Minelab GPX 6000

[VicR]

All valid points.  You would not buy a GPX6000 if you had a GPX5000 and GPZ7000 unless the 6000 was significantly different in some way - a few extra bells and whistles over the 5000 will not cut it.

Over a year ago the Minelab project manager for the Equinox approached me in one of Adelaide's park lands while i was detecting with the Equinox and asked for my opinion on how the new machine was performing. One of my comments was that it was "enjoyable" to use. He recommended that i give the 6" coil a go - which i thought - yeah sure. But when i eventually purchased the smaller coil he was right - for where i was detecting it was the right coil that would sniff out targets in high junk areas. We also discussed the weight issue of the GPZ which he nodded knowingly to - he didn't try to defend the GPZ. So i am sure Minelab will have this as one of their high priorities to make the new machine as fun/easy to use as possible. The GPX 5000 is 10 years old and technology has progressed so much in this time surely there will be a significant change? - otherwise people will not bother to update.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

Just stuff a GPX in a fully waterproof Equinox housing for under a grand and I’ll be fine. 

[okara gold]

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Just stuff a GPX in a fully waterproof Equinox housing for under a grand and I’ll be fine. 

I’d take something like that in a minute.
I wonder if some of the talk from FT about a new prospecting machine, lightweight etc got Minelab’s attention and they are trying to get something comparable or exciting out rather quickly. Guess we wait and see. 

[Daniel Tn]

Just when I step out of the hobby, they do something like that to perk my interest.  But still, the same thing would be true for me.  Can have the best machine in the world but it's not any good without places to go with it.   

 

With gold prices soaring at all time highs, it makes sense to release a new gold prospecting machine.

[PhaseTech]

On 8/1/2020 at 9:12 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

Just stuff a GPX in a fully waterproof Equinox housing for under a grand and I’ll be fine. 

Then you'll have 8 million prospectors swarming the gold fields and every last speck will be sucked up in 4 months. ?

[mungass]

Well, I sold the Harley yesterday in anticipation of it happening ???

[jasong]

My understanding is that performance on PI's is getting maxed out. And simply just updating to a new case, attached battery, and modern screen hardly seems to justify anyone paying $8k to upgrade from the 5000, or $8k to get those features from current 7000 owners. GPS are cheap, and not a significant upgrade to detectors today.

Minelab has never released a gold machine since I've been detecting for gold that is a downgrade from the current flagship. Not that I can recall anyways. It almost certainly has to have some totally new something or another that the 5000 doesn't have, and maybe that the 7000 doesn't have either since $8k is a premium machine price targeted to serious prospectors. Most serious prospectors already own a 7000 and would need some reason to buy a PI again.

GPX = PI. So, I'm guessing this machine will incorporate this "Geosense PI" technology we heard about. And I'm still guessing it's something to do with correlating the coil position to the ground and to the target in order to get a better ground balance such as in the patents I posted previously. Or maybe something with improved target signal processing. 

[Gold Catcher]

5 hours ago, phrunt said:

More timings maybe? The GPX 5000 wasn't a giant leap from the 4500.   Maybe they've been working on better discrimination with word Fisher is doing similar.

If they've done target ID's on a PI I'm in ? I am in fantasy land, but it would be outstanding.

A smart iron probability meter, perhaps a supercharged version of what the GM has, would be a game changer in my view. Here I see the most advancements to be made even beyond the 7000 and would allow for hunting in trashy areas where currently iron discrimination is a must have. It likely would not work well for deep targets, but for surface targets this would be great to have. And worth the money when combined with additional timings and coil options.

[Gerry in Idaho]

I'm thinking the GPX-6000 will come in the CTX/GPZ housing and have GPS technology.  I'm thinking the old coils will work, but they will also come out with the newer flat winding style coils.  The last thing they'll probably do is allow for better Iron Discrimination than the standard GPX-5000.

What would really take the cake for me on this new high dollar detector.  Pulse Induction detector that has a switch or mode that allows it to run like a VLF machine and find all the other kinds of gold the PI's miss.