For what it's worth....I have owned 7 machines since I got started in the mid 1980s starting with a Radio Shack model that had no discrimination followed by better models down the road. First serious detector was the Fisher 1265X which I did a lot of odd jobs to save up money for the purchase in 1989. I was 12 when I first used this detector - what a difference it made! It was all I had but remember finding Wheats with it and being overjoyed!!!
A few years later the CZ line was introduced and I remember drooling over the W & E Treasures article where someone field tested the CZ5 and was pulling all kinds of goodies at different places, etc. Finally got one as a graduation present in 1995 and found a lot of gold jewelry in Hawaii - this only fueled the bug for those "hunted out" sites back home! Kept the CZ5 for a long time and dug a LOT of deep iron with it, but every now and then I'd get a deep coin with it which kept me going!
Times got tough around 2000 and had to sell the CZ5...three years later I got a Garrett 250 (?) something - it was OK but didn't have the depth or sensitivity (maybe admitting my inexperience with it) as the analog Fisher machines. Saw a CZ6 in a pawn shop in 2003 and HAD to snag it for the low price of $300 - the pawn broker didn't know how good a machine it was (and still is of course!). I lived in E. Tennessee at this time, and found the site of a CW skirmish - first trip out I found a partial Hotchkiss sabot along with a few fired 3-ringers. It is one hell of a relic machine, and between 2003 and 2013 there wasn't a machine out there that could match it at that price range. I knew there had to be something better for all-purpose hunting, and finally late last year set my sights on a Deus.
It's been almost a year since I picked up a "Deus Lite" setup using the 11 X 13 coil and a set of WS5 phones. Silver started coming almost right away and I had no control box to look at and decide whether or not to dig a target based on VDI. I think for some the control box can be intimidating with all the menu options, bouncy VDIs, GB options, etc. Probably more people would adapt better by starting off with a "Lite" setup and get the controller after they understand the basic functions and audio from the machine. With v3.2, one can choose Full Tone audio or 2,3,4, or 5 tones and not to mention Pitch for gold prospecting. You have enough options with a Lite setup to do ANY type of hunting and, with patience; once you've mastered the Lite - THEN get the controller and visit those sites again to pull MORE COINS!!!!
Just my two cents though!
