Wow!
Just came in from detecting and I see lots of reply's to this.
First and foremost, Let me say that I am not and will never give up on the V3 or V3i machines. They are the best on the market by a long shot!
I am only having a small problem and I am trying to get it resolved. Its just that I have been having so much fun with my V3 that I haven't given it alot of thought lately.
Here is the issue in full detail. I was detecting with the V3i and came upon a dime hit at about 4 inches. When I went to pinpoint, I could see the bars but had no sound. Sometimes it would give sound at first but then it just faded to nothing. I could always see the three frequency bars at all times...no problem with that. Just no audio. I grabbed my V3 from my truck and took it to the spot and pinpointed dead on it without even ground balancing. I dug it and it was a clad dime. Also, there was a nail about an inch deeper in the hole. I know its not anything I am doing wrong and I know its not something I should have to change or balance differently because it doesn't do it on my V3 and all of my settings are the same. I dont use the salt mode.
In my opinion, I think it is loosing its ground balance somehow. I use loctrac because I didn't have much luck with auto trac. I have noticed that I can ground balance and the machine will balance like it should by going quiet and all I have to do is just wait about 15 to 30 seconds and go to ground balance in the same spot again and it makes the woosh sound because its out of balance again. I have quit using a +1 offset, I keep it at zero now. I know whites is busy right now and I am content with keeping it for a while and sending it in later. If I had to use the V3i right now, I would still know that I have the best machine out there, I would just have to get around the pinpointing issue some how. It only does this about once out of about 25 targets.
Please dont anyone give up on the V3i. Its a great machine! I just had the thought that it was going to be so much better than the V3 and in some ways it is but not that much above the V3.
Maybe its better for the users that was having issues with the V3 and they got the V3i which is right and it seemed so much better? Dont know. I would love to go to Sweet home and do some testing and stuff. I have all the time in the world if Whites ever need the help. I would do it just for my love of detecting and the to be of service to great Whites products.