Video: Quick Test on Garrett ATX vs Minelab GPX 5000

[bearkat4160]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wtsUv8pMko

 

[lytle78]

Now you've gone and done it!

Sooner or later somebody would have to pull out their GPX 5000 and test it somehow against the new ATX. It is of course the beginning of the answer to the question everyone is asking. Can this upstart Garrett PI substitute for the GPX 5000 for gold seekers in the US?

Steve Herschbach recently wrote in his thread about the ATX:

"But can I look a newbie in the eye and swear he needs to spend $5795 when $2120 may serve him or her just as well? Tough call there for sure because it is all about arguing price/performance ratios and you can argue that question all day long. I honestly believe your average Joe Blow not so serious nugget hunter is just as well off with a decent VLF nugget detector as a PI in the U.S. so what does that say? It will all sort out in time."

Thanks for being the first to present data on this most interesting question. I'm sure lots will follow.

 

[steve herschbach]

As Steve Herschbach wrote in a post on the ATX forum at http://www.findmall.com/read.php?96,1983695:

"But can I look a newbie in the eye and swear he needs to spend $5795 when $2120 may serve him or her just as well? Tough call there for sure because it is all about arguing price/performance ratios and you can argue that question all day long. I honestly believe your average Joe Blow not so serious nugget hunter is just as well off with a decent VLF nugget detector as a PI in the U.S. so what does that say? It will all sort out in time."

It is the $3675 question to be precise.

I now have an ATX I am testing but more to reassure Garrett that they did not miss anything than to sell the unit. I am not a dealer and have nothing to gain in it selling or not. My motivation is trying to do anything I can to put more options in people's hands. By that I really mean I want more and better detectors for myself. I think there is plenty of room for innovation with PI detectors and underwater detectors in particular. So far I am quite satisfied and happy with the ATX for my own uses and I know it will do just fine in the US goldfields. However, so far I have been using it to hunt coins in bad ground and to water hunt for jewelry. I will get out prospecting with it soon. The ATX is a very refined detector and if Minelab did not exist people would be falling all over themselves to declare it the best ground balancing PI on the market. The reality is Minelab has a huge lead and key patents in place making it very difficult if not impossible to match them in sheer overall performance. Most people with top end Minelabs can just go on about their business and ignore the fuss.

However, in the US, in our milder ground and our generally small gold, the ATX will indeed provide Minelab with some serious competition because it is so much less expensive than a GPX 5000. It does very well on the gold most people are likely to find here. It is very, very well behaved with superb EMI resistance and threshold stability that matches or even exceeds a GPX. If I talk to a new person in the US who wants to get into prospecting and money is no object, I just tell them to get a GPX 5000. I do still believe it is the best option for the serious prospector and it will remain my primary prospecting detector. However, for most people money really does count. After using the ATX for a couple days now I would have a hard time telling that new person that the extra $3675 for a GPX (GPX $5795 vs ATX $2120 in US) is absolutely necessary. In the US the ATX will find most of the gold my GPX finds. In fact, a Gold Bug Pro will find most of the gold my GPX finds! I believe the prospector makes the finds, not the detector. I can make any detector look good because I place myself in good locations and I hunt very hard. I am good with detectors in general and can squeeze what performance any has out and find some gold. My best nugget this summer so far weighs 6.5 ounces and was found with a GPX 5000, because that is what I was using. But if I was using a $99 Radio Shack detector I would have still found that nugget. I was just the first person to ever put a coil over that square foot of Mother Earth. There is still plenty of gold like that left in the US and the ATX will find it as well as anything else if not better.

Whether the ATX makes inroads with serious prospectors remains to be seen but do do not sell the detector short. In good hands it can and will find gold. For that to happen though good prospectors will need to use it, however, and most serious prospectors are already married to their Minelab. The price difference and performance delivered for that price will make a difference only to people new to the game looking for that first PI detector. It was a mistake for Minelab to drop the SD series in the US and leave the $2000-$3000 price range open to whoever wants to take it, and it looks like Garrett is willing.

Just so nobody misunderstands me though let me say again - in my opinion the Minelab GPX 5000 represents the state of the art in pulse induction prospecting detectors. If a person is quite serious about electronic prospecting and can afford it, just get one. If you take the Minelab models totally out of the equation, things rapidly get more complicated. The Garrett ATX is probably the best non-Minelab option in a PI detector at this time for prospecting. But I do believe the White's TDI is still in the running, for even less money than the ATX. And when it gets into price performance ratios and what detector will return the most gold per dollar expended I seriously have to throw good VLF detectors into the mix. There really, really are places in the United States where a $649 Gold Bug Pro will do just as well as a $5795 GPX 5000. Because at the end of the day it is all about the prospector using the detector, not the detector itself. I can grab a new person, give them a GPX 5000, and take them someplace and me run a decent VLF nugget machine, and I am seriously willing to bet I find more gold. I am not trying to brag, just pointing out a very real truth about detectors and what gets found and why.

The debate will never end because it has no clear answer. I can tell you right now how it will play out though. Most serious guys out there with Minelabs will just go right on using them. You will not see Minelab owners ditching them and using the ATX instead. Some, like myself, will want an ATX also simply because it is waterproof, or to deal with EMI the GPX cannot handle. Many new prospectors may very well opt for the ATX because for many people $5795 is just too much money to spend and there is a huge gap in the price to go that next step up. I think the relic guys are going to love the ATX as will quite a few beach hunters. The ATX is a great detector at a great price and will serve a lot of people well if they apply themselves to it. I am going to do very well with mine, thank you very much. If I can, so can others.

 

[bearkat4160]

Yep; I done started a fight! Lol -

 

[godigit1]

That's a great reply Steve,

Like you say price is a issue for most people so I ask this do you think it would be worth it to trade in a SD2200v2 for one? The v2 has docs amp the pocket rocket the ground bal mod and 5 coils, it was a bad set up at one time(2002s best) and is still more than capable of finding gold if put over it.
But would a persons time be more productive with the newer Atx having a more stable threshold? If you could only have one or the other what would you do? Speaking just of the SD series!

Cool you say you have been water hunting with it? Have you by chance tested it on the Tahoe black sand beaches?
This is one of the reasons it interests me as well is its water and Urban capability.
One particularly bad beach is Zephyr. There is three and 4 inch thick lenses of pure magnetite mixed with decomposed granite sand . Most VLF detectors just overload with any kind of sensitivity enough to detect small gold jewelry.
On the point area where the weddings and pictures always happen that area was very bad last time I was there.
Ive only found one piece of jewelry there a old 40s clip on silver earring and the only reason the G2 got it was it had freshly crumbled out of a bank on the edge of the beach and was just under the surface.
I cant say for sure but some of the beaches seem eerily clean and I think its more due to masking both silent and by coil straight out overload.
thousands of people play in some of these spots and your hard pressed to find a penny or a ball of foil for that matter.

I appreciate that you have no hidden agendas and thanks for being a straight shooter.


Jim

 

[steve herschbach]

I was at Sand Harbor which is probably one of the easier beaches on Tahoe. Wind blown sand so not as high a percentage of black sands.

Whether you would want to go from an SD2200v2 to an ATX depends strictly on where and what you are hunting for. I still have faith in the Minelabs for max depth on big gold. For smaller stuff the ATX would be as good as or better than the SD. If you want the ability to work in the water, pretty obvious answer. I think the ATX is the perfect detector for Tahoe.

 

[godigit1]

Thanks Steve,
That's what I wanted to hear!
Let us know if you hit some of the harsher beaches and how it does.
What Kind of depth were you finding articles at on the beach with the Atx so far?
If you do go to Zephyr and you have a second please if you can put a gram sized nugget in the black sand and see if it hits it.
If it can handle those sands and still hit a small nugget I gotta have one. I have some magnetite patches with gold mixed in at 8000 feet but there is fist sized balls of hematite as well and, so far I have only gotten the gold hauling dirt 23 miles to water.
Really rough on the truck!!!

Thanks
Jim

 

[Gold Nuggets]

Yep; I done started a fight! Lol -

I don't think you started a fight Alan....you showed some differences between the 2 machines and Steve basically agreed but said the same thing in just a little different way as I understood it. Expence is definitely a consideration between the Minelab and the Garrett. Both are good machines for gold prospecting, so it boils down to Where you want to hunt, How you use the machine and How much you can spend to find the smallest size gold you are willing to accept. Anyway you look at them, both are good detectors in the right circumstances and in the right hands. Thanks to both of you guys for shedding some light on both detectors.

 

[bearkat4160]

Factory setting for the threshold is 7, which is dead quiet...bump it up a bit results in louder threshold but not in more power, which is oposite of the Infinium. If it is set to audible, it is very smooth.

Bearkat

 

[bearkat4160]

GPX 5000 has a slight edge on deeper bigger gold and even more with all the different coils. BUT, a big BUT...I would like to see the 20" coil for the ATX in action on deep gold vs the 5000. I do not have that big coil.
But even stock coil to stock coil the Minelab has advantage of about 10% on a 17" 4 oz lead sinker. ATX gets a bit closer to the 5000 in Non-Motion Mode on said target.

Bearkat

 

[calibil]

I know that was a quick comparison, but how about putting the gold samples on that iron patch nearby

 

[Hobo lobo]

The ATX coil sure doesn't look like a DD

 

[bearkat4160]

Will do very soon!

 

[bearkat4160]

Special design DD by the Garrett guys...

 

[Night Crawler]

Great video and comments from both you and Steve bearkat4160, thanks.

 

[Hoser John]

No fight here--just man vs machine--and the machine ain't worth a thang unless it has a good dedicated man running it. There are MANY decent and great machines that cost a fortune as $5,000++ but if the proper training, time effort and dedication not applied it's a moot point. The mediocre units of today are MUCH better than any unit made just a few short years ago. As engine run mining is banned/restricted/outlawed detectors have indeed become a MUCH larger part of the market and the technology and cost wars are on and I for 1 think it's great. Gotta agree with Steve--man makes the machine sing or NOT-John