Testing & Comparing Metal Detectors 'Perception Control'

I'm going to be completely honest, posting videos testing and comparing metal detectors against each other is nothing but a recipe for disaster. What I mean by this is very simple, when someone has purchased a machine, 'whatever the price might be" the last thing they want to see is some guy rubbishing it next to the apparent 'latest and greatest' - that might be cheaper or more expensive than the one they own. Once this switch has been tripped in a lot of peoples heads rational thought can go sailing out the window at an alarming rate, people take it as a personal attack. I've made this point in a few of my other blogs, buy a machine you can afford, take time to learn it and then get out there and have a good time. All the machines at all price points on the market will find stuff in the ground. Lets not lose sight here, this hobby is about enjoyment and most of the time you've got to walk over a target, if there's nothing in the ground to find no machine will magically pull a treasure out of nowhere.

Obviously there's budget machines that don't take much learning and have a very limited range of detection, it's clear that if you have a machine that barely hits 7 inches, there's not a great deal to learn, the machines ability is clearly limited. BUT if I personally owned a machine like that, which I use to, I would/and did work on understanding what targets sound like that are just on the edge of detection. Taking time to learn this will obviously help with your chances of digging more targets, thus getting the most out of the machine you're using. Your detector is a device that communicates to you in a unique language, you have to learn that language for the circle of communication to be completed - "What we find in the ground is simply a byproduct of understanding the language of our machine".

I feel that posting videos of machines to demonstrate the operation is completely different to posting comparisons with a "my one's bigger than yours" type attitude. Recently you will notice on my Youtube that I've posted a few bench tests of the MP V3, I genuinely wouldn't usually upload many of these types of videos, how a machine acts in the field is far more important. However when people are being openly slanderous about a machine/machines they have no knowledge of, it makes sense to provide a few examples of both the operation and potential ability of "said" machine. I mix my videos up between bench tests and live dig performance. 

The difference between my videos and others of a similar kind are pretty clear to see, I'm not claiming anything is better or worse than the next, it's to demonstrate operation and performance, and lastly - The settings I use in all my videos are the exact same settings that I use when I'm out in the fields. I haven't set any of my machines up to pass a test, demonstrations and tests are totally useless if the settings you've dialled in to pass the test are totally unusable in the field, I see plenty of examples like this. One common one that comes to mind is the recovery speed on the Equinox 800, when you see people setting the recovery at ONE trying to hit a deep coin, instantly that test is redundant. From experience there are very few sites where you can swing using a recovery speed of one and even if you do have super quiet land, using a recovery that low pulls in so many elongated hits and false signals, it's a pointless task. 

The other common thing I see with a lot of tests and comparisons is, performing 'said test' on a box, inside the house and on materials raising the demonstration from the ground like polystyrene blocks. I'm not sure about you but I don't hunt in cardboard, in my house or on a field made of polystyrene. You'll notice in my videos that a few earlier ones were performed on a very low raised piece of wood, this was mainly for visual purposes but then I realised pretty quick it was a stupid thing to be doing. Now I'm doing any form of demonstration on the ground, if however your ground is too trashy to do a demonstration on, that alone tells me that the test you're trying to perform probably isn't going to work in the real world - please think about that last point. Because what is being created by elevating everything off the ground is an environment where 'said test' can be performed and the detector will pass, so in doing this it renders the whole thing obsolete. Some out there will definitely disagree with this point which is fine by me, I'm just telling it the way I see it. The other demonstration that can effect peoples perception of a machine are depth tests where a large fresh hole has been dug with a coin placed in the bottom. Due to the matrix of the ground being distributed you're never going to get a true example of the machines depth capabilities. If anything, doing this will amplify the signal of the coin. I personally believe a coin has to be buried for years before you can demonstrate the true depth capabilities of any machine.

Perception Control - Thinking your machines is more capable than what it is.

Let us not forget about perception control, call it what you will, I think the universal term is "Marketing", when you look back through history the perception of war is fused with images of physical weapons, guns, tanks, the mysterious nuclear button that apparently can be engaged by a simple push of a finger. Personally all these objects of death are incredibly dated, the new war is silent, it's psychological. Billions of pounds are spent on understanding how to manipulate and control the collective consciousness of the masses. "GroupThink' is part of the future utopian vision, let us not forget that our view of the world around us is influenced by the information that we receive. If that information is manipulated to produce a certain view or thought process then your vision of the world and your environment has been distorted. I believe marketing is just an extension of thought-control. 

The points made in the paragraph above are clearly very effective, very rarely do I actually talk to anyone that has their own opinion, most simply parrot the headlines and the scripts that are written for us whilst we sleep. Successful perception control actually stops people from logically thinking and having the courage to voice 'their' own views and opinions. I must say it's clearly working very well because the non-sensical stupidity I've witnessed by a vast swayve of the human race over the past few years is nothing short of mind-blowing. 

What does this have to do with metal detecting? that same perception control and marketing is used to sell us repackaged tech that might have just a fraction of benefit in one small area. It also gives people a fixed idea about what 'said machine' is capable of compared to others which in turn can lead people to argue about aspects and features that may or may not actually exist within the machines they're arguing about. Maybe ..... people are looking for performance in their detector that simply isn't there. Let's take the new buzz line from Minelabs new machine - IT HAS 50% MORE POWER, what does that actually mean? people are parroting the phrase but no one actually knows what it means. I hate to break it to you but it doesn't mean 50% more depth and I doubt it means 50% more performance .... but hey ... that doesn't matter, it sounds cool and people will lap it up. You can be sure that when some get this machine in their hands they'll probably be arguments about this very point - "my machine has 50% more power than yours, no it doesn't, yes it does, no it doesn't .... you can see where I'm going with this. 

Let's look at XP's buzz line when the Deus 2 came out, the advert repeated the words "NO CABLE" about 20 times but they forgot to mention that it actually needs a cable if you want to use it on the beach in the water. But .. hey that doesn't matter, no cable sounded really cool and they knew people would fall for it, how does no cable on a machine find me more targets in the ground? - it doesn't. This is what's so clever, we're being sold machines where a percentage of what's included doesn't actually find you anything in the ground. A clock doesn't, a light doesn't a wireless coil doesn't but if you can keep people consumed by the meaningless then they're going to be ready and waiting for the next miracle machine to fall into their laps that will 'no doubt' find them more than ever before. 

So in conclusion - testing a machine to demonstrate performance and to give people a more panoramic view of a product they're interested in or need some guidance in its operation makes perfect sense to me. This can be very educational and helpful, testing a machine to try to prove an aggressive point on how 'superior' it is to others is a totally pointless task. All detectors have their 'pros & cons', you're never going to get a detector that can do it all. The key to this beautiful hobby is enjoyment, it matters not what you swing, what matters is getting out into the fields and finding history. Metal detecting is a very diverse hobby, we all have our own approach and technique, we all see things differently, that's the beauty of being a human.