Juggling Three Mds

[Jeff McClendon]

1 hour ago, Captorofsin said:

In an "nutshell", go with the nox 600, right?

That depends. Are you planning on doing a lot of detecting, meaning something like 20 hours per month and maybe more in the future......like everyday? I would go with the Equinox 600 for sure and maybe the 800 if you can afford it.

Lots of people on this forum and others have scoffed at the "extra" money for the 800 over the 600. It is not "extra" money for nothing of consequence. You get plenty of extra features that make the Equinox 800, at least for some very experienced detectorists.......the detector they have been hoping Minelab would manufacture for a long time. It isn't perfect by any means but it fills a big hole = a VLF detector that again, is so versatile, it can operate successfully in just about any detecting environment, especially moderate to extreme mineralized ground and saltwater while losing very little overall depth or loss of target ID accuracy, working well on a wide range of target sizes and conductivities and having plenty of target separation and recovery speed. None of Minelab's previous simultaneous multi frequency detectors could do all of that as well as the Equinox.

If you are going to detect less than 20 hours per month and maybe a lot less........the APEX, Vanquish 440 or 540 or the Nokta Makro Simplex would be fine.

[Captorofsin]

I will probably be out there swinging that detector a couple of hours every day in the afternoon. Mainly beaches (freshwater and saltwater) and parks. Do I really need the two extra frequencies (that the 800 has) for parks and beaches?

[kac]

Price wise, Nox 600 with bluetooth headphones is around $650

Apex with z-link headphones is just under $500 and toss in the Wireless pinpointer that works with the headphones puts at $630.

Apex is just over 2 lbs, coil is narrower making it better in high trash areas. The Nox 600 has an 11" wide coil which can do better in depth but tougher to navigate in trashy areas.

Fisher f75 has a good reputation for a reason but it is just a single frequency machine. Not necessarily a bad thing as majority of hunting can be done very well in the 10-20khz range.I

Personally I like Garrett as a company and the Apex seems to be well supported with a new software update they just rolled out. Weight and the S-Shaft I would lean towards the Apex over the 600 along with the vast number of coils out for it. Only downside is it is splash proof so your safe in the rain but you can't dunk the control box if you plan on doing any water hunting.

 

[Mike_Hillis]

I'd give up all my other models before I'd give up my F75 Ltd with DST.

 

[palzynski]

11 hours ago, kac said:

....

Personally I like Garrett as a company and the Apex seems to be well supported with a new software update they just rolled out. Weight and the S-Shaft I would lean towards the Apex over the 600 along with the vast number of coils out for it. Only downside is it is splash proof so your safe in the rain but you can't dunk the control box if you plan on doing any water hunting.

 

 I agree the Apex should not be underestimated , it is lighter than the Equinox (Apex/Viper/1.2kg vs Equinox/eq11/1.3kg ) and yes a S shaped shaped is more ergonomic than the Equinox straight shaft  .

I am currently testing the Apex for inland hunting and it is a very good machine , easy to use and very efficient in the field. 

I have a very experienced friend who has tested the Apex at the beach ( French coast ) and had excellent results with it . The Garrett MS3 wireless headphones are probably the best on the market. And the Apex is for me easier to use than the Equinox , the audio is more stable with sharper signals on targets .

Concerning the freqs , the Apex runs higher than the 600 ( Apex: 5,10,15,20khz - 600 : 5,10,15khz ) then it is probably a little more sensitive to tiny targets than the 600 , at least for small coins.  However even if I know the 800 very well,  I have never used a 600 then this has to be confirmed ... 

 

 

 

[F350Platinum]

3 hours ago, palzynski said:

Concerning the freqs , the Apex runs higher than the 600 ( Apex: 5,10,15,20khz - 600 : 5,10,15khz ) then it is probably a little more sensitive to tiny targets than the 600 , at least for small coins.  However even if I know the 800 very well,  I have never used a 600 then this has to be confirmed ... 

The Equinox goes from 5-40 Khz when in MultiIQ, both the 600 and the 800 do. Single selectable frequencies are limited on the 600, 15 Khz is as high as it goes. With update 3 they added 4 Khz.

[Jeff McClendon]

The original poster has given those who have taken the time to read and respond to his topic, enough information to help him with his choice. 

He answered the most important questions earlier about how serious he is about detecting, how much time he plans to spend detecting regularly and where. From those answers it is obvious that he needs at least an intermediate level, full featured, waterproof detector that can easily handle daily saltwater beach conditions and occasional turf hunting. 

Putting our own personal brand and model likes and dislikes aside for a moment, his choice of detector is pretty simple between the Equinox 600 and 800. I wish the other manufacturers had affordable, waterproof, full featured, simultaneous multi frequency, sensitive to very small targets, VLF detectors in their model lineup............they currently do not.

Also, Alain.......this forum has repeatedly addressed the Equinox 600/800 frequency issue. Three immensely qualified field testing/consultant/experts who are current members of this forum have stated multiple times that the Equinox 600 and 800 set on Multi are using exactly the same frequencies in Park, Field and Beach modes.

I am just an end user. But, I have personally owned and tested an Equinox 600, Equinox 800 and all of the Vanquish models and I specifically tested their sensitivity to very small targets many times. I have also had the opportunity to do the same with the Garrett APEX. The Equinox models when setup correctly are far more sensitive to smaller targets of any conductivity compared to the Vanquish models and the APEX. I am not bashing the APEX or Vanquish here. This is just a fact. 

[kac]

Jeff did you test the Apex with the latest firmware? I believe there has been some significant improvements. I'm not bashing the 600, the 600 technically is a higher end machine but the price break I noted gives the user a nice light machine with a pinpointer that integrates with the headphones and still short of the 600's price tag. The frequency range on the Apex makes ideal for coin and jewerly hunting, 600 a better coin and relic not that either can't do both.

End of the day they are all solid performers.

[Jeff McClendon]

1 hour ago, kac said:

Jeff did you test the Apex with the latest firmware? I believe there has been some significant improvements. I'm not bashing the 600, the 600 technically is a higher end machine but the price break I noted gives the user a nice light machine with a pinpointer that integrates with the headphones and still short of the 600's price tag. The frequency range on the Apex makes ideal for coin and jewerly hunting, 600 a better coin and relic not that either can't do both.

End of the day they are all solid performers.

The answer to your testing question is YES.

Both the Equinox 600 and 800 setup with the optimum settings for the conditions, will easily hit targets in the .05 gram size and even smaller out to 3 inches in air tests and 2 inches in mineralized ground with their gain on 2/3 rds or less strength. So will the Gold Monster 1000, Deus, Orx, Gold Racer, Gold Kruzer, Gold Bug II, Gold Master 24K and many other higher frequency VLF gold prospecting specific detectors. The Apex I recently tested (for the second time) could not do that. Neither can the Vanquish models, the Simplex or most other detectors operating at less than 19 kHz. With those same targets basically touching their coils at full sensitivity, yes they could detect them. In the ground......Nope. That is just not what they were made for. So micro jewelry and very small gold prospecting are best done with detectors that are easily capable of that function.

APEX vs Equinox head to head (same with Vanquish vs Equinox) is just not comparing apples to apples no matter how good a deal one might be money wise. The Equinox 600 has full tones (50) and 50 individual segments of discrimination (all of the target IDs), three levels of recovery speed, blah, blah, blah.......I could keep going but what is the point.

 

[palzynski]

3 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

...

Also, Alain.......this forum has repeatedly addressed the Equinox 600/800 frequency issue. Three immensely qualified field testing/consultant/experts who are current members of this forum have stated multiple times that the Equinox 600 and 800 set on Multi are using exactly the same frequencies in Park, Field and Beach modes.

I am just an end user. But, I have personally owned and tested an Equinox 600, Equinox 800 and all of the Vanquish models and I specifically tested their sensitivity to very small targets many times. I have also had the opportunity to do the same with the Garrett APEX. The Equinox models when setup correctly are far more sensitive to smaller targets of any conductivity compared to the Vanquish models and the APEX. I am not bashing the APEX or Vanquish here. This is just a fact. 

Jeff , 

 I will not compare the 600 vs the 800 , I only compare detectors that I have tested in the field , and as I said I never owned a 600. But I know very well the 800  I have between 150 to 200 hours with it the field ( inland coin/relic hunting , mild soil , mostly iron trashed areas ) and during this time I could compare it with the competition , particularly vs the XP Deus , that I use since 2013 . 

On the other hand ,  ok lets say that the 600 has exactly the same audio/freq same abilities as the 800 . Even with this I would still prefer the Apex to the 600 for a single feature ; the iron filtering .For my kind of detection the iron filtering is the key feature , rather than depth , this because I spend almost all my detecting time on iron trashed areas. 

Now as we have a disagreement , it would be interesting to have other users opinions on the Apex , inland and at the beach. May be up to now there are only few feedbacks because the machine is very recent , and probably more infos will arrive during the coming weeks/months. I hope so anyway ..