I've read Monte's various posts for years and finally got the urge to try an IDX Pro with Mr. Bill's mods. As luck would have it one came up for sale here and I got it.
I'm pretty impressed based on my experience so far. I have played with it on my property and found that I could ground balance it without any problem on my Arizona red clay. In all metal I could run with full sensitivity with no problem and get readouts on the meter with the same depth and accuracy as in discriminate.
When I came inside to do some air tests (with the standard coil) I was even more impressed. In fact pretty shocked. On the same setup I have used for other detectors I get the following depths in inches with max sensitivity, min discrimination (switch in normal not black sand posiiton). depths are shown as - Disc (with correct ID)/All METAL:
clad quarter - 11"/13"
various mens gold rings 10-18 KT - 11"/14"
Small 18KT. bead - 0.3 grams (4.6 grains ) - 2.5"/6"
Same type bead - 0.1 grams (1.5 grains) - no signal/3"
This compares to some other detectors tested the same way
V3i with the 2D coil which got
clad quarter - 11" with the Deep Silver and Mixed Mode Pro programs - 9" with Coin and Jewelry program
gold rings - 13" with the Mixed Mode Pro and Prospecting programs - 10" with Coin and Jewelry program
0.3 gram bead - 5.5" with the Prospecting program. - 1" with Coin and Jewelry program
0.1 gram bead - 1" with the Prospecting program - no signal with Coin and Jewelry program
As far as sensitivity of the two above detectors to small gold - my Goldmaster GM4b (50 khz gold detector) got
Mens gold rings - 12 "
0.3 gram (4.6 grains) bead - 6"
0.1 gram (1.5 grains) bead at - 4.5"
(edited ro remove erroneuus information on another detector.)
An interesting point. In all metal, it seems to have a steady and even threshold at max sensitivity. That's a good thing since reducing the sensitivity in the all metal mode seems to have no effect. Detection depth remains the same (not true in discriminate with sensitivity reducttion) and the threshold doesn't change.
I'm pretty impressed based on my experience so far. I have played with it on my property and found that I could ground balance it without any problem on my Arizona red clay. In all metal I could run with full sensitivity with no problem and get readouts on the meter with the same depth and accuracy as in discriminate.
When I came inside to do some air tests (with the standard coil) I was even more impressed. In fact pretty shocked. On the same setup I have used for other detectors I get the following depths in inches with max sensitivity, min discrimination (switch in normal not black sand posiiton). depths are shown as - Disc (with correct ID)/All METAL:
clad quarter - 11"/13"
various mens gold rings 10-18 KT - 11"/14"
Small 18KT. bead - 0.3 grams (4.6 grains ) - 2.5"/6"
Same type bead - 0.1 grams (1.5 grains) - no signal/3"
This compares to some other detectors tested the same way
V3i with the 2D coil which got
clad quarter - 11" with the Deep Silver and Mixed Mode Pro programs - 9" with Coin and Jewelry program
gold rings - 13" with the Mixed Mode Pro and Prospecting programs - 10" with Coin and Jewelry program
0.3 gram bead - 5.5" with the Prospecting program. - 1" with Coin and Jewelry program
0.1 gram bead - 1" with the Prospecting program - no signal with Coin and Jewelry program
As far as sensitivity of the two above detectors to small gold - my Goldmaster GM4b (50 khz gold detector) got
Mens gold rings - 12 "
0.3 gram (4.6 grains) bead - 6"
0.1 gram (1.5 grains) bead at - 4.5"
(edited ro remove erroneuus information on another detector.)
An interesting point. In all metal, it seems to have a steady and even threshold at max sensitivity. That's a good thing since reducing the sensitivity in the all metal mode seems to have no effect. Detection depth remains the same (not true in discriminate with sensitivity reducttion) and the threshold doesn't change.