Is there a honest way to prove a machine is worth more than 1000 than another

[sprailroad]

Any machine can find the easy targets. It takes a good machine to find hard targets. It takes one of the top of the line machines to find the really challenging targets. As has been said, you are paying for performance.

I agree with you Jeff, but there IS also the human factor. We all have heard about detectors that have been put in the closet and forgotten, the owners saying, "Must be something wrong with it, only found a couple of pennies and the rest junk". If fact I have a brother in Michigan who is like that. For me fella's, it's 1/3rd machine, 1/3 the operator, and 1/3rd luck. Say what you will, good, bad, either way it's OK. I view it that way to keep it simple.

 

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[FreeBirdTim]

I figure if I can afford it why not get the best, and learn it.

Just because they charge you the most for their detector doesn't make it the best.

 

[Cobradude22]

This gold pocket watch fob in my hand, or chatelaine, is my absolute best find hands down. It was found using my ACE 400 right when I entered the hobby. Totally screwed myself for a banner opportunity, but it is what it is. The equinox has never found anything near this cool. It’s all about where that coil swings.

 

[pepperj]

Just because they charge you the most for their detector doesn't make it the best.

Well it's just one of those things that some will never know.
Mid range everything suits them fine, and that's ok.
They have no knowledge of what a high performance machine is actually.
(Well maybe they actually do from the chair, viewing pictures of finds, and videos.)
Kind of like some local yokels all worldly of views of other cultures and things. Yet they've never traveled out of the holler.

 

[Gare]

The best machine for someone to use is a machine he or she COMPLETELY UNDERSTANDS !!! LEARN YOUR MACHINE !!!!!
When you ask a question like this you have NO IDEA HOW WELL THE USERS KNOW there machines !!!

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Mid range everything suits them fine, and that's ok.
They have no knowledge of what a high performance machine is actually.

I can buy a $200,000 sports car, but it won't make me a better driver. Same goes for metal detectors. If you don't have the intelligence, skill and patience, your more expensive detector means jack squat.

My track record speaks for itself. Over 50 large coppers, six 1700's half reales, drawers full of colonial shoe buckles and flat buttons, 1824 capped bust half dollar, 1787 Fugio cent, 1723 Rosa Americana, 1785 bar cent and so on.

As I've stated before, you can't buy your way into this hobby. You have to pay your dues, do research and have the skill to find the good stuff. Your Deus II is worthless if the coins and relics aren't where you're detecting.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

The best machine for someone to use is a machine he or she COMPLETELY UNDERSTANDS !!! LEARN YOUR MACHINE !!!!!
When you ask a question like this you have NO IDEA HOW WELL THE USERS KNOW there machines !!!

Correct. Buying the latest and greatest detector every few months means you will always be an average detectorist. You need to spend hundreds of hours with the same machine to master it.

 

[Cobradude22]

I can buy a $200,000 sports car, but it won't make me a better driver. Same goes for metal detectors. If you don't have the intelligence, skill and patience, your more expensive detector means jack squat.

My track record speaks for itself. Over 50 large coppers, six 1700's half reales, drawers full of colonial shoe buckles and flat buttons, 1824 capped bust half dollar, 1787 Fugio cent, 1723 Rosa Americana, 1785 bar cent and so on.

As I've stated before, you can't buy your way into this hobby. You have to pay your dues, do research and have the skill to find the good stuff. Your Deus II is worthless if the coins and relics aren't where you're detecting.

I completely agree with you about the detector knowledge. But don’t forget that you live on the East Coast. You will find way more cool items than someone in say, Illinois. You guys from the east coast absolutely kill it. You don’t find stuff like that around here, even if you know the detector. And then we have the people from Europe….. I don’t even want to talk about it 😂

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Yup, the UK guys toss KG coppers in a bucket with the other trash. No big deal to them!

 

[sprailroad]

In Oregon, 1/2 cents? Large cents?, Rev. War, 1812, Civil War, etc. A bit slim for that stuff here.

 

[pepperj]

I can buy a $200,000 sports car, but it won't make me a better driver. Same goes for metal detectors. If you don't have the intelligence, skill and patience, your more expensive detector means jack squat.

My track record speaks for itself. Over 50 large coppers, six 1700's half reales, drawers full of colonial shoe buckles and flat buttons, 1824 capped bust half dollar, 1787 Fugio cent, 1723 Rosa Americana, 1785 bar cent and so on.

As I've stated before, you can't buy your way into this hobby. You have to pay your dues, do research and have the skill to find the good stuff. Your Deus II is worthless if the coins and relics aren't where you're detecting.

Was that last years totals?

 

[dave_e]

You buy what you enjoy using.

100% this!!!!

It's become much more important to me as I get old.
I don't smoke cigars that I don't enjoy.
I don't drink liquor I don't enjoy.
I don't spend time with people I don't enjoy.
I don't eat food that I don't enjoy.
I don't swing a detector that I don't enjoy.

Life is to short to spend your remaining minutes on things that don't make your life enjoyable.
Buy what you enjoy using.

 

[49er12]

for me detecting in Ohio and Pennsylvania, I’m not just an open park or field person, I also go into the woods to find old foundations dating back to 1800s or so. So nothing is 100% however a machine that helps senates iron, nails per se certainly helps. I like to find nonferrous relics too so I don’t want to eliminate iron completely. Oldest coins we’ve found 1830 something. Brass eagle pommel, knights Templar pin top relics. Many hours needless to say. A lot of folks think finds are quick and immediate well to really, alot of foil, can slaw etc. you have to go over a place multiple times because some coils small and cone shape detection, chances to miss are high. So if you don’t have time or patience this hobby may not be for you and your selling your machine, my opinions

 

[pepperj]

for me detecting in Ohio and Pennsylvania, I’m not just an open park or field person, I also go into the woods to find old foundations dating back to 1800s or so. So nothing is 100% however a machine that helps senates iron, nails per se certainly helps. I like to find nonferrous relics too so I don’t want to eliminate iron completely. Oldest coins we’ve found 1830 something. Brass eagle pommel, knights Templar pin top relics. Many hours needless to say. A lot of folks think finds are quick and immediate well to really, alot of foil, can slaw etc. you have to go over a place multiple times because some coils small and cone shape detection, chances to miss are high. So if you don’t have time or patience this hobby may not be for you and your selling your machine, my opinions

". I like to find nonferrous relics too so I don’t want to eliminate iron completely."
We all try for the nonferrous items. The ferrous-iron targets are very unique many times. Tools, gun parts, cast toys.
It's the separation aspect that seperates many machines.
Many people just don't know actually what they are missing at a site, many machines perform at a certain level and that's it

 

[godisnum1]

Well, I'm not going to try to convince anyone of anything... only share my path since first getting into metal detecting (through T-Net) many, many years ago. I will say that regardless of the detector used (or money spent on it), a majority of how you view your detector & abilities start with the location you're detecting on. If it's a trashy park, a majority of your finds will be trash. Same for a historical area, or a really popular beach area.

So I started with an old White's IDX Pro that was gifted to me by an old member here on T-Net by the name of Grizzley Bare. I used that machine for about 15 years and did really well with it in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama and down here in Florida.

At some point during that time, I bought a used Minelab Explorer XS with Sunray coil, headphones & in-line pinpointer. Other than being super heavy, I absolutely *loathed* the sounds that Minelab machines made (still do, actually). I didn't get a ton of use out of that machine, so it basically collected dust until I gifted it to someone.

A few years back, I wanted to upgrade to a brand new machine and was financially in the position to do so. I did a LOT of homework on the current manufacturers (R.I.P. White's & Tesoro) and the current detectors on the market. I kept coming back to this company named Nokta Makro (now Nokta Detection Technologies) out of Turkey. I knew I wanted an all-around machine that was fully waterproof/submersible, so I settled on the Nokta Anfibio Multi. It was a GREAT machine, especially for relic hunting! I bought waterproof Gray Ghost Amphibian 2 headphones and could go out in the water like I wanted. However, the only drawback from that selectable single-frequency machine became VERY evident at our saltwater beaches... it was not very stable in or around saltwater, though I could manually ground balance to zero and lower the sensitivity to make it work. I kept going with my Anfibio for a couple of years.

Going back to last year (2022), Nokta finally released their first Multi-Frequency machine (The Legend) to compete against the Minelab Equinox 800 (known by everyone for the leaking & breaking issues for about 4 years)... but the Legend was at a fraction of the cost. Being that this was a Multi-Frequency machine, I already knew that it would be MUCH more stable in & around saltwater... so I planned on saving up to upgrade. I bought my first Legend Pro Pack last summer (2022) and immediately was SUPER impressed with it! In the meantime, Nokta listened to the feedback from their customers & testers, and released several software updates to give us certain features we wanted to see (or see changed), as well as patching a few minor bugs that popped up. These updates only made this affordable machine even better. After using my Legend for about 6 months, I was convinced that this was the best machine I've personally ever used. I decided to sell off my old Anfibio Multi, donate another new detector to my pastor... and purchase a SECOND Nokta Legend WHP as a backup machine. I did just that.

Now I'll admit that though the Nokta machines are amazing... do they have their faults? Sure. I've yet to see or use a detector that hasn't fallen short in some aspect. But the issues I've experienced have been minor EMI issues and other small stuff that honestly, wouldn't make me regret spending the money I did on them. It's not the same, to me, as major issues like leaking head units, breaking coil tabs, or breaking arm cuffs. These things would be an absolute deal-breaker for me, and likely cause me to ditch that company and their low-quality products. Instead, I've been REALLY happy with my choice to use Nokta's machines and back a company that listens to their consumer base and makes changes based on that feedback. They've already announced a new PI machine that they're working on, which I'm sure I'll probably look at adding that to my collection when it releases. But that's my personal take & experience in this hobby over the last 18 years. And I'm hopefully looking forward to many years to come... 🙏🏽

Bran <><

 

[boogeyman]

EVERYTHING depends of the person using the machine. I have seen, up close and in person, somebody who was in tune with his cheaper machine embarrass the britches off of somebody who was not in tune with his $3000 machine.

EXACTLY! Case in point. Quite awhile back we hunted with an ole boy who was swinging an old BFO he'd hunt circles around us. One of offered him a new VLF machine free. He turned it down saying "I already know what this one's tellin me why learn it all again". That's the problem, most people don't learn their machines before they're off buying another with more useless bells & whistles.

 

[Willee]

Metal detectors are much like audio equipment in that after a certain price point you need lab equipment to measure the difference. However, even if they can not hear the difference (they swear they can) there are those that will pay out thousands of dollars to get that extra bit of quality and bragging rights with their audio friends.
Will the $600 Equinox 600 detect deeper and find more stuff that the $1600 Manticore ... it could is some circumstances and under certain conditions.
Generally ... the Manticore should be detecting deeper targets with a stronger report.
Is that extra inch or so worth paying $1000 extra to get ... if you think it is then it is.
Your money ... your choice ... I will not judge.
If I could comfortably afford top end stuff I would buy them also.
I have used Multi-Freq and broad band tech Minelab machines for many years and I do like them for the stability around salt water and their ability to detect deep.
I have detecting friends that can not stand the tones they make and would not own one if they were free.
We all have just as much fun no matter what detector we prefer.