Pending purchae of a Quattro MP .. a few questions..

[dirtdigger]

Hello all..

First time poster here, been detecing for a while, but have not been the last 3 years.. golf took over.. LOL..

First some info. have used Whites XLT's QXT's, DFX's, Fisher CZ7a Pro, and now have a older Minelab XS unit.. One other reason why I stopped detecting is that I don't get to go out very often, and it seemed each time I went out with the XS I was constantly, trying to learn it instead of using it.

Thus when I saw the Quattro as a replacement this looks very appealing... I have not got one yet, but will be, I have a couple questions if you folk would be willing to help me out...

1) Is there a backlight on this unit? I can't see anywhere that it's told.
2) Compared to the XS is it lighter in weight? I tire of swinging the XS.

I'm sure I'll have more questions, but those I wondered about..


regards, Tim NY

 

[Rick(ND)]

The Quattro has no back light as that is one of the things they did to make it less money than the Explorer.
The Quattro is a harder detector to use and understand then the Sovereign XS for most, but a few will think it is easier to use. The Sovereign is more of a turn on a go detector, but the Quattro you have to do a nosie cancel when ever you adjust it, even the sensitivity. The Quattro has less bell and whistles then the Explorer and easier to use and seems to lockon to target good. The weight of the Quattro is greater than the Sovereign, or maybe it is the balance that makes it feel heavier and with the Sovereign you can hipmount it, the Quattro you cant.
With any detector there will be a learning curve and feel the Explorer has the steepest, then the Quattro and the Sovereign the shortest learning curve. The Sovereign will keep the tone of the last target until it sees the next, the Quattro and the Explorer will give the quick tone when it goes over the target and ID it, then go back to normal threshold, so i feel you will have to go slower with the Quattro and the Explorer than the Sovereign to hear these deeper target. The Quattro can do well for you, but you have to spend the time to learn it if you want to do good. I had all 3 the Sovereign, the Quattro and the Explorer XS and sold the Quattro as the tone were just too high pitched for my bad hearing and not adjustable like the Explorer is to suit a persons hearing. One thing I did love on the Quattro was being able to switch from one mode to the other by pushing one of the buttons so I could check out a target that was iffy.

Good luck if you get the Quattro.

Rick

 

[Sand Shagger (NMB)]

Hello,

No backlight. Night hunters going to LED Headlights....

Being a newbie when I purchased my Quattro last January, I found it much easier to learn/use than Sov and VERY much easier than Exp. Being a previous "hunter", that might not hold true for you. First time-out, I turned it "on", held it still hit noise cancel (waited for it to complete process) and that was it! Default is Coin and Jewelry with auto sensitivity. Have tested auto vs manual 17 or 18 sensitivity MANY times since then in wet sand and could not tell much, if any, difference on low signals. I do the noise cancel "thing" if I go from Wet to Dry sand or make any major setting changes. I do switch modes usually coin/jewelry and relic if I question sounds/null. The display on the Quattro is very accurate as far as depth and identification. If I could hunt "daily", possibly I would be able to use Sov., but learning the tones as much as one would need to would require daily use for me. (I can tell quarters by tone and pennies, but still unable to distinguish pull tabs/gold).

As many users of Quattro, Sov., Exp will tell you, the Quattro seems to detect deeper than others on the beach. I have dug numerous targets 18+ inches.

Good luck!

 

[ScottR.]

The quattro is a great machine I have found that the tones and the meter used together
give the best info. rather than just tones like the sovereign and even the explorer to some
extent. use the high trash density mode if you are in any iron infested sites also switch
to relic mode and open up the discrim on the left side a little this helps with the ID in iron laden sites. hope this helps you get started.

 

[beachguy777]

Just my feelings on the Quatro. I never used the XS or the Explorer, but from reading the owner's manual, the big difference between the Explorer and Quatro is Explorer has 2 id. numbers, (ferrous and conductive) and Quatro has one which kind of covers both conductive and ferrous. They seem pretty close and the Quatro deals with the Ferrous in the negative numbers and the conductive in the positive numbers. It does go deep, I've found pennys at 12 inches or more and other things deeper. It's totally notchable with discrimination, you can notch out specific numbers, and they're right, it's pretty easy to use. I think it is. Just turn it on, noise cancel on a clean area, set your mode and you're ready to go. To get into some of the finer points and get some great information, I would strongly suggest, Andy Sabisch's book: Mastering the Quatro. Can't be beat for a great tutorial on the Quatro. I also have a 5" coil I bought from Kellyco that really separates the trash much better, but even the standard coil does a pretty good job, in my opinion. I'd say you need to go fairly slow, especiall when your zeroing in on some targets that are next to trash. Approach it from different angles and it usually gives you pretty good info on the cituation. Targetr id and depth id are quite accurate in most cases. (Depends on size of target and sometimes other factors, just like any detector.) It's not a perfect world yet, but it's getting there.

 

[beachguy777]

As for you're specific questions, I'm not sure about the weight issue, never used the XS or Explorer. I know it's not as light as a hip mounted unit, but I'll bet you won't get the performance you get from the Quatro from those units. That's a pretty loaded statement, but I'll bet I'm talking competetivly here. Where else but the Excalubur can you get multiple frequencies, great mineralization elimination, and the kind of depth and sensitivity to good and bad targets that the Quatro has, unless you go to an Explorer II. Yea, there's no back light, but I just bought a head mounted light, like the old coal mliners lights for 5 bucks at K mart. Works pretty good.

 

[ks digr]

Where will you be using it at?Beach or on land ?

 

[dirtdigger]

Thanks for all the help.. I'd be only using it one land in parks and farmers fields.

It sounds like this is a very good beach machine, but lacks (read lots about NULLING) on land.

Tim NY

 

[beachguy777]

As far as I know, it only nulls on the stuff that you discriminate out. If you run it in all metal, it shouldn't null at all.