This is the V3i machine?!?!?!

[Viddy]

I just got in my brand new V3i with wireless headphones today.
I am not 'brand loyal' to any company. I am 'performance loyal'.
I have never had a White's machine and kinda skipped over them for the other detectors at different performance/$$$ levels over and over. It seemed to be the 'yeah they are American made and been around a while, but that box under the arm and how good can they really be?'
I hunted last year with people who had an MXT Pro, Coinmaster, and SLT and they loved them.
I hunted almost every day last year, sometimes all day, and primarily with my Etrac the whole time (some spattering also with my AT Pro, T2, F2, Xterra 705, and a few others) but I hammered my Etrac into the ground. I can run through every menu... drunk... in the dark...without looking... to 100% accuracy and got to know all 30 audio tones in my head... even when I sleep. I wanted a new machine for 2013. My friends are like 'why would you switch now?'.
Why would I switch? Because it's all about fun... the challenge... and having a good time.
I decided to roll the dice and get a White's machine... and the V3i...
I got it in today...
It was packed well like many other detectors I have gotten
As I put it together, I noticed a lot of similarities... good ones... to other detectors I have had
Such as?
The poles reminded me a lot of the Xterra series poles. Light and tough. The cam locks were sweet. Much better than the AT Pro's cam locks in that they don't just tighten down, but actually tighten down to a 'lock'.
Just like my Etrac, it has both a rechargable pack and one for batteries. A sweet surprise was that White's filled it with batteries for me!
The grip is a lot like the Etrac's grip. Oval shaped with thin tight foam.
The screen on the V3i is absolutely amazing! Color and HD and crystal clear! They advertise 'adjustable brightness', but you can also adjust the font size and night mode type that kinda looks like my Garmin GPS when it switches to darkness and the screen colors/backround switch black/white.
I air tested for a few hours, and the pinpointing was 1" high of center coil and depth was spot on. I know this is nothing compared to 'real-ground' but it gave me some familiarity.
Response time is actually pretty close to my Etrac. I am not sure nothing will be as lightning fast as my T2 (AKA: F75 clone) but it's not a race, and I'll take the accuracy and data analysis over a drag race across a park. Less time digging garbage is more time digging treasure.
The options to customize... PLUS... show data are very very very impressive! I am a tweeker and customizer (I created the original Etrac Target Card and buffed Andy Sabich's park program) and love modifying. Just airtesting with the graphs I was easily able to see how I will be using them comparing juice to junk.
It was nice to see a $1700 detector set up for both the novice and the vet. Turn on and go programs -or- the customizable options of the whole detector. The owner's guide even has a beginner's section as well as an expert's section to cater to all detectorists.
The wireless headphones are very nice. round earpieces and over stuffed. Kinda like Garrett's headphones on steroids. The earphone plus the phone on the headpiece. Syncs perfectly for one word... 'wireless'...
I might have started out with White's top machine they have out right now, but today, I am glad I finally bought a White's machine....

 

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[FreeMindStuck]

The comparisons between the t2 and the etrac and the v3i are interesting and I'm interested in any further thoughts you have on the subject. I've been using v3i for close to 2 years and have noticed that you have to do a lot of things manually with the v3i that my friend's minelab does automatically. Such as using the ground probe and then setting up your ground filters. There is quite the learning curve with the v3i and it's not the detector for everyone. But I really like mine. I suggest you read earthmansurfers v3i advanced post pdf because it talks about a lot of stuff that isn't in whites user manual. Living in the midwest with lots of sweet ground I also like the concentric coils whites offers that minelab seems to lack. Maybe because Australia has high mineralization everywhere? Anyways welcome to the world of whites detectors.

 

[Mortamus]

Yeah the machine will grow on you bro..one thing though

YOu need to get the right coils for this beauty...the 4x6 is unreal and the 6x10 is also.

The 4x6 will change your mind on the coils of choice I'm serious....

 

[Viddy]

FreeMindStuck....
2011....
I started detecting 2 years ago and had the T2 and an Xterra 705. The T2 is basically an F75. If I had to describe the T2 in a sentence, based on using it, I would say it (in 3)is 'lightning quick,very lightweight all day, and very deep'. I would also say (in 3) it is 'chatty as hell, picks up EMI pretty good, and the VDI likes to jump a lot. Gives and takes from a machine I truely believe is a HOT HOT machine when you run it tuned up compared to the other machines. I ran my T2 HOT and put up with the chatter to dig targets that I have yet to dig that deep with any other detector I have owed or been with other detectorists digging.
The 705 was like a mini-Etrac in the set-up, sounds, controls.
2012....
I really liked the Xterra 705, and decided to go with the Etrac as my upgrade. The Etrac was like my 705 on steroids. You were right when saying 'it does a lot of things automatically'. It does that. It basically sets itself up automatically for everything and the ground/conditions. No ground tracking, it picks the best of 28 frequencies, adjusts the sensitivity, etc. Great preprogrammed search patterns too. Minelab did a greta job at this and it attracts a lot of users. if you are 'turn-on-and-go' it's happiness. If you are like me, the tweeker, it auto adjusts everything and then I over-ride it and adjust it to run my pattern, with boosts, HOT sensitivity, and custom thresholds, masks, nulls, and notches. I am the one that did the original 'Etrac Target Card', and redid Andy Sabich's Park Program into a sweet coin-nailing program.
This is what turned me onto getting a V3i. I never owned a White's machine, but they did their homework on the V3i and for the tweeker like me, it's sweet sunshine! As soon as I turned the V3i on and blindly rolled thru the menus, the spectragraph, filters, adjustments, etc, I was excited!
I also used the AT Pro in 2012 besides the Etrac. I will say that the AT Pro in ProMode can hang with the T2/F75 on lightning fast, hit targets decently deep, and I proved it's waterproof in the Outer Banks, NC in the waves and underwater. The AT Pro will be my back-up detector for a long while. It's a friggin tank! The VDI/tones can not compare to the Etrac or V3i, but way better than anything under the $1000 price-point.
Everyone has their own style. Everyone has their own expectations. Everyone has their own limits. Everyone has their own obsessions.
The Etrac has been known as the 'hot high-tech detector, hot on silver (and the CTx3030 is a dressed up Etrac). I got the next year, this year, to learn the V3i, and tweek it out. I am obsessive compulsive, a programming and tech-nut, and not happy until the V3i is run as HOT as it will go! I am gonna see what I can do.

 

[Viddy]

4X6 on order today.....

 

[FreeMindStuck]

I really like my 4x6. It is great in trashy areas. I was using it today, hunting around the edges of a house where the roofers had left thousands of nails. And scored a 1889 liberty head nickel and a ten cent token circa 1912 associated with the guy who started the Hy-Vee chain of grocery stores.

 

[Viddy]

awesome finds! Can't wait to get my coil in.

 

[sgriffith59]

Back in 2001 I purchased a brand new Garrett GTI 2500. I kept it for 5 years, could not find anything. I think I found about 50 cents. I sold it and bought a Whites MXT in 2005 and love it. I always find stuff!

 

[GreenMeanie]

V3I is a great detector.
The problem I think people have is it has so may options. And playing with the options can some times screw you over if you have no clue how they effect other options in the detector.
You can make that detector as fast as a F75's recovery rate or as slow as you want.
Sometimes I wish I still had mine but I wanted one detector that is water proof that can do ground work and hunt in the water. That is the main reason for me owning the minelab CTX. Otherwise I think I would be back with the v3I it is a great machine and Whites has always treated me right. Great Company!

 

[Viddy]

GreenMeanie... I know what you mean. I had my Etrac connected to my laptop more than I had it in the field when i forst got it. Then I realized that I need to put a good program together for my area and jsut get out.

Sometimes too many options is bad....LOL... kinda like the Apple vs. Samsung thing...

Samsung 'tell us what you want and we will invent it' (quoted at the S Korean tech festival in 2012)

Apple 'people don't really know what they want so we will give them what they want and they will celebrate it' (Steve Jobs 2004 Apple research convention)

options and choices....

 

[63bkpkr]

Thank you Viddy, you are way above my knowledge level with detectors, programing, tech anything but it is fun to read your excitement and love of the 'chase' when you discuss the V3i and learning what it can do and what you expect to do with it. Keep having fun and I look forward to more of your posts.................63bkpkr

 

[FreeMindStuck]

Hey Viddy,
Have you checked out the stereo mixed mode yet? It is a pretty cool trick that I don't think your etrac will do. It combines the all metal mode (pinpoint) with discrimination mode. The all metal mode will see deeper and allow you to find targets that you would miss in discrimination mode alone. Of course I changed the resolution on the spectrograph to 5, and customized the tones to a 14 tone scheme. The only drawback is that if it is super trashy you can get a little audio overload.