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For those who were waiting, the garrett vortex vx5 and vx7 are now available. There 20% off sale ends today. Nows your chance.

Vortex Series - Garrett Direct Probably good timing with this going on too

Vortex VX9 , Triple Score, and Xterra Elite- Impact on Target ID’s With Elevated Nail by Southern Relic Adventures Feb 19, 2025 Informative video on VDI on targets with an elevated nail on the Garrett Vortex, Nokta Triple Score, and Minelab Xterra Elite. Highlights the new Vortex 2.07 firmware. Couple of important points to know: 1) Any and all nails of sufficient size (whether old or new, square or round, etc) will cause this ID shift effect on ALL detectors. There is nothing special about this nail. 2) The Garrett Vortex and Minelab Elite use a 100-point ID scale. The Nokta Triple Score uses a 60-point ID scale to help generate more stable ID results. Therefore, in order to make an apples-to-apples comparison of the amount of ID shift, you must normalize the Triple Score to a 100-point scale. This is shown in the table:

I'm still getting used to the Vortex, so very easy to use but you don't really get the hang of a detector by your 3rd outing with it. I decided I'd go to the lakefront at Queenstown, this place I've mostly always avoided as there are always people around, generally lots of them. It's always full of tourists so previously I've only done it very late at night or early in the morning at times when I hope to avoid the people, New Years day at 4am for example, but even then there were people there, ones designated to cleaning up the rubbish left behind all over the beach from the fireworks display the night before and the usual joggers that run around along the lake. Yesterday was going to be quite rainy and a cooler southerly wind blowing it, and as its quite unusual this time of year to get much in the way of bad weather in Queenstown it was my opportunity to give the Vortex a shot there. I dopped my wife and daughter off at the Gondola as they wanted to go on a hike up the mountain while I hit the beach detecting, it was quite early and drizzling so I attempted the main beach, unfortunately even at 8am with drizzle the beach had a number of people hanging around. I guess as a tourist when you're half way across the world you're going to see the sights, rain hail or shine and the coffee shop on the lakefront was doing a roaring trade. I really don't like detecting with people around so I changed plan and drove along the lake until the people started to fizzle out. This on the left is the beach I was aiming to hunt being the main beach in the town and it gets covered in people, the most likely spot for the best modern drops, I took these photos later in the day from the Gondola. My next hope was the green arrow here, again far too many people around so I drove further along to the red arrow, problem here is, far less people use the beach this far along but at least I'd never hunted the area before, so I started at the red arrow and worked my way along the lakefront further away from town. My first find was a $1 coin, from the 90's, that's a good sign of no one hunting this spot before, they're easy targets and one no one would leave behind as they can go spend it. I was finding heaps of bottle caps so I turned bottle cap reject on, I'm not one to normally use discrimination but there were just so many it made sense to use it and it worked well, I only dug one more bottle cap after that, and it was a flattened out one and I think all alloy. There was a type of hot rock on this beach that the Vortex reported as 65 and they were everywhere, I recall when I hunted the main part of the beach with my Nox I was constantly getting a hot rock type too, I can't remember it's ID on that but obviously the same rocks. They're annoying though as they're everywhere and you can't balance them out on either detector. I didn't want to notch them out though as with so many around the likelihood of other targets with them is very high so I'd rather hear everything. I'd found a few old 1 cent, 2 cent and 10 cent coins at this point but was so far disappointed with this beach, I hit a target through a rock, it was a flat rock but rather large; after flipping it over the target improved and I recovered a silver New Zealand sixpence. I'm used to flipping rocks from prospecting, never done it for coin hunting before though. These are pretty common silvers to find, but a silver none the less. I'd never walked this part of the beach before and for hundreds of meters I was seeing these odd holes in the big rocks, they just have to be man made, but why? They were everywhere. Very odd, and all along the beach, lots of them. This was weird, I didn't dig it up obviously, a surface find, not sure what that could of been from. It's got a bit of concrete hanging off it. The weather stayed wild for almost 2 hours so I was able to get in some good detecting, although with this part of the beach seldom used it wasn't giving up many good finds. The wave action from storms had pushed up the rocks into a pile along the beach in this spot. And in them was an old Florin You can see here how they were pushed up and bigger rocks on the top. The sun started to bust through and with that I was starting to get more tourists walking along the lakefront so I decided to call it quits and meet up with the family that were doing the mountain hike on the Gondola, they must be getting near ready to come back down by now. This is my finds including the junk, funny to find a house mailbox number Other than the sivler, the florin and the $1, nothing great. The $1 was spent buying a chocolate bar 🙂 So while not overly what I was hoping for the hunt it was still an enjoyable morning and I'm liking using the Vortex, something Garrett hasn't been given enough credit for thus far is NOT putting a carbon fibre lower shaft on it like other manufacturers have been doing lately, good work Garrett for not following the crowd and putting a giant conductive thing right at my coil. It's super comfortable for me to swing too, no fatigue and light, big screen is great and just fun to use. I was disappointed not to get to the main beach as that's where I had more hope of jewellery finds. I'm not sure the dates of the florin and silver, they're still in the car with my detecting stuff from yesterday. Here is a couple of photos from my wifes hike up the mountain. The weather cleared for them on the way back down about the time I called it quits. And you can save yourself the $65 or whatever it costs to go on the Gondola for a tourist watching this video, I had a Gondola to myself on the way up to meet them so I filmed it, I've never filmed the ride before. I get unlimited rides with a locals pass. I might hit an ocean beach with the Vortex next

Just curious how many are happy vs unhappy with the vortex release. It's to early to know the true performance, but initial thoughts? Will you buy one or pass for now?

This just happened to me a few hours ago so I decided I’d better type it up while it is still fresh in my mind. I got a rare but pleasant surprise this morning while testing a new metal detector. I’ll be honest, when Garrett said they wanted to send me a Vortex VX9 to try out I was not chomping at the bit. I am mostly a gold nugget hunter and while I enjoy other types of detecting, the fact is when I have time the nuggets always seem to win out. That being the case I kind of have to make myself go use coin detectors and I was not sure I would really be that helpful. I don't like to work at this stuff like I used to. I do have some very tough ground around Reno though and I thought I could at least help make sure it worked well in it, so I agreed to give the Vortex a spin. I specifically did not agree however to say anything about it publicly. I’m getting tired of the online drama around new metal detector models and was not looking to get drawn into any of that. It took longer getting to me for various reasons and is still undergoing last minute tweaking, the very reason for me giving it a go. I was given no specific agenda other than to just “go do my thing” and after a little thought I decided for my first use I’d go do a little coin detecting at a nearby park. I gave the Quick Start Guide a cursory glance but frankly there is nothing complicated here, clear menu with easily interpreted icons and options. I charged the detector and MS-3 headphones up overnight and headed to the park. This is the same location where several years ago I tested another new multifrequency model by another brand and hit a small bonanza of silver coins. The coins were not at crazy depths so much as hidden by the tough soil mineralization here, and the new generation of multifrequency detectors got just that little extra depth needed to find these coins. The soil in some places is sod type turf, not too bad, but in other places is basically grass on granitic derived sands and gravel laden with magnetite. Six inch dime and eight inch quarter type of stuff. Needless to say, I have been back to this little place numerous times as a sort of past honey hole, hoping with each new detector I get that maybe I will eke out another good find or two. It has been some time though since I found anything good here, though that is partly because my nugget detecting keeps taking me to other places. Still, it’s close by and so was an obvious place to give the Vortex my first try. I had low expectations, and in fact was really just going to see how the detector ground balanced and how the tones sounded, real basic stuff. Garrett Vortex VX9 Default Settings (subject to change) I started with default settings and made these adjustments. Multifrequency (default), Zero Disc Mode (default is Standard Mode), Iron Audio On (default is off), Iron Volume 1 (default is 4), set EMI Channel for 6 (default is 4), and Wireless on (default is off). I left Recovery Speed at the slowest setting of 1 but went ahead and cranked the Sensitivity from default 6 to max 8 and although the Vortex got more reactive to the ground it seemed to handle it. This park has a lot of EMI issues and so first happy finding was no real problem there. Finally, I set the Volume at 2 because with the MS-3 headphones the targets were quite loud, and then used the headphone volume to reduce everything further. I run wide open listening to everything and do not like subjecting my ears to a barrage of loud sounds. It’s a salt and pepper find the best taste thing, but Main Volume 2, Iron Volume 1, and headphone volume reduced gave me a pleasant audio stream to listen to. I threw a nickel, zinc penny and dime on the ground and noted the readings. Time to remind people the machine is still being tweaked so I’m not going to mention the specifics as they might change. Even the defaults I mentioned earlier are subject to change. Then I started hunting. Wide open settings so a constant low-level puttering of ferrous and ground responses, which at the low volume level I set is the way I prefer to hunt. I like to hear everything. In short order I got what seemed like a solid nickel reading, but it was a folded over older square pull tab. I decided then and there I did not have the patience to deal with aluminum today, so concentrated on just wandering around and listening to responses plus watching the numbers and meter responses. I am a hunt by ear type of guy so have to force myself to watch meters and this Garrett does have a new three level meter setup I needed to get used to. I’m wandering around then, trying to stick to the shade, when I get a faint high tone smear, quarter indications, but also the type of audio that says maybe a deep rusty nail faking me out. Yet no low tones just these whispery high tones. The three level meter was only showing responses on the non-ferrous bar, though they were a bit jumpy. I decided to dig it as that’s what testing is all about but was half thinking nail – guess I’m getting pessimistic these days after digging too many of these fringe type targets hoping for the best, and getting a nail. The ground was hard and I was in a little nest of roots so had to saw through those. Finally got a reading with my pinpointer but it was in the back of the hole, and I’m figuring, yeah, it’s a nail, and shove my digger back there to lever it out. Out pops this large bronze looking disc, like a quarter but copper colors, and my mind is not translating that into a coin. Large bronze washer? It’s old but fairly clean and I look and see Lady Liberty looking at me – well I’ll be darned, my first large cent! 1852 braided hair variant. It looks like it has good detail and might clean up well. My sloppy digging did also reward me with just the tiniest of scrapes below Liberty’s ear, but not really noticeable and will probably disappear once I clean the coin, if I do. The find is remarkable for a couple reasons. First, it’s the oldest coin I personally ever found in the United States. I have hunted in the U.K. quite a few times so have found many much older coins, but having lived in Alaska most of my life any U.S. coins from the 1800’s are few and far between in my collection. Second, Reno, NV was founded in 1868, so this coin had to be an older one in somebodies pocket dropped at a later date, or so I surmise. There were people in the area earlier than 1868 but I find it doubtful it was actually lost in the 1850s. Most remarkable of all to me though is this was the second target I ever dug with a Vortex. That’s kind of crazy and if you all think I’m making it up I can’t really blame you as I hardly believe it myself. I’ve never claimed to be the best detectorist in the world, far from it. I just do a lot of it in good locations and get lucky now and then, and today my luck was off the charts. That’s about it for the story. I decided to call it a day, get some photos, and come home to type this up. I can’t really answer any questions about the Vortex yet as I am about 99 hours of use away from having anything intelligent to say about it. I’m certainly not making any claims it is better than this or that or nothing else could find the coin, amazing find from hunted out park….. blah, blah, blah, we’ve all heard too much of that before and I’m not doing any of that now. All I’m doing is telling a true story of what happened to me this morning, make of that what you will. I will say that the Vortex goes beep, it can find stuff, and it’s hard not to like a detector that surprises me like this one just did.

A couple of weeks ago my Vortex was delivered, I immediately took it out on a coin hunt which I posted about here. I hadn't used it since as I hurt my back which has finally come pretty close to normal again so today I was excited to take it out again, a hot day though which isn't ideal for me, I hate summer. The advantage was I could go detecting at the river so I could go in and out of the water to cool off, it's hard going finding coins in the water, they do exist of course and probably more of them in the main body of water than elsewhere with them falling out of swimmer's pockets. I've never found a ring at the river, there has to be some, the water is very cold at times of year, some years ice forms on the edges but never freezes over, the flow is just too fast. That cold water and people fly fishing all the time means they're likely dunking their hands in the water for rings to slip off. With the water level quite low at the moment and it being about mid-summer the waters quite warm. I'm finding the Vortex enjoyable to use, it's very stable and gets the job done, I had concerns from some Youtube videos that it wasn't much of a deep detector however I'm finding it has plenty of depth, in fact I can't wait to buy a bigger coil for it, I generally use big coils, 17x13" and 15x12" are my go to sizes, although now I've bought the 18" for my Manticore, so I'd like something a fair bit bigger for my Vortex too. I'm in a location where targets are few and far between, not a whole lot of junk around, more often than not a target is something worth digging. I don't think swinging the Vortex over some targets on the ground is going to show its true potential, it likes them in ground. The river area has sandy areas and rocky areas and for some reason the sandy areas seem to be where most of the targets are, they're formed by water movement, it might just be the rocky areas the targets make their way very deep falling between the rocks over time where as they get stuck in the sandy areas. When you see the river in flood the rocks are barrelling along being moved about, you go to the river one month, go back another and it's in a completely different spot, it moves around especially when water levels keep changing. Our rivers are often called braided rivers, they keep moving about, here's an example aerial photo of one on my Island showing what they can look like. I haven't done much detecting at the river favouring parks so I was trying to work out where best to find stuff based upon where I think people would have been swimming, fishing or hanging about, hard to do when the river keeps changing although targets did seem to be bunched up. The first finds were old NZ pennys in the sandy areas Here was my second penny find, I didn't take any photos of it as I got it on video, the thing I'm finding with the Vortex which is different to other detectors I've used is its target in ground performance is much better than its air performance, it's generally the other way around. So in the video I've just found and recovered an old Nz Penny, I drop it back in the hole and turn on the Camera to take some video showing it and the targets a bit crackly and at the edge of detection, with me being so new to the detector I didn't think much of that and it didn't overly occur to me the performance had dropped a lot now I'd dug it out, so on the video I bury it again to show what it was like and the detector perks up and gets so much more depth on it. Well over the depth of a Carrot with no troubles at all. Once again it was in the more silty soil rather than the gravels. Anyone that remembers me finding these pennys in the parkland how much different they came out of the soil, at the river they often have these corrosion growths on them, always on one side that I wasn't seeing at the parks. This one was a modern 20 cent, starting to rust, these are a bit like the Canadian coins, can be wild on the ID's on some detectors, I can't recall its ID, 60 or 65 I think, but it was stable with some iron audio going too. I'd have more chance of finding these with the Vortex as with the Equinox they're just a wild ID iron type target that I'd always reject. My find of the day, not all that deep considering what it was.... A pretty big NZ silver, the Shilling. This was a half penny, again in the silty sand type stuff, this was the best area for finding stuff by far so I spent a lot of time detecting the silty areas when I got to them. And the target to finish them all, I was crossing over some water get to an appealing looking spot with lots of silty areas and had a hit in the water, although the problem was it was a fast running bit where one of the braids compacted down to a little width and the water came through quickly but the Target ID was good and I knew it was going to be something decent like another Penny so I had to get it out, one leg in the water for stability digging and the other of land and I managed to get it out after a lot of messing around, the only problem being with my legs stretched out I had a blowout in my pants so that put a rapid end to my hunt. The hole kept filling in again. You can sort of see the faster flow right where the coin was in this photo. A good coin to find too, a UK half penny, smaller than the pennys and no green deformity coming off it. My total finds, left side are the coins worth worrying about, right side are just junker coins and some junk I found. The 1920 UK Half Penny, very worn down and dinted up from being int he gravels I guess. The shilling was a good find, happy with that. This one is only starting to get the green growth up on the D letter. These both have bad green growth, it's on the other side of the left coin but I had it this way so the date could be seen. Another good morning with the Vortex, not sure where to go next with it, it's doing well at the river and enjoyable to use there completely ignoring all the hot rocks that often trouble detectors so maybe I should stick with it down there, or head further afield to new pastures.

I was intending to spend a bit of time this morning messing around with my Vortex and working out the Target ID's for all the common coins I find in the area and make a little cheat sheet like I normally do with a new detector but ran out of time with a busy morning of stuff going on that I wasn't expecting so I figured why not just take it out and dig whatever sounds good. I normally prefer to hunt grassed areas for coins but I've done many of the local spots to death and the one I was intending to go to had too many people around when I got there so figured I'd try something a bit different and do some detecting at the river, people swim there a bit over summer and plenty of fly fishers from all over the world come to the river to catch trout and salmon so I had my hopes up, I've done a few days detecting there but never really a lot as the grassed areas have been keeping me busy. The first thing I noticed about the Vortex is how incredibly stable it runs, maximum sensitivity is no problem, its configured in a way that's very family friendly, I could pass it over to my wife or daughter who very rarely ever touch a detector and they'd be comfortable using it due to its stable operation, not a peep out of it unless a target is under the coil, this is a bit of a point of difference to many detectors that now the manufacturers tend to push to the limits of stability where they run a bit ratty especially in higher sensitivity with the aim of getting the best results for the very experienced detector operator, some have quite poor stability with their ID's too whereas the Vortex at least for me was really good. Some experienced people will think there is more left in the tank seeing it runs so stable, whereas the masses of users would just appreciate its smooth running. It really feels like a detector made for anyone to use yet the performance was there for me, depth was great as was ID stability. One thing I worked out during the hunt was coins ID better when in the ground in their natural state, if you dig the coin out, drop it back in the hole and air test the coin the ID's will often be up averaged, put the coin back in the soil and the ID's correct themselves, this is by no means a problem as you don't find coins in the air 🙂 I am certainly a beginner on the detector, only a few hours behind the wheel but found it very easy to use, I had no idea of the ID's of coins so just dug stuff that sounded good, only trash I got was a rusty nail and a couple of bottle caps to experiment before I had confidence in how well the bottle cap reject works, didn't dig another one. My first target was a 71 ID and is a stainless steel and wooden pocket knife, it wasn't buried just in a bush. Probably pretty old. I recorded a bit of a video of the action, more so than taking photos as I know plenty of people would rather see it working than just see photos. I was learning as I was going and getting to know the detector. I'm not much of a Youtuber, I don't edit my videos, I just stitched the clips together as I prefer Raw video, no editing and chopping out bits that I don't want people to see, what you see is what you get with me, I'm not one to test detectors on nails and do comparison videos showing one an do better in a nail bed than another, to me none of that matters, all I care about is if a detector finds stuff, and for me the Vortex does, and it's so easy to use which I'm sure many will appreciate. You'll note the first coin I'm showing I was a bit surprised the ID was different out of the ground than when in the hole, had I of known I could have put the soil back in the hole with the coin and the ID would have corrected itself and it ID'd the coin correctly. I was a bit puzzled at the time because the ID changed with the air gap in the hole. My best find for the afternoon was a small UK silver threepence from 1919, back then New Zealand ran off UK currency, these are 97% silver I believe . I'm going to have to watch out, I think my wife and daughter will be wanting to use this detector and steal it off me, it's just so easy to use and stable that they'll even find it a breeze and an enjoyable experience. So far, so good, I don't know what all the fuss is about, it finds stuff, and works well for me.

Garrett has done a great job improving charger compatibility with the new 2.05 update. My Vortex arrived today, I started charging before midday on the pre-installed 2.04 firmware, after over 6 hours and trying two chargers that exceed requirements during that time it had only just reached the second bar flashing, it arrived almost flat with the first bar flashing when plugged in although not down to 5% where the first bar flashes when turned on. The flash tool has a minimum requirement of 2 bars to update the firmware, and if you try prior to that it refuses to flash, wise move on Garrett's part, you don't want to brick a detector by it going flat during the update. So, as soon as it reached two solid bars, I decided it was time to flash, my reasoning was these lines in the changelog of the new 2.05 firmware. Improved compatibility with a wider variety of charging sources. Improved battery status indicator. It worked a treat, quick simple easy process to flash, took about a minute, gives you a scare as at 99% you hear the USB disconnect noise, this was just the detector rebooting 🙂 then it comes up as complete. After doing so, the detector went from taking 6 hours to move up a single bar to completing the charge in under 2 hours from about 50% so I would guess 4 hours total charge time as the manual specifies. I'm sure all new ones leaving the factory now since the firmware has been released will be preinstalled with 2.05 so this charging issue won't exist for the newer detectors. They most certainly widened charger support on the new firmware, too late for me to take it out today but I'll be giving it a shot tomorrow weather permitting, well regardless I just won't last as long if it's raining. I like the build quality of it, nice on the arm, the big screen is awesome, a brief mess around indoors and the thing is so easy to use and understand. I'll have to test out the target IDs on our commonly found coins prior to taking it. The EU has rules all gadgets that charge with USB must be USB-C like the Vortex and not include a charger, the idea is people get a pile of chargers all different for all sorts of stuff, lots of waste, I like the idea of USB-C charging with a standard setup like the Vortex has. Looking forward to using it tomorrow to try to find some coins and get accustomed to using it, although with its simplicity of navigation and easy to understand settings I doubt that will be too hard. The handle is the most comfortable handle on a detector I've ever used.

When I get a new detector the first thing I do is wonder about aftermarket coil opportunities, in the case of the Vortex Garrett tends to make great quality coils themselves, I've got a number of Garrett machines and never had a coil problem, no broken ears, no undue noise, they just work however, what the aftermarket brings is a large range of coil sizes and types. So yesterday, I emailed my two favourite aftermarket manufacturers of coils to see what they thought, to my surprise both replied near immediately. First, we have Nel, I was really surprised to get a quick reply from them, although I've had good communication with Olelsii in the past, with the war going on and the troubles they're having I figured I would be lucky to get a reply at all. So, I may end up with a Tornado and Snake for my Vortex, that'd be great. And secondly, Detech Sounds very positive, I would like to get the Detech Ultimate 13" for the Vortex, and perhaps the 18x4" Arrow also.

Andrew Benson ( @abenson ) made a comment in the thread linked below about the new Garrett Vortex performing differently for Morgan Dollars compared to Peace Dollars for a certain combination of settings (and, yes, he did include an 'out' that this was the case for the individual coins he tested). As I didn't want to sidetrack the thread -- which is specifically about problems seen in the Vortex by detectorprospector.com members -- I've chosen to start a new thread to call attention to this and open it for discussion. (Andrew's post is the second in the above thread.) Here is what my 2022 Redbook says about the specs of both Morgan Dollar and Peace Dollar: weight 26.73 grams; composition .900 silver, .100 copper (net weight .77344 oz. pure silver); diameter 38.1 mm; reeded edge You may have noticed there is no thickness spec. However, the identical composition leads to a consistent density, so knowing the diameter (as specked above, for both) leads to the same *average* thickness (which can be calculated), with only minor variations due to the relief, that is details of the respective obverse and reverse depictions and characters. I've noticed when comparing digital Target ID's for either Indian or Lincoln cents (which I've previously reported on this site) of the same year that corrosion can result in (small but measurable) variations of those ID's. Andrew mentions finding silver dollars in the salt water impregnated beaches of northern Utah. Could this be leading to the difference in performance (Morgan vs. Peace)?

I think the Vortex Update is now available for anyone lucky enough to have one Vortex VX9 Firmware Update 2.05 Release date 18.12.2024 Enhancements to Multi-Salt operation: Increased detection depth on high conductors. Improved Target ID on high conductors. Improved Target ID on ferrous items. Enhancements to Multi-Frequency operation: Improved Target ID on high conductors. Improved Iron Boundary/iron unmasking capabilities. Increased Target ID depth in all Frequencies and Channels. Resolution of unintended power cycling. Improved compatibility with a wider variety of charging sources. Improved battery status indicator. I'm keen to hear how you all go with it. Looks like a lot of positive changes in such a short amount of time.

Here's a video Garrett's done on the Vortex update process, very easy, so cool you can just do this to switch models if you grow out of your VX5 or VX7. For some reason they only put the video on Vimeo and not Youtube, rather odd, I would think Youtube would give them more exposure. At the end of the video they tell you that you can find out more about their updates and upgrades at garrett.com/store/updates-upgrades however this doesn't work, @Steve Herschbach might want to point this out to them, 404 error.

Hello team, I am new member from France.😁 The Garrett VX5, VX7 and VX9 vortex range is gradually arriving on our market, I would like to know if any of you have already tested the VX7 and VX9 and could tell me what the main differences in performance are. Thank you for your help and have a nice day Paul

Great news, the Vortex has now been approved by the FCC and the physical hardware must be ready for sale. You can see the full report here. Quite a long list of countries the test data accreditation applies for too. So pleased to see Nz/Au on the list, so it's right to go for us here too now. And some photos of the guts, you can see more on the FCC link, probably plenty of information in there for the techy types to try decipher how it works a little, but beyond my understanding 🙂 Some nice shielding there, might be party why it's so good with EMI compared to many other detectors. Won't be long now until we see this puppy hit the shelves!

No one saw this coming. Look at the market. Everybody throwing models at every nook and granny. Garrett came out of the blue, in blue, and covered the range at a competitive price, without playing the coil lockout game. Even if you don’t like it, they changed the game, and you will benefit from it. What are they going to do? They just put out countless different models, but now there’s a “jump” model the covers the range. Even knocks on the door of the Mighty Manticore without requiring a PhD. If you take the coil lockout game expense into consideration, it’s probably the best overall value. Do you want to keep buying different models, and maybe coils, or just jump. Got to give Garrett their props, this is a game changer. I don’t expect it to be the best at anything, but if it’s good at a lot of things, it ate the heart out of the watermelon.

Features/Price Comparison of the Garrett Vortex vs. Nokta Triple Score vs. Minelab X-Terra Elite Note the Minelab X-Terra Elite Price of $599 US I listed is based on a combo package that includes ML wireless phones and a 6" round coil. The detector/coil only price for X-terra Elite is $479 US.

I'm not brand loyal at all, I will swing whatever I feel like gives me the best advantage because I'm only given so many days in the field during this life. I had high hopes for Garrett I would love to support an American company. All three models of the vortex have the exact same hardware but the entry level is severely handicapped and features require a payment to unlock. Garrett is spinning this and calling it an upgrade but this is not a good thing for the metal detecting community. This is the beginning of microtransactions for each and every feature that you want. The base version doesn't even support wireless headphones so they are asking that the user pay to unlock that feature! The transmitter has to already be inside but they want you to pay to turn it on! I'm not bashing Garrett my first detector was a Garrett freedom 3 back in the 90s all I'm asking is that people read between the lines. the most advanced software for this detector has already been developed then features were intentionally removed and now they're expecting their customers to pay to unlock them.

Can you imagine buying a metal detector that is severely handicapped from the factory and then having to pay to unlock features like beach mode and even wireless headphones! Don't believe Garrett's spin. This could lead to microtransactions and is bad for the entire community.