Anyone Going from Deus to the ORX or From the ORX to the Deus or Both?

[bigtim1973]

As you all know, I purchased the ORX recently. It is the most impressive unit I have ever owned. With that being said I did purchase a used remote along with a set of the WS4 headphones.

Now from my own experience I have noticed that between the two units they both so far seem to have the same performance when paired up with the the same coil while using the same frequency.

I like some of the features of the ORX better than the Deus and I like some of the features of the Dues better than the ORX.

I have so far really only have used the Deus with 2 little programs I configured in the machine itself. One based off of the Deus fast and the other off of the Deep XY screen version. The only real thing I have changed on the Deep version was I configured it to the regular search screen.

I have my Deus paired to the 9" X35 coil and I have the ORX with the 9" HF coil.

Also I have noticed the HF coil seems to handle EMI better than the X35 coil.

When I go detecting I would pick the ORX with the HF coil over the Dues most of the time. Only because of my first impression with it when I first used it. However now since I am getting more used to the TID numbers, I am starting to reach for the Deus X35 combo more.

I am going to keep both. I think they really do kind of work together and also they interchange with the coils I have as well.

It is by far the most convenient metal detector to take anywhere. I can drag both of them along with their wireless headphones, or even one set of back phones with both of the control pods and the weight of both the Deus and ORX together with their headphones would almost weigh less or equal to just one of my other detectors with one set of corded headphones.

So after making you all read through what I kind of do on my own, how many of you have went from the Dues to the ORX and how many have started with the ORX and went with a Deus as well and why??

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[secondstar]

That's actually a really great question! I've never used the ORX but I have a friend who owns one and he's really pleased with it. I own the Deus with the X35 coil and I absolutely love it. It's featherweight and can be fully customized to meet the needs of the user. Having said that, at the end of the day, I only use two customized programs on the Deus. Coincidentally, one is quite similar to Coins Deep, the other to Coins Fast. I will tell you that I sometimes use a check iron program that takes advantage of the ability to set ID NORM to off which I believe cannot be done on the ORX. Also, some of the more experienced Deus users on the forum prefer to hunt using pitch where applicable which I believe is more limited / difficult to access on the ORX.

While I don't see myself purchasing an ORX, I honestly cannot say if I wouldn't choose the ORX over the Deus were the ORX available when I made my purchase. Especially considering that the ORX is on sale right now!

 

[smokeythecat]

Not me, I just have the Deus and am not in the market for anything right now.

 

[bigtim1973]

That's actually a really great question! I've never used the ORX but I have a friend who owns one and he's really pleased with it. I own the Deus with the X35 coil and I absolutely love it. It's featherweight and can be fully customized to meet the needs of the user. Having said that, at the end of the day, I only use two customized programs on the Deus. Coincidentally, one is quite similar to Coins Deep, the other to Coins Fast. I will tell you that I sometimes use a check iron program that takes advantage of the ability to set ID NORM to off which I believe cannot be done on the ORX. Also, some of the more experienced Deus users on the forum prefer to hunt using pitch where applicable which I believe is more limited / difficult to access on the ORX.

While I don't see myself purchasing an ORX, I honestly cannot say if I wouldn't choose the ORX over the Deus were the ORX available when I made my purchase. Especially considering that the ORX is on sale right now!

Well maybe one day if you could get together with your friend who has the ORX....why don't you just swap units for a while and try out his ORX and let him use your deus. It would be interesting to see both of your thoughts.

So may I ask what are you doing on your check iron program?? Are you using the XY screen??

The pitch program to me seems very similar to the gold programs on the ORX.


I took the deep program and saved it with the regular screen instead of the XY screen and made it 3 tone.

I also made a coin fast ORX simulated program based off of the deus fast and made the pitch and break points the same as the ORX.

So far when I use the deus I toggle between those 2 programs the most. But I need to try some of the other programs and see how I fair out with them.

Keep me posted

 

[bigtim1973]

Not me, I just have the Deus and am not in the market for anything right now.

I understand....I personally believe the deus is the most advanced metal detector out there. I do not see anything that will top these units hitting the market anytime soon.

 

[vferrari]

I picked up a used ORX controller and headphones (I already had the Deus coils) and have had an opportunity to use both the Deus (4 years) and the ORX.

The ORX is not a bad setup compared to the Deus but does have some limitations compared to the Deus. There are some user interface enhancements with the ORX and also a couple of things I am disappointed are not included with the ORX feature set.

Things the ORX lacks vs. the Deus

Lack of selectable tone modes other 3 tones and tone breakpoints other than the iron discrimination point cannot be varied. I think 3 tones is OK but would have also liked to have a pitch tone option and selectable non ferrous tone breaks.

Lack of tracking ground balance

Target ID is normalized (to 18khz) regardless of coil frequency used. This is both a blessing and a curse. For the higher frequency coils this keeps the high conductivity target IDs from being compressed up into the higher end and obviates the need to have different tone breaks for different frequency programs. But lack of ability to turn ID NORM off also prevents some use of frequency shift tricks to ID iron (iron target

ID will not shift appreciably with coil frequency like most non-ferrous targets, so doing a quick frequency shift while interrogating suspected iron on the Deus, even if it is giving a false high tone, makes it easy to tell if it is ferrous because the ID will not shift with frequency). There are other ferrous "tells" so lack of ID NORM is not a deal breaker.

No depth or overload meters

No ability to control transmit power

No ability to set notches

No ability to control the silencer filter

No ability to set audio response and iron volume levels

Reduced ability to adjust discrimination and reactivity levels (I rarely use a reactivity greater than 3, so this limitation is not a big deal).

Cannot operate the ORX with just the wireless headphones like you can with the Deus. This feature is great for "minimalist" detecting and water detecting since the phones can be dunked but the controller cannot.

Too few custom program slots and limited ability to customize the pre-loaded programs.

Things the ORX Does that the Deus Doesn't

Simpler menu system, primarily a function of fewer settings and customization. I wish you could navigate the programs using the +/- pushbuttons like you can on the Deus, instead you have to sequentially step through the programs in only one direction. At least the controller is not loaded up with a bunch of unnecessary preloaded programs like on the Deus (but I do wish there were more custom program slots on ORX).

Provides a more intuitive Iron Probability indication coupled with the Target ID popup window make for easy target information at a glance of your controller.

ID NORM for the HF coils (previously mentioned), this helps to spread high conductivity target IDs out better than on Deus where ID norm cannot be selected for the HF coils.


The Modes

The Gold Modes on the ORX are essentially identical to the Gold Field mode on the Deus with the only difference being the reduced reactivity setting range (not a biggie) and lack of tracking ground balance. Gold field modes should not be overlooked as they can be useful "all metal mode" programs for both coin hunting and relic hunting, as well, especially in mineralized ground.

Coins Fast is essentially Deus Fast other than the fact that the underlying silencer filter which is tied to reactivity on the Deus cannot be switched independent of reactivity - this can be an issue with lower reactivity settings where the silencer is switched on and can make it more difficult to unmask in thick iron. At reactivity settings of 2.5 and 3 (the default), silencer is automatically switched off.

Coins Deep is essentially Deus Deep. Deus Deep uses a different signal processing filter than Coins Fast than that enhances deep target signals but at the expense of noise and stability, especially in the presence of iron. In addition, the silencer filter is turned off when using Coins Deep. The default reactivity setting is 2.

Overall, I like the ORX for what it is. It has some limitations, but in identical program settings, the ORX will perform as well as the Deus. The Deus has better customizations which can help in certain situations, especially when it comes to customized tone settings.

 

[secondstar]

Well maybe one day if you could get together with your friend who has the ORX....why don't you just swap units for a while and try out his ORX and let him use your deus. It would be interesting to see both of your thoughts.

So may I ask what are you doing on your check iron program?? Are you using the XY screen??

The pitch program to me seems very similar to the gold programs on the ORX.


I took the deep program and saved it with the regular screen instead of the XY screen and made it 3 tone.

I also made a coin fast ORX simulated program based off of the deus fast and made the pitch and break points the same as the ORX.

So far when I use the deus I toggle between those 2 programs the most. But I need to try some of the other programs and see how I fair out with them.

Keep me posted

Here's what my check iron program looks like;

Go to the basic program and change the following;

Frequency 4 kHz
Sensitivity 90
Reactivity 1
Silencer 3
Iron Volume 1
Make sure that ID NORM is set to off.

In a nutshell, iron will maintain a high TID such as 97 using these settings. If however the TID drops, say to 87, dig! Also, the high silencer setting will cause iron targets to break apart, you'll hear it, trust me. I saved this program in between my deep and fast programs so I can toggle back and forth with ease. As always, buyer beware... When in doubt dig it out!

Great idea regarding swapping controllers with my buddy.

 

[Peter67]

I have only one reason why i didn't bought the Orx, max 3 tones. I always use 5 tones on the Deus. When they stopped selling the Light version WS4 i bought a second one (light WS4) with a huge price reduction. This made my new Deus even cheaper then the Orx.

 

[bigtim1973]

I picked up a used ORX controller and headphones (I already had the Deus coils) and have had an opportunity to use both the Deus (4 years) and the ORX.

The ORX is not a bad setup compared to the Deus but does have some limitations compared to the Deus. There are some user interface enhancements with the ORX and also a couple of things I am disappointed are not included with the ORX feature set.

Things the ORX lacks vs. the Deus

Lack of selectable tone modes other 3 tones and tone breakpoints other than the iron discrimination point cannot be varied. I think 3 tones is OK but would have also liked to have a pitch tone option and selectable non ferrous tone breaks.

Lack of tracking ground balance

Target ID is normalized (to 18khz) regardless of coil frequency used. This is both a blessing and a curse. For the higher frequency coils this keeps the high conductivity target IDs from being compressed up into the higher end and obviates the need to have different tone breaks for different frequency programs. But lack of ability to turn ID NORM off also prevents some use of frequency shift tricks to ID iron (iron target

ID will not shift appreciably with coil frequency like most non-ferrous targets, so doing a quick frequency shift while interrogating suspected iron on the Deus, even if it is giving a false high tone, makes it easy to tell if it is ferrous because the ID will not shift with frequency). There are other ferrous "tells" so lack of ID NORM is not a deal breaker.

No depth or overload meters

No ability to control transmit power

No ability to set notches

No ability to control the silencer filter

No ability to set audio response and iron volume levels

Reduced ability to adjust discrimination and reactivity levels (I rarely use a reactivity greater than 3, so this limitation is not a big deal).

Cannot operate the ORX with just the wireless headphones like you can with the Deus. This feature is great for "minimalist" detecting and water detecting since the phones can be dunked but the controller cannot.

Too few custom program slots and limited ability to customize the pre-loaded programs.

Things the ORX Does that the Deus Doesn't

Simpler menu system, primarily a function of fewer settings and customization. I wish you could navigate the programs using the +/- pushbuttons like you can on the Deus, instead you have to sequentially step through the programs in only one direction. At least the controller is not loaded up with a bunch of unnecessary preloaded programs like on the Deus (but I do wish there were more custom program slots on ORX).

Provides a more intuitive Iron Probability indication coupled with the Target ID popup window make for easy target information at a glance of your controller.

ID NORM for the HF coils (previously mentioned), this helps to spread high conductivity target IDs out better than on Deus where ID norm cannot be selected for the HF coils.


The Modes

The Gold Modes on the ORX are essentially identical to the Gold Field mode on the Deus with the only difference being the reduced reactivity setting range (not a biggie) and lack of tracking ground balance. Gold field modes should not be overlooked as they can be useful "all metal mode" programs for both coin hunting and relic hunting, as well, especially in mineralized ground.

Coins Fast is essentially Deus Fast other than the fact that the underlying silencer filter which is tied to reactivity on the Deus cannot be switched independent of reactivity - this can be an issue with lower reactivity settings where the silencer is switched on and can make it more difficult to unmask in thick iron. At reactivity settings of 2.5 and 3 (the default), silencer is automatically switched off.

Coins Deep is essentially Deus Deep. Deus Deep uses a different signal processing filter than Coins Fast than that enhances deep target signals but at the expense of noise and stability, especially in the presence of iron. In addition, the silencer filter is turned off when using Coins Deep. The default reactivity setting is 2.

Overall, I like the ORX for what it is. It has some limitations, but in identical program settings, the ORX will perform as well as the Deus. The Deus has better customizations which can help in certain situations, especially when it comes to customized tone settings.

Yes great comparison to the deus.

But at a glance the ORX is more of a turn on and go Deus. The Deus like you said has the ability to toggle through the programs. That is one thing I like better on the Deus.

However with the limited programming on the ORX it is a very capable metal detector and anyone reading this thread need not to be discouraged at the lack of the extra enhancements compared to the Deus. The deep mode and fast mode on the ORX are excellent programs. The guys who like to use the pitch programs will find the "Zip Zip" sound of the Gold 1 program on the ORX to be more what they are used to.

It seems like most guys toggle between 2 programs on the Deus they like the best. So do you really need 8 custom slots for saved settings?

It is fun to be able to tweak a program to your liking. However I have found too much tweaking can actually hinder the performance of the detector. With that being said....too much tweaking can also take the fun out of metal detecting as well.

On the overload part of the ORX. I find it easy to tell a large shallow target. The tone gets kind of a hollow sound or am echo to it.

I like tones better than pitch. It is easier for me and being a musician I can pick up a tone better than a variable buzzing tone.

I like the screen layout of the ORX better along with the larger target ID and iron probability meter.

All in all I personally would be perfectly happy with just an ORX.

I have and will fiddle with the setting on the Deus and see what may come up later with more time with the Deus.

Now when I go detecting I alternate between the units. So yesterday I used the ORX and next time I will take the Deus.

 

[bigtim1973]

Here's what my check iron program looks like;

Go to the basic program and change the following;

Frequency 4 kHz
Sensitivity 90
Reactivity 1
Silencer 3
Iron Volume 1
Make sure that ID NORM is set to off.

In a nutshell, iron will maintain a high TID such as 97 using these settings. If however the TID drops, say to 87, dig! Also, the high silencer setting will cause iron targets to break apart, you'll hear it, trust me. I saved this program in between my deep and fast programs so I can toggle back and forth with ease. As always, buyer beware... When in doubt dig it out!

Great idea regarding swapping controllers with my buddy.

Thanks for sharing. I think I am going to take a note book and start writing some of these settings down and try them out and see how I fair with them.

I think if you swapped remotes with your friend or even just swap the complete units with him, you may be surprised at how well the ORX does.

 

[bigtim1973]

I have only one reason why i didn't bought the Orx, max 3 tones. I always use 5 tones on the Deus. When they stopped selling the Light version WS4 i bought a second one (light WS4) with a huge price reduction. This made my new Deus even cheaper then the Orx.

I understand. But if you had the opportunity to try one you should as you may be surprised at the performance

 

[vferrari]

I understand. But if you had the opportunity to try one you should as you may be surprised at the performance

Yes. Given equivalent settings, the performance is the same, no doubt. But there are some desirable settings on the Deus that are lacking on the ORX and experienced Deus users know how to exploit those additional settings to eek out performance under less than ideal conditions whether that is thick iron, highly mineralized soil, or lots of non-ferrous junk.

Yes great comparison to the deus.

But at a glance the ORX is more of a turn on and go Deus. The Deus like you said has the ability to toggle through the programs. That is one thing I like better on the Deus.

However with the limited programming on the ORX it is a very capable metal detector and anyone reading this thread need not to be discouraged at the lack of the extra enhancements compared to the Deus. The deep mode and fast mode on the ORX are excellent programs. The guys who like to use the pitch programs will find the "Zip Zip" sound of the Gold 1 program on the ORX to be more what they are used to.

It seems like most guys toggle between 2 programs on the Deus they like the best. So do you really need 8 custom slots for saved settings?

It is fun to be able to tweak a program to your liking. However I have found too much tweaking can actually hinder the performance of the detector. With that being said....too much tweaking can also take the fun out of metal detecting as well.

On the overload part of the ORX. I find it easy to tell a large shallow target. The tone gets kind of a hollow sound or am echo to it.

I like tones better than pitch. It is easier for me and being a musician I can pick up a tone better than a variable buzzing tone.

I like the screen layout of the ORX better along with the larger target ID and iron probability meter.

All in all I personally would be perfectly happy with just an ORX.

I have and will fiddle with the setting on the Deus and see what may come up later with more time with the Deus.

Now when I go detecting I alternate between the units. So yesterday I used the ORX and next time I will take the Deus.

First of glad you are happy with the ORX. It should do most everything you need it to. But be mindful of the fact that you are not going to convince most experienced Deus users that the ORX will do everything they need it to, because that simply is just not the case. Some examples:

It might be useful to be able to use the quieter Coins Fast mode at lower reactivity settings but with the silencer filter off to prevent inadvertent masking or to apply just a little silencer at high reactivity settings to reduce chatter in Coins Fast or Coins Deep. This is simply not possible with ORX. Deus fast and Deus Deep can be run without silencer or minimal silencer at ANY reactivity setting on the Deus.

GB tracking is very useful and works well at sites that have variable ground phase, typically seen at mineralized sites but it could happen even in "mild" soil. Constantly having to ground balance to provide optimum depth and remove ground noise is not fun and Deus GB tracking avoids this annoyance.

The reason extra program slots are desirable on the Deus is because of the myriad of coil frequency options and the fact that HF coils cannot be operated in ID NORM mode on the Deus, period. Without ID norm, the tone breakpoints between mid-conductors and high conductor tones change significantly with frequency. As a result multi tones based programs (3, 4, and 5 tones) have to be programmed with different breakpoints for different operating frequencies. Deus users take advantage of the fact that you can move back and forth between the programs using the +/- buttons so that a target can be interrogated with different frequencies and the adjusted tone breakpoints for the targets remain approximately constant do a mid-conductor does not suddenly sound like a high conductor just because you swapped frequency from 14 khz to 28 khz. Most Deus users operate without ID norm regardless of whether the coil supports it because of the target interrogation advantages of leaving it off as discussed previously.

The myriad of tone options and notch settings allow for some great site specific filtering of junk targets (like a pull tab spill), if desired.

The lack of the ability to dial down TX power in high mineralization is a drawback on the ORX. Some high mineralization sites require running with minimal TX power to prevent excessive chatter and ground noise.

You should really give pitch tones on your Deus a try in thick iron. It is an excellent unmasker and your ears can more easily pick out faint targets amongst iron with pitch. Obviously would not use pitch mode in areas with a lot of modern non-ferrous trash. Not the same as Gold mode. Using discrimination with pitch (not possible in gold mode) you get the advantage of discrimination (which helps to keep target IDs from being down averaged by iron) while being able to quickly audibly distinguish between ferrous (using iron volume) and non-ferrous. This does not happen in pseudo "all metal" gold mode and iron audio reject does not operate the same as ferrous discrimination.

As far as turn on and go - the Deus is just as user friendly - use Deus Fast preset exclusively and you should fine just as using ORX Coins Fast. Same with Deep. Also, once you set up custom programs on the Deus you rarely ever have to go back in and mess with them again.

Anyway - you have both ORX and Deus controllers so you have the best of both worlds. The ORX for most situations and the Deus for challenging sites. Congrats.

HTH

 

[bigtim1973]

I am not trying to come across to anyone to ditch the deus and stick with the orx. I was just giving some of my thoughts on how capable of a unit the ORX is to someone who already has the deus. Only because I know that the deus guys who pick their settings and custom tweak thier machine would not give the ORX a thought.

Also I was curious as to who has used the deus for years and got the ORX and detected with it as to what they thought of it. Thats all really...just a general discussion between the two units.

I appreciate all your input vferrari very much as you have the working knowledge of how the internals of each unit work and whats going on inside of the brain of both units.

I get that very much so. My point is kind of like this.....if something happened to their deus or whatever or reached a point they had to sell their deus and needed the cash and later they wanted another one but could not afford a full blown deus set up.....I believe they would be happy with the ORX.

Yes as you suggested I am going to try and give the pitch a go and see how it does. I have some places lined up but the weather is going to have to break for the cooler wetter kind before I get to go to those places.

 

[bigtim1973]

And also isn't the preset 87-88 ground balance with the phase reading changing when the ground records the phase reading in essence similar to tracking already under normal conditions?? It lets you know if you need to make any adjustments if needed??

 

[vferrari]

I am not trying to come across to anyone to ditch the deus and stick with the orx. I was just giving some of my thoughts on how capable of a unit the ORX is to someone who already has the deus. Only because I know that the deus guys who pick their settings and custom tweak thier machine would not give the ORX a thought.

Also I was curious as to who has used the deus for years and got the ORX and detected with it as to what they thought of it. Thats all really...just a general discussion between the two units.

I appreciate all your input vferrari very much as you have the working knowledge of how the internals of each unit work and whats going on inside of the brain of both units.

I get that very much so. My point is kind of like this.....if something happened to their deus or whatever or reached a point they had to sell their deus and needed the cash and later they wanted another one but could not afford a full blown deus set up.....I believe they would be happy with the ORX.

Yes as you suggested I am going to try and give the pitch a go and see how it does. I have some places lined up but the weather is going to have to break for the cooler wetter kind before I get to go to those places.

I got the ORX and there are some things on it that I like better than Deus regarding the user interface. Performance is the same at the same exact settings. I never it expected it to be any less capable with apples - to - apples settings. Most experienced Deus users know this too and would not be surprised by that fact - it is the expanded settings limitations that would be concerning. If ORX had pitch audio in the coin modes and couple more program slots and +/- program navigation. I would be pretty happy. Being a tad more greedy, tracking GB would probably make it my every day Deus substitute.

Definitely makes a great backup unit, but honestly, I would probably hunt around for a cheap used Deus controller if I was in a bind with a controller failure. If I sold my whole unit - then yeah, I would seriously consider ORX.

Long time Deus user and relic hunter bharping posted several videos here demonstrating just how well the ORX performed vs. the Deus.

And also isn't the preset 87-88 ground balance with the phase reading changing when the ground records the phase reading in essence similar to tracking already under normal conditions?? It lets you know if you need to make any adjustments if needed??

The actual varying phase reading on ORX is simply telling you when you need to do a manual ground grab to bring the detector in balance if it varies from the preset too much (i.e., more than 3 to 5 points) if ground balance is set too high, things will get quiet but you will not know you are losing depth (that is the main usefulness of the constant actual ground phase reading), if ground balance is set too low, you will hear chatter and can adjust as well with a ground grab. Deus can do that automatically on the fly and you can adjust the responsivity of how quickly it does it.

Thanks for sharing your opinions. I think you are going to love having both units and are going to have fun with them.

 

[tektin]

I used to own a Deus and loved it but there were a few things I hated about it at the same time IE the display lay out and a few other small things. When the orx came out, I decided to try it and was pleased to learn that the things I hated were removed. Now I have the Deus I wanted and am very happy with it.

 

[RustyGold]

Not in this incarnation of detectors.

 

[RustyGold]

Not in this incarnation of detectors.

Lately, I have been using my Deus at the beach and I’m becoming more efficient with it and my finds have improved. It fact I like it so much, I bought an ORX to add to the mix. So I’m going to eat my words on the last post.

 

[signal_line]

Obviously the Deus is a more complicated machine and can be set to get deeper targets in some situations. The ORX is primarily a gold nugget machine and was designed around the Depar DPR600. Even the name--"OR" is French for "Gold". It was built more as a lower-budget entry-level detector. And I heard it has been selling much better than expected. Not much difference in the two machines because the coils are the brains and the main difference is in the features provided by the remote control. I heard the gold programs are pretty much identical but again, there are a few different features. Both have a lowered price now. If you own a Deus I see no good reason to buy the ORX. Best to stick with one detector and learn it completely.

 

[Rookster]

Staying with the Deus XP.