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Minelab Vanquish Controls & Display Plus Coils


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Three and five tones make all targets except ones that fall on the dividing line sound identical. That has a lot to do with why many people struggled with bottle caps with the Equinox. However, many targets, like most (not all) bottle caps and irregular trash produce multiple target id numbers, and 50 tones reveal them for what they are. Ferrous especially will low tone with some high tone spikes. Blocking low tones leaves only the high tone spikes, faking people out. 50 tones reveals oddball ferrous far more effectively. With time even target id numbers become extraneous with 50 tones.

Many people find 50 tones too busy but as far as I am concerned it’s one of the real secrets to taking things to the next level. Imagine listening to music limited to three or five tones versus the full symphony. That’s how I feel about limiting tones.

Most people also run way too much volume. Besides hearing damage, it creates the “barrage of tones” effect. I run volume as low as I can while still being able to hear things. Makes life much more pleasant. Nice thing about Equinox 50 tones is that while the non-ferrous tone volumes are all tied to the main volume control, you can lower the ferrous tone independently, which helps in dense ferrous. I usually lower the ferrous tone volume to 4.

I never take my Equinox out of 50 tones ever, no matter the type of detecting. Now it talks to me and I don’t want to change the language! :smile:

The Vanquish 340 with 50 tones... I would get one for $199. The limited notching would not matter as I would never use that anyway. I have a thing about simplicity... it’s a nice clean machine without extraneous stuff and with 50 tones would suit me fine. They could get rid of the mode button/ notch segments and just have it all metal 50 tones and I would like it. Add wireless and I would love it. Three buttons, on/off, volume, and sensitivity.

minelab-vanquish-340-lcd-display-controls.jpg

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I hear ya on the tone range. If I use custom tone on my Tejon the audio is flat with just a fade or pop on various targets and flat on pp/am. This is ok when looking for small weak targets like small jewelry or in low trash areas but find myself swapping to the default that in those high trash areas so I can really tell depth, size and target type. Even though the tone range on the Tejon is probably not nearly as wide as the other detectors that range really helps.

I rarely disc when I hunt other than base line iron removal when needed.

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6 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Are you familiar with the Gray Ghost Gold Series with 3.5 mm (1/8") plug?  Rob has them:

https://www.robsdetectors.com/detectorpro-gray-ghost-gold-series-headphones-for-minelab-equinox-series-or-gold-monster-1000/

 

I dont know if the have the same tones as the NDT . I have found that with other Gray Ghost types . 

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3 hours ago, Nuke em said:

I dont know if the have the same tones as the NDT . I have found that with other Gray Ghost types . 

You can get 1/8" plugs and cords for the GG NDTs.  That is what I used for my Tek Delta that had a 1/8" jack and when I was running the Deus Lite setup with just the puck and an audio output adapter so I could use the puck as a visual TID indicator.

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6 hours ago, phrunt said:

eeeekkkk! I live in Park 1 and never changed the tones setting.  Sounds like it's time I take the next step and change to 50 tones, by the end of my football field I'll be used to the tone change.

I'm exactly the same. I originally planned to learn it in 50 tones from the start, but then I just went detecting in stock settings, mostly in park 1 or gold 1 and didn't get around to changing anything. I agree it's probably time to pull up the manual and figure out changing tones and just set them all to 50 and try it for a long while. I should probably scale back the iron bias too, as that is still in stock settings (along with everything else).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Kind of funny how interested I am in the Vanquish series.   Really looking forward to the release just to get more info.    If its Multi IQ is the same as the EQ600 I'll probably get one.

The thing that really ticked me off with the Xterra was the coil investment.   Just a big money pit.   But if Multi-IQ can give me full range target focus....at a price less than the EQ series, then I think I'm in.

HH
Mike

 

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Here's the MAP:

340 is $199

440 is $279

540 is $369

540 Pro-Pack is $499

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I tried one of these at Barstow recently. I found it to be one of the ugliest detectors I’ve had my hands on. The red plastic was washed out like a cheap toy from China. Probably/hopefully prototypes. The one I tried was the 440. I couldn’t figure out the interface in the short time I was willing to try it. I didn’t see that the button on the right was the program button. It was even hard to identify the power button.  A little bit of dust on the buttons and you can’t make out their function. The cheaper model has the labels above the buttons at least.  Very upsetting to see Minelab come out with product designs like this.  Just not a lot of thought in what a new user will experience using these. I hope that the successor to my CTX isn’t like these. You may say “what do you expect for this cost?” - well they could have been better at same cost.  I dread the future where the kid in front of me is doing just as well as I am but I’ve got the heavier much more expensive CTX...  Maybe I’ll end up buying one of these and repackaging it somehow just for kicks.  Might become popular modding them.. 

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On 10/25/2019 at 2:02 AM, Cal_Cobra said:

No Vanquish 50 tone option = no interest in the Vanquish from me.  

Agree a couple of simple, sensible, additions to the 540 (e.g., a few additional tone ID choices,  a single frequency option (say 15  khz), and a high/low recovery speed switch) would change the whole Vanquish equation at basically no additional cost and open up the detector to more folks than those  just looking an alternative to the Ace 400.   They could have achieved their goal of simplicity and value while further opening up the Vanquish customer base.  I wonder what research ML does (if any)?  It would serve them well to better understand what features experienced users find helpful that at the same time would serve less experienced detectorists well without overwhelming them yet allowing them to grow in detector capability as their own skills grow.

If they simply set out to deliver an Ace 400 with Multi IQ and wireless headphones, then “mission accomplished”, but what a huge missed opportunity.  The 440 is a perfect Ace clone with multi IQ, but they fell short IMO with the 540 in providing a detector that was capable yet more affordable and simpler to operate than the Equinox 600.  They should have put just a tad more distance between the 440 and 540, feature wise and even I might have seriously considred it as a backup rig (bah, who am I kidding, as even the 600 seems too limited for my taste)

I really don’t need or desire a Vanquish, so why do I care?  Because flawed decision making and missed opportunities by ML on Vanquish means fewer desirable accessory coil options today for the excellent Equinox (great design and execution) and a greater likelihood that the next generation Equinox or CTX won’t be as good as it could be tomorrow.  And that is disappointing and avoidable.

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