The consensus is in, and the clear winner is.... still unknown. Except maybe by a few utube "influencers". The parameters, however, are yet to be defined and to me, that would be a deciding factor. Is it waterproof headsets being available, or is price being considered in determining the best detector or maybe it is how a detector reacts at a beach or desert or some other set of circumstances that may or may not apply to where or how I hunt? What if I only hunt after dark? is the D2 still the best choice? Should the Nokta machines, theTarsacci and some of the eastern European detectors be considered in the mix? or just recently introduced smf machines by minelab and/or xp? Will buying one of the newly introduced machines elevate me from a rank amateur hobbyist to that of a professional detectorist? and if not, does any of this even matter, beyond the point of having fun? Are the people that see me detecting as they drive by really pointing at me and laughing at my detector choice?

It seems to me that the discussion of which detector is best and who makes the decision of that ranking is getting a bit silly as are some of the tests meant to prove a particular point to that effect. But the internet is full of this "he said, she said, look at this" and the actual teaching in many of these recent videos is either left to the individual interpretations or what some relatively unknowns show that must be believed as gospel or the video lessons are somehow otherwise lacking to some degree. The comparison videos have some merit between the detectors being compared and the circumstance they are compared in, but I've have yet to hear someone say, "the only way I found this target is because of this machine and no other detector would have ever found it" and/or "this machine is by far the best in every circumstance that anyone would or could ever hunt in."

I began my hunt for a new detector thinking that I needed a manticore, but the more I look into things and really think about what it is that I need or want in a detector, I don't think that buying that machine is necessary at this time, or until or unless I decide to start hunting the beaches. Maybe then that will be the best detector. I will never give the XP D2 its rightful due, just because of CD and his self-imposed ranking as the US voice of XP, he seems to me to be the bully of the utube/interweb detector scene and as such his opinion is either ignored by me or otherwise put aside. He seems to use some sort of contradicting unintelligent reasoning in almost everything I've seen him do. I do not follow or even watch him on purpose, so things may have changed.