New Here, Looking To Get Back Into Detecting With ?

[2Valen]

Welcome mrtune,

The 800 is one of the best on the market right now for it's capability in almost any situation that you will come across.

I use it and am still learning each time I have it out hunting. A detector should be purchased for the area and you are in and what you plan on hunting with it.

The 800 fits every category that I am wanting to hunt and that is everything underground. I want the coins, rings, gold, silver, and everything else of value that I think is kind of neat.

   

[kac]

If you don't plan on going underwater with the machine you might want to look at the Orx or Deus from XP. Big advantages to the XP machines is weight and no wires to snag up.

If you don't need or want to fiddle with the controls you can also look at the Vanquish.

[mrtune]

Another snowstorm about to hit us here in SD, guess I get to keep researching but am pretty well decided on the Equinox 800.

[BeachHunter]

The Equinox is a great all around detector. Good luck with your choices!

[mrtune]

Well with the COVID-19 pandemic, I will not be purchasing a new detector this spring.... My business in which I am self-employed is all but shut down and will put my money toward bills etc.  Hope everyone is staying safe and feeling well and pray this will soon be over! 

[Jeff McClendon]

Hi,

hang in there mrtune it may be a fairly long haul. I am retired and still get Social Security so far. My part-time jobs working for the local school system are probably done for this school year so, I understand your reluctance to pull the trigger on a detector right now.

The good news is that a person can buy an outstanding detector without spending a lot of money these days. If I were you, I would also look closely at the Minelab Equinox 600 too unless you are planning to do some gold prospecting. Even if you are, the 600 can get that job done pretty well even without the Gold modes. The Minelab Vanquish 540 or 440 are definitely worth a look too. They are lightweight and priced at entry level but they detect extremely well and are a lot of fun to swing.

The Nokta Makro Anfibio Multi and its cousins the Multi Kruzer, Impact and Racer 2 are all outstanding detectors and their little brother the Simplex is getting great reviews from most people. If I was just starting out after a break, the Simplex would be on my list. These are all very sturdy, sort of heavy detectors with plenty of fantastic features and they work very well.

I am a big fan of the XP ORX. For many people I know and especially me, the XP Deus just requires too much information processing and tweaking. It is a fantastic detector but it often puts my brain and ears in Overload.......The simplified Deus called the ORX strikes a good balance with outstanding performance and just a bit of adjusting for local conditions. Swinging an ORX or Deus is heavenly.

For me, I have always been a huge Fisher/First Texas Products fan. Unfortunately, FTP (like our other US manufacturers) just hasn't produced any cutting edge detectors lately for general metal detecting. So, compared to the ones already mentioned, the F75, F70, F19 and the Teknetics T2, Patriot and Omega 8500 along with the Garretts and Whites detectors for general detecting are just outdated and to be honest, outgunned in my opinion. Unless you find a used one for a steal (like around $200) I would move on.....

good luck in your search.

Jeff

 

[palzynski]

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I am a big fan of the XP ORX. For many people I know and especially me, the XP Deus just requires too much information processing and tweaking. It is a fantastic detector but it often puts my brain and ears in Overload.......The simplified Deus called the ORX strikes a good balance with outstanding performance and just a bit of adjusting for local conditions. Swinging an ORX or Deus is heavenly.

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---> Yes I agree with you  the XP Wireless detectors are fantastic machines . They are almost as powerful in depth as the MLs and much better on iron trashed areas. Also they are far lighter than the concurrence. For example an Orx weights around 750grams while a Nox with the 11 coil weights 1300 grams , this is a huge difference.   A Teknetics T2 weights 1500 grams , twice the Orx …

Actually I have a Deus with the 22 white HF coil , it is my first detector . My second machine is a Vanquish 540 that I use on low/medium iron trashed areas because it is a little more powerful on medium/big coin than the Deus . I had a Nox800 but I am selling it after having tried the Vanquish 540 which is for me better than the Nox  : better coils , far better telescopic shaft ,  simpler to use , a little more powerful  ...

 

[Jeff McClendon]

5 hours ago, palzynski said:

I had a Nox800 but I am selling it after having tried the Vanquish 540 which is for me better than the Nox  : better coils , far better telescopic shaft ,  simpler to use , a little more powerful  ...

I totally agree with you about your comparison between the Vanquish 540 and the Equinox 800 except for the last phrase.......a little more powerful.  In my testing both in air tests, coin garden tests and in the ground tests on wild targets, the Equinox is much more powerful than the Vanquish 540 on a wider range of targets and ground conditions. Also, similar to the Deus/Orx, the Equinox has so many more features and settings to adjust and take advantage of (or not!). I have almost 3000 hours of using the Equinox and I have barely begun to get a good understanding of how all of the settings can can help or hurt in different detecting situations.

Jeff

 

[palzynski]

Hi Jeff . This is weird , on my test box  using a 10grams coin at 11inches depth ,the vanquish 540 V12 is definitely a little better than the nox800 11inch coil. On this test the DEUS HF 9inches at 14khz gets a very faint signal on the coin , the Nox 11 gets a stronger signal but not very clean , and the vanquish 540 V12 gets a sharp and clean signal. May be I did not find the miracle setting on the Nox , but I think that if this miracle setting was existing , the Minelab engineers would have set it as default in the factory settings I think ...

However there is not a big difference between all the detectors that I have tested up to now on this box ( XP Goldmaxx 9in, Deus and Orx 9in and 11in , Teknetics T2 , Minelab Equinox 800 11in , Vanquish 540 V12 , Detech Chaser 12in)  . They all have similar perfos on this test , say  max 11inches depth( + 1inch or - 1 inch ) . This is logical because they all use a similar electromagnetic/electronics technology and the laws of physics are the same for everybody ...

For me a more powerful machine should get this coin at 13 or 14 inches depth on this test. And up to now I did not find the "miracle" machine able to do this . 11 inches is the limit for this size of coin  on this test , whatever the detector I use , even if some machines are a little better than the others …

This said , the depth perfo is not the most important feature for iron trashed sites , it is more the reactivity that is important on such areas. The XP Deus/Orx monofrequency detectors are ultra fast and they outperform the MLs there . I just re did a short field test yesterday evening , comparing my Deus 9 HF and the Vanquish 540 on an iron trashed path ,  and I could see the difference .  the Deus is almost silent , only beeping on good targets , while the Vanquish is very noisy all the time , reacting on all the irons while they are filtered by the Deus/Orx.  It is the same with the Nox but this can be a little reduced by using a high iron bias level.

I like the Vanquish but I must admit that the Deus/Orx are still the kings of the iron trashed areas , and as we have a high Density of iron trashed areas in Europe , this explains why the Deus/Orx are so appreciated over here ...🙂

 

[GB_Amateur]

55 minutes ago, palzynski said:

I think that if this miracle setting was existing , the Minelab engineers would have set it as default in the factory settings....

Let's start by considering how the engineers determing the default settings.  They do their own tests.  They have stored up knowledge from previous work (e.g. other detectors).  They get advice & feedback from field (beta-) testers.

Then they make decisions, but those decisions have considerations:  who will be using this (new) detector?  What are the best settings that fit the most users?  Are there settings which will confuse a lot of buyers?

Consider how many differerent settings combinations exist.  I calculated/counted them and posted here previously but I don't remember my result, other than it was in the the thousands.

Finally, as we all know, the optimal settings are sensitive to conditions such as ground mineralization, EMI background, goals of the detectorist on the particular day s/he is using the detector, the background trash targets that the detectorist is expecting and experiencing.  There is no way the ML engineers can anticipate all of those, let alone recommend a few combinations that cover that space optimally.

I think it's safe to say that once the new detector is in the hands of thousands of users, the default settings start to deteriorate in terms of specific situations.  We all (manufactuers and users alike) recommend default settings at the beginning, but there should be no restriction on (carefully!) making adjustments as time progresses and familiarity with the detector increases.

Now, we haven't (AFAIK) heard from Minelab nor seen in software upgrades any changes to the default settings.  I don't interpret that to mean what they gave us 2 years ago in defaults are the be-all, end-all.  And I doubt they ever felt they would be.  The defaults are good starting points, and they will work pretty well in many conditions.  From there forward it's up to us.