Just re registered after a few years of no board activity,so here goes,I am lucky enough to have and use both machines, 3 Excals ,old and new (1-8 in., 2-10 in.) 2 CZ- 20s( 1-8 in., 1-10 in.) , I have thousands of hours on both with about twice as many hours on the Excals, I have used them in both salt (mostly), as well as fresh water, East coast, Hawaii and a few places overseas . Both machines are exellent and will give good feedback with enough time on them and will easily find gold if swung enough, each has it's pluses and minuses under a variety of conditions.As a quick generalization I would say for me the Excal is the better allrounder, but must be mounted on a straight shaft( I use a custom shaft w/ an SD handle so I can adjust and balance the set-up), the CZ has better depth but loves iron( which is a plus if you're after iron relics), it also has weight and balance issues so I frequently hip or chest mount (which means you will have cable breakage probs. after enough hours), I find the 8in. CZ coil loses very little if any depth to the 10 in.,and is a much more practical machine( easier to swing and pinpoint especially in rough surf( I am sending my 10in. back to Fisher to get an 8 in. coil put on). Your location may influence your choice, in Honolulu you can get a CZ to work quite well but ,the Excal doesn't like the mineralization, (I now carry an 8in Detector Pro PI unit for there, which is a great little travel machine) ,on Australian beaches you cannot beat the Excal it also works very well on Jersey beaches, so it pays to talk to as many local detectorists as possible, in Hawaii most use Whites PI units to deal with the mineralization. Also keep in mind battery cost vs rechargable pods (the new Excal II pod is a welcomed upgrade). One of the features I like best on the Excal is that 90% of gold comes in as a high tone, again it depends on the conditions,size ,orientation, depth,karat and shape of the target but, if you dug high tones only you would do well and lose out on very little gold,( Chains, thin 22k,23k, 24k rings can give a more medium tone), and get all the coins as well. I must mention that I do not like the new Koss headphones ,for me they don't have as good a tonal range as the Old Minelab made headphones, so I had Minelab Oz replace them with a set of the old ones I had in stock ( I was told that they are industrial ear protectors that Minelab installed speakers in,very labor intensive, which is why they now use the Koss ones) Again overall I favor the Excal, that said, when I checked my records I have a slightly better gold jewelry strike rate and have found more platinum with the CZs (prob. because I dig all med. tones with the CZ where I sometimes get lazy and only dig high tones on the Excal ) If you decide get a 10 in. Excal make sure it has the newer slimline Tornado coil ,it makes a big difference in swing effort in the water. That's my two cents,either one you pick, use it a lot and I promise there is gold to be had. Good Hunting
