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Thinking of getting something to accompany/supersede my F5 and would like to move to tone ID, usually more accurate than a digital right....?

Don't fancy a Minelab, those tones drive me nuts which brings me to the XP range. My thinking is they are made closer to home and hopefully are designed more towards european soil conditions, would have gone all out for a C.Scope but just look at the Newforce R1, it's hideous!

Primarily I'm searching for coins and the ADX100 or ADX250 has taken my fancy.. Running at 4.6 it's going to go deep but as I understand slow recovery is the trade off. Now, do I go with a 4.6 machine or up it to 18, I don't understand the relevance to frequency = finds.

Any help much thanks..

The basic law of frequencies says that the lower frequencies go deeper but are not as sensitive to very small low conductors whereas the higher frequencies are not quite as deep but are far more sensitive. But in reality this gap has never been that great on normal VLF machines and has been closed in it's effect by the advancement of technology.
A prime example is that the few VLF gold prospecting machines that are on the market, are designed to find minute fragments of gold and so run at around 50Khz.
By the way the XP's are not Tone ID machines in the true sense of the term.

My tuppence for what it's worth...

If you want to move to Tone ID I have to say that the Minelab (Explorer II [SE should be the same]& E-Trac) are the best I've used for tonal quality and information by sound, just ignore the ear bashing and listen for Fluety whoop whoops, but they are way  heavier than they need to be :(  I dont know what the Xterra machines are like for tone response, they look nice and light and you can change the frequency by changing coils, [knowing minelab not the cheapest option...] so at least you wouldn't be locked to one frequency choice if you are in any doubt as to which frequency is best, could be worth looking at if the tonal response is any good, never tried one, I'm sure someone on here will have used one and can fill us in.  

I have had an XP Goldmaxx for a while and loved it !  You need a straight shaft mind and the tonal response is pretty good, but does morph to a "whizz" a bit when on deeper targets, but most machines lose accuracy on the deeper stuff anyway, so not much change there...  DIG it LOL   The 18KHz GMP was always deep enough for me, sure the big minelabs go deeper, but you can swing a GMP all day.   Horses for courses, your call !

That's true, just wanting to make an informed choice before parting with the cold hard stuff! Wasting money on detectors has become somewhat of a habit I need to STOP!  ;D

My only worry with the ADX250 was digging 12" to find a pull ring or a large lump of iron, so maybe a 18 KHz would suit me better with the coins, less depth - better ID.. I will have another look at Minelab though and maybe try to live with the tortured guinea pig noise...

Thanks

One thing to consider, and I could be wrong here, but I think that the ADX's have very much reduced tones compared to others from the XP range. The GMP has 3 tones plus an iron tone, but these all are mixed together to give a decent tonal range.

The ADX 250 is an Adventis without manual ground... just had a ganda at NW's demo and can see there is no change in tones for different metals apart from iron which spits.

That's not my cuppa tea. I can't rely on discrimination (unless it's mega) and just dig all the 1 tone bleeps, it would drive me mad!

I'm not sure why your looking for another detector? But if you would like another then with the F5 running at 7.8Khz then I would say your only way is up. ie 14-18Khz.
Your F5 runs up to 4 tones (I think ???) and to get more than that then you are down to Minelab or Whites really. You can pick up a Whites DFX very reasonably secondhand and it is a top flight machine and much underrated because of being over complex (loads of controls but set it and leave it) It runs at 15 and 3 Khz so you have the best of both worlds.

To be totally honest it's not that I need another detector more wanting to use something more recognised in 'detecting circle'

My other half was out yesterday on a park when she was joined by 2 others, they then very rudely proceeded to take the **** out of her for using a 'toy' and scoffing at the fact that it wasn't even a F75, got under my skin a tad!  >:(

I know I shouldn't rise to morons, it wouldn't have bothered me I'd have said jog on but the other half is a sensitive lass... no boo to a goose..

Will check out the DFX, set and leave sounds good!

Hi Dusty. I know where you're coming from. I had the same experience when I first started tecting. My hubby bought me a Viking for Xmas a few years ago. Not liking to go out on my own it went in the back of the cupboard for about 2 years till one day I saw a couple on the beach and got talking to them. They scoffed at the thought of a Viking but by then I was hooked.
I went to join a club and was rudely greeted with the same response. It went back in the cupboard and I up graded to a Whites M6. This is a 3 or 7 tone machine. Great anywhere, wet or dry, is easy to set up and use and doesn't break the bank, even brand new. There are various heads available to mix and match for different conditions and it's really good on mineralised ground. Good one to go for in your price range. Best of luck with whatever you go for.

Val

Yo Dusty
hope you'll excuse the hyjacking .
sorry I cannot add anything to the debate as I have not used an XP but I would like to ask you something.
Do you actually preset your detectors for coins only  when you go out ?  it never occurred to me until someone mentioned it as a search technique for rallies.
Do you always search for specific targets ? or do you select according to your search area ?

Hi dusty i upgraded to a Deus 6 months ago then upgraded my wifes 3 months ago and never looked back , i only use 2 progs first is 12hz 2 tone and the other 18 hz 4 tone ive found that u get cut halves and quarters at good depth other settings will produce hammereds but not much in the way of the small stuff .18 hz is the best for the small stuff but u do lose a bit in depth so i wont go any lower than 12 hz hope this helps roger g   ;D

The F5 doesnt look a bad machine to me from what I've seen on JA's site ???  Can't see why those berks in the park cried it down, looks quite a competant machine. I'd tell you missus to ignore 'em !  They are probably trying to compensate for their own inadequecies somehow...  or more probably trying to scare her off so they get all the goodies themselves...

If she still wants to upgrade Geoff's suggestion of a DFX is a great idea, I love DFX's and would always go for another one, well balanced and dual frequency, lots of coil options, work a treat, just sold mine, still dont know if I did the right thing...

If you want an XP DaveHa has just put a GMP on here, I know the machine and it's a good one, might be worth a look.

How about getting her to try swinging a few different models at the next rally ?  I can bring a few of my machines along if she wants to try one.  I'm sure others here will let her have a swing of a  few different models as well.

- Andy

Hey people, thanks for the posts!!

I think it was purely a case of my willy's bigger than yours one for a better, they were using an Etrac and Deus so yes, they were in a different league but to set about take the Michael out of a woman with a 5 year old minding their own business was for me totally unacceptable  >:( generally speaking the public are more inquisitive and other detectorists are happy to chat so we'll put it down to a couple of morons!

Ah... that feels better  ;D

We are gonna sign up with NCMD today and then set about trying to get some permissions, that way it's unlikely to bump into anyone other than other detectorists who have permission who will hopefully have more than one grey cell. Mihgt even be able to make it to some rallies which will be nice!!  ;)