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Tesoro Silver Umax v Compadre

Bonesquat

Elite Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
8,894
Location
NE Pennsylvania
What do you all think of this beeper? Is it worth getting for hunting fields and such. Tot lot beeping? I don't think I have it in me to mod the compadre yet. I love the lifetime warranty. I think I want another tesoro. Please sell me on another one. Thanks.
 
Have you considered a Vaquero? They really are excellent machines. I hunted with MikeBionca on here in a colonial field and verified depth and quality of signals with my Etrac and that Tesoro was every bit as deep as my Etrac on sensitivity of 30 with my ProCoil. Not sure what his settings were. Infact there was an old spoon so deep that my Etrac could barely pick it up, the only way I could get a good signal on it was with quick turned on All Metal. It was not being discriminated out since the signal was in the 12-39 12-42 range coin like ferrous numbers. It was ultra deep he used a ground shark shovel to get it out and still had to scoop a bit of dirt to retrieve the spoon. Maybe he will chime in. I ended up buying one a week later. :grin:

You can get a used one on the cheap and Tesoro still honors the lifetime warranty regardless of the owner, unlike Minelab..... That is if you bought an Etrac after July or something.
 
Thanks for the input. Bought my E-trac in March! :facepalm:

I'm on a budget. Why is a Vaq better than a silver umax? I don't know what seperates the Tesoros so much...:?:
 
I think the Vaq has their new hot circuitry or something, manual ground balance and the ability to shift between 3 frequencies for EMI reasons or other detectors near by. Vaq also has pinpoint button.
 
Since you live in an area with rediculosly mineralized soil you may want to go with a Tesoro with manual ground balance for depth and stability.
 
Since you live in an area with rediculosly mineralized soil you may want to go with a Tesoro with manual ground balance for depth and stability.

Honestly, not sure the GB helps much in mineralization that bad.
Some areas it did, for sure, but the overall depth I usually got out of the Vaq in the normal bad sites was the same 2-3 inches that I also got from the F2 with no manual GB.
That includes using a DD coil, too.

Here in my much better Kansas dirt, those things do make a difference.


I'm on a budget. Why is a Vaq better than a silver umax? I don't know what seperates the Tesoros so much...:?:

If that is the case, and if you are on a budget, the Silver has that extra sensitivity knob and the ability to change coils.

That's the difference in Tesoros, more knobs = more money! :D
Actually, more knobs = more usable functions.

The difference in the Silver and the Compadre is a slightly different frequency, 120 degree ED instead of the 180 on the Compadre, (it is already set to cut out lower end iron nails, a true 180 ED accepts everything) and they add a sensitivity knob.
(ED--"Expanded Discriminate")

The Cibola has "Hot" circuitry, (High Output Technology), a little higher frequency, supposedly 180 degree ED again, (but it is really more like 165), and a threshold knob and pinpoint button.

The Vaq adds the manual ground balance to this set up, which helps in areas with normal mineralization problems and other specific problem sites, and the higher end Tesoros change and add more stuff.

Something for everybody.

Bonesquat, as I said, if you are on a budget get the Silver.
With the right coil and in the right soil they can go deeper than the Compadre...real deep.
Indiana soil E-Track deep.

Some info from Monte from a very old post on the ED-120 vs ED-180 thing...

Why is the ED-180 better than the ED-120 disc.?

"R-n-R", The Toltec II and Golden Sabre II use the ED-120 discriminate circuit. The Bandido II MM, Silver Sabre MM, SHADOWx2, and basically most of the last generation of Tesoros (Pantera, Silver Sabre II, Sidewinder & Sidewinder MM, Bandido, Bandido II and Bandido MM, etc.) have employed the discriminate circuit referred to as the ED-120.

The Amigo II and a few other models utilize what is referred to as the ED-180.

In simple terms, the "120" or "180" descriptions are in reference to the degree of coverage of the discriminate range. Earlier models, such as the Inca, Eldorado, Toltec-100 and such had what could be described as "D-90", or an acceptance range of about 90 degrees. This allowed the detector to accept targets from silver dollars and such on down to lessor conductive targets in a low-foil category. Certainly the minimum rejection level was well above nail rejection.

Users of these earlier silent-search models were able to "comfortably" search many sites without hearing a lot of trash target signals. Unfortunately, in the very worst conditions, such as nail-strewn town sites or some renovation sites, there was too much rejection even at the minimum setting. Thus masking would occur more easily. Additionally, in the worst ground mineral conditions the discriminate circuit didn't work as well at dealing with the ground mineral signal and passing along the desirable target signals.

With the advent of the ED-120 discrimination circuit, Tesoro made a major advancement in functional discriminate range as the "Expanded Discriminate" (thus ED) range went **lower** in the acceptable range and this allowed models designed with that circuitry to just barely kick out most nails at the "minimum" setting and this gave them better "see through" (a bad term, but well used) in the really trashy sites, especially those with nails and other small iron junk.

The ED-120 circuitry is by far some of the best for the average hunter, and even the advanced detectorist, depending upon what their intended application is.

ED-180 simply refers to a discriminate circuit which has an Expanded range even LOWER than the ED-120, not higher. The LOWER range of adjustment gets the unit down into the ALL METAL acceptance range. Many of the competitors models allow such a low-end of adjustment, such as the White's XLT, 5900/6000's, Classic series, Garrett GTA's and Scorpions, and most certainly the Fisher "X" and CZ series.

For a serious relic hunter or a very serious detectorist who wants to have the added performance of an All Metal motion discriminate mode of operation, these are good units. For relic hunting and other searches where ALL targets are desired, then a broad-range, with a lower-end acceptance (ED-180) discriminate circuit is desirable.

However, most hobbyists are NOT interested in locating all metal targets in an area. Most are recreationalists, serious or casual, who are not that interested in having a primary search mode that will accept all metal targets, preferring to reject annoying nails and some other small, low-conductive targets. Thus, the ED-120 is the most used discriminate circuit concept that is employed by the Tesoro folks. It works well.

In some really bad ground the ED-180 will give you some much improved performance, but in "typical" ground and detecting situations the famous ED-120 should do.

Now, I hope this rambling wasn't too confusing. As for which is the "Better" of the two, I would have to say that I would be content with the ED-120 under most conditions. I do, however, employ the option of going to a lower range (ED-180) when I get into some very mineralized areas where there are NOT a lot of detectable targets and I prefer to get the best depth/performance.
 
I would go with the Silver unless you willing to mod a Compadre. The silver has the 8" coil which IMO is the best all purpose coil.
 
Silver umax is an all purpose detector built with the coinshooter in mind who loves to try to interpret the signals by the quirks caused by an object not being normal as to size, conductivity, or shape. The Compadre is a specialty detector that because it doesn't have all the gain and noise "gadgetry" is a lot more responsive to the smaller pieces of metal which means more trash-but also includes more gold. It is more precise in discrimination than the Silver and thus only trash near the cutoff point give some trash talk characteristics. :grin:
 
Honestly, not sure the GB helps much in mineralization that bad.
Some areas it did, for sure, but the overall depth I usually got out of the Vaq in the normal bad sites was the same 2-3 inches that I also got from the F2 with no manual GB.
That includes using a DD coil, too.

Here in my much better Kansas dirt, those things do make a difference.




If that is the case, and if you are on a budget, the Silver has that extra sensitivity knob and the ability to change coils.

That's the difference in Tesoros, more knobs = more money! :D
Actually, more knobs = more usable functions.

The difference in the Silver and the Compadre is a slightly different frequency, 120 degree ED instead of the 180 on the Compadre, (it is already set to cut out lower end iron nails, a true 180 ED accepts everything) and they add a sensitivity knob.
(ED--"Expanded Discriminate")

The Cibola has "Hot" circuitry, (High Output Technology), a little higher frequency, supposedly 180 degree ED again, (but it is really more like 165), and a threshold knob and pinpoint button.

The Vaq adds the manual ground balance to this set up, which helps in areas with normal mineralization problems and other specific problem sites, and the higher end Tesoros change and add more stuff.

Something for everybody.

Bonesquat, as I said, if you are on a budget get the Silver.
With the right coil and in the right soil they can go deeper than the Compadre...real deep.
Indiana soil E-Track deep.

Some info from Monte from a very old post on the ED-120 vs ED-180 thing...

Why is the ED-180 better than the ED-120 disc.?

"R-n-R", The Toltec II and Golden Sabre II use the ED-120 discriminate circuit. The Bandido II MM, Silver Sabre MM, SHADOWx2, and basically most of the last generation of Tesoros (Pantera, Silver Sabre II, Sidewinder & Sidewinder MM, Bandido, Bandido II and Bandido MM, etc.) have employed the discriminate circuit referred to as the ED-120.

The Amigo II and a few other models utilize what is referred to as the ED-180.

In simple terms, the "120" or "180" descriptions are in reference to the degree of coverage of the discriminate range. Earlier models, such as the Inca, Eldorado, Toltec-100 and such had what could be described as "D-90", or an acceptance range of about 90 degrees. This allowed the detector to accept targets from silver dollars and such on down to lessor conductive targets in a low-foil category. Certainly the minimum rejection level was well above nail rejection.

Users of these earlier silent-search models were able to "comfortably" search many sites without hearing a lot of trash target signals. Unfortunately, in the very worst conditions, such as nail-strewn town sites or some renovation sites, there was too much rejection even at the minimum setting. Thus masking would occur more easily. Additionally, in the worst ground mineral conditions the discriminate circuit didn't work as well at dealing with the ground mineral signal and passing along the desirable target signals.

With the advent of the ED-120 discrimination circuit, Tesoro made a major advancement in functional discriminate range as the "Expanded Discriminate" (thus ED) range went **lower** in the acceptable range and this allowed models designed with that circuitry to just barely kick out most nails at the "minimum" setting and this gave them better "see through" (a bad term, but well used) in the really trashy sites, especially those with nails and other small iron junk.

The ED-120 circuitry is by far some of the best for the average hunter, and even the advanced detectorist, depending upon what their intended application is.

ED-180 simply refers to a discriminate circuit which has an Expanded range even LOWER than the ED-120, not higher. The LOWER range of adjustment gets the unit down into the ALL METAL acceptance range. Many of the competitors models allow such a low-end of adjustment, such as the White's XLT, 5900/6000's, Classic series, Garrett GTA's and Scorpions, and most certainly the Fisher "X" and CZ series.

For a serious relic hunter or a very serious detectorist who wants to have the added performance of an All Metal motion discriminate mode of operation, these are good units. For relic hunting and other searches where ALL targets are desired, then a broad-range, with a lower-end acceptance (ED-180) discriminate circuit is desirable.

However, most hobbyists are NOT interested in locating all metal targets in an area. Most are recreationalists, serious or casual, who are not that interested in having a primary search mode that will accept all metal targets, preferring to reject annoying nails and some other small, low-conductive targets. Thus, the ED-120 is the most used discriminate circuit concept that is employed by the Tesoro folks. It works well.

In some really bad ground the ED-180 will give you some much improved performance, but in "typical" ground and detecting situations the famous ED-120 should do.

Now, I hope this rambling wasn't too confusing. As for which is the "Better" of the two, I would have to say that I would be content with the ED-120 under most conditions. I do, however, employ the option of going to a lower range (ED-180) when I get into some very mineralized areas where there are NOT a lot of detectable targets and I prefer to get the best depth/performance.


Found this post in a search . Great info.
Thank you Digger!
 
In the south where we hunt civil war camps , we like to hunt a field in all metal and flip to disc to check ....the Silver does this well , it is surprisingly powerful
 
The first detector I ever had was a Silver Umax. I loved it because it was very light to swing, affordable, only takes 1 9v battery that lasted forever, and it was a nickel magnet! I also enjoyed it during seeded hunts because I never got any interference from other detectors around me and oh ya... it's super light to swing all day long! It wasn't the deepest machine of the bunch, but it had it's place and if you've already got an etrac, you'll enjoy the Silver.
 
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