Field test for the XP Adventis

By Norfolk Wolf

 

The Adventis? You never hear of them spoken about in detecting circles, unless it’s “what are they like?” “Don’t know mate.” I didn’t even pronounce it right to begin with, I always thought it was Avensis as in Toyota’s! In actual fact this is the model that started the XP revolution, more detectorists use this on the continent than any other XP machine. Over here it’s been relegated to the backroom shadows whilst everyone clamours either for the GoldMaxx, or the 100 and 200’s. Could it be that “Johnny foreigner” knows something we don’t?
The Adventis sits smack in the middle of the range and running at the same 4.6 KHz as it’s stable mates, with the exception of the GoldMaxx (18KHz). The XP range has a progression of user controls for it’s models as you advance through the range, from the basic Adx100 which has just All metal, discrimination. and sensitivity, through to the 200 with it’s added dual discrimination and then on to the Adventis.

With this one, it gives you a lot more meat and potatoes.
People reading test reports usually skip this bit, so I shall make it brief!
I should think by now, everyone is aware of the superb build quality and lightness of the XP’s and that they run on 8 x1.5 volt batteries in two wire-free drop in pods, giving 45hours use with the innovative back phones. The balance of the detector remains whether you have it hip-mounted or not, giving you a full days detecting with no aches. That’s it! Did I mention that it comes in 3 sections and how easy it was to assemble? Well it does and it is.
 

Controls.

The Adventis discrimination system is what this machine is all about, so I will need to go into it in more depth a little later in the report. To begin with, there is a 3-position flick switch for all metal, disc.1 and disc2.this is used in conjunction with the rotary knob to increase discrimination. The silencer 3 position flick switch sits to the far right, think of this as either a bottle cap reject or iron mask; 0 is off, positions 1and 2 gives progressively more effect. Nb. This only works in discrimination, unlike the GoldMaxx. The rotary on/off and sensitivity sits on the bottom row in conjunction with the Ground balance control. (More of this later). The headphone socket and internal speaker are positioned to the left hand side of the control box. The total weight of the control box is only 340grammes.
The coil is the standard 9inch widescan, very light and very good, handles mineralisation extremely well.

Now it’s meat and potato time.

Discrimination.

The thinking behind this has made it the outstanding feature on this machine. Most people should be aware by now of the different properties of a low KHz detector compared to that of the higher KHz machines. Better depth on the larger coinage and artefacts, but not so good on the smaller, thinner items and a poorer response speed. As with all detectors whatever the KHz rating, all metal will give you the best response speed and the greatest depth, but then you’re digging all sizes of iron all day long; so a certain level of discrimination needs to be added. Now suppose you had such a wide range of virtually only IRON discrimination, starting from the tiniest slivers of nails right through to horse shoes and still be able to pull hammered coinage and as a bonus being able to knock out coke and foil? That’s what this machine is all about, user versatility. Why have a discrimination system where the iron rejection band is very narrow, and the rest of it you won’t use and if you do, it knocks out the very items you’re searching for and making the response speed even worse?

The Discrimination system in depth. 

All metal.

Means just that, there is no threshold and the silencer is inoperable in this mode.
The silencer.As previously mentioned, this works on the bottle-cap reject or iron mask principal. When on O (off), the signal tone remains low whether it is iron or not. By Flicking the switch to 1 then 2 will increase the rejection and the tone becomes higher but response speed will suffer more on2. (Not a huge amount)
Disc. 1. Silencer off. When at the minimum setting for all intents and purposes it’s all metal, a rusty 4inch nail lengthways on will give a double blip and a repeatable signal short ways on.
Turn the control to “12o’clock” still a double blip lengthways but clipped short ways
At “2o’clock” it’s becoming a clipped double blip lengthways and ignored short ways.
Turned fully clockwise, lengthways on will give a “spit”.
 

Now we introduce the silencer.
With the Disc.1. and silencer on 1 at “2 o’clock” the nail will give a small “spit” lengthways. With such a low discrimination setting, the response speed is only slightly impaired. Any larger iron that does break through at this setting is easily identified by flicking the switch into Disc.2. (We are talking up to horseshoes here) This setting and method is by far the easiest to use and it also knocks out coke and small foil when flicked in Disc.2 whilst still having the ability to pull cut ¼’s and tiny1/4 staters.
Disc.2. Silencer off. On minimum setting it ignores the 4-inch nail completely with the higher level of discrimination. It is perfectly feasible to work at this setting (very slightly better response speed) and then increase the discrimination when needed, by turning the rotary knob and flicking the silencer either into 1 or 2. However for speed of use and simplicity it is far easier with the first method.
These findings were done at home, obviously out in the fields with mineralisation to contend with will give slight variations.

Ground Reject.

As mentioned before on the XP’s, “It’s ground balance Jim, but not as we know it”; it has been simplified to make ground balancing more user friendly and eliminate any user errors. It’s just a question of switching on and holding the detector straight out in front of you and parallel to the ground, there will be four tones and after a few seconds followed by a double tone when all is ready to detect. The rotary control needs to be at”12’o’clock”(preset), in this position it will ignore hot rocks and other mineralised objects such as certain pottery. When more au fait with the detector and conditions allow, it’s possible to set it to “11o’clock” to gain those extra few millimetres.  

Normal mineralised field.

I keep four or five of my fields separate solely for testing purposes, nothing fantastic has turned up but it’s reasonably good conditions in which to get used to the detector’s performances and try out different settings. At the back of my mind at all times was the fact of the poorer response speed of the lower KHz compared with my own machine, so sweep speeds would have to be kept in check. After a short while I began to realise why our European cousins rate this machine so highly. Depth! If you sweep fast you won’t get it, but by taking your time and sweeping according to the amount of signals you are receiving it’s there in plenty. (This is the reason for the low level of discrimination).I kept to the preferred setting in Disc 1 as previously mentioned. Any large nails that did come through gave the now familiar double blip and then when swept over at 90 degrees were either silent or gave a short spit. Anything bigger or a signal I was unsure of was dealt with by flicking into Disc. 2. good signals were always definite 2 way jobbies, unless when close to a nail. It was then a simple matter of either flicking into all metal to ascertain that there were two signals, or retrace the sweep slowly back, when the item would be pulled before the coil came into contact with the iron. As regards to the smaller items, I found that as long as the central part of the coil went over them, inner cores of cartridges and 177 pellets could be pulled, but sensitivity to these was gradually impaired the closer they were to the outer extremities of the coil. Amongst all the other finds, the field gave up an unexpected bonus on two separate days to the Adventis, one was a cut portion of a Tealby penny and this was followed by a rather worn old silver ring (and this was deep). The amount of times that I have been over this ground, it just shows that one type of detector never gets it all. Sensitivity and ground balance was kept to preset at all times on these fields with no problems.

Roman field.

With the amount of ferrous signals encountered it was necessary to drop the sensitivity down to about 12o’clock in the worst areas. This gave the detector at least a fighting chance; under these conditions it’s pointless going in full throttle and overpowering the machine, leave those settings for pastures. In the worst areas, care needed to be taken and although finds started coming and being far more versatile than ADX 100 and 200, if I said it was in the GoldMaxx response class I would be lying. I feel the smaller elliptical coil is more beneficial in these circumstances. (Which is what I use on the GoldMaxx anyway in these conditions) There were just too many signals under the coil for the Adventis to cope. I’m being very subjective now, as any detector with a standard coil would have really struggled. As I said I did find, but moving slightly out of the “horror” area and not having 2 or 3 iron signals each sweep, things rapidly improved. Sensitivity could be raised and the Adventis coped very well with the mineralisation as expected. Although not many, tiny roman bronzes the odd fibula and larger coinage all gave out sweet two-way signals.

The beach.

Let me say right off that this detector is not suitable for wet or damp sand. The level of discrimination is really not high enough to stop the detector from continually sounding off and false signalling, even with low levels of sensitivity. It was possible to find in these conditions but was far too time consuming and frustrating with all the unwanted signals. The top end of the beach was a completely different story. With the winds recently being in the wrong direction more sand had been brought onto the beach, also there had been a dearth of detectorists when conditions had been more favourable, so it looked like finds would be scarce. As it turned out results were better than we expected. My friend a real seasoned beach detectorist with many good finds to his name, was using “the Daddy,” a Mine lab Sov. So seeing that it was my first day out on the beach with this machine, competition was going to be tough. Considering I spent time trying to get it to work on the damp sand the Adventis was not put to shame, John did end up with a few more 50’s and 20 pence pieces but the Adventis pulled the smallest coin of the day, a tiny ½P and at a very good depth. In actual fact detecting on the dry sand in the previous mentioned settings for Disc.1 was a breeze. Simply flicking to Disc.2 got rid of any foil although ring pulls did come through. After the disappointment on the wet stuff my confidence in the Adventis grew I was hoping that with the low KHz it would be capable of good depths and I wasn’t disappointed.
 

Conclusions.

I have generally shied away from the lower KHz detectors for my own use, favouring the higher rated ones for the all important (to me, for my sites) response speed in place of outright depth capabilities. What the Adventis has shown me, although not lightning fast; the system it uses, has a clever way of overcoming the shortfalls of low KHz. It’s versatility in the amount of differing ways to separate the ferrous targets from the good has my admiration. Yes sure, the GoldMaxx is king and reigns supreme as far as response speed is concerned, but not every detectorist’s pocket and just as importantly, site conditions, warrants such an initial outlay. The Adventis is a natural progression up the ladder from the Adx 100 and 200. However on the minus side, one thing it is not, is a good beach machine. You will be hard pressed to find anything deeper on the dry parts, but as regards the wet or damp sand forget it .If you intend to detect the beaches properly, get a proper beach machine! The Adventis’s forte is soil and pasture, where it will give you depth a plenty, it also has the ability to recover the cut hammered whilst disregarding coke. Care obviously needs to be taken on really contaminated sites but using that care, it has the ability to produce the goods. I’ve got to say, these French certainly know their onions. Come out of the backroom shadows Adventis and take a well-deserved bow.

Norfolk wolf.

© Reprinted with kind permission from Searcher Magazine