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XP Gold Maxx power and performance
The first xp GoldMaxx UK field test review by garys detecting here is my story.
Before I start my field test I would like to thank Alain from XP metal detectors for taking time out of his busy schedule and visiting me in England. Over the two short days we have detected together I have benefited so much from his knowledge.
XP Metal detectors have sold over 5000 machines in France, Spain and Italy, having now met the owner I can honestly say  this man is a perfectionist and second best is not an option for him.
The Gold Maxx power control box is constructed of high quality ABS

These two metal detectors look exactly the same and have identical control panels, the difference is the G-Maxx runs at 4.6KHZ and the Gold Maxx runs at 18Khz.Any well established metal detectorist knows the frequencies are the key to your specific targets. For example 4Khz will detect very deep on bigger targets such as hoards and large bronze or copper items, lets not forget it will still locate small targets, but not as well as the 18Khz machine which will be razor sharp on small Roman and Hammered coins still with excellent depth and discrimination. Your success with the XP Gold Maxx depends on your knowledge of the machine as I will mention later in the test.
The G maxx vs. Gold Maxx a simple test
I buried a 1922 sixpence at 8 inches until the Gold Maxx just lost the signal, the G Maxx picked this target up with a clean tone, raising the coil 1 inch the target was lost.
Conclusion
The G Maxx and Gold Maxx have virtually the same depth on a sixpence size target in clean soil, however the Gold Maxx will have an advantage when looking for smaller targets or searching mineralised ground. The G Maxx will be better for bigger targets buried deep.

The XP standard search coil is a 9" 2D widescan ,optional coils are the 11" (right) or an elliptical. The coils are very well made and unbelievably light making this a very well balanced metal detector.

The XP coil cables are slightly thicker than most other detectors, Alain told me this is because the cable has double shielding for added strength, with military connectors which are very expensive.

The G-Maxx control panel

The XP control box is very light it can be stem or hip mounted, the machines come with a top quality hip mount bag and new lightweight collapsible headphones.

Controls left top to right

2 or 3 tone toggle switch

Rotary discrim and multi tone select control

 3 stage silencer switch

Sensitivity and on/off rotary control

  Iron volume level rotary control

 Ground accept/reject rotary control

The 1, 2 or 3 tone feature

3 toneThis works when the discrim is turned fully anti-clockwise and clicked into position, this now places the machine in the all metal mode, all types of metal will be detected giving a low tone for Iron a middle tone for low conductivity targets such as foil, and a high tone for high conductivity objects.

 2 tone  Still operates in all metal but will give a low tone for Iron and a high tone for any other non ferrous target you will encounter, now for the clever part....There is an Iron volume control which can be adjusted by the operator to make the iron sound as loud or as quiet as you wish, you can turn the Iron volume to zero or just a faint audio to suit your preference, the clever part is this will not affect the volume of the other 2 tones.
Turning the discrimination control on will de-activate the tone feature and make the machine a mono tone only with conventional discrimination, rejecting Iron at around level 4 on the decal, turning the discrimination to full will only reject some ring pulls.
Top right is a silencer switch, on level "0" you may hear some ground chatter at high sensitivity levels, switching to "1" will filter the noise a little more and level "2" will filter it further without compromising performance. I found level 1 to be adequate.
The ground cancel has a pre set mark (red triangle), some  claim you can use this feature to eliminate  troublesome coke and gain extra performance, but I noticed no difference and found the pre set to work fine.

On with the test

Field test part 1

I collected Alain from High Wycombe train station, we chatted and had a meal, I mentioned that the Weekend wanderers had a dig on Sunday and did he want to attend possibly to compare his machines against other makes, he was very interested, so the next morning we made the trip to South Warnborough in Hampshire.
 After a very short time trying to search in heavy stubble we returned to the car and started chatting with other detectorists, Alain soon had a small crowd gathering around him, he placed some iron on the ground and put a coin next to it, then invited everyone to try to detect the coin with their machines, some machines nearly found the coin, but the XP Gold Maxx found it at least 6 inches above the target with a good clear sound.
 Then he put a tiny gold ear ring underneath a ceramic tile 1 inch thick, most machines failed again, but the Gold Maxx gave a great signal. We carried out several tests that afternoon and everyone was impressed. The day was going fast I really wanted to try this machine on one of my favourite fields, I suggested to Alain that perhaps we should head for home and get an hours searching before we lost the light, he agreed so we left the dig.

The site I wanted to try was a small area on a large field which is very Iron contaminated, lots of interesting finds have been made over the 10 years I have been searching it, I had given this patch a good working over some days before with the Explorer and my trusty Lobo, and the week before that Mark and myself spent a whole day searching this area approximately the size of a tennis court, so I knew finds would be scarce, it was indeed going to be a real test for this machine.

We had around 1 hour of daylight left, both of us were using identical Gold Maxes Alain set my machine up in the way his was set, we searched 5 meters apart so the machines did not interfere with each other. I could see him digging out of the corner of my eye, then he walked across" I have just found a Sestersis are you sure you have been over this area" he said, "Lucky find" I replied, then 2 minutes later "button" he shouted, I found a small Roman and a large piece of round Iron.

 With Alain's experience and knowledge he was running circles around me. He called me over to listen to a signal, I tried it but only heard a one way bleep and a poor signal in the other direction, "Iron" I said,  No he replied not with my machine it can be a target next to Iron, he explained this was a feature with the xp gold max and to never ignore a one way signal on a productive site.

 Not convinced I dug the hole before he had a chance and retrieved a small lump of bronze, then checked the hole sure enough there was an Iron spit in the hole. After this short lesson my finds rate started to go up, infact I found a strange hammered and  some bronze Roman, 1 Sixpence, and several other non-ferrous targets including 2 coke cans at over a foot deep. Yes I did dig some mis shaped Iron, but to me this was acceptable as we had the machines running on the edge to find targets close to Iron.

Our finds over 50 targets

This machine will take time to learn, I have written this article having only used the Gold Maxx for a short amount of time. I have not had time to test the G-Maxx, but Alain has kindly left me the machines to carry out more thorough tests over this winter, and to demonstrate the XP's capabilities at local clubs.

Was I impressed with the Gold Maxx.. Yes,  having now seen what this machine is capable of there is no doubt in my mind the XP Gold Maxx  can not be beaten on an ancient site......It's a winner.

My only advice to prospective buyers would be have a demonstration in the field. I had Alain with me which was so helpful, it cut the learning curve down from 2 weeks to a matter of hours. I have written a comprehensive set up guide to help you during the learning curve. The way this fantastic machine performs and sounds can not be described on paper and in the manuals, the best way to get the most from the Gold Maxx is hands on tuition.

I have given this metal detector
 9.5 / 10
Room for improvement....yes  : I can't fault the gold maxx it has fantastic performance, 2 things I would like reviewed are:
The stem has a shallow bend which can cause wrist ache.
Far to much wire on the coil making it bulky and time consuming when assembling in the field.

Latest pics and info read on!!

Sorry if things are not in any specific order with this article, I will re arrange things when I get time, I have some pictures of the flexible arm cup to show the quality of build.
 

I have easily adapted the hip mount bag to become stem mounted

On some fields I have encountered  problems with large square iron, this concerned me a little because it broke through as a non ferrous tone, this is where beginners may have a problem in the early days of learning this machine. There is always a trade off when finding goodies close to iron, in this case you may dig a little more unwanted targets. After some practice you will soon learn what large Iron sounds like, a new upgraded chip is  now available to lower the Iron tone, making the machine much more user friendly when identifying Iron.

There is now a comprehensive UK set up guide which I have written during my tests it will be supplied along with an English instruction manual when a Gold Maxx or G Maxx is purchased , this will help you to learn this fantastic machine faster.

One thing I have completely forgot to mention, because I haven't been aware of is...this machine has no pin point function, just simply cross the target and bang its dead centre every time.

XP Metal Detectors France will not sell direct to the general public.
Gold Maxx letters

hi gary k##   #### here. quick note to say got my Goldie on Wednesday. the
hardest part about setting it up was getting it out of the reinforced cardboard
box!
had a quick half hour on a building site down the  road where i had found
the remains of an 18th century outbuilding which has thrown up some nice
odds and ends to my Hawkeye. You can tell where the floorboards had been because
of the abundance of hand cut iron nails which stopped the Hawkeye from locking
on .It still managed 10 to 15  targets but oh what an ear bashing. Im not knocking
the hawkeye because its a great meter id machine the best in my opinion, and
im keeping it ,but this is the kind of situation i brought the GoldMaxx for
ie target separation in iron infested areas.
i set up as per the helpful leaflet you enclosed (although completely forgot
to ground balance. never had to before!") in just 10 minutes i had 10 targets
including 3 nice lead bag seals, a leaf style brooch and a button from the
marines light infantry. I dug a few bits of iron to confirm it was iron and
i probably missed some signals next to iron but i was in a hurry! cant wait
to try it out on my medieval site.
im trying it out this Sunday on the wanderers dig so ill let you know how
i get on.
thanks for the information gary. k ####

How to fix an XP headphone socket
Now some of your XP's may be out of warranty, here is and quick and easy fix to a common problem.
  If your speaker does not work when the headphones are disconnected.
Remove the 4 cross head screws holding the face plate do not loose the tiny nuts.
Then undo the large nut underneath the box

Carefully withdraw the face plate about 1" so you can see the headphone socket, you will need to take out the face plate stud to allow better access to the springs.
 

Now you will see the 3 chrome springs which make contact when the headphones are removed activating the speaker.
All you need to do is very gently pinch the springs together with long nosed pliers so they make a better contact.
And that's it !!!!!
 Take your time putting the face plate back on, it is a little tricky lining things up. It will be easier if you replace the removed face plate stud last of all. Don't tighten things up until you are 100% everything is located back into it's original position.
Garys detecting holds no responsibility for any machined messed up using these instructions.
It is a very simple operation and should take no more than 10 minutes.
It is up to the individual if they wish to remove the batteries before undertaking the repair.