Hi Monte,
Great post! But I would add one more fact...
<B>Fact #4</B> We all have differing uses and want our detectors to do different things. Take coin hunting. Some guys go for quantity, filling buckets with coins. Others prefer going after the real quality finds, which generally means they make far fewer finds. Or some people dive into thick iron a lot! These differing requirements lead to differing machines.
I live in Anchorage, Alaska, a town founded in 1915. Most of the old portion of town is paved over, and most of the rest is much younger. You do good finding something in the 30's, 20's is extremely rare, and teens almost unheard of. After many years of coin hunting I just finally decided to shift gears and hunt for gold jewelry.
So my requirements have changed, and hunting jewelry can involve many differing theories and practices. If time allows, nothing beats the Monte "beep-dig" approach. But I have limited time and so prefer to use various discrimination strategies to help boost my odds. And truth be told I have some extra fun bench testing targets on machines and coming up with various discrimination strategies. It gives me a reason to play with detectors, which I enjoy in and of itself.
My latest desire has been for a machine that has good gold sensitivity and that can reject iron, accept aluminum/gold range targets, reject zincs, coppers and dimes, but get quarters and above. Truth be told I'd not mind the dimes but not if I have to dig the pennies to get them. So I'm passing on the dimes also. The quarters pay for the batteries.
Within the gold/aluminum range I want enough target segments reject selectively certain types of aluminum that might be prevalent at any one particular site. Like a particular pulltab.
I want the machine to be quiet. I'd like it to reject the stuff I choose cleanly and quietly. I'm doing this mostly for fun and relaxation and I do not find listening to a lot of noise relaxing. There are times I do enjoy using zero disc and listening for tones, etc. and analyzing every signal. But for my dream machine I want it to beep when I want it to and to shut up otherwise.
Finally, I want this particular machine for parks and areas where I do not want to dig deep hole. For a beach I'll use something else. For this particular machine I want to use a screwdriver to pop targets, and will never cut a plug or dig a hole. I have a Uniprobe that will hit a ring down to 4-5 inches. If I get a signal and the Uniprobe will not hit it, I'll just skip it. I'm after relatively shallow stuff.
Oh yeah, I want to use a small coil also and the machine itself should be light and simple. Is that enough?
Now, many might argue with my desires and tell me they are wrong, that I'll miss this and I'll miss that and so on and so forth. But who cares? The fact is it is what I want to do to have the kind of fun I want to have!
I go into this long winded explanation just to show how one guys desires can really lead to a certain limited number of detectors. My desires run almost 180 degrees counter to what most machines were designed to do. Just wanting to notch out coins eliminates a huge number of detectors, as the vast majority of machines assume people want to dig coins, and so they simply do not allow you to reject coins. There went the Troy! This one basic desire of mine eliminated the entire White's Prizm line and the Fisher ID Excel, to name a few more. I took a look at the new ID Edge but it looks like all or nothing in the gold range when set in its jewelry mode. I wish they'd enable independent notching on the Excel series.
The need for target resolution in the gold range eliminated most of the remaining units. My beloved CZ-70 Pro bit the dust. Only three notches in the aluminum range. And at the high end pennies, dimes, and quarters are all lumped together.
Long story finally coming to an end is that so far the White's DFX is the machine that is doing it for me. Lots of notch ability, smooth operation, great coil selection, etc. In fact, in 15 kHz mode it combines extra gold sensitivity with a much expanded discriminate resolution in the gold range.
Another machine that surprisingly does not half bad is the Garrett Ace 250 for my particular use. Pretty hot, light, simple. An amazing little unit for the price. But the Ace is pretty tight on the notching in the aluminum range.
Enter the X-Terra 50. Now truly, I do not see this machine as replacing top end units like the DFX or Minelabs own Explorer for those that prefer them. I'm not looking to replace the DFX, but to supplement it. The X-Terra 50 gives me better resolution on gold range targets than the Ace 250, and yet retains the simplicity and light weight that makes the Ace a fun little unit.
So that is where I'm at, kind of like you, Monte. Three different units for this one particular little use that I'll be playing with. The DFX is a keeper for this use. The Ace may go and others cycle in but I'm thinking the X-Terra will stay as my lighter weight alternative. Just give me the higher frequency coil, both large and small, and it is a sure deal.
Steve Herschbach