Not Much Interest In USA Units Lately

[blackjack]

On 5/2/2023 at 5:33 AM, Chase Goldman said:

 

Also, where is the hobby headed?  Relics and gold are not replenished and coinage and jewelry  are disappearing as we are now content to buy stuff with our phones and wear non-metallic silicone SafeRingz instead of gold wedding bands.

 

Sorry C-G you nailed it first, I missed it.

[Steve Herschbach]

17 hours ago, KD8GIS said:

Steve H..... "White's is long gone as is Tesoro so their models (don't matter anymore) going forward".... Yet Steve Owns and speaks highly of a White's DFX.   I like the forum, Seems many White's owners are quick to point out their pride in their White's detectors.  Long gone?  I see White's detectors (Old) being sold for some high prices.  It seems like there's some dealers on here which are quick to be rid of past and sell the future.  My 40+ years of White's may be influencing my opinions. 

Times have changed, 40 years ago about the only introduction to metal detecting is seeing someone detecting and walking up to talk to them.  Social media, Youtube, and others are selling the "Dreams"  We who have been around for decades see the hype being put out there to sell detectors.  Looking at todays' forums the "experts", are doing great work for the manufactures and dealers. I do suspect there's some old timers out there who don't even look at the forums.  My rants may not be welcome, but I took exception to "Long gone" "don't matter anymore"

You are as entitled to your opinions as I am to mine. What you are not entitled to on this forum is attacking people instead of ideas.

I only own the DFX to run the Bigfoot coil, and even then it's not been used in nearly three years. If you think detectors made by a company that is out of business will have any substantial impact on the future of metal detecting you are dead wrong. If my saying so irritates you to the point where you have to make sly comments impugning the character and motivations of people on this forum, then feel free to find the door.

[Daniel Tn]

I've had the Nox 600, 800, and 900. As well as the Manticore, Deus 2, and Legend.  While each one is popular and has its own cult like followers, my #1 goto detector is still the Teknetics T2. The others to me, excel in niche and situational conditions...but not enough to say that one rules them over them all.  That's just me though and I'm getting to be an old dinosaur.

[Steve Herschbach]

3 hours ago, Daniel Tn said:

I've had the Nox 600, 800, and 900. As well as the Manticore, Deus 2, and Legend.  While each one is popular and has its own cult like followers, my #1 goto detector is still the Teknetics T2. The others to me, excel in niche and situational conditions...but not enough to say that one rules them over them all.  That's just me though and I'm getting to be an old dinosaur.

In a lot of ways VLF detecting maxed out years ago, and all we get now are different flavors. Some things have got lost it seems along the way. Like true unfiltered all metal detection, something the T2 and F75 excel at. The new digital models process and filter everything by the nature of how they work. The result is not the same. I often think about getting a T2 or F75 or even F70 just to have a machine with a real solid VLF all metal mode, but then I realize I’d probably still just grab my PI instead.

There is nothing wrong about owning and using old models, nor nothing wrong with the machines themselves. I’m the guy that often makes the case that VLF tech has largely hit a wall when it comes to max depth. But when talking about interest in US detectors I think we are talking about interest in current offerings. That’s where Tesoro and White’s failed, and that’s where FT and Garrett have to survive - on current models.

The forums provides a good analogy. Some people still use Tesoro detectors. But when the company failed interest and discussion dropped to almost zero. When White’s went away the same thing happened. If there are lots of users they don’t care to discuss much, but the real truth is most people just moved on. Technology does not advance on the backs of people who keep using their rotary phone when everyone else is getting a cell phone. My rotary phone never got lost, never dropped calls. For just making phone calls I might say it was even superior to cell phones as a hard wired device. But the times and the tech have moved on. But the advantages of mobile far outweigh the advantages of hardwired, so most of us no longer have a landline connection. Like it or not detecting technology is no different. 

[dave_e]

Quote

4 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

...Some things have got lost it seems along the way. Like true unfiltered all metal detection, something the T2 and F75 excel at. The new digital models process and filter everything by the nature of how they work. The result is not the same. 

Thanks for bringing this up Steve.  I enjoy my Equinox and Atrex but it's one reason I keep my Nokta Impact.

4 different REAL all-metal modes, both motion and non-motion.

[phrunt]

I have two T2's, one of the new Green ones, and an original noisy ratty one, I found the original better but it was bad with EMI, so I improved it's EMI handling without the need for DST by just better shielding it's control box housing.

Such a simple act improved it's EMI handling very well, just some EMI conductive paint, in about 5 layers in the end over the top of the factories coat of paint, looked like they had done a pretty thin coat and then instead of just using a bit of dodgy tape to hold the shield wire onto the paint like the factory did I painted the wire on with the EMI paint, this gave a far better connection than the wire just sitting there taped to the paint.  Imagine if we just used tape to hold solder joints together with no solder? Sounds crazy right... well that's how they do it, tape!   After painting it on I taped over it to give it a bit of extra support, although I probably shouldn't have bothered as after that I decided I'd hot glue it too.  My early model T2 now works much better in EMI. 

This sort of thing would be what you'd expect in a later model T2, an improvement over early models, I haven't popped my new one open to have a look but I'd not be surprised if it was still just a bit of masking tape holding the wire to the shield paint.  If they have fixed it, that's why it's often better to get a new model than an old one, as generally things should improve with later model detectors over the old models.  Each new model "should" have improvements over the last and more often than not do.   It's a real shame that modern detectors often lack the true all metal of the T2, if any brands want to make a good modern multi frequency gold detector that will be a hit with prospectors  I hope they think back and add a true all metal mode onto it for the purists 🙂

[UT Dave]

I'd expect any new break through in technology to come from the military and commercial world and eventually trickle down to recreational.  Just not enough money in recreational to motivate the R&D.

- Dave