Is It Possible CTX Quality Varies

[SAGITTARIUS]

I now have owned two CTX's. I sold the first one because it seemed to have trouble locking on to a target, even in my test garden. I found a few good coins but I wasn't impressed.. I thought I would go back to the Explorer. Then I got to thinking maybe I didn't give it a chance and bought the second one. With both I used identical settings. My settings are ferrous-coin, auto sensitivity +3, gain 24, fast off, deep on, combined audio, response normal and target trace pinpoint. My current CTX locks on solid, quickly and is not near as jumpy with numbers. In the park and in the test garden there seemed to be a significant difference. Is this possible?

 

[Gonehunting]

You may have had a coil issue and or did you do the update.. both were a problem that I have faced and both corrected the issue...

 

[Larry (IL)]

There is always the possibility........... could have been a coil problem.

 

[ZOFCHAK]

I now have owned two CTX's. I sold the first one because it seemed to have trouble locking on to a target, even in my test garden. I found a few good coins but I wasn't impressed.. I thought I would go back to the Explorer. Then I got to thinking maybe I didn't give it a chance and bought the second one. With both I used identical settings. My settings are ferrous-coin, auto sensitivity +3, gain 24, fast off, deep on, combined audio, response normal and target trace pinpoint. My current CTX locks on solid, quickly and is not near as jumpy with numbers. In the park and in the test garden there seemed to be a significant difference. Is this possible?

I don't have a CTX yet, but I don't doubt that detectors vary quite a bit in performance even among the same models. I've had several Minelab Sovereign GT's over the years and some where noticeably quieter/deeper/etc than others, so I don't see why the same could not be true for the CTX.

 

[SAGITTARIUS]

Both of the CTX's have the updated software. The coil could have been the problem but I am questioning this not only by my experience but that I have noticed recently some long time Minelab people are offering their CTX's for sale. I also talked to two long term E-Trac users and one sold and the other thought the E-Trac was better. How can some make amazing finds and others want to sell?

 

[Gonehunting]

Both of the CTX's have the updated software. The coil could have been the problem but I am questioning this not only by my experience but that I have noticed recently some long time Minelab people are offering their CTX's for sale. I also talked to two long term E-Trac users and one sold and the other thought the E-Trac was better. How can some make amazing finds and others want to sell?

I will be honest, the first week or two, I was beginning to regret getting it.. after some coaching from Digger and some drastic changes to my programs, I was impressed and glad for the purchase.. Now I wouldn't go back to the Trac.. I loved it, but in mho I like the X better.. sold my Trac...

 

[lomoch]

I've got a call into ML to run this very thing by them. I've got a CTX that I cannot get to hit a 12" buried quarter in my test garden. Been there for a while. ET would hit, but only if I put in manual and raised to about 23 or higher. At 23, the ET indicated 12 inches on depth scale, which I thought was pretty damn cool, and indicated some numbers that I would have dug. My CTX can only be run in this same spot in Auto, plus 3. Not even a threshold break. I put in manual, around 18 at highest, still no target and from 19 and up, unusable...way to erratic.
I just don't know how this machine cannot see what the ET did, if this machine is supposed to be much better. I've read to many of these type of posts that I've begun to wonder. I'm selling this unit unless ML calls me back with suggestions/options.

 

[Digger]

suggestion..... if it gets froggy when you boost the manual Sensitivity..... try switching Noise Cancel channels. I've found that by switching channels is some areas, I can pop up the manual sensitivity quite a bit without adversely affecting the stability. JMHO HH Randy

 

[Erik in NJ]

As there should be little to no variance between machines. Defective coil would be the first think I would check.

 

[earthmansurfer]

Both of the CTX's have the updated software. The coil could have been the problem but I am questioning this not only by my experience but that I have noticed recently some long time Minelab people are offering their CTX's for sale. I also talked to two long term E-Trac users and one sold and the other thought the E-Trac was better. How can some make amazing finds and others want to sell?

There are quite a few E-Trac users who sold their E-Tracs and went back to the Explorer II or SE. Everyone has their reasons, primarily though, we are creatures of habit and people often have trouble - or refuse to - adjust to new technology. Hey, I like running 50 CO and not Combine, probably mostly cause I like the sounds (like the E-Trac). A few other users sold their machines due to problems in the surf but other users have seem to have found ways around the falsing.

The sounds on the FBS machines have seem to become more digitized as well and I imagine some like the older and "fuller", more analog sounding machines. I imagine machines will continue to do more for the user (e.g. - digitized sounds with less to them) and the times of really nuanced sounds might be a bit of the past. Who knows, maybe they offer a mode for those older more analog sounding sounds.

But the CTX is better than the E-Trac for me. How much better will take time to see. To be honest, I still think it is very overpriced but price is relative, supply and demand - we pay they build.

Albert

 

[Erik in NJ]

Good post Albert! As memory and hardware become faster and cheaper there is no good reason for less compatibility modes on this machine. In fact an Explorer emulation mode would be quite easy to implement. In "combined mode" one should be able to set rectangles of any size or shape mapped to any available frequency and timbre (we should be able to download various "patches" to borrow terminology from the synthesizer world--or sounds)....limiting it to 4 or 5 is often more work than allowing "n" and same amount of work as allowing 64 or 256. Oh well there is the hope for major software upgrades in the future.

 

[lomoch]

Thanks Digger, but yes, I've tried both auto and manually adjusting channels to squeeze out a little bit of stability. How would check to see if a coil is bad?

Randy

 

[HaroldILL.]

I have that problem with the two E-tracs I have owned. The first one was as smooth as silk. The new one I bought one month ago isn't near as smooth in trash,But a little hotter in open area's. I missed the smoothness of the first one so I bit the bullet and took it to minelab for repair. I hope they can get it like my old one. I guess for now it is back to ole' faithful my CZ-3D. That one is as smooth and deep as ever!