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CTX3030 Worthwhile Accessories?

North Shore

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2016
Messages
281
Location
Massachusetts
OK, I'm all in now that I have the CTX. Is the 17" coil worth the $400 list price? My NEL coil on my AT Pro seemed more of a nuisance than anything, chattery and a lot of falsing in the high 90s even after constant ground balancing.

Also, should I get any of the after market headphones or just stick with the stock ear muffs?
 
OK, I'm all in now that I have the CTX. Is the 17" coil worth the $400 list price? My NEL coil on my AT Pro seemed more of a nuisance than anything, chattery and a lot of falsing in the high 90s even after constant ground balancing.

Also, should I get any of the after market headphones or just stick with the stock ear muffs?

I would look for a used big coil. If you think it will help you.
Headphones, be careful which ones you buy, not all models work correctly with CTX. If you will look at some sponsors' sites here you will notice they are listed as being for CTX.
Screen protector of some sort of you don't have one yet.
Big coil use, a harness might help with weight.
Sturdy shovel and or digger.
Good pinpointer.

And lots of time to detect. Lol

Hope this helps.
Good detector you have.
 
I bought my CTX late January as part of a holiday special and it came with the 17" for free. I put it on when I received the detector and haven't taken it off. I love it. It works great. It is very stable and quiet. I can cover some serious ground with it. Great for parks and yards. It does surprisingly well in the trash. I highly recommend it.

Now....For the headphone situation for the CTX. I have studied this out and the bottom line, there is not a lot of options. If you want to use the wireless receiver (wm10), it has the 1/4" plug. But the machine has the 8 pin plug. So if you buy a waterproof headphone with the 8 pin jack, you cant plug it into the wm10. If you buy a headphone that plugs into the wm10, it won't plug into the 8 pin plug on the CTX.

So either you have to buy 2 sets of headphones. One for water use and then buy a headphone for dry land use.

The only true waterproof headphone for the CTX is the DetectroPro amphibians with the CTX plug. But these headphones use a pizzo buzzer for the speakers. The sound quality is not as good as compared to headphones that use the 2463 audiosears speakers. The pizzo buzzers work great for water use. But the sound quality is better with the 2463 speakers. Sun Ray pro gold's with the CTX plug and some others use the 2463 speakers and are great for land use.

But there is another option and the one I went with. I went with Mal's Surffones. These are custom built headphones made by a guy in the UK. He uses a waterproof speaker. He uses heavy duty cords with different choices of lengths. Right or left side cable. Plus he makes and adapter that allows the 8 pin plug to be used on the wm10. So you can use the same headphone for both water and land.

I haven't received the headphones yet but they should be here very soon. If you choose a another brand of headphones, he still has the adapter for sale that goes from the 8 pin plug to the 1/4" plug in straight or angled so you can use the wm10.

I like the idea of using the same headphone for both land and water. Once you get use to the sounds of one headphone, it is hard to switch to another headphone and relearn the tones.

http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=251943&highlight=mal's+surffones

Here is a pic.
 

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I didn't care for the stock headphones and in fact they died after a year of hard use. I bought a pair of Sunray Pro Golds and love them. Must specify for CTX. The 17 inch coil is my next purchase. My brother got a 17 for his Etrac and loves it. We do alot of large field hunting.
 
17” yes! Watch and you can get good deals on used ones. Especially when they are running the 17” coil specials on new purchases. 6” I’m not a big fan of. Also pick up a cheap clearance tablet screen protector and cut the size you need out of it to put a screen protector on the ctx. If you have the older version of the ctx get the oring upgrade kit.
 
As far as the screen protector, it looks like (at least I hope) it came with a factory adhesive clear film over the screen that I haven't removed yet. In flat light I can barely see the VDI. My screen came with a big curved line in which I hope is only on the plastic film, I also put a little ding in the film with my thumb nail digging in trying to remove some dried on mud.

Does anyone know if this film is removable? And if so, do I remove it and replace it with a better product?

Thanks
 
As far as the screen protector, it looks like (at least I hope) it came with a factory adhesive clear film over the screen that I haven't removed yet. In flat light I can barely see the VDI. My screen came with a big curved line in which I hope is only on the plastic film, I also put a little ding in the film with my thumb nail digging in trying to remove some dried on mud.

Does anyone know if this film is removable? And if so, do I remove it and replace it with a better product?

Thanks

See this video.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vd9vCtmXTb0
 
Is the 17" coil worth
YES< YES< YES< YES!!!!!!!!
Once you have a 17", you'll only wish you had bought it sooner. It gives a dramatic increase in depth, its stable, and boy does it let you cover ground quickly.

One challenge for new users is learning how to use the target trace feature. This will help if you have multiple targets on the coil's footprint.

Only real con I had with it was trying to do ring recoverys in close proximity to residential homes. Here in Florida, the power, cable, and phone lines can be buried as little as 2" beneath the surface. So you'd have to maintain about 18"-24" of clearance from the buried lines. Then again, you'd still have to maintain a fair distance even with the 11" coil. Anyhow, I'm just trying to be fair in my review. I use it 99% of the time, even when traveling to other countries for vacation.

As far as cost....the MSRP is ridiculous. Talk to a forum sponsor or watch the classifieds.
 
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