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Golden mask 3 metal detector from Bulgaria the first UK review
Latest Golden Mask news !!!! now you can buy direct from the manufacturer at the new 2010 price which is only only £285.00
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I recently received an e mail out of the blue from a guy in Bulgaria asking if I would like to review his latest machine the Golden Mask 3, after a short exchange of e mails including pictures and links to golden mask video tests I could understand why this gentleman had so much confidence in his product.

As you will see the by the pictures the Golden Mask is a sharp looking well made machine...designed for the job in hand you might say.....what is rare these days is to find a commercially available machine which has been designed and built by dedicated detectorists, our last experience of this scenario was Alain's  XP Gold Maxx...look how successful that was and still is...do you remember where your heard the XP Gold Maxx news first...and then what happened .

OK so what is the Golden Mask designed for apart from finding metal targets in soil, what makes it stand out from the other machines available on today's market.....
From what I can deduct the metal detecting scene in Bulgaria is different to the UK and US, these guys are not pre occupied with fancy machines and gimmicks, they want a no nonsense deep machine built to last. Another point worth mentioning is the very popular Detech search coils are made in Bulgaria.

The golden mask claims the ability to find targets under ceramics and stone
One theory is the Romans left Great Britain of their own accord most of their wealth went home with them, the situation was very different in Bulgaria where they were forced out and had to leave literally overnight,  in many cases valuable belongings were buried under floors deep into the soil. When the house collapsed the roofing tiles and rubble ended up on top of the treasure.. now add a couple of thousand years of soil and you can imagine how important it is to have a machine that ignores the magnetic effects caused by roofing tiles and brick.

Metal detectors with such capabilities are generally good for searching areas of ancient habitation and high mineralization, it would be safe to say some previous metal detector knowledge would be an advantage in order to achieve the machines maximum potential in such situations.



Golden mask build quality

Search coil : The search coils I have to test are the 10.5" 2D and the 12.5" 2D, both are very light and well constructed, the resin filled base is very impressive...again no coil cover available as with all Bulgarian machines I have seen so far.

As you can see the coil construction especially the stem webbing is up to the job, note the lightweight carbon style stem making the Golden Mask a very well balanced machine weighing in at only 3lb 11oz (1.4 kg) with the 10.5" coil fitted.


Stem
3 piece stove enamelled black Aluminium and Carbon style stem with two twist collars which lock it all together making a very solid unit.. again no locking pin to locate the stems which may be a problem for some people but reflecting on the price tag of £285.00 it's good enough for now..



Control box face plate and decals


The control box is made from tough ABS with scratch resistant decals, the rotary controls have a very nice dampened feel and allow very fine adjustments to be made, note the 6.3 mm headphone jack socket.
                                                                                                 

 

Battery Box and arm cup

Tough ABS battery box fitted with NiMh batteries which operate the Golden mask for around 10-14 hours on a 4-6 hour charge, also supplied is a very good smart charger.  The charging jack socket is mounted at the top of the battery box..
The arm cup is un padded and similar to most other machines.
The robust build quality is very good compared to other machines in it's price range

The Golden Mask metal detector

So far my Golden Mask metal detector experience has been very good, the sites I have visited so far are all iron contaminated so the machine has never been out of the GB Auto setting, on the odd occasion I have switched to manual only to confirm auto is the correct mode for my requirements.
In the past an operating frequency of 8.3Khz and a large coil has never been the best combination for hunting out small coins amongst nails but I must say the Golden Mask has never failed to impress me... even the large 12.5" coil can easily locate small targets without problems.

Coins always give a clean 2 way signal even very small targets stop you in your tracks, at times I ran the discrimination very low trying to "max" the machine out, I dug some small Roman hob nails which gave a one way signal proving the discrimination was accurate and could be relied upon. however these signals could have possibly been a coins next to iron...I guess it was worth  a try, I turned the discrimination up to 7 and totally eliminated every hobnail, eventually I settled on position 4 which gave a broken sound on the iron.
 I did have the odd occasion where the target disappeared once the hole was disturbed, the trick is to keep digging as the target may have fallen on edge or under a piece of iron.

The Golden Mask 3 has no target pin point feature and to be honest it does not need one, every target I dug was exactly in the centre of the coil.

Roman coins found amongst small nails                             Our test site is littered with millions of these small Roman nails

 

As with most machines large mis-shaped iron like plough shears and horse shoes are sometimes mistaken for a good targets the Golden Mask is no different, I'm always nervous about machines with 100% iron rejection on this type of target because they normally reject coins lying next to nails..

At this point it may be worth noting the Golden mask has a very loud audio signal as I found out when I accidentally knocked the on /off volume control up while retrieving a target, those who are hard of hearing will love this machine !!...those who are not hard of hearing soon will be !!

As usual the British winter is now closing in and detecting days are limited with most of our productive sites under crop and heavy mud, I will continue this review over the next few outings hopefully on some pasture sites.

Comments so far
I like the Golden Mask.. the audio signal is very sharp and precise along with a user friendly mode of operation, it can be a switch on and go machine with excellent discrimination, or with a little practice a deep seeker with slow recovery speed.
I felt no fatigue while using this machine it is perfectly balanced although it did give me an ear bashing.

What would I change
The VCO tone is very high I don't like VCO unless used as a pin point feature it's not something I could get used to, plus it offers no real advantage to my style of hunting, a smooth sounding high and low tone would be better for me....but that's just a personal thing.
A quieter independent threshold level would be nice, it's OK without headphones but can to intense with them on.
 I have always run the machine below the audio hum unless ground balancing.
Also a provision to fit single AA cells would be a good idea for those who don't have faith in re-chargeable batteries, so far I have had no cause to doubt them.

Pasture site
I managed a short trip today (Sat 29th November) to a once productive pasture site.... it's more of a test area nowadays positive targets are very rare, this small area on a large estate has almost been picked clean of non ferrous targets leaving plenty of iron. It's worth visiting this site for the amazing views and watching the amazing red kites hovering above you, on several occasions we have searched this area and only dug 2-3 positive targets all day.



I thought this would be the ideal place to test the Golden mask in manual GB, perhaps getting that little extra depth we have been wishing for, once again auto GB was the best setting to use possibly due to iron contamination.
 Running the golden mask in manual GB with a slight threshold made the machine very unstable also the iron rejection appeared to be less reliable....again Auto GB gave exactly the same depth with a faultless performance.

During my 2 hour search I managed 2 shotgun cartridges a small button and a very tiny Roman grot at an impressive 7-8" with a faint solid signal.
 I found that running the discrimination at level 6 dealt with the iron very well...all one way or "clipped" signals were iron.
While using the Golden mask I thought of the machines I could compare it to...it's is a very precise machine with a very fine iron rejection range and sharp clear audio tone, those who have used a Troy X5 or Tesoro Tejon will appreciate what I am saying.

I am now beginning to wonder if I am going to find a site where manual GB can be used to an advantage, so far optimum performance has always been achieved when using the fixed (auto) GB.

Thanks for reading my Golden Mask review keep checking this page as more information will follow..........

A great way to start the new year 2 Jan 2009

Finds from a new pasture site.

Verdict so far :
The Golden Mask 3 is a very honest machine, it's sharp audio and precise discrimination makes it easy to operate, the more you use it the more your confidence grows....Again like the Golden Mask 1 there is nothing out there in the same price range that can compare to it.
The re chargeable battery system is very good quality and has renewed my faith in such things...3 outings without a charge is pretty good in my book !

Lets face it there are no magic wands out there....all the bright ideas have been covered many years ago... today's detectors are just variations of the same theme... most experienced users know that more gimmicks and digital processors dont always make a better machine.

The best place to buy a Golden Mask 3
 Every machine has it's niggles and the Golden Mask is no different but in all honesty... it bleeps, it's deep with good discrimination so really what more can you ask for apart from value for money
 the new 2010 price is €322 (To Gary's detecting viewers) which equates to around £285 plus post this is a bargain !!!.

For the best price, fast dispatch and genuine warranty buy direct from the manufacturer

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