Deus 2, Deus 1, Equinox 800 & GPX 5000 Compared On Various Size Gold Nuggets

[Calmark]

One thing to remember about gold nuggets is that they can respond differently to the various detectors out there.  Certain nuggets sound off on a vlf machine, but are silent on another like a PI.  The porosity, composition, shape, etc. can all affect a response or lack of one.

Since the D1, D2 and Equinox are all vlfs, you'd expect all to have a similar response to the smallest nugget in the video, but perhaps it just happens to be one that the D2 is just a bit more blind to?  I'd say it could be helpful to try a few different tiny nuggets in other tests and see if that one nugget in the video happens to hit a more blind spot on the D2.  I thought it sounded pretty good on the .1gram nugget and above.

I think we need more tests to gain information on how the D2 does on various tiny gold, rather than dismissing its ability yet.  Still, it looks like the D2 may just miss the smallest gold without a lot of extra work coaxing a signal out of it, which wouldn't be the end of the world if other strengths help make up for it.  Time and more tests will tell.  

[Erik Oostra]

9 hours ago, phrunt said:

the only thing I'm left to see with it is how it handles finding very deep silver coins but I guess its limited again by it's coil size and I'd be surprised if it can match the Nox there with its limitations. 

I've just tested this on my beach.. see my thread comparing the Deus II vs the Equinox.. I've made some videos, I'm sure the results won't surprise you.. 😬

[abenson]

Just to put this in perspective. The Equinox was at volume level 19 (i know this because I never change it) it goes to 25 that's 76% of full volume. No where near maxed out. Let's just say the Deus was at 7 may have even been 8 I don't recall. it goes to 9 that's 77% of full volume. How close do they have to be to each other to be acceptable?

Volume was no problem on the other 2 bigger nuggets with the Deus 2. Yes headphones help but anyway you look at it the Equinox had better ID and audio on the two smaller nuggets in this case.

I know many people that hunt without headphones when gold hunting for various reasons, snakes being one. I do personally use them most of the time unless it's real hot.

[phrunt]

Do VLF's exhibit blindness to certain nuggets like the PI's do where some VLF's will find a certain nugget harder to hit than another VLF, I thought that was to do with the detection hole, is that something VLF's have too?

[EL NINO77]

I think ... that this Abenson test ... has been performed really well ...

  ...I don't think so many detectors  have the ability to detect .... and not yet but also properly test detectors in mineralization ,,, ,, But who has such conditions or even tougher / 6-7 bar / .. will understand and come to similar conclusions ...

Compare DEUS II and Equinox 800 on 11 "coils.. and in Gold programs ... it's absolutely fine ../. And both detectors still had a volume adjustment reserve ..

 .. And finally ... for a more accurate comparison of the sensitivity and range of detection for the same targets the new Deus II ..was compared... even with other detectors -  the DEUS1 - 9.5 "HF elliptical coil ... and PI  GPX 5000 - 6" coil "...

I appreciate it as an excellent comparative test👍

[Steve Herschbach]

Thanks Andy for the tests, and Jeff for the spot on commentary. Nothing here surprises me. I will say that it is less about the highest frequency available, and more about compromises that have to be made in the design of a multifrequency machine. My main question all along has not been if D2 can exceed Equinox in multi, as I am pretty sure it can't, but if D2 multi can exceed Deus 1 performance on small gold, and in the densest ferrous. The focus for reasons I can understand the focus has been on Deus II vs Equinox, but the real question for me has been about Deus 1 vs Deus 2.

I've known since day 1 the Deus 2 would not replace my Equinox. The question for me all along was whether the Deus II could replace the Deus 1 for those users that have one, and are looking to upgrade. Or for people like me, for whom the Deus 1 never was quite doing it, despite owning two of them. I assume the question is a slam dunk for Deus 2 on saltwater beaches. But for dense ferrous, and the tiniest gold, I'm think many people will see no reason to ditch the Deus 1, or even the ORX, for the Deus 2. Single frequency does have advantages in optimization for single intended purposes, and Deus 1 is optimized for what it does to a very high degree, which is why it suffers in some other areas. It is hard to have your cake and eat it too with single frequency, and the same is usually true with multi.

XP multi is in its infancy, and optimizing multi is a different game altogether. When the dust settles I'm betting that the Equinox/Deus1 combo is still the best of all worlds. That is not to take away at all from what XP has done here, however, and I think the Deus 2 will be an excellent choice for almost anyone wanting a single detector for what I would consider to be "normal" general purpose metal detecting. I'm certainly not canceling my order, as I expect the D2 to be an excellent general U.S. park detecting unit, hopefully better than what the Deus 1 has to offer in that context.

Again, thanks Andy for doing tests under conditions that more closely mirror my own, and my own uses, as context is everything in metal detecting.

[Steve Herschbach]

On 2/9/2022 at 9:17 PM, phrunt said:

Do VLF's exhibit blindness to certain nuggets like the PI's do where some VLF's will find a certain nugget harder to hit than another VLF, I thought that was to do with the detection hole, is that something VLF's have too?

Yes, sometimes for different reasons, but yes. I once saw a gold nugget, maybe quarter gram, that a Gold Bug 2 could not detect while in plain sight. The nugget had matrix, and fell right into the ground balance setting for the GB2. Gold nuggets overlap with the ground balance setting range, and any amount of ground balancing, no matter how minimal, eliminates a certain class of gold. In PI detection, this is referred to as “the hole”, but it applies just as much with VLF detectors. Adding discrimination of any sort just makes it worse.

[Jeff McClendon]

On 2/9/2022 at 10:17 PM, phrunt said:

Do VLF's exhibit blindness to certain nuggets like the PI's do where some VLF's will find a certain nugget harder to hit than another VLF, I thought that was to do with the detection hole, is that something VLF's have too?

At first glance, I would think that a higher frequency weighted multiple frequency detector in an all metal type mode like Gold Field or the Equinox Gold modes would have the blind spot from the ground balance setting issue covered by using at least two different frequencies at the same time. 

In this case with Deus 2 Goldfield and its 11" coil,  that really small nugget seemed to be more of a sensitivity issue than a blind spot issue.

[phrunt]

Thanks for the replies about the hole, it's great always learning new things.  I hope XP embrace the constructive criticism people have given and improve the Deus 2 further with future firmware updates.  I've had a look at the Dues 1 and the major updates they've done to it in the past, so they're likely to do great improvements to the Deus 2 over time too.  It has the frequencies to hit on the little nugget fine, it just needs some tweaks and adjustments which they might do over time and who knows what will happen in the future.  This is just the start for it.

[Calarms]

First Andy, I like to say that was a great video thank you, people on this form are saying the Deus 1 and 2 are not gold machines, well how about using the o r x  with the 9.5 HF coil , since that is xp's gold  detector on the same test, what do you think