White's M6 or MXT for coin hunting

[silvercoin]

OK, trying to make up my mind here. I mostly search old school yards, parks, old homesteads. Just coin shooting for me. I like finding old coins. White's detectors are nice and I narrowed it down to either a M6 or MXT. Did a little homework on this. I guess the MXT has a program for prospecting, something I don't really do, maybe in the future? And I guess the M6 is basically a coin detector.

Just wanted some thoughts from you MXT owners and maybe some M6 owners. Knowing the kind of detecting I do, which would be a better detector to invest in?

 

[Bowie]

Hiya silvercoin, I use the M6. Its a very fun machine,so easy to use. But dont think its not a serious detector, it can hang with its big brother, the MXT. I cant tell ya which to get, only you can decide that, but either of them and you cant go wrong. Lots of guys out there coin hunting with a MXT. One other thing, and I had personal experience with this; Whites will take care of your machine if something goes wrong, great company and its still in the USA.
Use the search feature from the forum, there has been many post comparing the features and funtions of these two machines. Oh, one other thing, if you can swing it, get a smaller coil for either machine for hunting those nasty spots full of trash.
Good luck,
John

 

[John (Ma)]

The M6 is a great coin machine! We have had one for a year now and it's killer for coins and jewlery. I say save a couple bucks and get the M6 unless you are going to get into relic or prospect hunting. With the money you save, you could get another coil if you wish. However, I think the stock coils do quite well myself.

 

[silvercoin]

Thanks guys for the replies. I went over tho the White's Metal Detecting forum and found lots of info on both machines. Being strictly a coin hunter, I think the M6 is the way to go. Yeah, I'd stick with the stock coil too. Gonna call my White's dealer tomorrow and order one. Let you know which one I picked.

 

[Critterhunter]

I've been running the same questions through my head and came to the conclusion the MXT only offers a notch that I'd want. Don't really need that though since you can notch numbers in your head. I don't need the MXT's prospecting mode and I think it's relic mode is just a re-label of targets as far as I know so that's pointless (never use labels when I have a vdi # to look at). The M6 has more tones but there is a tone mod for the MXT. About the only other feature on the MXT besides the notch that I'd like to see for the M6 is the sensitivity/audio boost mods. I have a hunch both of these machines are mostly just different in software yet share a lot of the same hardware, so it might be possible to do the same mods on a M6? Even think I heard you can turn up the threshold on the M6 via an internal pot if you wanted that. Still, curious if any of the other mods for the MXT will work on it. If they do indeed share much of the same hardware there might even be a notch function hidden away on that M6 board somewhere.

 

[silvercoin]

Made my decision today. Bought a M6. Didn't need the prospecting program. Just wanted a go and get'em coin killer.

 

[Nailbender]

No doubt you will be happy with the M6, I love mine for sure. I have the stock 950 and a 5.3, these coils are a great team but the 5.3 is used the most. Alot of people here love the 6x10 and would never trade it. I'm waiting for a few more reviews on the SEF 6x8 compareing it to the 6x10 on depth and seperation, from what I've read so far I may go for the SEF 6x8 this summer.

 

[Old Katz]

I'd spend the extra money if possible and get the MXT. You never
know when you'll need that prospecting mode and besides the MXT
is a killer in the coin and Jewlery mode.
Katz

 

[silvercoin]

I just wanted a good coin detector. I know the MXT is good for coins, but just wanted a go out and get'em coin killer for parks and schools.

 

[BJ in Okla.]

The M-6 has Tone ID and the MXT does not.
And for hunting coins only, I would pick the M-6 over the MXT.
I had both at the same time, and the M-6 in tone I D, if the tone was not right in sound, it was junk...
I hunted in tone id all the time.
The M-6 and 5.3 coil is a coin getter.
HH...BJ

 

[willy]

The MXT has a notch, but it's fixed and rather useless when hunting in bad ground. As an example, when hunting the other day pulltabs were often reading near high foil and sometimes went into the nickel area.. which is why I don't use the MXT notch function. Of course, you might be hunting over easier ground and it might prove useful. As a coin/jewelry hunter, I found the M6 to be a somewhat 'better' detector.. but I do a lot of nugget hunting and ended up settling with the MXT. ..Willy.

 

[silvercoin]

Thanks guys for our responses. I am even tempted now to get a MXT. But, I am a coin hunter...and think the M6 is more set up in that coin hunter fassion. I am not ot for civil war artifacts...

 

[Critterhunter]

From what I heard the MXT has no better depth and wouldn't have any special ability that the M6 doesn't have for coins or rings. The only special hunting function the MXT has is the prospecting mode. So far as I know relic mode is just a re-label on the screen of targets? You might even say the M6 is the better machine for rings and coins due to it having more tones out of the box. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of this.

 

[Bowie]

First thing to appreciate is that the M6 is based on the MXT 'platform' which means they share the same excellent Auto-Trac circuitry, Discrimination, Gain/Sensitivity and therefore depth and general performance.

They are in a different physical configuration, with the MXT using the rod/grip system like the XLT and DFX, and the M6 is in the more compact 'S' rod design that was popular with the Classic SL series. I like them both.

So, what differences might these be between the two of them?

Search Mode Choices:

M6: Designed especially for the coin hunter, the M6 features a Coin & Jewelry 'mode' similar to the MXT. That is, it is a single-tone audio response. Accepted targets respond with a beep, and rejected targets are not heard. Pretty darn simple. However, the M6 does have an audio option when you flip the trigger-toggle forward that activates a 7-Tone audio ID. You can flip the trigger forward and hunt with Tone ID all the time, or you can just select it when you want a little added audio information about a located target. Personally, I use the Tone ID function sometimes, but definitely not all the time as it can get a bit "busy" in some environments.

MXT: The MXT is the true multi-purpose detector featuring both motion Discriminate operation and All Metal operation. It has three (3) search mode option:

Prospecting, which is an All Metal mode and is supported by a variable S.A.T. (auto-tune) control.

Coin & Jewelry, which is a single-tone audio mode similar to the M6. The difference is that it lacks a Tone ID option. It does provide a level or "notch" rejection for some of the older-style pull-tabs which is factory-set (you can't control it), and is attained by flipping the trigger-toggle forward in this mode.

Personally, I have very little use for this feature because most of the modern pry-tabs on beverage cans tend to 'read' similar to our US 5

 

[Flintstone]

Hi SilverCoin, Look at it like this, if someone offered to sell you a very good gold detector for a $100.00 would you say on, even throw you don,t gold hunt? That is what i was thinking when i got my MXT. I will not go gold hunting, but have went 3 times to Arizona that i didn,t ever think i would get to do. I sure was glad i had me MXT and not a M6. Thank about it. Good Luck Flintstone

 

[silvercoin]

Only gold I search for in my area where I live, is a gold coins or rings. But very happy finding early copper coins or silver coins. If I ever get into more prospecting, relic hunting I'll get a MXT. I'll keep the M6 as a park coin sniper. I really appreciate all the responses I am geting from you fellow TH'ers. Thank you.

 

[John (Ma)]

Congrats on the M6, I am sure you will like it and it will do everything you want and maybe more. You have a fine detector, so go out and have some fun.

 

[silvercoin]

John and everyone else, thanks for the encuragement on my purchase of the M6

 

[Critterhunter]

Based on the more indepth descriptions of the features of the MXT verus the M6 I still see no advantage to owning an MXT over the M6 for coins and rings. In fact, multiple tone alerts is the most important feature for me based on all the machines I've owned over the years. Being able to set discrimination at zero and use my ears to listen for certain tones mixed in with trash is more important to me to avoid target masking than using a small coil for that type of hunting. If I had to pick small coil or tones to hunt in the trash for coins or rings I'll take the tones.

Often on machines with no tones I'd find myself raising the discrimination to keep myself from being distracted from all the trash and iron, resulting in less depth and/or target masking. On the other hand, I don't have to do that with tones and can just listen for certain sounds that stand out from the common trash. While the QXT had only 2 (3 really if using mix mode) tones it is deadly for this type of hunting, but since I've been spoiled by the many tones of my Sovereign GT I'd want at least as many as the M6 has in my next machine. There are tone mods for the MXT but I haven't read what they offer.

After reading about the notch function on the MXT it appears useless and I'd be better off just using a mental notch of certain numbers when needed. That was the main feature that I was interested in because there are times when I simply don't want to hear a certain zone of targets, such as a sea of pulltabs.. Prospecting mode is something only a select few areas of the world would have a use for to gold hunt. The ground matrix feature is interesting, but no more useful to me than setting the ground balance in normal fashion on any machine. So long as you know how to balance a machine properly by ear and adjustment that's all it really takes. Bells and whistles...

 

[Old Katz]

I've owned the MXT for two + years now ans I'm sold on it.
Can't tell you a thing about the M6 but if you bought one I'm sure
you'll be happy with it. Whites machines are well made and hardly a problem
with them, though on ocassion you hear of one or two but thats standard
for most brand machines. You'll love the Customer Service too. They treat their
customer base well.

Have fun and don't forget to post your finds on the Whites forum as.

Katz