Mark Ellington
*Review based on prototype version…subject to change!*
The Teknetics T2 has developed quite a cult-like following since its release! With good reason…It is powerful, lightweight and innovative. It is chock full of useful features that appeal to advanced users in this wonderful hobby.
The Teknetics name has long been synonymous with performance…and that legacy is continued with the launch of the new Teknetics Delta 4000. Lead Engineer on the Delta is John Gardiner. He has had a hand in many recent metal detector releases, including the Fisher F75 and F70. He was backed up by Jorge A. Saad (see my Fisher F5 review for more on him) who wrote the core software code. The legendary Dave Johnson designed the hardware and is overall Lead Engineer for the Teknetics line of metal detectors.
The Delta will be the first of several new Metal Detectors coming to the Teknetics family…the Delta, the Gamma and the Omega. The Delta is positioned as a user friendly, yet very powerful machine!
On screen information includes:
- Mode Setting
- Menu Setting
- 99 digit target ID
- Icon target designators
- Battery life meter
- On-the-fly depth gauge
Appearance and Construction:
The Delta sports a visually appealing black and green color scheme with silver and black upper/lower rods. The display is large, clear and sharp with red overlay that contrasts the black LCD nicely. The Delta utilizes the same rod system seen on the F70/F75 (which is super light, but solid). The armcup/stand is a black ABS plastic with rugged closed cell foam in the arm cup.
The Handgrip is a “grippy” foam that covers the entire grip section of the rod…it allows for more grip options and less time readjusting. The handle angle (an often overlooked feature…until you feel some pain!) seems just right, and the grip material comfortable enough for hours of hunting.
The rod locking collars are nice and tight and feel very secure while swinging away…no flex is felt. One of my favorite things about these rods is the great range of adjustability. I’m around 6′ tall, and still find myself in the mid-range of available length adjustment. There seems to be plenty of room for taller and shorter hunters.
The control housing is has excellent viewing angles and is easily accessed by your thumb. I really, really like this style housing…it is light but rugged, offering a nice precise battery door fit.
The Delta has an internal speaker that does an excellent job in conjunction with the built-in volume control. For headphone use, there’s a 1/8th” jack AND a 1/4″ jack! This, as far as I know, is a FIRST in the industry! No matter your headphone preference, you’re covered!…as you can see in the photo, I enjoy using some lightweight Koss phones due to the internal volume control…and plenty of loudness from the circuit. However, if I want to use my old heavyweight phones, I don’t even need an adapter! Pretty durned COOL!
Power and coil:
The Teknetics Delta uses a single 9 volt battery for power! Conversations with Engineer Dave Johnson indicate one of his pet peeves is inefficient metal detector circuitry…this is very evident in his recent designs. Battery life is phenomenal given the performance observed. Expect over 20 hours from a single battery! The design evidently efficiently focuses the power where it counts.
The Delta comes with an 8 inch concentric coil. This coil feels surprisingly light, contributing to the amazing overall feather-like weight of the detector. The coil fit is very precise, allowing no coil “flop” that seems to happen on some machines.
Controls and Functions:
The user interface on the Tek Delta is very intuitive. There are 2 Sections on the face, with two buttons below to access each.
They are “Mode” and “Menu” …
Hunting with the Teknetics Delta
My first thought….”Man! this thing is LIGHT!” The weight and balance mean you can hunt all day long! Let me put it like this…the rest of me wears out a long time before my swinging arm does.
The Delta has no ground balance adjustment, yet it seems to handle the various soils I’ve exposed it to amazingly well (all soils are different…this is for mine)…Switching over to all metal mode, you can hear the circuitry quickly adjusting itself to the ground. From previous fixed ground balance detectors I’ve used, I expected a substantial loss of depth…that has not been the case for me. In my test garden, I’ve been able to accurately identify coins down to the 8 inch range, and “hear” a deep silver dime I have buried 8 to 10 inches (sinkage has changed it over the years). This same deep dime screams at you when hunting in all metal mode! The “ALL METALS” mode has power to spare…surprising power.
Discrimination is great…totally blanking eliminated targets. Reset speed is very impressive, which will help when using discrimination and trying to find closely co-located targets. Optimal swing speed seems to be very forgiving…I don’t seem to lose much if any depth when slowing or speeding up. Quick transitions from one soil type to another (ie; going from chip bark to the surrounding dirt) doesn’t cause any falsing, which can be the case with some preset ground balance detectors I’ve used.
Using Notches in a very simple affair. Simply pick “NOTCH” with the MENU button and begin pressing the “UP” arrow button. When you get to the target you want to “notch out” (foil for example) pause when the blinking indicator reaches it, and it will be “notched out”. You can notch out anything in the icon bar all the way through ZINC. Another cool feature is to be able to “notch in” targets. For example, you can run discriminate all the way up to ZINC, then NOTCH in 5 cent. A handy way to handle some quick “cherry picking”!
All-in-all, I’ve put around 40 plus hours on the Delta, and I am very impressed! I consider myself a top end detector junkie…I’m one of those types that always wants the high end machines. The simplicity of operation for the Delta reminded me of just how much fun the hobby of metal detecting can be when you don’t have to spend a ton of time adjusting things….it just works!..and works amazingly well. Carefree coil jockeying can go a LONG way towards stress reduction…and isn’t that what it’s really all about?
Here are a few clad, wheat and silver Delta finds…
