Hi Ivan,
I hope you do not mind my jumping in on answering your question, but I own both low powered PI's and high powered ones so I will try to explain the difference. But before doing that, I can assure you, your detector is not a toy. Now, I do not own a HH, but I do own a modified Beachscan, which has been updated to Goldquest status. This PI is also a low powered PI as is yours.
As I understand it, your headhunter PI was designed by Eric Foster also. From what I understand, the basic design is very similar to his Goldquest. His Goldscan 5 series are the high powered ones that do require a larger battery.
Now, one has to realize the low powered units will not go as deep as the high powered ones, but also do not cost as nearly as much either. Just as important, the lower powered units are much lighter, thus making them more comfortable for many people.
What is done on the low powered units is they are made to be extremely efficient. Since the unit is mainly designed for water hunting, there is no additional circuitry for ground balancing, etc which keeps the cost and the weight down.
So, what you have is a low powered PI that has the ability to detect deep objects and can do that without the use of heavy batteries. Keep in mind the 9V batteries will not last as long as they might on some other types of equipment, so low powered energy consumption is still higher than on some other equipment, but much lower than a high powered PI.
Part of the reason for higher powered units is to try to detect much larger objects very deep. They have the ability to use larger coils efficiently to obtain additional depth on larger objects. This is something not recommended on your detector. In the case of your headhunter, the primary objects are coin and ring size objects, with gold rings as the primary target. So, the design is maximized for the coil size supplied for maximum depth for gold while minimizing power consumption. The result is, one can reduce the energy required and still obtain very respectable depth on the objects the unit was designed to find, which is what has been done on your PI.
Now, what I find interesting is there isn't that dramatic of a depth difference on ring size or smaller gold type objects between a high and low powered PI. So, one should expect some depth difference, but not as much as one might expect, considering the price difference.
I hope this helps answer your question.
Reg
