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Nokta/Makro Simplex+ Vs XP Deus Vs Minelab Equinox


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Regardless of how the other detectors performed against then Simplex, what you can take away from that video is on how far the bar has been raised now for entry or even mid level detectors, and on what features they should offer in their respective price bracket - netherlone on their more expensive models.

Features such as adjustable iron audio, ground balancing ability, upgradeable software, screen backlighting, wireless headphones, lithium batteries, fast reactivity, waterproofing and informative audio (vs beep & dig) may well be the new benchmark for any detector from entry level and upwards.  That's a pretty incredible list of features that is going to be hard to match, and may cause some real grief for those companies that have sat on their hands for way too long.

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1 hour ago, Goldpick said:

That's a pretty incredible list of features that is going to be hard to match, and may cause some real grief for those companies that have sat on their hands for way too long.

Well if it turns out to be a loss leader then things are going to be interesting about a year from now, and not just for other companies but for NokMak themselves.

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Although I've downplayed comparison videos, and this one has weaknesses, I will say they went to a lot of trouble both in burying the targets (in the mud) and trying to be fair.  As many of you, I didn't come away saying "there's a clear winner", but that alone is impressive.  Makro/Nokta's $255 (US) "introductory" detector would have been considered a 'flagship' by other companies not that long ago.

There seems to be a lot of comparison here between companies and their perceived intentions.  I'm as guilty as anyone on that front.  But standing back for a moment and looking at the big picture, rather than to denigrate the companies that are falling behind, I think we should instead be impressed with what Nokta/Makro has done in the few years they've been around.  The Racer was a good detector and they themselves have left that one in the dust with how many more recent products?  It seems like they have a new, better detector on the market a couple times per year!

I was dormant in my detecting during what appears to have been the heyday decade for innovation(?) of the 1990s (plus or minus).  I wonder if any of the players back then were as on-fire as we've seen with Nokta/Makro.

 

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18 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I thought the Simplex came off looking pretty well myself. I appreciate people even taking the time they took to do this, shoot the video, and post it. All for free.

Agreed, and I was not as reasonable (gracious? kind?) in my comment as I should have been.  Let me try again.

Yes, the video posters DID do a lot of work to create the test conditions and perform the tests.  They were clearly more familiar with the Equinox and the Deus than they were with the Simplex. (Not surprising, since the Simplex is brand new.)  I appreciate all that and don't want to discourage others from performing similar tests.  Please, everyone, do more comparison tests!  Make videos!

However, I concluded they were a bit surprised the Simplex did as well as it did, and that the other two did not outperform it substantially, and, as a result, that caused them to ground balance and tweak the other two in order to make sure they could perform at their best. My point was simply that if they had also ground balanced and tweaked the Simplex, it might have done even better than it did.

And it did extremely well, straight out of the box, untweaked, by detectorists who were unfamiliar with it.  It appears that new users of the Simplex are likely to discover it's easy to find deep targets, at least in the type of ground these testers used.

That's good to know and it's a valuable contribution by these testers.  Thanks, guys!

 

 

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8 hours ago, TallTom said:

My point was simply that if they had also ground balanced and tweaked the Simplex, it might have done even better than it did.

Point taken.  But as far as Simplex is concerned, GB is automatic on the Simplex and other than sensitivity there isn't that much to tweak performance wise, as that is the whole point of Simplex.  Keep it simple out of the box.  Turn on and go for the inexperienced detectorist yet give them great performance for 90% of all detecting situations.  So they in all liklihood could not eek much more performance out of the Simplex even if they tried to.  The user modes and settings really just change the way the targets sound to the user or add/remove iron disc.

"That's a digga, bah!"  :biggrin:

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The reason for the shipping delay was to 1) add manual balance 2) Add another level of sensitivity 3) Add another level or two of EMI adjustment.  My question is - how will it do on wet salt beach?

 

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I expect the Simplex will perform very close to the 14 kHz Kruzer. The Simplex+ is a great machine for what it offers at the price, but Nokta/Makro has not somehow magically changed what single frequency VLF detectors are capable of. This is mature, well proven technology that has changed little in the last 20 years except for how it is packaged.

 

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I don't want to belabor the point about ground balancing, so I'll just quote from page 11 of the Simplex User Manual:

SIMPLEX+ is designed to work without ground balancing in Field and Park modes on most terrains. However, for experienced users and on highly mineralized grounds, ground balancing will bring extra depth and stability to the device.

 

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I agree Tom that the Simplex might have been tweaked for even better performance. That’s kind of the point to me really. I guess you are wanting it more clearly spelled out in the video that the Simplex is a competitive performer, whereas I’m seeing that anyway. It’s going head to head with detectors costing three times as much and that says a lot. Nobody even bothers with fair comparisons to detectors in its own price range since it so obviously outclasses those detectors.

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Can you imagine if Tesoro or FTP came out with a Simplex type unit 12 months ago? The forums would have been in meltdown

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