Steve,
Your post generates more questions for me than it does answers.
"What do you think of the QXT for a park and school coin and ring shooter."... It's 'OK' but not my pick for a few reasons.
I got to play with the Quantum II and Quantum XT when they were in their prototype stage and I was somewhat impressed, but I also saw what I considered to be a weakness. Two, as a matter of fact. The two main things that bothered me were their lack of variable Discrimination adjustment and sweep speed.
Discrimination: You have eight [8] segments or notches or bands, whatever you choose to call them, and they can either be accepted or rejected. No fine tuning there.
Sweep Speed Requiremnt: I found the two Quantums, and the QXT Pro which was just a renaming of the Quantum XT about five years ago, to be very sweep speed dependant. By that I mean that these slow-sweep, two-filter models required a more deliberate, controlled sweep speed and were not very forgiving if you swept too fast or too slow, especially in highly mineralized parks and other sites around here.
The Quantum series were slow sellers that just didn't go over well. I borrowed and used them but they never impressed me enough to buy one, even though they could be had fairly cheap as many dealers wanted to dump them so their $$$ wasn't tied up.
"I live in Portland, OR."... This area is where I have spent over half of my life, and I was living here in Portland (then outside of Portland) going to David Douglas HS when I got started in metal detecting back in March of '65.
If you've been hunting all the area around here long enough, you're well aware of some of the challenging ground we get to deal with!
"Right now I use my compass x70 and x80."... How long have you been using them? If you got them back about twenty-some years ago when they were first out, then you ought to know them well! Allan Cannon was probably the most talented person I know of when it came to getting the most out of those first two Compass Challengers.
"They pinpoint like a dream."... That they did, and to be honest, I find that most quality designed and built models will pinpoint rather well. I haven't had problems pinpointing with most of the White's and Compass and Tesoro and Troy and even Garrett and Minelab and other models I have used. Unless a model lacks a 'traditional' All Metal pinpoint mode, or has a quirky, too-fast autotune speed, pinpointing is usually not a problem.
"But they are getting tired. Time to send them in for a tuneup."... I am sure that by now they are getting tired, and in some ways outdated performance wise. But your comments make me ask why you would consider paying to have them serviced and brought up to 'spec' as well as be shopping for a newer model? I can tell you that I doubt that the cost would be cheap, or even reasonable for most of us, and you might not have the same performance as what you've enjoyed through the years. That's also if service is still being done.
If they are working well enough to warrant your outlay of cash for a tune-up, then what is it in the way of performance that you feel is lacking that you are looking for out of a QXT?
"Looking for a machine that will work like my compass x machines."... Well, that would either be a new-in-the-box Challenger X-80, or a properly serviced X-80 that's brought uop to 'spec.' I doubt that you're going to find the still new-in-the-box unit, and honestly question any service on this dated model.
My personal pick was the Challenger X-100 which I used a good deal, especially when I worked for Compass. weight and balance and required sweep speed caused them to be too heavy, too awkward to use in brushier ghost towns and 'bushwhacking' up at Mt. Tabor, and I got better performance in-the-field from some of he slower-sweep, two-filter models and that was the direction I went.
I was also impressed with the 5900 Di Pro SL I was using in '93 & '94, and around here it worked better than my Challenger had.
So, I guess the main question I have at this point is this. What is it in the way of perfoprmance that you want to get out of a newer model? How can a newer detector "work like my x machines" in order to satisfy you?
"And also pinpoint like them."... That's the easy part.
"I like the beep over the coin."... Do you mean you like the audio tone when sweeping over coins, or are you referring to a quick-response, and fast-recovery such that in the motion Disc. mode you get a rapid target response?
"How about the garrett master hunter?"... Pass! I have had my best all-around performance from the Garrett Scorpion Gold Stinger than any of the other Garrett models produced in the last twenty years. More manual control provides better handling of our bad-ground environments.
"My compass would be a non motion discriminating detector?"... Yes, IF you are hunting in the TR-Disc. mode. The GB-Disc. mode is a motion-based Discriminate mode. You can control the sweep speed to a degree, but it comes at a price.
Questions? MonteVB@comcast.net
Monte
