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X-terra50 vs. Matrix M-6

J

jcooking

New member
Hello all,
Have been reading some very helpful posts on each of these detectors. I am new to this hobby, and have used friends detectors a few times, and it is time to buy my own. I will be using it primarily for coin shooting and general relic hunting. I think I have it narrowed down between the Mine lab X-terra 50 and White's Matrix M-6. The people on this site seem to have a wealth of knowledge and any input on comparing these detectors would be very appreciated by a newcomer.
Thanks!!
jcooking
 
Hello jcooking,

Between the two, would go with the M6 and use the 6X9" DD coil rather than the stock 950 coil. Or, For a few $$$ more go with the MXT and again go with a 6X9" DD coil.

The MXT has more features which eventually you'll use, Good luck and keep us posted.

HH, Paul (Ca)
 
I don't know anything about the Xterra 50, but I can tell you that the M6 is an excellent machine. I have mine for about 10 months and just enjoy using it. It goes real deep, works inland as well as in the wet salt sand at the beach. I have found more gold jewelery with the M6 than with all my other detectors combine. It also has a wealth of after market coils that the Xterra does not have. HH
 
out of the two you mentioned the M6 would be my choice. It doesn't have the notching ability the 50 has but you can visually notch very easy with the large display on the m6. m6 pinpoints dead center every time. more coils. is that your budget- $500.00?
 
but i had an X-Terra 50 for a few months and it has some very nice features such as notch disc,all metal ID, 4 tone id. It has a quick target recovery speed and seemed to have good depth and was lightweight. I was awaiting the smaller coil or coils for the different frequencies and since i hunt many trashed areas and prefer smaller coils. I can't say there was anything inherently annoying about the X Terra that would cause me to sell it other than the lack of small coils.I may get another one when small coil options are added .

I traded my X Terra 50 towards an M6 and very satisfied with the choice as i was overloaded with lower 5khz and 6.5khz detectors anyway and the single frequency 14khz M6 with all the Whites coils and aftermarket selections seemed to be a more logical choice to me. I'm getting comfortable using the 7 tone ID with 0 disc setting and small coil at the trashiest sites and very happy with the results.

The M6 feels a bit heavier than the X Terra but not much and is nicely balanced, has excellent ground balance system and with tracking ,lock or salt mode, outstanding coil selection,very quick recovery speed and absolutely simple operation but very effective. HH Bill
 
Jcooking, I have had the M6 for a few months now and I really like it. Like Khouse mentioned it has everything a coin/jewlery hunter could ask for except the notch feature available on the Terra 50. Most will tell you it doesn't need a notch as Good gold jewlery will ID in the iron-PT range anyway. But for some of us, the M6 with notch would be the icing on the cake, especially when just coin shooting.

Biggest downfall of the Terra50,in my opinion, is no small coils are available. If your going to use it mainly for coin shooting then you have to have a machine with small coil selection. Most of us hunt coins in parks, schools and playgrounds. Thats where most of the trash is going to be also. You will appreciate a small coil for those trashy areas to help with target seperation and getting close to playground equiptment.

The M6 and MXT seem to have an endless selection of both small and large coils. Not only in size, but concentric and DD coils are available in these sizes. I just added the 5.3 eclipse coil to my M6 and it made a world of difference in my school and parks hunting. Its deep, picks up very small peices of foil deep and hammers nickels, silver and clad.

The M6 also comes with a beach mode and was intended to hunt these areas. It has both ground tracking and manaul ground balancing which is very simple to use. Battery life seems to be around 40-50 hours with headphones and thats a real plus with the price of batteries. It also takes, what I call a battery cartridge that you load the batteries in and slide into the machine. Another real plus for me as I don't have to carry lose batteries around.

I am not taking anything away from the Terra 50 other then the lack of a small coil available right now. Personally I won't give up my M6 for a Terra 50 as I have done really well with it right from the first day I got it. My clad totals are up, I found my first frankiln half in a place I have searches dozens of time and found clad deeper then I thought modern coins should be. The M6 is a very easy to use/learn machine and would make you a great first machine to start on.
 
I have had the X-Terra 50 and 70 and i still have the M6 for the same reasons. If Minelab comes out with a small coil I'll buy an X-Terra 70 again. Until than I'll use what works best for me....M6 (with 4x6DD coil).

Andy
 
Thanks for all the help guys!
 
I had the X-30,X-50,X-70 and still have the X-50 and the M-6.
The X-30 and the X-70 I had no problems with them.
The X-50 is missing the word Sens and also turns its self on, 3 time in the bed room.The first time was at 2:47 am. I have read several posts were others have had the same problem, Some have had them shut down or problems with the speaker or headphones.I read were 2 guys broke the ears on there coils by trying to tighten the bolt to stop the coil flop.
I was told by Dick at Minelab that a small coil would be out last spring, now they are saying summer. Minelab made more big coils, but no small coils.Even if they would have made a small DD coil like for the Sovereign and Explorer, hack they have the mold for it.
I bought the X-30 and then the price dropped on them from the dealers, was this the dealers over charging or Minelab ???
One dealer posted some used X-50 for $299.00.
I have a M-6 and have not got to use it yet, but I will tomorrow.
When I compare the 2 units, I see better quality in the M-6.
I used a Sovereign for years and used the Explorer ll for a couple of years, they were well made.
Now I don't care if Minelab ever makes a small coil or not, I will never buy Minelab again, there are to many good detectors made here in the USA.
The place's that I hunt, I need a small coil.
The X-Terras don't have a small coil, they have problems and they are cheap made.
Go for the M-6, they have a small coil and Whites did not give me a
M-6 to say this, my M-6 is used.
HH..BJ
 
doesn't have manual ground balancing, just a track lock feature. ..Willy.

Maybe it doesn't and maybe I am mistaked about that. I was told I could manually GB the M6 by bobbing the coil up and down over a clean patch and then I could lock it in with the toggle. Now your saying that this isn't the case. So appearently I was told wrong and the guy that told me this was mistaken.
 
With the MXT & M6 and XL Pro, etc., the detector's auto tracking circuitry is doing the adjusting and then you, the operator, are opting to lock in that setting.

While the same end result might occur, a manual Ground Balance design is just that. There is not auto tracking. The operator uses controls to manually adjust the ground balance and then it is set to go.

With the M6, MXT, etc., it is "teamwork" where-by IT (the detector's circuitry) adjusts and sets the GB , and YOU determine you like it and lock it in.

Monte
 
Terry ('tink') replied below about his M6 GB comment, and I responded to it with the intent of supporting his comment. In his initial reply to the post he stated that he's been successful with the M6 since he first got it, and that the M6 and MXT provided some manual setting of the GB.

Willy's reply was that the M6 "doesn't have manual ground balancing, just a track lock feature", and the more I thought about this last night, the more it struck me that Ground Balance, in general is one of the more misunderstood features/functions of metal detector set-up and operation.

In the late 70's and into the early 80's most detectorists transitioned to, or started out in the hobby using, a manually ground balanced detector. You HAD to learn how to manually adjust the ground balance and have at least a little knowledge about what it was designed to do.

At first, it was rather simple to understand the concept of what the adjusting was supposed to accomplish, and it was only a function of the All Metal mode. Discrimination, at first, wasn't available, and then was added to the models using a conventional TR-Disc. mode, and later we saw the introduction of a VLF-Disc/GB-Disc/etc., motion discriminate mode that relied on a GB setting while discriminating.

While some of the processes required to attain a proper setting in both an All Metal non-discriminating and a motion-based Discriminate mode were being developed, we also saw the first "turn-on-and-go" models in this class, such as the D-Tex Money Hunter motion discriminate, the Fisher 1260-X, Tesoro's 'original' Silver Sabre and many, many more.

So many new features came about so quickly during this general era that it shaped the trend we still have today. Things like:

 
Thanks for the explanation Monte, and as always you point out some very interesting facts which I always try to learn from.

My mistake on the manual GB on M6 was basically the two difference ways you can accomplished it. One way is by sweeping the coil and letting auto track balance the detector. The other way was by bobbing the coil up and down until you didn't hear the threshold noise anymore and locking it in place.

In auto track you have little control on the machine setting the GB. It constantly balances the machine with no operator help unless they lock it in. With the bobbing technique you can actually stop the machine from being GBed and have it to positive/negative, if you lock it before balancing is accomplished. I think this was our conclusion when I was having troubles with the machine when I first got it.

But I see you and Willy's point about it not being an actual manually set GB where the machine has no control over GB and the operator is souly responsible for the GBing. Thanks to both for pointing this out to me.
 
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