Algoforce E1500 Plus In Black Salty Sand Compared To The GPX 6000, Axiom And Manticore

[phrunt]

1 hour ago, Guys gold said:

Let your eyes be your guide.The 6000 performed badly,like it does in a lot of hot ground!Call it the way you see it.The Algo hit the target on that particular soil!End of story.If someone what’s to find a soil condition that the Algo won’t handle put it on screen.The 99 only means that the GB fell outside the 100 digital window.As in the upgrade firm ware that put lead shot at 00.The conductivity of metals can be analyzed in the cpu and be bracketed outside the 1-99 .Just because a signal goes outside the 99 digital window does not mean it doesn’t balance.

yep, the 99 means nothing to the detector and isn't some sort of brick wall where it all stops 🙂 just a visual guide to the user.

It's been hard to get the target ID's right too inside a 99 window which is why the ID's were shifted in a firmware a bit which caused some lead pellets to move out of 00 into low numbers in some ground conditions, it required further refinement to get the lead pellets back into 00 while fitting as many targets into the ID's in good spots.  Ideally the numbers could go an extra digit, but then it becomes more complicated for the end user as the jump between 99 and 999 is a lot, too much really so it would have to be set to 150 or something.  It might be worth looking at in a firmware update to adjust the visual guide on the ground phase from above 99 to give more detail on hotter grounds, won't change how the detector works though just more feedback for the user.

It is a shame the GPX 6000 was dumbed down so much with less settings that in some places are vital, the GPX 5000 is much more versatile and handles ground and hot rocks better as a result.

[Guys gold]

Another point on there being 99 digital slots for conductive materials to fit in.Don’t believe there is a conductive target above 99 a sane person would want to dig for anyway.🤔If good targets can be put in a bracket that resides between 1-99.”All others need not apply “.So to speak 🗣️ 

[Jonathan Porter]

2 hours ago, phrunt said:

It is a shame the GPX 6000 was dumbed down so much with less settings that in some places are vital, the GPX 5000 is much more versatile and handles ground and hot rocks better as a result.

All based on vast experience and vast successes in a vast variety of ground types over a vast amount of hours of course? 😉 😣 

4500/5000 sold incredibly well in Africa, yet the 6000 is NOW going gangbusters, to the point that after-market manufacturers can’t source parts to build coils under license because they’re all swallowed up in production. So in reality this 💬 is just a dot in the ocean type of discussion around what? Say 1000 Algo’s sold world wide? Do the math. 🤦‍♂️ 

[Aureous]

3 hours ago, phrunt said:

It is a shame the GPX 6000 was dumbed down so much with less settings that in some places are vital, the GPX 5000 is much more versatile and handles ground and hot rocks better as a result.

100%, beyond all doubt. The 6000 could have been even more amazing if only it wasn't solely focused on catering for beginners. More settings options for the advanced user would have been very welcomed. The 5000 IS way more versatile with all the timings, front and back end options etc. Plus the huge number of coils available. 

[Guys gold]

The discussion was not about sales.It was about the ability of one detector being able to hear a target in black sand.They might not have any black sand in Africa.Another point was that detector that was getting bashed for canceling out that black sand and hearing a target,even marketed in Africa?Now if we can get back to the original point of the topic.BLACK SAND show me?Looks like Algo and the 5000 did well.

[phrunt]

Hopefully the video maker can run the Axiom over the same black sand if he has access to one, I'd like to see how it does by comparison too, I expect it to do quite well.  I know here a lot of guys use the TDI Beach hunter on the black sand beaches, and in the water and do OK with it, our black sand beaches have natural gold, mostly too small to detect but there are claims and sluicing going on with the beaches.

We each have our own ground types we have to deal with and have experience in our own ground and its complexities.  Many countries have wild black sand conditions, Australia sounds like an exception there so not something they need to be concerned about, although iron rich soils and hot rocks still plague them.

Here it's all about mild soil, hot rocks and further north the severe volcanic soils and black sand, we have a lot of active volcanos.  The USA seems to have it all, such a vast country.

Coiltek don't appear to have any problems sourcing the chips, coils are widely available and great coils.

[phrunt]

Here is the Axiom on the same spot of black sand using its mono coil, it would do better with its DD but he doesn't have that coil, it does quite well I think, probably not as good as the Algoforce but certainly better than the 6000.  This time the Algo is cranked to 25 out of 30 sensitivity and in Ultra fine gold mode as it is using a less sensitive coil.

And the 6000 with the DD coil over the same black sands, not looking too good for the 6000, the all soils all the time detector is the only one to fail. 

The way I see it pointing out a detectors weak spots helps improve future models, we are well aware the Algoforce isn't as deep as the GPX (any model), I keep saying it over and over again, more sensitive to small gold and pricky gold than the earlier GPX, absolutely yes, almost as sensitive as the 6000 to small gold, yes, but not as deep on any size gold but also a fraction of the price, it's goal was never big deep gold, who knows what the future will hold and if that will change with the next generation. 

I'm sure many of us right from the start were disappointed the GPX 6000 took away all of the settings we had previously, and this is just a small demonstration of why that's not ideal in certain conditions, nothing more, nothing less.   In typical Minelab style it opens them up to creating the next model based off the same hardware with minimal changes, GPX 4000, 4500, 4800, 5000 ring a bell? 

I love my 6000, fantastic detector especially when paired with the 10x5" Coiltek for my needs, but if I'm hitting a heavy hot rock area or black sands like demonstrated in these videos its very low on my list of detectors I'd take along.    

[Jonathan Porter]

Like I’ve said many times, all the sales are driven by demand (high gold price), demand is driven by results (lots of gold being found with a high gold price), results drives other manufacturers to try and compete to get a slice of the demand pie!  The results-detectors keep getting compared to the attempts made by a smaller player in an agenda based turd polished rolled in glitter marketing blitz, one tiny nugget somehow makes it a competitor then when the marketing hype gets questioned the inevitable justification is rolled out (no doubt leaving glitter all over the floor 😂), “but its 1/4 of the price, so of course it doesn’t have the depth” and “the big player is being nasty and greedy and won’t let anyone play with their IP”.

Just so we are clear here, I have no problem with Algo having a go and good on them for doing it, they’ve clearly hit the sweet spot in the market. But I own one and I know it’s many limitations, so seeing all the “hype” and attempts at polishing just leaves me pinching myself and checking the sky outside for the twilight zone! The reason I jump on this stuff here (called me triggered if you feel the need) is because there are many readers who don’t know any better and any style of broad brush stroke innuendos glitter promotion is doing them a real disservice. Social Media is full of used car salesman’s guff at the moment (mostly disgruntled Ex ML dealers) implying Algo is “Up there” with the best! It isn’t folks and any company that says otherwise is either non compos mentis or is deliberately misleading you, and then when questioned scurries off in a flurry of glitter to the cheap price excuse.

The funny thing is I am genuinely looking out for the little bloke here because there are too many instances of the lines being blurred between Minelab’s incredible PI gold finding successes over many years and “other” PIs as if they are all amazing because they are a PI!!  The cheap price is just the sweetener, the shut up money if you will for when reality bites. Keep it real, keep it honest. It’s a great little PI offering better ground handling than a VLF for not much more cost, that’s why it’s selling well. 

[Guys gold]

Now we can maybe talk ability’s of PIs .There is a machine available that ground balances quite well in difficult soils .And some that don’t.There is a PI available that has the ability to target ID.And some that don’t.There is a PI available at a very affordable price.And some PI that are out of the price range of a lot of people making the transition from VLF to PI.All the PI swinger will have to hold there noses a bit.But to get more people in to this great hobby is going to take a overall ,shared market place.To get a certain niche of people away from distractions “video games and such “ .Is going to take making detecting fun !Give them some buttons to push that give them instant results “As in target ID.And a ground balance they can track.Its a tool to train the next generation of people,that might what to start detecting!!!Take a look in the mirror my fellow detectorist.That hair getting gray? We need youth to come to this game.And I don’t think that happens spending 6000 to 8000 US dollars on a turn on and go machine.Just my opinion.