QED vs GPZ14

Gidday All,

I have just uploaded a youtube clip of testing I did this morning of the GPZ14 vs the QED with N/F 17x11 coil. ( see below )

The nuggets in ground were 3 of the ones that I found last week with the GPZ19.

Narrow holes were drilled vertically into the ground using 10mm round bar hammered into the ground to depths of 3, 5 and 7 inches. This provides minimal disruption to the surrounding ground mineralisation and is about as real a test as you can get with " planted " nuggets. These nuggets are a bit rough and gnarly, so not as solid as some, and maybe the QED does not work well with this sort of nugget ? The nuggets were dropped into the holes, the 4.5 grammer had to go in on end, so its not lying flat.

What was apparent from the tests is that the ZED is a powerful beast. Gain was at 14, H/Y normal, no smoothing. This is state forest that I have found many ounces of gold at with GPX4000, GPX4500, GPX5000, SDC and GPZ, so a real goldfield. The ground here is mineralised and variable, and normal mode whinges a bit but is very usable.

QED mode was 5, which was the lowest I could achieve good ground balance on.
THS-B 47 , THS-A 60 , GB 106
What was apparent was that at gain of 1, not one of the targets could be heard, and not until the gain was set to 5 did I even get a peep out of any of them, except air testing over my 0.3g test ball of gold.
At a gain of 10 it got all the targets, but that is cranked to the max, and in real world prospecting you may not be able to run a gain of anywhere near 10.

The QED has a weak audio, which can benefit from a good booster, like the SP01 by SteelPhase that I use. It is fiddly to use, having to change your mode and bias ( and thus ground balance ) every time you change a coil. It is light and at about a fifth of the price of a GPZ it is good value, but I reiterate my earlier statements that if you are hitting ground that has been PROPERLY done by Minelabs, you ARE wasting your time !

No doubt I will get plenty of hate mail from the QED lovers such as Doug, but at the end of the day, all I care about is real world performance on all types of nuggets, and I'm afraid that the QED doesn't cut the mustard in this regard. Someone else stated that it is good for crumbing with tiny coils, or a low cost patch hunter in more virgin areas, and I agree with that summation.

Rick

Thanks Rick, IMHO a very clear, well conducted comparison, I am sure the QED has its place in the game, its performance long term in terms of reliability and serviceability will remain to be established in the course of time, I also agree with the assertion it could be a low cost small coil crumber, though I have not seen it in action as such, it would appear to be a reasonable search machine for lesser worked or virgin ground, from most reports it would be fair to say, "good luck finding that in your neck of the woods" , but we still have a few hundred thousand acres up this way where such a machine might earn its keep , thanks again.

Wayne.

I think you should get out with Reg Wilson or Peter Pink and compare your findings with their Qeds.


I know you love your Zed Rick, but it seems like something doesn't add up. Just saying.

I'm not defending anyone here

i reckon his bias was too low for that coil in videio, should have been on 50 or above, my opinion only cheers

dasenator777 wrote:i reckon his bias was too low for that coil in videio, should have been on 50 or above, my opinion only cheers

Opinions are like backsides, everyone has one, and mean nothing to me when they come from anonymous snipers.
How about you show us how to run a QED with that coil on ???????

Rick

Thanks for your latest unbiased report on the operational workings of the QED, as compared to the GPZ & 14x13 inch coil Rick.
Fellas I neither own nor have ever had the privilege of putting the QED through its paces, so cannot comment on any owner/users opinion of one. What I would like to ask all who own/have run/used the QED searching for gold, is there a certain size/type, good all round coil out there, most suitable to the QEDs operational workings, giving say, best all round depth/sensitivity performance, on a wide range/size/type nuggets, over various ground conditions?  Or, does each type/size coil used on the QED, have to be set-up in a much different manner to that of another type/size coil used, in order for that new coil to run at optimum performance, over certain size/type targets?  In other words, does the QED require to be set with completely different settings/timings, every time a different size/type coil is put on, or are the changes in settings/timings used for each different type/size coil, kept to a minimal?

Cheers Kon.

AraratGold wrote:

dasenator777 wrote:i reckon his bias was too low for that coil in videio, should have been on 50 or above, my opinion only cheers

Opinions are like backsides, everyone has one, and mean nothing to me when they come from anonymous snipers.
How about you show us how to run a QED with that coil on ???????

Rick

how come you did not ask howard to be there as he lives 20 minutes away, a bit suss, plus you had the wrong coil on, next time your in adelaide id be happy to show you how to use it properly, maybe re do test with 11 inch commander, and neutral bias, and please get gain off 1

Kon61gold wrote:Thanks for your latest unbiased report on the operational workings of the QED, as compared to the GPZ & 14x13 inch coil Rick.
Fellas I neither own nor have ever had the privilege of putting the QED through its paces, so cannot comment on any owner/users opinion of one. What I would like to ask all who own/have run/used the QED searching for gold, is there a certain size/type, good all round coil out there, most suitable to the QEDs operational workings, giving say, best all round depth/sensitivity performance, on a wide range/size/type nuggets, over various ground conditions?  Or, does each type/size coil used on the QED, have to be set-up in a much different manner to that of another type/size coil used, in order for that new coil to run at optimum performance, over certain size/type targets?  In other words, does the QED require to be set with completely different settings/timings, every time a different size/type coil is put on, or are the changes in settings/timings used for each different type/size coil, kept to a minimal?

Cheers Kon.

11 inch commander or detech coil

HERES HOW TO PROPERLY SET UP QED , IVE TRIED IT AND HOWARD COMFIRMS ALSO ....Re: QED Information
Post Jarrodt6 on Tue Oct 03, 2017 7:40 pm

Been a while and I'm still swinging my QED, having young kids doesn't allow me to get out much. I'm up to about 10 pieces for 4 grams, not a huge amount but happy enough since I only get out once or twice a month.
One major improvement was the sennhieser rs160 headphones, the extra volume and not ripping out the cord when you're digging is night and day better, worth every cent.
I still fiddle with the settings every time I go out but that's more out of interest than anything else. At the moment if the ground allows I'm running the volume really high at around 70-80 and you almost get a solid threshold and hear every little noise, you have to keep the bias neutral to do this but my tests have proved I get better depth this way than a low bias/low mode approach.
I did recently run into the first ground that seemed too noisy for mine, shallow surfacing with a lot of clay. I've done other areas like this fine but this place had me getting false signals every few meters, I'm putting it down to the 11" elite being super sensitive and I'm looking at getting a bigger coil like the 14" because I'm not really after sub .1g that the 11" can find and it should run smoother.

In my opinion looking on other forums about the QED too much attention is given to the modes and the bias, I pretty much run mine in mode 8 and use the other settings to get the sensitivity. People say they get better tests in mode 1 than in mode 8etc, but mode 8 runs much quieter so now you can up your gain and up your volume like you can't in mode 1. Of course if you leave mode 8 with gain at 1 it will lose sensitivity.
Right now I run mode 8, gain 4-5, bias neutral and volume 70-80. If it's a bit noisy I bring the volume down first to as low as 30, then the gain. If it's runs really quiet I up the gain to 6, if it can handle more I go down to mode 7, then 6 etc but I never run my gain under 3, I see too many running low modes with gain under 3 and I don't think this is good, get the gain up higher in a higher mode, I get less ground noise this way.

Recently while having a break we set up a couple of tests with a .2 and 1 gram while stopping for lunch. The other detectors were a gpx 4500 with older 11" coiltek mono and a gpx4000 with 14" elite. I was happy that I could match both on the 1 gram and they both agreed I had the edge on the .2 over the 4500, no doubt the elite coil vs terracotta helped.
The difference we noticed was that the QED's signal is much easier to hear but it drops off quickly as it reaches its max depth while the minelabs gently faded into the slight woo-hoo.

I still didn't feel I had the best detector but it was certainly close, and for half the price, much less weight, no cables and the satisfaction I put it all together myself how I wanted I was happy.
The only time it fell behind was with my super sensitive 11" on the clay surfacing it struggled with false targets while the older 4000 with the 14" went along well and found a couple of nice gram+ bits with less fuss. In other ground i have found small gold that this 4000 missed.

This thread was put up only to show a comparison between the QED running a NF 17x11 inch mono coil, as compared to a GPZ 7000 running its standard 14x13 inch coil, over a specific type/size gold target, buried at a certain depth. Regardless of using more suitable settings, for better outright performance of the type/size coil the QED might have on, I'm quite sure very few if any 7000 user here, would expect the QED to surpass the GPZs overall depth capabilities, over the same type/size buried targets.
None the less, after reading all reports, the QED certainly does have a place in amongst the rest of metal detector brands.makes, & people certainly can't complain about its much lighter weight nor its overal cost either.
Thanks for the update Dasenator.

Cheers Kon.

Video clip has been put back up after testing was re-validated.

PS Howard, I have not " avoided " using larger targets, I just don't have any, having sold all my nuggets. As you know, I have found them up to 39 ounces with the ZED, but you just can't leave these lying around the house !

Rick

Kon61gold wrote:This thread was put up only to show a comparison between the QED running a NF 17x11 inch mono coil, as compared to a GPZ 7000 running its standard 14x13 inch coil, over a specific type/size gold target, buried at a certain depth. Regardless of using more suitable settings, for better outright performance of the type/size coil the QED might have on, I'm quite sure very few if any 7000 user here, would expect the QED to surpass the GPZs overall depth capabilities, over the same type/size buried targets.
None the less, after reading all reports, the QED certainly does have a place in amongst the rest of metal detector brands.makes, & people certainly can't complain about its much lighter weight nor its overal cost either.
Thanks for the update Dasenator.

Cheers Kon.

howard will do the testing with the 11 inch detech coil, that is sold and supplied with qed, only fair as rick used zed with standard supplied coil, testing a new amp tomorrow will put findings if they work out cheers

dasenator777 wrote:

Kon61gold wrote:This thread was put up only to show a comparison between the QED running a NF 17x11 inch mono coil, as compared to a GPZ 7000 running its standard 14x13 inch coil, over a specific type/size gold target, buried at a certain depth. Regardless of using more suitable settings, for better outright performance of the type/size coil the QED might have on, I'm quite sure very few if any 7000 user here, would expect the QED to surpass the GPZs overall depth capabilities, over the same type/size buried targets.
None the less, after reading all reports, the QED certainly does have a place in amongst the rest of metal detector brands.makes, & people certainly can't complain about its much lighter weight nor its overal cost either.
Thanks for the update Dasenator.

Cheers Kon.

howard will do the testing with the 11 inch detech coil, that is sold and supplied with qed, only fair as rick used zed with standard supplied coil, testing a new amp tomorrow will put findings if they work out cheers

d777,

You burst onto the forums a few weeks ago and now your an expert, feeding off every little tidbit that you can glean from others, and then dispensing advice to all and sundry ???

You totally missed the point of my testing.  
There are many people out there who do not want to go prospecting with a little 11 inch coil. And when I say prospecting, I'm not talking about going to known flogged areas.
Try a few weeks of real prospecting, say in the wide expanses of WA, with an 11 inch coil and see how frustrated you get ! You need to be able to run, for example, a 17x11 Adv or 17x13 Evo to cover ground to maximise your chances.

The QED needs to be able to run all the aftermarket coils, big and small, and that was the purpose of the testing.
Everyone already knows that it runs well with an 8 -11 inch Commander / Detech !  

Rick

[quote="dasenator777"]

AraratGold wrote:

dasenator777 wrote:

Kon61gold wrote:This thread was put up only to show a comparison between the QED running a NF 17x11 inch mono coil, as compared to a GPZ 7000 running its standard 14x13 inch coil, over a specific type/size gold target, buried at a certain depth. Regardless of using more suitable settings, for better outright performance of the type/size coil the QED might have on, I'm quite sure very few if any 7000 user here, would expect the QED to surpass the GPZs overall depth capabilities, over the same type/size buried targets.
None the less, after reading all reports, the QED certainly does have a place in amongst the rest of metal detector brands.makes, & people certainly can't complain about its much lighter weight nor its overal cost either.
Thanks for the update Dasenator.

Cheers Kon.

howard will do the testing with the 11 inch detech coil, that is sold and supplied with qed, only fair as rick used zed with standard supplied coil, testing a new amp tomorrow will put findings if they work out cheers

d777,

You burst onto the forums a few weeks ago and now your an expert, feeding off every little tidbit that you can glean from others, and then dispensing advice to all and sundry ???

You totally missed the point of my testing.  
There are many people out there who do not want to go prospecting with a little 11 inch coil. And when I say prospecting, I'm not talking about going to known flogged areas.
Try a few weeks of real prospecting, say in the wide expanses of WA, with an 11 inch coil and see how frustrated you get ! You need to be able to run, for example, a 17x11 Adv or 17x13 Evo to cover ground to maximise your chances.

The QED needs to be able to run all the aftermarket coils, big and small, and that was the purpose of the testing.
Everyone already knows that it runs well with an 8 -11 inch Commander / Detech !  

Rick

lol exactly what id expect from you, why pull the video down then that says it all, anyway ive been using detectors from a2b to the 4000 enuf experience for you?

No logical answer to any of the points I have put to you, so you resort to abuse. Showing your true colours.

Fellas, this forum is supposed to be all about helping one another understand, the operational workings of any Item/tool associated in the hunt for the golden ointment. Its not about nor ever will be about who has the greatest amount of experience with detecting or the use of Equipment. Please lets not let the thread on the QED degrade to an uncomfortably low level, by degrading one another's opinionated posts/write ups. Right or wrong, many here are interested in what users of the QED have to say. Lets keep it on a positive note hey? Please don't make me lock this thread up.

Cheers Kon.

D777

You need to put a hold on your choice of words.

Aren't you a new kid on the block?
Why say things that you will regret later?
There's no need for this.

Like Kon says,
We can all learn from each other
So, let's keep it with respect for each other.

AraratGold wrote:

dasenator777 wrote:i reckon his bias was too low for that coil in videio, should have been on 50 or above, my opinion only cheers

Opinions are like backsides, everyone has one, and mean nothing to me when they come from anonymous snipers.
How about you show us how to run a QED with that coil on ???????

Rick

a comment was made re bias, then it all started from there, hey but im the bad one one, you wont get no more qed updates from me on here, remove membership please, toooooooo one sided here, cant say bad things about the zed on here which i did not do....hooroo

Blimey mate there is no need to pack it in.
I for one am interested in your QED opinions.Plus I want to hear what you think of the Vallon.
The forum is for exchanging info, gaining knowledge and learning about metal detectors and prospecting and metal detecting in general.
There are sections here for various types and brands of tectas from coin, relic and jewellery hunting to gold prospecting and the QED is one such section. I reckon just because the ML boys have faith in their ML PIs, and justifiably so, that that is no reason for them to bash somebodies opinion re another brand, especially when that opinion and info is in the appropriate section of the forum.
   If somebody makes a comment re a tector and you disagree with that comment then for sure jump in and state your opinion and give reason to that opinion but don't attack the person who,s views you disagree with. Combat the opinion with logical argument.
So chill dudes and let the forum work the way it is supposed to work.

Just an opinion

adrian ss wrote:Blimey mate there is no need to pack it in.
I for one am interested in your QED opinions.Plus I want to hear what you think of the Vallon.
The forum is for exchanging info, gaining knowledge and learning about metal detectors and prospecting and metal detecting in general.
There are sections here for various types and brands of tectas from coin, relic and jewellery hunting to gold prospecting and the QED is one such section. I reckon just because the ML boys have faith in their ML PIs, and justifiably so, that that is no reason for them to bash somebodies opinion re another brand, especially when that opinion and info is in the appropriate section of the forum.
   If somebody makes a comment re a tector and you disagree with that comment then for sure jump in and state your opinion and give reason to that opinion but don't attack the person who,s views you disagree with. Combat the opinion with logical argument.
So chill dudes and let the forum work the way it is supposed to work.

Just an opinion

you must the only person on here with any brains adrien well said mate, l stick around just to chat and exchange settigs with you, vallon ordered last night mate, change of 400 aud BARGAIN

Fellas, Adrians comments summed it up nicely, but I see it has fallen on deaf ears. Respect for one another is all this forum has ever asked for. As Adrian stated, there are right ways of going about in commenting on another's post & there are wrong ways. One things for certain we all make or have made mistakes in the past. Why be quick to point the finger at another's mistakes, but avoid looking back on our own.  For the last time I ask you kindly, please could we  get back on track & talk about as well as give the QED a fair go, as experienced by those who have used it & point out the differences without bias, without discrimination & most importantly, without innuendo/degradation for one another or, would you prefer seeing me use draconian tactics, of which I take no delight in?

Management  

Kon61gold wrote:Fellas, Adrians comments summed it up nicely, but I see it has fallen on deaf ears. Respect for one another is all this forum has ever asked for. As Adrian stated, there are right ways of going about in commenting on another's post & there are wrong ways. One things for certain we all make or have made mistakes in the past. Why be quick to point the finger at another's mistakes, but avoid looking back on our own.  For the last time I ask you kindly, please could we  get back on track & talk about as well as give the QED a fair go, as experienced by those who have used it & point out the differences without bias, without discrimination & most importantly, without innuendo/degradation for one another or, would you prefer seeing me use draconian tactics, of which I take no delight in?

Management  

i will not be posting any more info on qed no more, would rather just pm adrian instead re qed and vallon detectors. cheers.

keep the posts coming mate. There are several people here interested in the QED and I know of a few who have the Vallon VMH3CS and are interested in other views re this tecta.

Gidday All,

Since the weather has improved dramatically, I flew out to the State Forest where I did my QED testing last week, and got a couple of hours of new testing done.

I used an 11 inch Commander this time, and it validated my testing from last week. As a result, I have put that video back up, because the settings were not botched as a few unkind individuals have suggested. Nor is there anything wrong with the coil !

This lot of testing showed what I had suspected from last week, that the type of nuggets and also how they are situated in the ground has a big bearing on how the QED gets them !

The testing showed that the GPX with the 17x11 N/F Advantage was a bit better to the QED on all the targets, especially the ones that were standing on end, and the GPZ19 creamed them both !

Gain on the GPX4500 was at 10 out of 15, so not nearly flat out like the QED gain was ( 9 out of 10 ).

Anyway, the new video is pretty self explanatory, so please enjoy ! Filmed in HD.

Cheers,
Rick

HI Rick.
Great video demo mate. The 19 inch on the Z is impressive and the QED appears to be more than capable of finding small gold and seems to me to be pretty good value for the money. I was a bit surprised at the amount of ground noise coming from the Z over what looked like pretty ordinary ground or was that due to the settings used? I tend to set my tectas ground noise a bit positive because It brings out the small targets a bit better than if the GB is set very quiet. Either way the QED seems to be ok .

Well done Rick thanks for the vids its just goes to show the qed is not a good as the gpz but you pay less for the machine then the 7000 so as a mid entry level detector its not to bad

adrian ss wrote:HI Rick.
Great video demo mate. The 19 inch on the Z is impressive and the QED appears to be more than capable of finding small gold and seems to me to be pretty good value for the money. I was a bit surprised at the amount of ground noise coming from the Z over what looked like pretty ordinary ground or was that due to the settings used? I tend to set my tectas ground noise  a bit positive because It brings out the small targets a bit better than if the GB is set very quiet. Either way the QED seems to be ok .

Thanks Adrian,

Ground is mineralised and variable, and that big coil is processing a lot of info, but the targets really jump out ! I also had the ZED in the factory preset slow tracking, not fixed GB, which is what I like, as you get a feel for the changing mineralisation.

Cheers,
Rick

Ararat very informative and thanks. Appears to be decent value for dollar and would certainly consider as a starter machine

Much appreciate you going out of your way to retest & compare the QED with the GPX 4500 & GPZ 7000 on/over various size/type nuggets, sitting on the surface as well as buried in the ground Rick. It is also a very good example, of how much of a role towards signal response, orientation of a certain size/type nugget, buried in the ground can play, such that of buried sponge gold, compared to solid slugs of gold, laying in the flat horizontal position, as compared to them sitting vertical.
From my experience, orientation of any metallic target buried in the ground, exposing more of surface area, to the coils transmit/receive field, plays a far greater role towards signal response, on a VLF or PI unit, than the actual metallic targets, electrical resistivity/conductivity factor.
Anyways, not to stray to far from the main topic thread here, It is quite obvious that the QED when properly matched/balance to the coil in use, performs quite admirably, over gold nuggets, more so if one intends on chasing the gram/sub gram gold.  
One other thing I'd like to mention here before finishing off is that, whenever anyone encounters a faint in ground target response, go over the target again, approaching it from different angles, listening to any change in signal response.

Cheers Kon.

video proves the 11 inch coil is way better than the thing that was used last time, nugget finder 12 and 20 inch work nice