dual frequency detectors vs single frequency detectors

[hollowpointred]

OK.......my quest for the right coinshooting detector goes on! heres my question.......what is the main difference between a single frequency detector such as the Garrett gti2500 and a dual frequency machine such as the whites dfx? as far as price goes both of these detectors are pretty much neck in neck. what is the advantage to having two frequencies as opposed to one? i must say that finding the right machine is quite a daunting task. there are SO many choices. also......any suggestions as to what a good deepseeking, good pinpointing,relatively easy to use detector is i would love to hear your opinions.

 

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[gldhntr]

while i do not know about dual frequency, i have used several single, a three frequency,[ the garrett cx3,] and a multiple frequency,[ minelab explorer 2 ] ....... the single to me are decent for playground coin or relic shooting but you will miss some deeper targets,,,,,,the cx3 was a very good unit that would go deeeeeeppppp and was not all that hard to operate. also could double as a two box .......i was a dumb @$$ for selling it, and wish i could buy the one gold digger has for sell......the minelab is multiple frequency, i forget 11,23,27 something like that......it is a bi--- to learn to use but i have picked up musket balls over a foot with the stock 8 inch and a small hatchet head at 2 ft with the stock 10.5 coil.........it will pick up on every target no problem except pinpointing could be a little better........don't know if this was the kind of reply you were looking for but for the money spent being worth it i would take the money you would spend on a new decent single frequency and spend it on a good used dual or three frequency........do not spend on the multiple unless you are serious about your hobby, then it would be worth it..................gldhntr

 

[bakergeol]

Hollowpointred
If you are interested in a new high end machine. Check out the new Teknetics T2- put out by Bounty Hunter- yes Bounty Hunter believe it or not. Dave Johnson(famous MD designer) designed this one to compete with the Explorer 11($800). http://members5.boardhost.com/MetalDetecting/msg/24185.html

Don't enter the single vs dual(multi) frequency debate. Just go on the performance of the individual machines. Just because someone has a muti-frequency label does not mean it is a better machine for you.

For example I owned an X-5 and an Explorer 11 at the same time- Good example of single versus multiple frequencies. I sold the Ex 11 because the X-5 was more suited for the items I hunt. Actually the X-5 was deeper than the Explorer 11 in my ground but of course the Explorer had better metal ID abilities. Nothing new for a single frequency to have greater depth than other dual frequency detectors. A main plus for a single frequency machine such as the X-5 is that they do well on gold chains, gold wire, and gold brackets etc whereas they simply were not detectable with the Explorer11 . I tested some native gold specimens with the X-5 (detectable to 10") which were undetectable with the Ex 11. It would be interesting to know if this trait was common on all multiple frequency detectors- poor performance on gold chains, ect compared to a single frequency detector.

Minelab likes to boast how many frequencies are transmitted by the Ex11, however, the question is how many are actually received by the detector? (2 or 3?)

I am just interested in the performance of detectors these days and references to the "number of frequencies" is just hype for me. The Ex11 is an outstanding detector which could have stood on its past performance not the multifrequency hype marketed for it.

We all have our own bias for detectors including myself. My bias is that for a new coin detector- I would not buy either of the two models you menitioned..


George

 

[da Hobo]

Hollowpointred . . . . Garrett has an interesting piece at their site on multi freg v singles, you might want to read it. Of course all manufacturers and individuals have their views but then it's up to us to decide where the truth lays. Personally I think all MD have their good and bad points and I'd probably like to have 2-3 machines so I could cover all the bases.

But then I'd like to be rich also . . . lmao

Hobo

 

[hollowpointred]

thanks for the replies guys.yes gldnhunter, this is exactly the type of feedback i was hoping to get. at this point i am still in the information gathering stage of my detector search and i can use all of the info i can get! thanks for the heads up on the teknetics machine bekergeol.i will toss it into the mix of possibilities.thanks for the info at the garrett site hobo! i agree, there doesnt seem to be "THE PERFECT DETECTOR" out there but im hoping i can find the closest thing to perfect for my coinshooting anyway. i have been leaning towards the minelab explorer 2 but the learning curve and more importantly the pinpointing thing have got me a bit rattled. the #2 choice as of now was the whites XLT but now ive taken an interest i n the DFX.........DECISIONS DECISIONS!! i still havnt even taken a serious look at the fishers or tesoros yet! ill figure it out in time i guess! thanks again for the help!

 

[greggww]

The main advantage I've noted w/ the multifrequency machines is the ID accuracy. The single frequency machines that I have all read halos on anything that will corrode in the ground. The multi ones seem to ignore it and give a more accurate reading. HH Gregg

 

[uberlapis]

I not an expert and I will start by saying that either the garret, minelab, or whites I'm shore would make you very happy with the money spent. You said about the 2 and some others mentioned the minelab but anyway we are talking the cream of the crop detectors from the top manufacturer's.
I have bin doing as much research as I can about these 3 detectors because I've bin looking to buy one of them. It is alot of money for me to sneak out of my budget so I'm trying to find what is best for me on the first try. but as far as I've seen so far is this: (and if anyone thinks different I will appreciate to know cause I'll also take any more impute I can get Thanks)

Minelab: When I read different things I got very excited it looks like an awesome machine and can do all kinds of great things and as I remember it runs on 27 different frequencies. I've bin chatting in the treasure chat with someone who just got one the other week and he said it is an awesome machine but dose have a learning curve and is taking him a wial to get everything right but he is very happy with his choice.

Garret: Again I've herd of a learing curve with this machine, but i haven't seen anything but very happy owners of this maching. It is single freq. It it has all of the great feachers you would be looking for in a detector. And what I've picked up as the general consensis around the forum here and in the chat from owners is that this is the machine for all out depth. If depth is one of your main concerns this may be the machine for you.

Whites: This is the machine I'm set on so far for my purchase but I'm still gathering info on the 3 mentioned until I have the money together. And I'm just going to list for you what I've put together and why I have this as my choice so far.

First there is the single freq. VS. multi freq. thing. Single and multi both have there pros and cons just like any other thing in this world. That is the first thing I can't make up my mine about, but with the dfx you can run it multi freq. and if you want you can just change the settings to single and you have a single freq. machines. When in the multi freq. it only uses 2 different freq. one low freq. and one high freq. the whites people used what they found to be the best in the different ranges and just stuck with the two. Low is good for depth and high is good for shallow/small or something like that. like I said they pick the best they found in each range and focused on that simplifying a complicated thing it makes sense to me. 27freq. with the minelab just seem like to much of a good thing in my book but who konws, I've never had the pleasure to play with one of these but all of these freq. may give you all kinds of target info that I may love if I had the chance.
From what I gather whites is almost like the standard for target id accuracy but all 3 are the best of the best so I'm shore non of them would leave you disappointed. no id is perfect but any of the 3 will give us about the best technology can currently give us.
I've also herd that this machine is very user friendly and easy to operate day one. But you still have tons of settings to adjust till its perfect for you just like the others
I live in PA there is a ton of history here so I'm mostly go coin shooting on old sights. I'm only like an hour drive from Gettiesburg so there is some civil war relic hunting on my plate.
With the hunting conditions I have so far this looks the best for me. and it makes up my mind on the freq. thing cause I can't make up my mind on detacting my money on one or the other I can have them both in one machine.
I'll prabably go multi most of the time and at some places and different conditions I'll go single and the kicker I seen is that you can choose the low or high freq. for the single freq. mode so I can put it in the low freq. only for this old PA dirt for those coins that have settled deep the last 200 years (but this keeps the garret on the top of my list also for that extra inch or few inches I could be scanning) I don't know I've herd from garret users that the dfx dose not go near As deep and I hear others say that the dfx gos very deep almost as deep as the garret. I'm just not shore if the people saying it doesn't go near as deep may be comparing wile the dfx is in multi mode and no one should expect it to that is the main con to multi. I'm shore it gos allmost as deep as the garret in low single freq. mode but the garret will give just a little more the garret shines when it come to depth.
I also want to say that it my seem that I might be bassing the minelab in some way but I'm not doing this at all this machine gets me very excited and I'd love to have one but I have to scrape every penny to buy only one machine so with being multi only and my hunting conditions here in PA and very deep coins it counts this one out for me but just might be the perfect one for someone else and were they live.

I'm shore we'll have some great posts after this one is read, and my ears are open I'm trying to learn as much as I can before making my purchase.

HH and Thanks to everyone I hope this helps
Uber

 

[hollowpointred]

i only have one thing to add to your post uber, i have read that the minelab is a bit tricky to pinpoint with as well but the upside is that the depth is awesome! i havnt heard much about the garrett so i will take your word for it. at this point in time i am also leaning towards the whites dfx.it is so flexible being able to tweak each setting,it seems as if none of the other companies can match this ability.add in whites reputation and customer service and "at this time" it seems like the way to go.of course i will probably change my mind 100 or so more times before i have the money raised to buy something!!

 

[uberlapis]

i only have one thing to add to your post uber, i have read that the minelab is a bit tricky to pinpoint with as well but the upside is that the depth is awesome!

you say here "the upside is that the depth is awesome!" with the minelab.
You may have not gotten it out of my post cause it is very long but I'll put it here to make it really clear and not blabber on like my last post. But out of the 3 machines here the minelab gives you the least depth that is the number 1 argument against multi freq.

With the topic being: dual frequency detectors vs single frequency detectors. I don't know every little detail on each one but here is the biggest difference is:

dual/multi freq. = more target info to know better what you are going to dig.
single freq. = more depth.

There that is the biggest difference between the two, to clear it up if I didn't say it very clearly in the last post.

Thanks & HH
Uber

 

[neilo]

hey uber have you used an explorer ? frequencies on explorer start at the lowest available the lower the frequency the deeper they go they also operate on the higher frequencies which will pick up tiny items most detectors cant detect.What the explorer has which most people dont think about is versatility, to be able to alter the detector for different circumstances and conditions.most single frequency machines cant operate in highly mineralised ground and at the waters edge at the beach.there is another option the Quatro operates simlarly to the explorer without a couple of the features.It is a lot cheaper and all sunray add ons can be used.

you wont do better than an explorer once learned it is simple,and pin pointing is easy.


four years swinging Explorer experience with thousands of finds!

Neilo

 

[Visionquest]

I am the guy uber was chatting with, and I agree with the last post. I really doubt either of the other two machines can match an explorer in depth. The capabilities of this machine are incredible. I traded in my XLT as no matter how much I tweaked it, I couldn't get half the depth out of it as the exp 2 and it is single freq. Also, the pinpointing is fine IMO, not hard at all to master. That was the one thing I thiought people were silly for whining about, I never had a problem with it since I picked it up. Lots of features, lots of learning, worth every second of time it takes.

-Mike

 

[uberlapis]

This is good were getting more imput from people I'm just not shore with the depth thing now beacause all that I have read is that single freq. gives more depth over muti. but all and all from what I see the minelab is an awsome machine and everything I'v read about it gets me excited and I'd love to own one but I just keep reading about haveing one good solid freq. will go deeper, and in my mind it makes sence instead of 27 I guess you say maybe waeker ones. I don't know I had my hands on a dfx last week and I was verey impressed. I would love to get my hands on this minelab for say a hour at least. but one of the things that takes the guess work out of it is whites is a very good company just like minelab and garret but you have a single & multi freq. in one machine so you can have all of the benifits. If I'd get a dfx I would have it in dual mode probibly 80% of the time but I'd like to go to old often hunted areas and go single for the depth and pull up some new finds.

HH thanks
Uber

 

[Vrent]

gonna htrow 2 or 3 cents worth in here.....the debate about single versus multiple has been ranging for a long time
a better series of questions for you are
what are you hunting? coins? gold nuggets? relics? caches?
where are you hunting? virginia or nevada, massachusetts or beaches in fla. all diffrent soil compositions and all diferent detectors preform the "best" in each location

and last but not least how much time do you want to devote and for a serious hunter it is a devotion, to learn the machine. any machine is only as good as the operator
are you easily frustrated? a minelab will test your endurance, even a white's dfx might push it for you. if you want to have decent success right of the box then go with a Garrett, yes there is a learning curve, but a much smaller one that Minelab or even White's. I you are serious then go with a high end minelab and expect to havesome frustrating times before you get to a point where you are happy all the time.


Is this a 1st machine? if so go to ebay and find a garrett 1350 or 1500 and get the feel or a mid priced minelab or MXT by white's you might be better off buying a 1350 and a minelab out of the used market rather than spending the 800 or so to get a new 2500

ask Gldhntr how long his learning curve was with the Minelab and ask Bigrig what he uses for a coin vacum. Gldhntr is right you will find the musket ball at over a foot, but if you get to know your single freq machine and spen a LOT of time with it and in the same place you can get that Rosie at 14-18 inches, too, I did in sandy soil in a park I worked on a daily basis for 2 years. And all I had was a a Garrett 350. I spent thousands of hours cleaning out all of the shallower targets to get down to the clicks that were deep.

Will the minelab give you more consistant deep signals I think so, but as I said the machine is only as good as the operator

personnally I am looking for an Minelab Explorer to add to my collection

take a look on ebay at item 5802694613 a minelab exlorer and item 5803599550 a Garrett 1350 same tech in the 1350 as the 2500 except no pinpointing I think


goodluck and let us know what you decide on

HH Vrent

 

[neilo]

Why dont you approach a few dealers and either hire a machine for a day or two

or ask if they will let you try them out.Sometimes too much information heard from

other people can lead you on a confused minefeild full of pit falls.Every machine has

there faults. I have been swinging for ten years near enough i have owned

whites ,garretts,minelabs and bounty hunters.Garrets machines tell lies the too big to

be a coin is sometimes right not always,whites digital screens pack up,minelab explorer

xs was built too flimsy and kept breaking shaft housings,the bounty hunters were ?

not that good on depth,but they are cheap so you get what you pay for.

I am a minelab fan .I have the excalibur,sovereign xs and the explorer xs and use a SD

2200 on the gold feilds and wouldnt use anything else.

my advice is try before you buy!

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Neilo ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

 

[Vrent]

Neilo that is the best advice if you can borrow or rent a detector to try out and aslot of dealers will do that then do so best way to get the feel

Vrent

 

[uberlapis]

I've done more research for my self and also had some in depth discutions with Visionquest in the chat and he gave me a ton of links to further my research.
One thing I found on the DFX is that apparently it runs on 16 diffrent freq. in 6KHz increments and processes the 2 freqs. with the strongest responce.
Also with all of the the info I got from Visionquest and the links he gave me the minelab explorer just looks down right awesome. And there are some things this machine can do that probably make the presidents of the other company's want to get one to at least try it out. I think with the ability's of the explorer2, it will spawn off to some new great technologies with at least the major manufacturers over the next few years at least this is what we could hope for. They will have to worry more about development, because marketing will only keep them in the top of the game for a wile but they will have to improve technology to stay at the top in the long run.

So there is some of what I found out and a little of my 2 cents on some things.
HH
Uber

 

[Monty]

When I upgraded as most of us do I went fo the Garrett GTI 2500. Why? Nothing to do with dual or single frequencies, or any of tht other stuff. I first owned an ACE 250. It was the damndest little machine I ever saw for less than $200.00! I figured if Garrett could make that for $200.00 what would their 2500 machine be able to do? The 2500 is an excellent machine and I have just about learned it enough to be confident I can communicate with it. I would probably be just as happy with a DFX or an Explorer or a Desoto or a Schwinn . It's all in what you own and how it performs for you. I have faith that no US manufacturer is going to offer an inferior product and so far I have been right. JIM

 

[hubman]

I have the DFX and the explorer 11 and althought the Dfx is a great machine , the minelab will beat the dfx or the garret on depth buy a couple of inches with all the tests I have done . The Fisher coinstrike comes closest to the explorer in depth in the tests I have condected. My coin finds have trippled with the explorer in hunted out parks.

 

[Bill(de)]

Here's my take on dual vs single frequency detectors.
If you want a detector that may go deeper in different types of ground and should do better at a salt water beaches and perhaps may do better with Electrical interference maybe then maybe get a dual frequency detector.Will a Fisher 1266 go deeper than an Explorer or a DFX or Sovereign ? Well there are a lot of experienced folks who think it's the deepest but where and what type ground.What if your looking for good targets in trashy areas and need a quick target response ,or have mineralized ground do you want a 2 filter or 4 filter detector or a BBS, fourier domain, or do you want a 14kHz or a 6kHz detector with ?a large coil or small coil ?Do you want a DD coil or a Concentric? I guess my point is ,there is no answer that is a true answer because there are so many variables. After 5 yrs of trying various detectors i'm discovering what works best for me but may not work best for anyone else and realize there is NO Detector that can do it all . ?HH Bill

 

[Monty]

No matter how many depth tests are conducted every manufacturer will always say theirs is the deepest and will have dozens of tests and testimonials to that fact. Depth is not everything to me so it doesn't matter that much. I can find targets deeper than I am willing or able to dig under most circumstances. Unless you are out in a cow pasture where you can use a shovel and mattox (sp) I don't know of any private or public property that wants you digging up a foot of sod for coins or artifacts. My GTI 2500 has an adapter kit with special coils that they claim will find targets at 3 or 4 feet but I would have no use for it as would most of us amateur treasure hunters. So, what does that prove? Nothing to the average Joe. I am not doubting your word or debunking your tests and I'm sure it was of a great deal of interest to you and perhaps some others on the forum. Thanks for taking the time to do it. JIM aka KS