The big choice MXT or XLT

[Digger O Toole]

Ok, which one would you folks buy and why??

My self,, I want something that will do a lot of things, coins to nuggets to relics.
HOWEVER the other half of this partnership is very technology challenged.

I'm leaning toward the XLT, because of it's wide uses and preprogrammed options.

The soil around here has a very high mineral content as well as a lot of black sand.


The sales person thinks that the MXT will be just fine for us.

This is not going to work unless the wife can just turn it on and go!
Thanks

 

[B.RATNY]

I've owned them both, and still hunt with the MXT as my primary machine. I don't have anything bad to say about the XLT I used it for several years and made a lot of great finds. It does take longer to learn but if you have the patients you the machine will serve you well. On the other hand the MXT in my opinion is a much more user friendly machine, there is a learning period, but when you get it all figured out and know what the machine is telling you its amazing what starts popping out of the ground, and at very impressive depths, much more sensitive to small gold items as well. To be honest the only thing I miss about the XLT is the tone ID. But after the finds I've made with with the MXT in the two seasons I've owned it I can say I'm learning to live without it very easily. Just remember the single most important thing I feel with any machine is to learn it inside and out. You can have a piano sitting in your living room but if you don't practice you'll never play Beethoven. Hope this helps.

 

[Butch in Colorado]

....I started out with the XLT. I liked it a lot. It is very versatile and highly configurable. Then the MXT came out, I bought one and my XLT never saw the light of day again. The MXT is definitely a multi use detector. If you are looking to nugget shoot then between the MXT and the XLT you really need to go with the MXT. The detecting technology that is in the MXT is patterned off of (and upgraded) the GMT detector. The MXT is truly a turn on and go, high tech, deep seeking machine. Its ease of use and fast adjustments in the field made me a convert in a hurry.

I found that while using the XLT I was constantly scrolling through the menu options to make tweaks in the field. I felt that I wasted a lot of time tweaking the XLT in the field. That is time away from detecting. With the MXT I can switch from coin to relic to nugget with a flip of a switch and not have to worry about reground balancing the machine with every mode change. You really cannot do that with the XLT or the DFX for that matter.

Pound for pound the MXT rapidly outpaced the XLT for me and after three years I weaned my wife off of the QXT to another MXT that I purchased using the XLT and QXT for a trade in. And now she is also a convert. I really believe that with the areas that you want to detect the MXT would be the way to go.

I have used the MXT for relic hunting and the way that you can switch to the relic mode and actually see the VDI identify a button or a bullet or, hopefully a buckle is well worth the price of admission.

And one more thing. The MXT is more sensitive to gold nuggets than the XLT is. The difference between 14 Khz and 6 Khz may not seem all that much but the 14 Khz tends to ping on gold better than the lower frequency XLT.

Good luck with whatever you decide to use. Both are very good machines.

 

[Jim McCulloch]

Digger, since you mentioned nuggets and relics, then the MXT is the better choice. Hope this helps; HH jim

 

[Monte]

The first XLT's had version 1.0 software but that was quickly revised to the version 1.1 software that is still used today. It really doesn't matter which version it is, anyway, because the key to using the XLT successfully is to master the unit. Know the strengths and shortcomings of the various adjustment features & functions. Then, once you master an understanding of the XLT, you simply set it up with a program that will work well for you for a wide variety of sites you're likely to hunt. Basically, you set it up to be as 'hot' and 'responsive' as possible, and use the best coil for the task(s) at hand. This is just exactly what you would do with any other make or model!

The problem with the XLT is, perhaps, that too many people think that you HAVE to tinker with a lot of adjustments on it. This is not correct! Nor is it correct to think that because the MXT has only a few manual adjustments that it is easy to use anywhere. The MXT is easier to use than the XLT in some ways, but not necessarily an easier unit to get to like or feel comfortable with.

Regardless of the make or model detector a person chooses, it is equally important to select at least one, and possible two accessory search coils to compliment the stock coil. Keep this in mind when narrowing down the unit you might want and the applications you have for it. Now, to you post:

"OK, which one would you folks buy and why?".... I bought my first XLT back in 1994 just after they were released. I bought it because it was lighter and better balanced than the early Spectrum, and I prefer to use AA batteries. I have owned fifteen XLT's since then, selling one earlier this year I had bought last winter, and then buying #16 just this August.

Why have I sold them, you might ask. Often it is to buy something else to try out, and sometimes it is because I know that they do not provide all the depth and performance I would like to have. Sometimes thru the last six years or so I have parted with the XLT for a 6000 Pro XL or the renamed XL Pro because I know I can get depth and p[performance that might even be better than the XLT. I love a good working XL Pro.

But on hot summer nights I like to night hunt a lot of sites due to the daytime heat, and I enjoy the backlight feature of the XLT. Also, with 'dark-o-clock' hours soon upon us in the evening after work, the night-light can get some time in.

More importantly, I bought this last XLT planning on it being my last XLT. Oh, I said that same thing with the last four or five of them, but I mean it this time because I have some other detectors in my arsenal that compliment the XLT, and I use the XLT mainly as my 'cruising unit' for working wide-open sites.

"My self,, I want something that will do a lot of things, coins to nuggets to relics.
HOWEVER the other half of this partnership is very technology challenged.".... There are some things each of these two models can do better than the other. They both have their own strengths and weaknesses, but you have to be willing to accept the trade-offs and appreciate the good that you can get out of a particular make/model detector and then compliment its performance by owning a second (or third) detector.

The XLT & MXT "can do a lot of things", and I like some of the features that both provide for coin hunting and serious relic hunting. Let me just state here that both of these terms are a little vague, or can be, unless the individual clarifies what their define "coin hunting" and "relic hunting" to be.

Now, when you add "nugget hunting" to the mix, then I will have to say that I would prefer an MXT with a 4

 

[UK Brian]

I go with Monte's comments. I rarely go to areas where I could nugget hunt so the MXT went and the XLT stayed. I prefered the old slimline Spectrum to the XLT (except for the weight). When the XLT first came out I bought one and have kept it ever since using other machines for difficult sites like an industrial river foreshore or on wet sand. Though I have several other machines its the XLT that still gets the most use for land sites.
One thing its not to happy with is light ,fluffy dry soil. Works but a machine such as the Classic has the edge in those conditions.