Right Brian, the Compasses are old and heavy. Still functional though. In about a year I will have a partial remedy for some of the older machine's problems, but not right now, I have to go through a lot of designing and then come the patent applications.
Please excuse my compulsive/obsessive writing, it's inherent, a family trait.
I have been through the DFX fad and the Sov and Explorer fad, and the Garrett 2500, 2000, and 1350 craze too. Those are all relics now. There are new faces on the block, and they outperform the above rather unabashedly too. The AT Pro is a marked improvement over the older high-end Garretts, and the Nautiluses got owned by first the Tejon and then the F-75 in the GNRS, and I agree completely, Norfolk Wolf doesn't seem to have a clue as to how differently the soils are in other parts of the world, so he basically just turns the things on and runs with it and makes his uncommonly entertaining claims, especially the one about the F-75's not losing depth in soil. Amusing as heck.
I toss these videos out now and then if I see someone new who needs to view a broader perspective - than a few simple 10 word sentences. Everything helps when making a good choice in costly detectors. I witnessed a friend wrapping his new Whites detector around a parking meter when I found a rose gold 18 kt (3/4 oz) un-enscribed man's signature ring (worth about $1000), me armed with a cheap Bounty Hunter, and I did it while walking in his footsteps. Then he stabbed his detector with his Italian Army bayonette "right through the ten-ringer" and sent it back to Whites with a note saying "I killed it". They gave him a different type detector.
On a personal note I have detected next to some of the very best of the best of metal detector users, most of them detector shop owners, and my claims are absolutely personal about the usability of DFX's, MXT's, various Minelabs, Fishers, and others in various soils. There is no one single (brand) that out-performs all the way around, but some specific ones within a brand name do an overall better job than similar type ones in other brands. Minelab seems to be KING of PI salt beaches and large nugget hunting, and most of us agree, and the GB Pro and G2 own the tiny-nugget spotlight hands down. It's not about brands, it's about actual on-hands experience, end of story. There is however still hanging on a casino's wall (and this is funny) in Las Vegas somewhere a 4.5" chunk of quartz found with a Compass GoldScanner Pro with a little tiny nugget about the size of the dot on this "i". Two inches for a tiny spot of gold that size is quite remarkable, and my own Compass R&C finds #8 shot at 6". Even a GB Pro has a hard time doing that, and an MXT? Forget it, I've tried it.
For my own use and especially in high salt or high black sand I'll pass on the DFX AND the AT Pro because they don't run deep enough, and the same goes for an Explorer. On the West coast beaches of America I get the best depth and performance out of my CZ-70 with no notches piped in. The DFX basically sucks there and word travels fast. The MXT is a far better choice in really harsh soil and it's heads above the DFX for depth and smallish nugget hunting too. This is gold country here and people learn very fast, the local detex shop here pushes Whites and Minelabs because of the high markup, but in the field here and in Arizona they use Fisher GB Pro's.
The AT Pro though is as deep or deeper in mild soil than a DFX, and it's lighter too.
HH all,
LL
