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The whites xlt metal detector review a good all round treasure hunter.
Dear Gary
 Thanks for replying to my e mail I always enjoy visiting your web site and appreciate all the hard work you put in to maintaining it
 The metal detector field tests are by far the most comprehensive on the www. I feel that it's time I made a small contribution as a way to say thank you for your hard work. Please find enclosed a small article on the Whites XLT.

Mick


Whites XLT By Mick Harvey
Whites XLT field test
Review April 05
Now most of the fields are in crop and the settlement sites are un available, its time to put the high frequency machine back in the cupboard for a short rest. Leaving most of us to detect on what's available until harvest time again, perhaps time for a little coinshooting along the riverbank, attending club digs or re visiting the vast pasture fields we have been over time and time again, either way were not searching for anything specific just enjoying the hobby in a relaxed state of mind.


Looking at my finds I started thinking about what machine had given me the most enjoyment over the years, and indeed the best finds. Nostalgia took me back to the Whites XLT, then the Explorer, then very quickly back to the XLT before I slipped into a dark depression. Looking in my hand at the first Celtic stator, thinking back the moment that little beauty came out, a sunny evening in August having spent hours trying different un stable programs I had downloaded off the metal detecting forums, as a last resort I loaded the pre-set Relic setting and within minutes a clean signal registering +54 gave me my first real treasure. I continued to use the default relic program for the following season and made some interesting finds, including a further 3 gold coins.


Why did I sell my whites xlt ? Good question, in fact I traded it in for an Explorer, having read all the articles in the magazines the Explorer was the only way forward. Despite months of trying the Explorer and me were never going to be partners, its just one of those things you either click with them or fail miserably. I wanted a more solid sound when a target was located, the flute noise and poor pinpointing drove me mad.


I decided to look around for a second machine something I could use for general searching, the XLT was a logical choice as used ones sold for around £275.00. I managed to get a nice example from a lad in my club who has upgraded to a Gold Maxx, it was loaded with the usual high performance programs  named, deep silver, magnum, blaster and depth plus which made me smile as it jogged my memory back to the good old days.


I took the XLT to a local riverbank for its first outing, I ran through the installed programs one by one and as suspected they drove the machine mad, as before I resorted to the standard relic program and dropped the discrimination down to accept -45, the XLT ran smooth with a stable threshold. Remembering what I had learned with my old XLT, using a lower power program enables you to drop the discrimination lower than normal, thus giving more depth on some  soil types.


There are so many theory's on how to get maximum depth from the XLT some say it works best by pumping the power up, but on my soil I have found it just results in false signals, I am confident the best way to gain depth is by lowering the discrimination.
With this simple setting I was digging silver sixpences up at an easy 8-10 inches and half crowns as deep as I would want to go.
 

Having spent a morning with this machine I realised that metal detectors have not come very far in the last 10 years or perhaps the XLT was way ahead of its time, the XLT is still up there with today's top machines, why did I need to change, OK the high frequency machines will grab a Roman coin on top of a nail and perform well in contaminated soil, but the XLT has so many features for so little money in fact 38 different adjustments on an easy to scroll menu, so simple a novice will find no problem mastering this machine.
 

Now I can see why I found so much with my old XLT, it is such a tractable machine and can be tweaked to most search conditions.
I love my Tesoro Tejon but pound for pound hand on heart the Whites XLT is the best machine I have ever used.

Thanks Mick for a great review give me your postal details I will send you something.
Gary

Gary's XLT program
This is the only one I use called Bucks land
*Items marked in red may need adjustment

BASIC ADJUSTMENTS:

 Bucks land xlt program

 

 

TARGET VOLUME

  PERSONAL PREF

AUDIO THRESHOLD

 Faint background hum

TONE (AUDIO FREQ)

  236

AUDIO DISC

  ON

SILENT SEARCH

  OFF

MIXED-MODE

  OFF

A.C.SENSITIVITY

  73 for my soil

D.C.SENSITIVITY

  45

BACKLIGHT

  0

VIEWING ANGLE

  25

 

PRO - OPTIONS
AUDIO RATCHET PINPOINTING

  ON

S.A.T. SPEED

 5

TONE I.D.

  OFF

V.C.O.

  ON

ABSOLUTE VALUE

  OFF

MODULATION

  ON

G.E.B. / TRAC AUTOTRAC

  OFF    Re - ground balance if machine becomes un stable

TRAC VIEW

  OFF

AUTOTRAC SPEED

  N/A

AUTOTRAC OFFSET

  N/A

TRAC INHIBIT

  N/A

COARSE G.E.B.

  on my soil it is between 42 and 47

FINE G.E.B.

ignore

DISCRIMINATION DISC EDIT

  REJ -95 TO  -11

 ACC -10 TO +95

BLOCK EDIT

  AS ABOVE

LEARN ACCEPT

  OFF

LEARN REJECT

  OFF

RECOVERY SPEED

  23 Turn down to 15 on a site with low Iron (better depth)

BOTTLECAP REJECT

  1

DISPLAY VISUAL DISC.

  ON

ICONS

  OFF

V.D.I. SENSITIVITY

  90

D.C. PHASE

  OFF

GRAPH AVERAGING

  ON

GRAPH ACCUMULATING

  ON

FADE RATE

  7

SIGNAL TRANSMIT,RECEIVE TRANSMIT BOOST

  ON

TRANSMIT FREQUENCY

  4

PREAMP GAIN

  3 is good ...adjust to suit your soil conditions

Notes : By only accepting up to -10 you can run a little more power without the machine becoming unstable. The high VDI setting WILL give some un reliable numbers but dig all 2 way signals, work the target with short sweeps to "lock on", if it wont lock, it will probably be Iron. Deep signals can sound slightly broken check in pin point, if you hear a quiet vco it will be worth investigating.
Air and ground balance again if machine becomes unstable.
Don't work slow with this program, a normal walking pace with an even sweep works best, most Iron will cause a null in the threshold.
I have been using these settings over the last year on several metal detecting sites around Buckinghamshire.
 I hope it works for you.......Please let me know how you get on

Remember OADS headphones work great on the XLT.

Spectrum XLT Settings explained

Basic Adjustments

Target Volume: Sets the desired loudness of a target response.
Audio Threshold: Sets the desired loudness of the threshold (background hum).
Tone (Audio Freq): Adjusts the tone (pitch) of the threshold (background hum).
Audio Disc.: All Metal Mode or Discriminate mode.
Silent Search: No threshold (background hum) or threshold (background hum).
Mixed Mode: Discrimination (A.C.) response or All Metal (D.C.) and Discrimination (A.C.) response.
A.C. Sensitivity: Discrimination sensitivity.
D.C. Sensitivity: All Metal and pinpoint sensitivity.
Backlight: 0 is off, 1-6 is on at different brightness levels.
Viewing Angle: Adjustment makes the display easier to see at different temperatures.

Pro Options

Audio
Ratchet Pinpointing: Automatically detune the loop when pinpointing.
S.A.T. Speed: Adjust the threshold autotune speed only in no discriminate or mixed mode, has no affect in discriminate mode.
Tone I.D.: Identifies targets by assigning each VDI # a seperate tone.
V.C.O.: In All Metal or pinpoint mode, target response will increase in loudness and pitch as coil approaches target location.
Absolute Value: BigFoot coil option.
Modulation: Gives full volume on all targets, shallow targets may break up a little. This option is forced on when Silent Search is selected.
G.E.B. / TRAC
Autotrac: Turns the autotrac ON or OFF, this is good for maintaining a fixed ground balance point.
Trac View: Allows users to see when the detector autotracs.
Autotrac Speed: How fast the detector will adjust to the ground when autotrac is ON.
Autotrac Offset: Can add a positive or negative offset to the ground balance point.
Trac Inhibit: Allows the cancellation of ground tracking overs targets.
Coarse G.E.B.: Adjustment of the coarse G.E.B. (turn autotrac OFF when using).
Fine G.E.B.: Adjustment of the fine G.E.B. (turn autotrac OFF when using).
Coarse and Fine G.E.B. are used to manually ground balance the detector. Before using these adjustments, the Autotrac feature needs to be OFF. Then you adjust the Coarse and Fine settings until you are close to no variation in sound between the air and ground when the loop is lifted and lowered.
Discrimination
Disc. Edit
Accept & Reject: Allows VDI numbers to be accepted or rejected one at a time.
Block Edit: Allows VDI numbers to be accepted or rejected in groups by scrolling.
Learn Accept: ON allows targets swept in front of the coil to be accepted by the VDI number the detector reads.
Learn Reject: ON allows targets swept in front of the coil to be rejected by the VDI number the detector reads.
Recovery Speed: How fast the detector recovers for the next target reading, too high of a setting and depth is lost, too low and target seperation sensitivity is lost.
Bottlecap Reject: More iron rejection at a high setting, nickels tend to sound better at lower settings.
Display
Visual Disc.: Allows the display of all VDI numbers rejected or accepted when targeted.
Icons: Allows the display of icons that represent the targets detected, OFF tends to speed up the display response.
V.D.I. Sensitivity: How sensitive the display is to the target detected, above 85 gives a three digit VDI number.
D.C. Phase: Gives a D.C. Phase VDI number for targets detected.
Graph Averaging: Averages the target VDI hits for the display.
Graph Accumulating: Accumulates target VDI bars on the display instead of clearing out before displaying next target.
Fade Rate: How fast the displayed target VDI bars fade from the display, 0 resets the display after each target.
Signal
Transmit Boost: Usually ON, may be better as OFF when searching a saltwater beach or blacksand.
Transmit Frequency: Can be changed to alleviate interference from other detectors operating at the same frequency or possible interference from electrical sources.
Preamp Gain: Adjustment of the sensitivity, higher settings affect both A.C. and D.C. sensitivity.

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