Garrett ATX vs Minelab GPX 5000 - PART II

[Bearkat]

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Don't believe everything you see. An experienced GPX user can find any and all of those nuggets. The New Garrett is a great machine, but it won't out hunt the GPX in the hands of someone that knows how to set it up.

 

[Bearkat]

Its not hard to set up, its just a dumb metal detector...""An experienced GPX user can find any and all of those nuggets""...yea; put a mono coil on and put in in fine gold and you hit the tiny nuggets...but you have to switch modes back to normal to hit those bigger pieces even with a mono. Which mode do you choose? This is the little secret that Minelab does not want people to know about. Not rocket science...your arrogance however, needs some refining...

 

[Terry Soloman]

Not trying to be arrogant, just stating my opinion. You can't be using generic settings and expect not to catch some flak. I suspect there will be plenty of comparison videos on these two machines, and I for one look forward to them. I'm not dissing you, just questioning your GPX settings and choice of coils for the job you are trying to do.

 

[Bearkat]

""just questioning your GPX settings and choice of coils for the job you are trying to do."" - Well; now I can tell you fast forwarded through the video as I explained in the very first minute WHY I use the DD coils...if you missed that and still made your comments - then your just being biased for no reason.
And that my friend, is arrogance...

 

[Terry Soloman]

""just questioning your GPX settings and choice of coils for the job you are trying to do."" - Well; now I can tell you fast forwarded through the video as I explained in the very first minute WHY I use the DD coils...if you missed that and still made your comments - then your just being biased for no reason. And that my friend, is arrogance...

No, I heard your explanation. Look, I think your comparison video is flawed. That is my opinion as a long time GPX user who knows what even the 4000 is capable of doing. As I said in my first post, I'm sure the new Garrett is a GREAT machine, but it ain't a Minelab GPX 5000. I may end up buying a few Garrett ATX machines for my school as they seem like very simple machines to set up for greenhorns - But, I'll stick with my GPX 5000 for myself.

 

[Bearkat]

Well Terry, might be flawed in your eyes mainly because there are TOO MANY settings to shuffle through for the common man to want to deal with, that is who my videos are for, not arrogant Minelab user's who think their OVER PRICED detector is God's gift to metal detecting. God would make it lower cost, kinda like the ATX, Lol

I want to be clear here Terry, I'm not trying to get people to throw away their 5000's, I won't, but I'm trying to show them there is a more cost effective alternative that won't miss hardly any gold, deep or shallow for the people to choose from. Can you see that? Hope so...

I think you should add an ATX to your arsenal, not to replace it. Get it? That is my whole point in the video, plus exposing weeknesses in the Minelab, Lol

 

[Clay Diggins]

Apples and Oranges. Or maybe Apples and applebutter?

ATX looks like an interesting well thought out mid range PI detector with some appealing qualities. It fills a hole in the gold detectors arsenal.

ATX vs Minelab. I honestly didn't get past the subtitle.

The Definitive Test

Really?

 

[Steve Herschbach]

I paid for my GPX 5000 - again - this summer with a single nugget found. No way I would ditch that detector for an ATX. I have no problem tuning mine. Anybody can't learn the tools should find another trade. It is not rocket science. Or is that being arrogant?

If cost effectiveness really is the issue, then considering most people will never find an ounce of gold metal detecting, I think the majority of people in the US would be better served with a $700 VLF than a PI.

 

[Bearkat]

"I have no problem tuning mine." - I don't either
"No way I would ditch that detector for an ATX." - Never said you should.

"I paid for my GPX 5000 - again - this summer with a single nugget found." - So did I, x 2.

Minelabbers sure are sensitive.....and arrogant, Lol

Looks like I can tune my GPX...Mmm strange.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

"Minelabbers sure are sensitive.....and arrogant, Lol"

Since you just owned up to being a Minelabber I do agree. You took every statement I made personally.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

I really like that gnarly nugget in the upper left. It is a real beauty!

 

[Bearkat]

Yea man, thats a 5+ oz slugger - 22 inches with the GPX w mono coil. Whaaaaat, don't tell anyone I said that, Lol

It's all good Steve...

 

[Bearkat]

Report from an Austrailian dude:

"Another excellent video BK.
The ATX has ticked a lot of positive boxes and is getting a lot of attention over here. Even some of the ML pros are seeing some advantages of the ATX over the GPXs and in particular the ability of the detector to hit strong on small & large nuggs alike without having to change coils or settings.
A small eliptical DD or Mono would be handy for the hard to get to nooks and crannies."

 

[Bearkat]

Well Jim that is a good question...why didn't I think of that? Lol

I don't see any recommendations either, just snarky comments...great point as usual Jim...

This morning I have recieved many emails and phone calls thanking me for the video...
Thankfulness is cool.

Makes me want to do more vids...

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Makes me want to do more vids...

By all means Al… I’ve enjoyed your videos and would like to see more about the ATX. My wife, although involved in the hobby pretty much to humor me, also enjoys the videos.

You might consider repeating the above test… but use mono coils as close to the same size / coverage as possible on both units. At the price differential, I doubt anyone would expect the ATX to be depth / sens competitive with the GPX 5000, hence the results shouldn’t disappoint, and to some extent might surprise. Viewers can draw their own tentative conclusions / impressions.

The weight notwithstanding… ATX looks to be quite an improvement over the Infinium with respect to sweep speed, target signal responsiveness, small nugget sensitivity, threshold stability, EMI handling, iron check mode, external speaker and volume control, solid stem construction, large coil availability, etc. It looks to be a straightforward unit, one mode seems to satisfactorily address a variety of field conditions... wet salt environs, hotrock patches, highly mineralized ground... and variable gold size. At least these are my impressions to date.

Jim.

 

[kazcoro]

Had me looking at the price...

 

[tinpan]

Report from an Austrailian dude:

"Another excellent video BK.
The ATX has ticked a lot of positive boxes and is getting a lot of attention over here. Even some of the ML pros are seeing some advantages of the ATX over the GPXs and in particular the ability of the detector to hit strong on small & large nuggs alike without having to change coils or settings.
A small eliptical DD or Mono would be handy for the hard to get to nooks and crannies."

Hi Wouldn,t be far more cost effective to leave a mono coil on a GPX 5000 and add a RJ 1 Booster with speaker ? Cost of RJ 1 Booster is about $220 . Shows just how much you know

tinpan

 

[Bearkat]

Jim, I will be doing the GPX with mono coil test vs ATX this weekend per request of what most people want to see. I will use the exact same nuggets, same spot etc... And per request I will do more settings on the GPX to show off a bit what she is capable of. So it might be more GPX footage than ATX just because of the more settings to go through with the 5000.

After that, I'm done with the GPX vs ATX videos, ok maybe one more with my big 5 ozer in the pic above...but then on to do some hunting and real world ATX videos and more ATX specific test. Fun stuff either way...

Bearkat

 

[tinpan]

Jim, I will be doing the GPX with mono coil test vs ATX this weekend per request of what most people want to see. I will use the exact same nuggets, same spot etc... And per request I will do more settings on the GPX to show off a bit what she is capable of. So it might be more GPX footage than ATX just because of the more settings to go through with the 5000.

After that, I'm done with the GPX vs ATX videos, ok maybe one more with my big 5 ozer in the pic above...but then on to do some hunting and real world ATX videos and more ATX specific test. Fun stuff either way...

Bearkat

Bearkat Is there something wrong with your GPX ? If you use the common known manual settings for any gpx model with use of a DD coil , there no reason to change them. Unless the ground becomes really "Hot" Change soil timing switch to Enhanced and Ground Balance to Fixed. No other setting is required to be changed.

Settings for a gpx with DD coil.

Double DD Mode
Ground balance tracking
Soil timing Normal
search Mode general
Threshold 2 o'clock position
Back light switch off
Volume 10
Ground balance general
Manual Tune 95-100
Motion slow
RX gain 7 to 10
Stablizer 10-13
Signal 19
target volume 12

Even with change to a Mono coil most of the above settings are not required to changed I,m totally lost and can make no reasoning to your remarks about having to change the GPX settings every time you use it ?

tinpan