My last purchase was 2 years ago,, NOKTA Legend,, sort of a sidestep (rather than progressing) from my battered Equinox , , both good enough machines, have had plenty of fun.. But something inside me wants to get rid of the clutter and buy an XP Icon .... The lightness is the key, and the versatility. Maybe get 250 for my legend, 100 for Ace, the nox is pretty much scrap..so that leaves an outlay of less than 200 for the new XP.... Am i thinking straight .? any advice is welcome........
This is the main marketing blurb for the Icon Series on XP's website:
"XP ICON combines cutting-edge performance with unmatched ease of use, at a price within everyone’s reach. Designed as the lighter, more accessible sibling of the legendary DEUS II, it brings XP’s renowned quality and technology to a wider audience."
"Whether you’re discovering metal detecting for the first time or heading out on your next adventure, ICON adapts instantly to your needs and your terrain."
"With just a few intuitive controls and ready-to-use programs, you’ll be up and running in seconds with no complicated setup, no frustration. It’s detection made easy, without compromising depth, precision, or the thrill of the hunt."
That first sentence simply is not true if you are doing anything other than shallower target detecting in very mild ground as far as cutting edge performance. Unmatched ease of use is debatable and again since it is only approaching unmatched if you are limiting depth of detection and if you are detecting on mild ground. Priced within everyone's reach again is debatable. It's actually pretty high priced for an entry level detector.
I did not get to test a full Icon. I just used my 11" FMF Deus 2 coil and a stock Deus 2 shaft. So, it was not noticeably lighter than Deus 2 setup like that.
Others who have the full Icon with the lighter coil and new shaft system can report if it's lighter than Deus 2.
The second sentence especially "ICON adapts instantly to your needs and your terrain" is simply not true. ICON could not adapt to my needs or my terrain and higher magnetite ground conditions when bigtim let me borrow his. It utterly failed here using its default Park settings which is how it is setup to work at startup. It borderline passed here after doing some tweaking but no where near as good as its older sibling Deus 2.
Third sentence, was not my experience. Thanks again to bigtim. If I had purchased an Icon/Icon X, I would have been very frustrated.
For those that have mild soil conditions, do mostly beep-dig hunting and have plenty of good targets in the surface to 8" depth range, while not needing to depend on target IDs all the time for selective digging, it should do very well.
I am definitely not saying don't buy an ICON. All I'm saying is that it isn't a Deus 2. My Legend 2 outperformed it here also. XP's marketing blurbs make it sound like it will work effortlessly on any terrain. It simply will not. So know your ground conditions well before you buy this detector. If your Legend has the ground mineralization feature via the latest software updates and you know how to use it, test the areas you normally hunt. If you see 2 or more bars of mineralization, I would think very soberly about buying an ICON.
The difference begins to show up as the ground conditions change and get more difficult. If you are mostly saltwater beach hunting.......I would think very carefully. Saltwater beach hunting in wet areas may not be the ICON's strongest use. It certainly did not do very well here where magnetite levels are high.
it's just one of those odd, unexplainable universal laws.. So XP being so light, and with all the good stuff from the Deus range onboard, the Icon or Icon X look like the perfect solution... cheap too..
... I used to look at Merve ? the heavily accented guy, he had some funny moments,, but the rest ?? standing around in their yards doing air tests ...
i think most need to check their own heads, as there is obviously air getting in....
