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Compass Metal Detectors

Avg. Score: 4 stars 4.2
Based on 15 reviews

Avg. Durability: 5 stars!5.00
Avg. Ease of use: 4 stars4.00
Maximum detection depth
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Compass x199 metal detector

July 17, 2020
The Compass X100 was developed by Mr Payne for Compass in 1986 not in the 60's or 70's like in another review! Performance is second to none once you master the controls and settings!

Depth on a coin Depth Max Depth: 14 inches on US quarter

Overall Rating 5 stars!
Durability 5 stars!
Ease of Use 3 stars
Would you recommend this to a new user? Yes, absolutely!
10

Compass scanners made by steve goss

October 23, 2017
I've read the reviews about certain Compass Scanner series metal detectors getting bad depth. I will set the record straight. Back around 2000, I purchased a new Compass Coin Scanner Pro II from a former tech who resurrected Compass metal detectors a few years after the Factory fire. Upon receiving it, I could tell that it wasn't the same as the original 1990s CSP II. Depth was terrible and the 'Trash Out' touch pad was acting up and I had trouble getting back to disc mode after pin pointing. I strongly believe that those who left a negative review of their Compass Scanners were owners of post fire units made by Steve Goss in the late 1990s to early 2000s.

Depth on a coin Depth Max Depth: 10 inches on US quarter

Overall Rating 5 stars!
Durability 5 stars!
Ease of Use 5 stars!
Would you recommend this to a new user? Yes, absolutely!
30

Compass Detectors

December 21, 2011
My father and I bought a Magnum and a Relic Magnum in about 1983. We really hit it hard for a few years and found hundreds of coins and artifacts here in Montana. We found we were missing a lot of coins with discrimination, so we would ground tune and set the sensitivity to max, with no discrimination. Yeah, we dug a lot of trash, but even the trash was interesting from some of the very old sites. What was great was the depth we were finding coins at (12-14 inches!) regularly.

We would tell folks about our Compass detectors and they would not believe the depths we were getting coins at. Both of the detectors have nice green wrinkle finishes and are still serviceable 28 years later. If Compass were still in business, making this quality of a machine, I'd buy one in a heartbeat. I have heard bad things about later models, but I thought I had a later model, and I'm still happy, so go figure. Happy Digging!

Overall Rating 5 stars!

462

One older Compass among these newer machines.

December 07, 2009
Hi, I'm a 48 yr. user of metal detectors, having started with my own design 6 transistor metal detector I built in high school, in 1961. My Electronics instructor entered it in the California State Fair that year, Electricity-Electronics Division, and it won the blue ribbon in the state fair that year. I went on to much better metal detectors of many different makes, all of them top of the line machines, as they came out. I've probably had a dozen different models of top of the line machines, of many makes.

This review is of the older Compass X-100. It took me a long time to learn to use all the features of that compass X-100, but, but when I did, I began to love it. I had it for over ten years, because of how good it was.

That machine had 11 controls on it, and it ID'd perfectly, with an analog needle. I've always hated that they switched to digital squares on LCD displays. One feature the Compass had was the ability to widen out or narrow down the search cone that scanned down into the ground, so you could compensate for very trashy areas. That way, it could deepen the search cone to look down between the trash, and find the deeper, older coins. It also found more than its share of nickles and Jewelry. It also had very good discrimination, with adjustable notches. It was a very advanced detector for its time period.

After I learned how to use the features it had, I was always finding at least 20 coins an hour with it, almost no matter where I took it, to schools and parks. And this was way back in the 1960's and '70's.

Years later, I finally sold it and bought a White's 6000 DI Pro, series 3, my second top of line whites. I eventually could do almost as well with the Whites, on coins per hour, but the whites was not as good on depth. I've wished many times that I had never sold the Compass X-100, as I've never seen another detector that could match it.

Except just lately, for my Garrett GTI 2500. With that one you never have to dig up ANY trash, unless you just wanted to check a mysterious signal. That feature (the sizing of a target in the ground) was worth the entire price of the machine!

Overall Rating 5 stars!

6112

Compass XP Pro Plus

August 16, 2009
If you are able to get your hands on a Coinscanner, Coinscanner Pro 2 or any of the XP Pro Plus machines that are in working order-BUY IT. These machines recover rate are second to none and if you disc out iron it is disced out unlike other machines. For the people in the posts directly below that are digging up coins only 3 inches down you either need to learn how to set up your machine or try a different area, and if you think anybody is going to believe you are digging up coins at 14 inches deep with a "green machine" you better check your ruler-it ain't going to happen! Also for the poster directly below, Compass has been out of business for over 10 years due to a fire at their factory that they never recovered from. If you just noticed this you need to stay more informed if you are going to post a review on them.

The 2 cons I found with the Scanner series is they are heavy and all but the PRO2 are pre-adjusted GB.
The analog meter is dead on, if it tells you "dime"-it is a dime. Controls are easy to adjust. Depth is up there with most machines of todays build.
George Payne designed the Scanner series that revolutionized metal detecting and several of his Scanner implementations are used in detectors today.The original Compass machines have the red/gold labels, those are the ones you want.

Overall Rating 4 stars

465

Compass xp pro killed the compass brand !

August 13, 2009
Hey guy's,

Have you noticed that Compass is out of business now? What does that tell you about the company and the product?

I do believe that compass has had some good machines in the past, but I also feel that it was the xp-pro machine's that killed them. A lot of folks took the shaft from Compass on that one.

From what I've read the coinscanner models up to the last xp-pro series were pretty good machines.
After the xp-pro series, Compass Detectors dissapered from the face of the planet.. which kinda speaks for itself,now doesn't it?

Hey, all I'm saying is to use common sense...it's not rocket science.

Overall Rating 1 star

1464

Compass XP Pro Plus

July 13, 2009
Beware !

I here you Bill from NY, i too grew up with a compass coin scanner that my mom bought me for a mere $59.00 at the hobby store, i found everything with that machine.

I also decided to later trust the compass brand...what a Mistake!!

I purchased a new top of the line XP-Pro + model,
and what a useless piece of junk it was!!

I paid nearly $800.00 for it and never found anything if it was more than 3 inches down.My buddies with their Garretts made me look like a fool, their mid-line Garretts were finding coins at depths up to 14 inches or more.

Even in the ( all metal mode @ zero discrimination) the top of the line Compass was a useless hunk of garbage.

I have since moved to a Garrett Master Hunter CX Plus like my buddys had, and now find coins down to 14 inches or more.

Even though the new Garrett was only $600 it runs circles around ANY other competitors higher priced machines. ( Trust The FBI )

The Military uses Garrett,The FBI uses Garrett,every other professional agency is advised by Kellyco.com to use Garrett.....

It's because they are the deepest seeking,most advanced detectors ANY amount of money can buy...Period.

Don't ever make the same mistake I did and drop $800.00 on anything other than a ( Garrett ) or you will be sorely disappointed.

Don't fall for all the sales Hoopla about all the trick features of other brands or you will be disappointed.

I too was intrigued by the Minelab detectors, the Garrett is superior Period. If you don't agree i encourage you to whip out any Mid-line Garrett and put it nose to nose with any Minelab and see which comes out on top,i dare you!!!!

Yes even Minelabs $4,500.00 machine is Junk next to a Garrett Cheapo!!

I will never again buy anything other than a Garrett,it's just that simple.

Don't buy what I'm selling? Nor the FBI? Nor the Cops?

How about thew Olympics?
"Garrett Metal Detectors to provide 2010 Winter Games with metal detection security products"

Cheers!

Ps,I gave the Compass xp-pro a rating of 1.. only because i couldn't rate it lower.

Overall Rating 1 star

4778

Compass - Coinscanner Pro

April 30, 2006
April 30,2006.......... Hello, I have a 10+ Year old,Compass-Coinscanner Pro....It has the older RED/Gold color sticker...
Let me start by saying that I have had and sold many,many Detectors__________ from ________the Garrett Master Hunter CX III _and _other Garretts,---to the Whites XLT,---several Fisher models___ one being the Fisher CZ-5,---and Several other Detectors (but still own my Compass.)
No other Detector that I have owned has surpassed its depth capabilities.Some of the others were a little more fun (with all the bells and whistles)...But I always came back to the Coinscanner Pro when I needed a dependable coin or Ring finding machine.It is a killer on rings/nickles,,,,and silver coins....The weight of the machine seems fairly balanced,and I can swing the 8 inch coil all day,,,, the technology doesnt look like it has changed in 15-20 years but it deffinately gets the job done.
Its meter is highly accurate,you have a choice of 1,2, or 3 tones,and if the tone stays high but the meter is a little jumpy and it pinpoints deep,,,You Better Dig it !
It has an Auto Notch feature on its Trash Out Button or (Disc Knob)When I use this AutoNotch Feature .I still find Nickles ,Pennies ,Dimes and Quarters in Heavy trash,but the down side is I loose about an inch in depth (because of the high disc)and I miss I.H. cents along with Zinc cents,,,,,,,but lets face it .....Who wants to dig all those Zincs ?,,and the I.H. Cents will most likely be a little deeper than AutoNotch can reach anyways,,,6-8" ??When using my coinscanner in an older area..I set the disc to foil,and I can still tell where most tabs and junk read,I therefor avoid digging allot of them...

The deepest coin that I have dug with it? I was in an old park that opened in 1890's,ground was fairly mineralized,so I turned the sens to 7 out of 10...Set the disc to foil and after digging several clads,and some deep junk I got a high audio tick,,,the meter was quite jumpy but it pinpointed at 8-10 inches (Week)and the high audio tick was there 3 out of four dirrections.......I dug down atleast 8 inches and got a VF + 48 rosie....I later found out this area of the park used to have a pond on it and was back filled in the 50's......
I have also dug Nickles in this Trashy Park...and iron ore infested ground.... with the Sens set at 6-7 out of 10 in the (High-Disc)Auto-Notch Mode ,at 4-5 inches...(Which I feel is Good seeing that the Disc was set fairly High,while the sens was fairly LOW).The machine was (a little noisy because I should have had the sens set at 5 ... I guess).
I recently bought A Tesoro Tejon,and it is a fun machine to use,,I use IT on allot of sidewalk tear-outs to give my Compass a rest.....
I also decided to try the Minelab X-Terra 70,
and after 15+ hours I am tempted to go back to using my compass...The XT-70 has 1, 2, 3, 4, or 99 tones,BUT does Not hit hard like my old Compass..
and as of yet I have not dug a target over 3 inches with it...I guess I will give it another 35 hours or more --time to see if I can figure out its audio lannguage and see if it will pick up deeper targets.
I cannot vouch for the newer Coinscanner II Pro becuase I own the older model..But I am VERY HAPPY with it.

Overall Rating 5 stars!

894

Compass XP Pro

April 10, 2006
I recently bought a used Compass XP Pro. I already knew that it was a good detector, and WOW does it get right in-between targets in the real trashy areas, and gravel-filled or crushed rock parking areas! It is absolutely the very best at this that I've seen. The only detector out of all the 17 I own that even came close to the performance was the Tesoro Tejon. The Tejon doesn't handle bad ground as well though. The Compass probably does it the best while still being able to see good targets right through iron and other bad targets. The signal came through so well, that it reminded me of a snare drum roll..

I did a test; I placed 4 coins on the ground less than 3 inches apart in a line. My cz-70 would give me two blips as I swung the coil at "mach1" over them at 3 inches. The Tejon would give me 3 bleeps, never 4. The Compass gave me all 4 of them, all four made a quick "beep", even when I made the coil pass over them at about 6 feet per second! No other detector I own could do this. My Minelab only gave me one flute note one direction, and none at all the other direction. They actually cancelled out!!! My White's 6000 di Pro? It gave me one signal both direction, and didn't break it up into 4 targets or even two. It was barely better than the Minelab.

Overall Rating 5 stars!

554

XP Pro Plus - Old Coin Magnet

April 03, 2006
This is a classic Analog detector. It has great depth, very forgiving on sweep speed, good target ID, sees though iron like Super Man and runs extra smooth on bad mineralized ground. This detector is a true joy to swing, not letting much slip by. It has a nice easy to use Notching system as well as Auto Notch. A super True All metal mode and easy to use pinpoint. It is a little heavy, and uses three 9volt batteries. Not much else bad can be said about this machine. If you want a great relic and coin hunter and don?t mind a 3+ pound machine, this is it!

Overall Rating 5 stars!

341

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