New Minelab Manticore

[Rick N. MI]

Nasa Tom said he will never use the Equinox again. He is also involved with the Manticore project. He can't release any information about it. That is quite a statement for the Manticore.

[PSPR]

22 minutes ago, Rick N. MI said:

Nasa Tom said he will never use the Equinox again. He is also involved with the Manticore project. He can't release any information about it. That is quite a statement for the Manticore.

It does seem odd that they are on the eve of releasing the machine but they can't talk about it.  Another poster elsewhere said he was talking to another Minelab engineer and asked him to compare the Manticore to the CTX3030 and he said he couldn't talk about that.  Why not?

[UT Dave]

My guess why not, is Minelab is a disciplined operation and speaking of such is for the marketing folks, not the engineers.

Where I work, I don't really want my engineers getting out in front of the marketing folks either.  The marketers have their job, we have ours.  Ours is to build it.  There's is to sell it.  Two vastly different skill sets.

I'll add though...  The dang marketing folks do like to get out in front of the engineers and talk about stuff that isn't even in the design phase yet, let alone close to completion - or sometimes even possible!

Marketing.  Can't live with them.  Can't live without them.

- Dave

[JCR]

7 hours ago, steveg said:

Interesting.  I have read elsewhere that on non Garrett machines, the Z-Lynk can have that issue (turning off every so often).  Had I not read that, I'd have assumed I got a bad unit, and returned it.  But, since this was mentioned by others using it on non-Garrett machines, then once I found that being the case on my MDT, I was not surprised...

I'm now confused, though, since you don't have this issue using it with your MDT...

Steve

It should not matter what make of detector. That is the purpose of the Tx/Rex units. I did have to reposition the Tx unit on one of my detectors because I kept turning it on &off while transporting it.

[steveg]

24 minutes ago, JCR said:

It should not matter what make of detector. That is the purpose of the Tx/Rex units. I did have to reposition the Tx unit on one of my detectors because I kept turning it on &off while transporting it.

JCR -- you are right; it SHOULD not matter.  But I know there were others who had this experience, and so I wasn't surprised when I did...

I wish I had known this; I would have done things differently.

Steve

[longbow62]

Wow I never had a problem with ML80's! They've always worked and sounded fine to me. Maybe my hearing is better than a lot of folks hearing. I have heard some very deep and faint signals with the stock headphones. I hate to sound like a Minelab fan boy, but if headphones choices are keeping you from buying the Manticore or any other machine I think that's a little silly myself. The audio from a detector is not an orchestra, and I call B.S. if anyone tells me they can tell a vast difference between the quality of a beep between the stock phones and other choices. I'm not saying there is none, I'm saying it won't be much and how much does it matter? I have some Aiwa headphones I used with the Nox from time to time. Yes they sound different and somewhat better, but I don't think they ever improved my finds. I use the stock headphones way more than I do the Aiwa's. 

[Jeff McClendon]

4 hours ago, Rick N. MI said:

Nasa Tom said he will never use the Equinox again. He is also involved with the Manticore project. He can't release any information about it. That is quite a statement for the Manticore.

It all depends on where one hunts and what types of targets. He needs an actual waterproof detector and one that can handle heavy iron trash really well. The Equinox has proven itself to not be consistently waterproof and it is just OK in heavy iron trash. It also has a very compressed target ID area in the US nickel/modern pull tab range which Manticore doesn't have.

If he was a nugget or meteorite hunter in high iron/volcanic rock mineralization, he might be saying something completely different.

[Jeff McClendon]

2 hours ago, longbow62 said:

Wow I never had a problem with ML80's! They've always worked and sounded fine to me. Maybe my hearing is better than a lot of folks hearing. I have heard some very deep and faint signals with the stock headphones. I hate to sound like a Minelab fan boy, but if headphones choices are keeping you from buying the Manticore or any other machine I think that's a little silly myself. The audio from a detector is not an orchestra, and I call B.S. if anyone tells me they can tell a vast difference between the quality of a beep between the stock phones and other choices. I'm not saying there is none, I'm saying it won't be much and how much does it matter? I have some Aiwa headphones I used with the Nox from time to time. Yes they sound different and somewhat better, but I don't think they ever improved my finds. I use the stock headphones way more than I do the Aiwa's. 

I sold my ML 80s almost immediately because I AM an orchestral musician and a classical music trained singer and those headphones had way too much bass and the mid and high tones had most of their brilliance removed. So those phones were very bottom heavy. I tried them on other audio sources with the supplied audio cable and they were the same......biased way towards the lower bass range and no way to adjust them enough even with my equalizer.......The WM08 module with any "normal" wired headphones or just plugging in a decently balanced set of wired headphones into the control pod made for a completely different audio experience for me. So did using the aftermarket BT headphones and earbuds that I purchased.

So it isn't BS longbow62. Some of us have very different and subjective hearing abilities and preferences. When I am nugget hunting I don't want muffled sound, I want bright and very immediate sound responses for those faint signals.

The ML 100s that come with the Minelab GPX 6000 have a much more balanced audio response. I have no complaint with those.

The Garrett Z-Lynk headphones are a bit bottom heavy but doable. I have never had an issue with my Z-Lynk headphones or transmitter timing out when being used with other non-Garrett detectors.

[Cal_Cobra]

8 hours ago, longbow62 said:

Wow I never had a problem with ML80's! They've always worked and sounded fine to me. Maybe my hearing is better than a lot of folks hearing. I have heard some very deep and faint signals with the stock headphones. I hate to sound like a Minelab fan boy, but if headphones choices are keeping you from buying the Manticore or any other machine I think that's a little silly myself. The audio from a detector is not an orchestra, and I call B.S. if anyone tells me they can tell a vast difference between the quality of a beep between the stock phones and other choices. I'm not saying there is none, I'm saying it won't be much and how much does it matter? I have some Aiwa headphones I used with the Nox from time to time. Yes they sound different and somewhat better, but I don't think they ever improved my finds. I use the stock headphones way more than I do the Aiwa's. 

I'm surprised at so many negative ML80 headphone critiques, but I get that everyone's different.  On wired headphones I always though the Sunray Golds had the best audio, tried other headphones and they just didn't have comparable audio. 

I really gelled with the ML80 audio, but the build quality could be a bit better.  I had to use some black electrical tape wrapped around the plastic bits where the metal extensions protrude as the black plastic bits have cracked.  Aside from that they've worked great.  I did try some ear buds that were suggested here a few years ago. I didn't like the audio, and ear buds just aren't my bag.  Like longbow I've definitely heard some very deep/faint signals with the ML80  headphones that other machines walked right over, so aside form the plastic bits that cracked, I'm good with the ML80's, if the stock headphones on the Manticore sound as good, I'll be a happy camper.

[strick]

2 hours ago, Cal_Cobra said:

if the stock headphones on the Manticore sound as good, I'll be a happy camper.

You should be happy with them, they appear to be the same headphones that we use on the 6000...and I have not seen many complaints about those as they are good quality. 

Strick