Metal dectectors - you get what you pay for?

[mykaitch]

I have spent some time looking at different models,ie schematics and features. One thing stands out; essentially they are all the same.
Okay, a Lada engine is basically the same as a Ferrari engine, in principle.
If we consider VLF for the sake of discussion, coil design and circuity will be very similar because that is how it is done.
A TV can only receive a digital signal if it has been designed to do that. So why are some models less than £100 and some over £1000.
Who is fooling who ? At the high end you can expect better quality components, better build, signal to noise, filtering and gizmos - for sure.
A low cost model can work just as well, particularly if it is fettled a little. You won't get a pretty display and multiple tones etc but they won't
make you any better at working your instrument. It so happens that I am into cars and I choose to drive mine because of build, gizmos etc, and,
sorry to admit, its badge. If I were a bit obsessed with my detector I might well buy the most expensive - because it is. I wanted the challenge of
building my own (or rather a copy of the umaxII) , now I plan to add a display and a micro -for fun and because I can - but neither will make much difference
to what was a good design to start with.
The coil has to be good and I can understand spending a bit there - a cheap badly made coil is useless, but why is a decent coil £100, £200? Its a few turns of
wire in a round box. Likewise the electronics, thirty quids worth tops on average. There is a lot of money to be made from our hobby.
As with all things, the price is what the customers will pay and it is unfortunate that we will pay a lot.

[Waikiki_Sweep]

Sure price mostly tells nothing. Some really overpriced machines may be replaced with cheaper and even better detectors.

Not that dentist is best who keeps highest prices and pays for TV ads.

But some very expensive detectors can let you to go few inches deeper, find smaller targets or read target ID more precisely.
Other side, you can buy that expensive machine with big but crazy heavy coil and you will end-up with fatigue and arthritis.

First of all you have to understand for what you will hunting for: small nuggets in high mineralization ground, gold jewelry on surf, quarters on beach, rare coins and relics in some rural area, militaria items 2m. deep.
Sure you need proper gun for proper job. Many beginners not knowing that and using wrong machine.

Regarding what to build, if you going to use your detector, so build machine that fits your task, if you can.

Some people building detectors for fun or even for sale but rarely using it for hunt.

Other task is to build detector that fits your requirements better because you just can not find such machine to buy.

For example, I build my detectors because:
1. no company offering hydrodynamically shaped detectors to prevent drag in water.
2. no company offering such a light weight design that I can make at home using fiberglass.
3. no company has an idea to add MP3 player into metal detector functionality.
And sure I can fix, upgrade, rebuild my machine in few hours and without ship it into service center and waiting weeks to get it back.

[golfnut]

I agree with a lot of that. You can make a basic machine from the early 90s get some decent results with a good coil, set up and canny use.

With a top end machine, anybody can turn on and play. Some top end kit like the 3030 is deep - but has a big coil.

As sites are becoming less productive, older kit has its limitations I feel. People dont get a lot with basic cheap kit now. A lot of time in uk you miss small targets close to iron. Some modern kit will ring out a cut half next to a large medieval nail - things like tesoro, IDX, would not sound.


So with better kit there is an advantage, case in point is deus. Experienced club people (20 years doing it) have owned all of it and when they open their wallet to Alain - they normally start singing the deus's praise and forget about all of their old kit.

Modern kit often the GB is set for you, the depth is a little more, sweep speed/recovery rates can be higher, lighter, higher frequency 15-18k rather than 6k - so SEE smaller items well like 1/4 staters, clipped medieval silver etc


As for pricing - sure theres money to be made. In defence it costs plenty to design a new machine, tooling, software development and test, fcc approvals, maybe RTTE, CE etc.


Coils are a nice earner I agree