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Is There A " Good " Upgrade From Equinox 800 Without Paying Thousands Of Dollars?


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On 5/9/2020 at 6:46 PM, maxxkatt said:

Robnc, "i'm perfectly happy with the Equinox 800, so much that I even use the WM08 module and gray ghost headphones instead of the included wireless headphones. To me they just sound better."

to me the wireless headphones with the 800 were dull and muffled sounding. I went with the Trond TD-BH01 wireless headphones which to my ears sound much better.  They ARE Bluetooth 4.2 and pair fine with the 800 and the Vanquish 540. I am a happy camper with them.

 

I have to amend my perfectly happy post. I finally figured out the problem I was having with the 800 but didn't know it. I have a high frequency hearing loss. One ear slight, other ear pretty pronounced. With the 800's very narrow TID spread of 40 you have to really rely on your ears to ID targets. Most people on the 800 recommend using 50 tones. Well it just was not happening for me. Sold the 800 and bought a CTX3030. Now even after two weeks of use, my junk to coins ration has reversed. Now finding maybe 90% good targets and 10% junk. Quite a turn around for me. The CTX has an excellent  visual display and a huge ID space of TID numbers compared to the 800. An accurate depth gauges in inches and not little bars. The target trace feature gives you are a real picture of what is under your coil in color. So I do better with visual information so the CTX is better for me. I prefer the WM10 speaker clipped to my swing harness near my good ear than headphones. Speaking of the swing harness, the Minelab Pro-Swing 45 is very well designed and totally erases any weight issues when swinging.  The bungie cord adjustment is  very well designed and  requires a simple one handed adjustment to your coil height off the ground.

Yes I went back a few years on detector selection, but I think I finally have the right detector for me. Another reason the 800 was a problem for me, I hunt in urban Atlanta in super trashy locations and modern trash not iron. You know pull tabs, pop tops, can slaw, screw caps. This modern trash was almost making me a dig all targets type of hunter.  I found that to avoid all the very small bits of metal, I had to turn down the 800's sensitivity and there went some depth along with the adjustment.

I was also afraid to use the 800 in the water since it leaked once under warranty and fixed under warranty. But they don't extend your warranties on repairs. So I had an 800 out of warranty and afraid to get it in water.

I now have two detectors. Vanquish 440 for tot lots and volley ball courts and CTX for all other hunting.

 

 

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CTX is a really great detector, and as you note, Equinox did not replace it in the areas it excels at.

Since this thread started, however, we do now have what looks like a possible upgrade from the Equinox 800 to something else, without paying a huge premium. The Equinox 800 at $949 now has some people at least considering the new XP Deus 2 at $1599, a difference of $650. I think the real promise here is for water users who have been disappointed, or are at least concerned about, the waterproof integrity of the Equinox series. The Deus 2 carries a water proof to 60 foot rating, and this provides a huge margin of safety for people who are normally working at down to ten foot depths. This alone could easily be worth another $650 to a lot of folks.

There is also the ergonomics, where Deus has always had an edge over Equinox. The original Deus also generally has been acknowledged as being better in dense ferrous than the Equinox, and hopefully this carries over to the Deus 2. There are a lot of people for whom owning both a Deus and an Equinox has been an optimal solution, and the Deus 2 offers the possibility of one detector combining what is best in both detectors, in a single model.

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I put more money in my 800, Carbon fiber rods, coiltek 10 x 5" coil, 6 inch coil. Of course this raised my investment and brought me closer to the CTX3030 and other detectors. I was very lucking in finding a CTX3030 four years old, new in box with full 3 year warranty. CTX3030, headphones, WM10, rechargeable battery and charger and akline battery holder, data cable. It was the latest with upgraded seals. All for $1,400 which was just at my budget level with enough left over to buy Minelabs Pro-Swing 45 harness, which is necessary for me.

Only 3 weeks and about 20 hours on the CTX3030 but so far it is quite a coin hunter for me with that great display for FE-CO values. Xchange2 program makes programming it a piece of cake. It is a very well written program and my background is software development. Lots of good info on the CTX3030 in great detail on metal detecting forums and video because it was introduced in 2012. Never thought I would buy an older detector, but with my high frequency hearing loss the 800 was not doing it for me. With the greatly enhanced visual display of the CTX3030 it helps me overcome my hearing handicap.

Don't read this post as a criticism of the 800, it just was not a good fit for me.

 

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1 hour ago, maxxkatt said:

I put more money in my 800, Carbon fiber rods, coiltek 10 x 5" coil, 6 inch coil. Of course this raised my investment and brought me closer to the CTX3030 and other detectors. I was very lucking in finding a CTX3030 four years old, new in box with full 3 year warranty. CTX3030, headphones, WM10, rechargeable battery and charger and akline battery holder, data cable. It was the latest with upgraded seals. All for $1,400 which was just at my budget level with enough left over to buy Minelabs Pro-Swing 45 harness, which is necessary for me.

Only 3 weeks and about 20 hours on the CTX3030 but so far it is quite a coin hunter for me with that great display for FE-CO values. Xchange2 program makes programming it a piece of cake. It is a very well written program and my background is software development. Lots of good info on the CTX3030 in great detail on metal detecting forums and video because it was introduced in 2012. Never thought I would buy an older detector, but with my high frequency hearing loss the 800 was not doing it for me. With the greatly enhanced visual display of the CTX3030 it helps me overcome my hearing handicap.

Don't read this post as a criticism of the 800, it just was not a good fit for me.

Minelab still considers the CTX to be their flagship coin and relic detector for a reason. :smile:

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