel if you are comparing performance of the 6000, the 7000 and the E-1500, then you are 100% correct and for those who already own them, they'll be happy with what they already have. Here are a couple reasons why I think the E-1500 will beat out the 6000/7000 and you already shown us. EMI and Power Lines - I personally have 4 sites I hunt and try my best to get as close to those power lines as possible. I have yet to get decent performance out of my other detectors because of the power lines. 2 of those sites have produced multi ounces pieces, so you know where I'll be heading when time comes with an E-1500. I also know guys in AZ who try to detect gold in or around the military facilities and EMI is serious. Sure you can dumb down the detector, but then depth is compromised to a point, a VLF could be used, but the hot rocks make that extremely hard. The E-1500 Digital readout system. That one feature right there will allow me to hunt some of the hand placer mining of old and also tailing piles. Both have more trash than many can handle with a traditional 6000 or 7000. Those high dollar detectors, even though has top performance, are lacking any potential target identification help. Again, you have shown me enough to realize the importance of this feature. Sure it's not 100%, no machine is. But my last few years of gold recovery, most ounces recovered has been with ID detectors or with the aid of such, to save me time and energy. Having the option of a Pulse Induction detector to handle hot rocks and has a form of target ID is right down my alley. The guys who enjoy fishing as their favorite hobby, have at least 4 different rods. Heck, I don't even fish as often now, but still, have my 3 heavy duty sturgeon rods, 2 ultra light crappie rigs, my 2 Steelhead and Salmon poles, 2 bass outfits, and 3 trout rods. I have another 3 or 4 fly fishing rods. Other favorite hobbies we enjoy with multiple tools, guns. We won't even go there, but the bucks some folks drop on the various weapons, is eye opening to some. I actually feel many folks who already own a 6000 and or even 7000, will certainly want the E-1500. If anything, just for price point and having someone come along and join them, they can hand them an E-1500. Even as we are patiently waiting, some of the guys on my list for an E-1500 already have the 6000 or 7000 and a couple own both. I totally agree 100% with your last part of post and the new prospectors getting into a PI. I also see many previous customers swinging VLF type detectors now wanting to step up. They don't have to try and chase down a half worn out and heavy GPX-4500 for $1500 and then hope there are no issues with it. The E-1500 easily fits that bill as well. Sure a good running 4500 will find a bigger solid placer nugget a little deeper, but as been mentioned many times over, those are now the rare finds. We've been hunting those areas with capable depth/power PI's for 30 yrs. I get your point though as you are letting folks know, this price point PI is not going to match overall depth of a 6000 or 7000. I don't expect that either, especially for the price point. We'll have to wait for the E-2500 model and then we could be doing some serious overall comparisons.

There are also coil cable ferrite snap on shields, but I dont know if they actually do anything

I think if litigation was a problem, it would rear its ugly head in Australia, it's an Australian made detector and just down the road from Minelab HQ, it's not from some far away land where they have no control of the situation So, being concerned it won't make it into the US for this reason like Quest is doing is a non-issue. Perhaps the reason it doesn't have ground tracking doing the automatic adjustments is for this very reason, it is tracking the ground, you can see it on the screen, it just doesn't do the process for you. No big deal, and for me I prefer it this way. This is just me speculating of course. Without the Bluetooth transmitter and battery included some of the hurdles have already been overcome, so the FCC testing shouldn't be too brutal. Plenty of the people on this forum don't even need one, when armed with both a 6000 and a 7000 unless you're using it for something other than gold prospecting it's not going to offer you that much. If you have a 7000 it offers a bit, and for anyone with an earlier GPX it offers quite a lot, and also shares coils with it, a great thing to get for those people. The real winners are those new to prospecting wanting to buy a PI, they get a great unit an affordable price and don't have to feel like they're missing out by not having to sell a kidney on the black market for body parts to buy a Minelab.