I believe that the MX5 is White's most underrated detector. I have had the Whites V3i, VX3, MXT Pro, MXSport, the Makro Racer and Racer 2. The only ones that I still have are my MX5, MXT Pro, and my Tesoros. the MX5 is simple to use, and has all of the features that I need. The V3i and the VX3 were too complicated, with a lot of useless features. I was never sure when I changed a setting what other settings it was affecting. It was frustrating to me. The Makro Racers worked OK, but to me their balance was terrible. The only coil that they really balanced with was the tiny 5" coil. The MX5 is a little heavier than the Racers, but it feels lighter to me because it is so well balanced. Also, I had the coil ears break on 3 different Makro coils. One of them was a newer coil that was supposed to have the stronger ears.
I use the MX5 in 2 tone mode, and I have it set to discriminate out anything below 5. That gets rid of some of the small pieces of foil, and will still pick up most gold jewelry. When you hear that high tone in 2 tone it really grabs your attention. It stops me in my tracks to investigate. I am keeping my MXT Pro because it has a good prospecting program, but for general metal detecting, I prefer the MX5 over the MXT. I don't know why the MX5 is not very popular. I know that some people don't like it because you can't lock the tracking. All I know is that it is simple to use, goes deep, and just finds stuff.
Corvallis, Oregon
Club: Beaver State Coinshooters
Detectors:
Tesoro Bandido II Umax
Tesoro Outlaw
Tesoro Mojave
Whites MX5
Whites MXT Pro
Whites Beach Hunter ID
Tesoro Sand Shark