Finally Minelab Take Responsibility For Screwing Up The GPX 6000 Speaker

[phrunt]

Maybe they upgraded them so they don't hiss constantly and charge properly where the light behaves how it should. 

[Jeff McClendon]

I got my power/speaker unit back from the Minelab USA Repair today. It made it safely in a medium USPS Priority Flat Rate box and it was insured (don't know how much).

I got it all back together and attached the 14"DD coil and tested it in my house (WHAT!!!!) and in my backyard. I tested it using the 14" DD on normal and difficult using both the EMI Cancel setting and the Conductive Ground setting. Sensitivity was equal to the before the upgrade performance judging from my notes on the testing that I had done previously on air tests and in the ground tests using the exact same targets.

With headphones, everything was normal and fairly quiet with sensitivity on level 3 or 4. I didn't go any higher due to EMI from over a million people in my area. Same goes for testing my Mono coils.....not happening where I live. 

With the speaker on and just setting my GPX 6000 with 14" DD on the ground, it never got out of control even in this very EMI rich environment. When it got a little squirrelly a quick noise cancel brought it back to being useable. I let it sit on the ground for about 15 minutes and only noise cancelled three times. Previously, I would have been noise cancelling at least every minute while hoping my neighbors weren't calling the police for my disturbing the peace.......

[goldenoldie]

1 hour ago, Jeff McClendon said:

I got it all back together and attached the 14"DD coil and tested it in my house (WHAT!!!!) and in my backyard. I tested it using the 14" DD on normal and difficult using both the EMI Cancel setting and the Conductive Ground setting. Sensitivity was equal to the before the upgrade performance judging from my notes on the testing that I had done previously...

Exactly what I did Jeff once my Gpx6 was returned then inside the house with the 14DD which produced the same air test results. 

Then later out in the G/field, with the 11 mono and using the speaker, it appeared to me to now operate the same as when I connected up the wi-fi headphones.

[Smigo]

On 11/18/2022 at 12:06 AM, afreakofnature said:

@Smigo When I first read that email I also thought too they were using Aussies as guinea pigs to see if the repair worked properly.  

Always have. 

The tech, technology, from then I'll never lie. Always cutting edge stuff and here we thought "whooo....hoooo!"

But. In between we were stooges. 

Whoooo...hooo! Is great, yes.

But the in between, is an insult to the intelligence.

Id prefer as a person wait till ok and good. Because if I whey it all up. 

The times I was suckered, and the time it was good, as a consumer, id have cut out even. But them.... they blitzzed us. Unconciouble. 

I know, iv been here through it all. 

I hope...Garrett or anyone smashes their bu....s into the ground.

Why? Because I didn't find gold with their machines!? No....i did and was super happy... Super detector...but they are dogs. Full stop here in OZ.

[phrunt]

I'm not familiar with their history, but I will say this, I have had more problems with their machines than any other brand by far, but I've also had more success with their machines than any other brand by far.  They have quality problems without a doubt, they're certainly not premium machines when it comes to quality, but performance wise they're really up there with if not the best in every category. 

This thread isn't intended to be a Minelab bashing thread, yes they get criticism for their flaws, every manufacturer does, no one gets a free pass.  Minelab came good on the 6000, they have fixed every known fault with it so far except the twisting shaft which really is the most simple of problems and the least expensive one for them to offer a fix for, they have for previous shaft issue detectors like the Equinox. 

Their warranty is always fantastic, I would say it's first class from my experience and I've certainly had a lot of experience with their warranty with almost every single product I've bought from them needing it, that to me is disappointing and I hope the situation improves, a lot of their focus seems to be on performance, and they even say that in their slogan, Performance is everything, well I hate to disagree as I certainly love performance, but quality also matters especially with the high prices Minelab ask for their detectors, we all know a GPX 6000 costs little more to make than an Equinox, it has a huge profit margin, I don't buy that crap about oh but look at all the money they spend on R&D, their profit margins suggest otherwise and they can certainly spend a bit more on R&D to ensure their detectors are more robust and less prone to issues.

Perhaps in the future a focus on quality is worth considering, it appears this has been the case with the Manticore after even being ridiculed by the competitors about terrible build quality. 

[Jeff McClendon]

Yeah, 

Minelab have not produced a perfect detector......who has?

I was one of the first to complain about the GPX 6000 and its hyper susceptibly to EMI. For me, susceptibly to EMI and extreme sensitivity go hand in hand especially when we are talking about PIs and high gain simultaneous multi frequency detectors like the GPX 6000 and the Equinox. So I will just continue to deal with it and hope for a smaller GPX 6000 DD coil in the future.

Also, Minelab have made a real effort to produce lighter weight VLFs and PIs recently. With lighter weight comes more plastic and more cheaper built (in appearance) detector components like flimsy coils, coil ears and shafts.....part of the territory.

Do I think Minelab's mid to upper end detectors are overpriced...sure. But they work.

So, enough of the bashing here.

I too hope that Garrett and Nokta's soon to be released PIs give Minelab some good competition.

Minelab USA have always fixed whatever was wrong with my recent Minelab purchases and done so in a very professional and timely manner.

[phrunt]

18 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

Also, Minelab have made a real effort to produce lighter weight VLFs and PIs recently. With lighter weight comes more plastic and more cheaper built (in appearance) detector components like flimsy coils, coil ears and shafts.....part of the territory.

I guess this theory about light PI's is being put to the test with the Axiom being even lighter, we'll soon see if its a quality problem or they pushed the weight limits too far on the GPX if the Axiom suffers similar problems.

The pleasing thing about this GPX fix is every single person who's had it done seems happy enough they did it, no regrets so far at all.  I'm quite happy with mine now, I fixed the shaft myself with GotAU's o-ring fix which cost me under a dollar to resolve, so life is good with my GPX now and I'm happy to see plenty of others are also finding their GPX is also the detector they were hoping it would be after getting the audio fix done.

[Gerry in Idaho]

On 10/11/2022 at 8:25 AM, strick said:

Have they said exactly what they are fixing yet?  what parts? Looks like I'll be sending mine back again but have to wait till this next trip is over...one of the problems I'm having is that it all seems kinda vague to me...what are thy fixing? I really wish a dealer would get on here and shed some light if they know anything we dont...

strick 

Strick and others.  Sorry I was not on the ball last month when all this was going down.  You guys know me better than that and I'm usually much better focused.  Honestly, I've been so focused on the Axiom and getting as much time in the field with it.  While at the same time, I had a massive flood in my shop and total strip down/rebuild in the rooms.

I love DP but at the same time, I can easily get wrapped into it so deep that I'm not taking care of other things and sometimes they are very important.  Just getting on and reading a couple posts and then I want to help and reply.  Next thing I know is it's been 3 hrs and I'm missing something else.

It was one of my own customers on here who brought it to my attention  Go figure.  So in the meantime I've patiently waited for Minelab USA to inform me and not a word.  No call, no email no communication what so ever.  If anything, a simple mass email to all dealers would be nice. 

So I guess we'll use DP and the friendly folks posting to keep us (including dealers) updated.

No I didn't have time to read all pages and threads on this subject so hopefully I'm not repeating something already said.  Not sure if another US dealer such as Rob or other has chimed in but honestly I think we all were in the dark. Bottom line is it should have been taken care of in a better manor.  Let's hope they learn from it.

The good thing, eventually is, we now have a fix.  What that means is they are listening/watching/reading.  At least in other countries.

[vanursepaul]

On 10/10/2022 at 1:28 AM, Norvic said:

MN, I`ll react, whether 1`m allowed or not, I`ve shown a few doorstoppers in the past, when I reckon you other folks have followed suit, I`ll post a few more.

 I`ve had as many problems with the 6K as the EQ, zero, once I learnt how to use em..

I have a picture burnt into my brain ……. 

[phrunt]

Today I took my 6000 to a spot that it always drove me mad prior to the EMI fix, I blamed the power-lines more than anything as I am detecting the particular spot within 50 to 100 meters of power-lines, even right under them I've found nuggets using the GPZ, I hadn't had it back to this spot since the audio fix as I preferred the GPZ there as it just worked a lot better with the EMI.   I only had very limited time as I was in the area dropping people at the nearby airport. Sadly it rained almost the entire time I was there so I didn't hang around long lasting about an hour but it was a good test for the EMI speaker fix regardless.   Prior to the fix I was noise cancelling at this spot every 5-10 minutes and turning sensitivity down and messing around trying to keep it stable, often factory resetting a 10 times a day just trying to get it to work.

Being right near an International airport there are planes and helicopters buzzing over every 5-10 minutes too.  I had no EMI issues at all from the flights.

I didn't bring any headphones or even the Torus neck speaker, I wanted to put the puppy to the test in the best way possible so I just ran off the built in speaker.  I would prefer the speaker be louder, but it does the job as long as there isn't loud background noise, when I went too near the river the rushing water was drowning out the speaker a bit much. 

To say I was impressed is an understatement, it ran perfectly the entire time, the only noise cancel that took place was when I first turned it on, and this was right under the power-lines, I ran in maximum manual sensitivity the entire time using the Coiltek 10x5" coil.

Even walking under the lines detecting it was reasonably stable given what it was doing, I didn't feel the need to noise cancel or lower sensitivity, not as good as the GPZ but not bad at all.

I'm not sure if some GPX's are particularly bad prior to the fix and others not, but mine was terrible, I never liked it at all and now after the EMI fix it's really growing on me, in fact I'd go as far and say I like it now.  While I find the semi spiral stock 11" coil more sensitive than the bundle wound Coiltek 10x5" coil I really like using the Coiltek as it just runs more stable for me and I like the size and shape and the ease of pinpointing.   I guess from experience with coils on the older GPX model the bundle wound coils like the Commanders ran more stable than the spirals too, the price you pay for increased sensitivity.   The smaller size won't be all that deep I guess but if I want depth I wouldn't be using the GPX, that's the GPZ's job.

While I didn't have all that much success in my hour or so detecting I did come away with a "flake" as some like to call them, or for NZ it's a nugget 🙂

About 3 or so inches deep, easy loud target.

So while Minelab certainly took their time to resolve the problem with the speaker/EMI/stability they have totally redeemed themselves for me, better late than never so thanks Minelab for listening, and fixing this issue, it really has made a great difference to my machine.

If anyone hasn't had it done yet it's really worth doing, I just can't imagine you'd regret getting the fix done.