That's interesting and do feel this is what Garrett is doing with the new Voltec 5,7, and the 9 as I do have a 9 and still learning it, but the difference is if you have a 5 and want go to the 7 you can purchase and unload it to your 5 and if you want the 9 from the 5 that can be done too, but will cost more. So it is the basic machine that does good, but you want the extras after you learn it you can unload to the next one. I seen this when I seen a 5 advertised cheaper than that of a 9 that I had and seen they look the same, but don't have all the extras the 9 has. This way you can start out with a 5 and when you want to upgrade you can do it when you can and don't have to trade it off to buy the next one, just upgrade it.
Not a bad idea and sure many different detector brands are made with the same mother board and by just uploading a different program you have just upgraded to the next level of detector.
Rick
Since I think that all 4 of these detectors share the same electronics/internals, pcb, processor, etc., they all should be about equal in depth. Maybe the extra sensitivity of the NOX 900 might let you squeeze out a smidgen more depth, but personally, I'm always decreasing sensitivity, and most video's I watch the guys do the same, usually running between 20 - 23. So personally, I think the X-Terra Elite will/should detect just as deep as the NOX 900, all things being equal, and coming from a Sovereign Elite, I'm not used to having any bells & whistles, lol. That said, I do plan on picking up a NOX 700 in a few months, always like to have a 2nd detector and maybe I'll be able to use a few extra features of the 700 for land hunting and the X-Terra Elite for the beach. For me, on the beach, I prefer the "less is more" approach.
I know you'll understand, but since I've been running a Sovereign Elite for the last 10+ years, I just turn it on, pick a channel, set the discrimination to absolute minimum, set the sensitivity, set the threshold, and I'm off and running. I don't touch the controls again until I'm ready to turn off the detector, so I can't see myself on the beach taking the time to continually push buttons to make adjustments. I like to move fast on the beach and it's a lot easier for me to dig on the beach than on land, so I'm not worried about seriously analyzing every signal. If it sounds good, I'll just grab a few scoops of sand and find out if it's a coin, jewelry, or a pull tab, lol.
But I can see having the 700's extra features when land hunting, as I do take more time to analyze a signal before deciding to drop down and start digging a plug, especially if I'm on a permission. I want to dig less plugs while on land as I don't want the landowner's land to look like a minefield. But on the beach, it doesn't really matter how many holes I dig. I fill them in and by the next morning, the water will have smoothed out the sand and removed any trace that I was there.
But here's the crazy thing, the dirty little secret if you will. If I'm right about those 4 detectors being the same, sharing the same internals & electronics, with the only difference being how the processor is programmed, then it wouldn't really cost Minelab more $ to make the 900, than it would to make the X-Terra Pro. Yeah, the NOX's do have different coils and the graphite shafts, so those might increase the manufacturing cost a bit, but once the code is written to program the processor's software/firmware, they'll just upload that code over and over, rinse and repeat. We typically think it costs a manufacturer more $ to make a more expensive product, but it would be ironic if it costs Minelab the same $ to make an X-Terra Pro that sells for less than $300, as it does to make the NOX 900 that sells for about $1K. Definitely much more profit margin for them with the more expensive models, lol.
