Okay I am going to give a short review of which I will be also doing on one of my upcoming episodes of Internet Gold Miner. First I will say I have been metal detecting for something like 30 years and have had a bunch of metal detectors mainly big names Minelab, Whites, Garrett. I decided to purchase this because of a couple good early product reviews I read. Right out of the box at my mine claim I just put it together fired it up in all metal mode and away I went. The first thing I noticed was the threshold was all over the place. Thinking it was set to hot on stock settings and my ground was very mineralized, although the little meter was only on 1 bar I turned down the sensitivity to 63 but it made no difference. Then I hit a target and set the unit down next to me like I always have and in my head phones the threshold was up down up down and wouldn't stop. I thought to myself this isn't normal and how was I supposed to use this when I start digging for a target? On top of that it would drive me crazy listening to that all day. I dug a few targets all bullets and such and gave up. Now I was not using the supplied little headphone set, I used my usual Koss UR20s I use all the time. Needless to say I wasn't happy at that point. Next time out I brought the supplied headset and it did the same thing right off the bat until I discovered if I had no headphones plugged in the machine became stable and totally usable. So I detected the rest of the afternoon at a different claim without a headset. Also when I would dig a target the unit would act normal when I set it down just the normal threshold steady. So I contacted Makro and they kindly send me out a replacement head unit which cured the problem. Now, in testing the detector I noticed something else not right any kind of light touch on the 5 pin plug for the coil that goes in to the top plug would cause the threshold to greatly change and the ID to go wild also. Again I shot off a email and was told from the Makro rep this was totally normal and will not effect operation. I had to disagree, yes this is a hotter detector but so is the GMT and the GB2 and I don't recall these other detectors doing this. So I tried to velcro the cable down like NASA was working on it and I got the same business. A little wiggle in the air would also change the threshold also. So is this a design issue? My opinion is yes it is. I might surmise the ground on the coil in not properly insulated from the other wires in the cable. Or perhaps the whole cable needs to be changed to something more robust? In real world use could this be a problem? It might be and might not be. Lets say your working a area and you bump the unit and it makes it warble at the same time you miss a good target. Just an example. Or it might not bother a darn thing and you can just keep working your area as usual. As far as the metal detector working besides my issues, it worked well. I only logged a few hours in on it but I pulled some VERY VERY small pieces of metal digging. I mostly used all metal mode but did switch over to Disc 1 and Disc 2 a few times as they are a silent mode just to give my ears a break and it worked as it should. I do think the metal detector is as good as a GMT if not better not because of performance and depth but because of better ground tracking, weight and newer technology bells and whistles. Short and simple can I recommend this as a gold metal detector compared to the others avail on the market today? I will say yes with one caveat know this is a company based in Turkey and although they seem to have excellent customer service I still have to think that the same quality controls might not be as good as other big name companies. I have also had contact with 2 other users that had the same problems I had and were taken care of with replacements from Makro pretty fast. I do not know if they are still happy and or have been in the field with these. I will defiantly do a longer term follow up review on this metal detector to see if the issues I have encountered hinder performance of which so far seem not to.
Note: Headphone issues and my testing
Factory Supplied headphones are Koss and are 32 Ohm
My Koss UR 20 32 Ohm
Senhieser Studio Headphones 32 Ohm
Generic set of communication headphones 32 Ohm
All headphones were tested for impedance in my electronic lab here. So I cannot say it was a impedance miss match as I first thought. Had to be some sort of issue of bad component on the board or soldering issue.
I did take a look at the 5 pin plug as I am very familiar with these in the communication industry. It had bunch of rubber insulation around all the solder points on the 5 pin. Also noticed a little fray on what looked to be the ground wire but the whole wire looked to be a little "thin". Just my observation. Also my comparisons to the GMT are from my GMT and I can't make it act "normal" like the Gold Racer does unless I really slam it around which no one would ever do.