Looking at a switch

[smkunder]

I have been a Minelab person for a long time, currently use a CTX and a Excalibur, I am interested in giving this this a try, but am not ready to just ditch Minelab all at once. Just wondering the best and most economical watt to get started? If its as good as everyone says I would sell the CTX and probably keep the Excalibur. Oh by the way what really intrigues me is the weight, I am 60 and 40 years of swinging detectors has taken its toll.

Thanks

 

[smkunder]

A follow up to my original question now that I have done some reading of Andy's book , could one safely assume that you could get started with just the headphones or does one in reality need the control panel? Just wondering because you do not see many used machines yet.

 

[Stix]

I just got mine and I would not go without the control panel. It makes things alot easier to setup.

 

[smkunder]

I kinda of thought that might be the case, just looking for a easier way to get started, with out having 4 grand tied up between the Deus and the CTX, just might have to bite the bullet and try it though.

I just got mine and I would not go without the control panel. It makes things alot easier to setup.

 

[CZconnoisseur]

A follow up to my original question now that I have done some reading of Andy's book , could one safely assume that you could get started with just the headphones or does one in reality need the control panel? Just wondering because you do not see many used machines yet.

I started using the Deus with the 11 X 13 large coil and a set of WS5 headphones back in December - which is right after v3.2 was released. In this version, full tones was introduced and I haven't looked back since learning full tones. I know everyone has their preferences, but hunting by audio really helped me learn what to dig and what to leave - there will be some iron targets that will sound a lot like coin targets, and it will take a little bit of "audio discrimination" and field time to learn the difference between those types of targets.

I hunted for 2-3 months before I picked up the control box, and at the same time I also picked up an 11" coil. I was floored by all the old coins I was finding whether it was in my own yard or at older locations around town - almost EVERY time I hunted I could find at least one old coin, which made and still makes me quite happy to be hunting! After upgrading to the 11" coil and control box at the same time, I was able to tweak the settings a bit and go over my own yard again - and more old coins plus silver came to light!!! There were a couple of targets I passed up initially, but rescanning them with different settings sometimes helped with the "dig" or "pass" determination, and a couple of other signals were so chopped the curiosity got the best of me so I decided to dig it anyway. MANY MANY times it was a coin hiding amongst a slew of roofing nails, screws, etc that was trying to get free!

You will find that the VDI is not as reliable on some targets, but place more emphasis on the audio component of your signal. You will indeed get a VDI reading with the phones, whether you go WS4 or WS5...but constantly taking off/putting on the headphones will become annoying IMO. Learning the Deus by audio first would be my advice...you can always pick up the controller later and resell/exhange the phones if you like. Cheers!