Help needed to make my mind up

[pengles]

Now I've got into the hobby, (started about a year ago), I'm going to upgrade from my Ace 250, which has been a great starter machine. I need a light machine and have been researching another machine and the Deus. Love the weight and wireless setup of the Deus, but can't stretch to buying the remote as well, it's the thick end of £600. My permissions are all ploughed or rough pasture. Has anybody any experience of using the Deus with just the headphones? I'm not really a 'tweaker, so won't miss playing around with the settings etc, but all the reports I read say that the factory programmes are pretty good. Anybody have any experience of using just the 'phones?'

[CTX_Phil]

I've got a deus lite that my 8 / 6 year old children mainly use. They find bits easily just using the basic 1 & beach programmes without a remote. I use it occasionally when I'm feeling lazy and have found some hammered & couple gold rings off the beach. If you can dig signals based on what they sound like rather than looking at numbers or can learn to do so you'll be fine

[dep1699]

I have a Deus light as well. It takes a bit to get used to uncertain signals, but those are signals that you will need to dig anyway as numbers with any detector will be quite inaccurate in those cases. If you really want to check numbers anyway you can buy an adaptor where you can plug any headphones and keep the WS4 controller in your pocket (or buy another adaptor to fix it on the shaft or another that let you use it as a watch). Anyway I am constantly find all sorts of things (well you will dig loads of rubbish anyway but there's no detector that can cope with this) and I still don't feel the need to buy a controller. This month they will upgrade the software to version 5 and WS4 and ws5 will have even more tweak to play with, but if you don't mind fiddling with programs, the stock ones are just great (I usually use program 9 hot).

[Buriedbytime&dust]

I have the remote, but to be honest, if you only ever used programs 2, 3 and 9 (GMP, Deus Fast and Hot) unaltered you'd do very well. V5 is going to open up further tweaking options for the Lite user too, if you do wish to experiment.

[dep1699]

If you can wait a bit if you decide to go for Deus it would be better as soon (maybe this month ) they will sell it with new coils with a wider range of frequencies, or if you buy it now ask for a discount (the coils they produced so far are equally good in my opinion) :-)

[detecttheearth]

I only use the remote with standard headphones and my mate only uses the Deus wireless headphones. He wishes he has the remote for configuration and is thinking of buying one. For the first year or so I could have got by without the remote and just gone on the factory presets and Deus wireless headphones, however since learning to configure the remote to suit different conditions my detecting has greatly improved. I don't ever look at the remote now, just work off tones as I find I detect far better this way. It took some adjustment but it was worth it, looking at the remote all day is just a distraction and can be an excuse not to dig a signal. If I were you I'd get the remote and a £10 - £15 pair of headphones with a 20 Hz to 20 kHz range. People on here will disagree with me on the headphones front but I truly believe expensive headphones for detecting are a waste of money. I have expensive headphones for music production and listening to music but that's all.

[pengles]

Thank you for so many fast and relative comments. I seem to be leaning towards ordering the light and see how things go without the remote.

[Buriedbytime&dust]

If I were you I'd get the remote and a £10 - £15 pair of headphones with a 20 Hz to 20 kHz range. People on here will disagree with me on the headphones front but I truly believe expensive headphones for detecting are a waste of money

The XP blue backphones are brilliant. Same sound quality as the WS4s and inline volume control, and they cost a mighty £12 or so

[smudge.g]

and dont forget most stores will offer 10% discount, my lite came to just over £600 in january with 11in coil and ws5s. a great setup and havent needed to save up for remote yet! Good luck.

[Oxgirl36]

If you wait till September you can get the new X35 coil as part of the package. This will have a boost function for lower frequencies, a real boon for pasture. And the headphones will have exra functionality so you can do more changes that had previously only been available to those with a controller.

[Phil2401]

I've had the Deus Lite for about 18 months - 9" coil and WS4 headphones - no control unit. Still using v3.2 software.

I haven't found it any disadvantage not to be able to see a screen - (although you don't miss what you've never had) - even if you have the best screen in the world, you're going to trust your ears first and if you don't walk over the target, you're not going to find it.

Even with the WS4s, if you get the little horseshoe attachment you can use your own ear buds, keep the slide-off WS4 control unit in a top pocket and pop it out to check the numbers on the screen, if you must.

I'm no expert - about 2 years on from being a beginner - but the Deus Lite has found me quite a few good artefacts / coins and I don't have any intention of upgrading (apart from the fact that I've just bought a second hand 11" coil, just before I saw that the supposedly more efficient new coils were now on the market!)

It all depends really on your commitment to the hobby, your budget and your skill....

Phil

[dig-dog]

You won’t be sorry. I have the remote but it’s not absolutely necessary.
They are a great, versatile piece of equipment. The basic platform is very capable indeed
and that will probably suit you down to the ground.
Xp are constantly developing it so buying a new machine is not required, just update the software (with the aid of someone else’s remote) if and when you feel like it.
DD

[pengles]

Thanks people. I had an in depth chat with Marcus at Regton today. He explained everything from upgrading the Deus software (which they will do if you haven't a remote), to earphone choices, to the new coil proposals etc etc. very interesting and helpful. Bottom line, ordered a Deus light today and got a good discount. Have used Regton before and they seem really good.