Welcome back to the sport! So I'll also throw in my 2 cents worth here. A lot of work goes into deciding which machine to swing. Myself, I have 4 machines for different occasions, but I'm looking to maybe upgrade to the new Manticore. I have been using the trusty CTX 3030 for years and it's quite the workhorse which have given me many spectacular finds. But there are some downsides to it as well. The weight being one as it gets really heavy towards the end of a long day. Minelab has also pretty much abandoned the machine as well with no updates since soon after it's release. The machine has a lot more potential I think, but it is slow by today's standards and does have some issues with getting through heavy iron, trash, and it iron falses a lot. But I know it well and it's certainly my go to machine. both on land and in the water.
I've seen a recent review by another member here (Hiluxota) on his new Manticore. He's a long time CTX user so has a bit of a bias. His first video on it was a rant about how bas it was in iron, but his follow up video was to correct himself as all his issues were operator error due to inexperience for having one of the settings wrong. As he stated, it's really an amazing machine and claims it to be "100 times" faster than the CTX. It today's hunting environment with heavy park trash, or heavily pounded areas only the most difficult targets remain and I think the Manticore will be a game changer in that regard.
Secondly, there is also the new Equinox which is basically the Manticore "light". Less power, a bit lighter weight, and a little lighter on the wallet. Just keep in mind that although recovery speed is adjustable on the new Minelab machines, faster recovery speed comes at the expense of depth in many cases.
The only other notes I'll make here is that I'm not familiar with Deus or Nokta machines, but I can say that lately I have seen some amazing recoveries made with their latest iterations that would likely have been impossible even a year ago with the older machines. As for my other machines, one being the Minelab 705, it's a good all around light machine, but nowhere near the performance of the above mentioned detectors. My girl likes it because it's really simple to use and very light. The drawback is it's not waterproof, so even wet grass can be a problem. My other machines are Pulse Induction, but not waterproof. The Minelab GPX4800 is awesome as it can easily discriminate out iron and is perfect for relatively clean beaches or fields where depth and sensitivity to very small targets (such as fine chain links, IE: thin gold necklace) is key as it is engineered for gold prospecting. The bad part is it hits on everything, big or small at extreme depths. With my big coil on the beach in Florida, I was digging 4-5 feet to recover things like pennies or lead fishing sinkers-and this was at only 50% power!
So to sum it up, choose your machine wisely to the kind of detecting you do. The CTX is a great all around machine in all elements, even extreme hot or cold. (I've had it out water hunting in -25F weather) and it holds up to all kinds of abuse. The newer, lighter machines are structurally less durable in my opinion, but made that way to save weight. They are also a lot more capable in tough detecting conditions (iron, trash, mineralized soil, EMI), and may even get more depth in some circumstances. So take your pick as there's a lot to choose from, and I'm sure there's a "perfect" machine out there for you.
