Minelab New Products

[phrunt]

A new CTX might be in the GPX 6000 housing 🙂  When I do park style detecting my aim is silver coins and even though the CTX was released in 2012 it wins the battle hands down against the Equinox on deep silvers in my mild relatively junk free soils, there is really no competition as it gives far more target identification to make the dig decision easier and has superior depth especially on the smaller silver coins.  For this purpose the CTX is already outperforming the Equinox, so a newer one with faster processing which is a given and whatever other advancements they've been able to make in the software and hardware in over a decade would be a very appealing machine for me.  This isn't saying the Nox is bad, before I had my CTX I thought the Nox was awesome, the CTX is just better.

I have no doubt the Equinox has decimated the CTX's sales and any new CTX will have trouble taking that back for many especially with the far higher price point, although I'd want to buy it.

[Aureous]

There IS a new GPZ coming....work on that model has been going on for at least 2 years now. 

[mh9162013]

On 3/10/2022 at 2:18 PM, Cal_Cobra said:

Does a new CTX make sense?   I suppose we won't know until if and when one surfaces.

I suspect the Equinox was far more successful than Minelab anticipated, it had to erode CTX sales.   In light of the success of the Equinox, what's the market for a new CTX (especially if it retains a similar list price to the current unit)?  If they don't go the same ergo/weight direction the Equinox took, I think they'll have a hard time selling heavy $2500 detectors that's cannot outperform an Equinox, unless they truly are a magnitude better than the Equinox, which I doubt will be the case. 

Time will tell, all eyes will be on Detectival this fall 🙂

Imagine a CTX 3030 in the Equinox's form factor and weight. That alone would make the CTX a pretty big seller among the serious detectorisrs, don't you think? Heck, I'd ditch my Equinox for this hypothetical device...assuming I had the money to afford this machine. 

My gut says that Minelab has 3 options right now:

1. Put a CTX 3030 (or E-Trac) in the Equinox's housing.

2. Release a machine that uses a newer version of FBS (imagine going from FBS2 to FBS3 being equivalent to going from BBS to FBS2) but maintaining the CTX's weight and size.

3. Releasing an Equinox 1000, which is an Equinox 800, but provides better waterproofing, the same (if not lower) weight, and a much improved ability to properly ID iron.

Assuming these are 3 options Minelab is considering, I'm guessing they're going with option #3. If for no other reason, the marketing would be easier. I imagine it would be easier to ride the coat tails of the Equinox as opposed to the E-Trac or CTX 3030.

[mh9162013]

On 3/10/2022 at 2:39 PM, phrunt said:

A new CTX might be in the GPX 6000 housing

I had a similar thought last night: a new Equinox could follow the GPX 6000 form factor, ie the battery and at least some of the electronics are in the back of the metal detector for better balance.

[AJ Peacock]

Even with just a few small improvements, I'd pony up for a Nox 800, in a new package that folded up like the SDC 2300 and had a replaceable battery pack.  I'd carry it with me all the time.  

 

AJ

[Rob in (ca)]

On 3/10/2022 at 12:39 PM, phrunt said:

A new CTX might be in the GPX 6000 housing 🙂  When I do park style detecting my aim is silver coins and even though the CTX was released in 2012 it wins the battle hands down against the Equinox on deep silvers in my mild relatively junk free soils, there is really no competition as it gives far more target identification to make the dig decision easier and has superior depth especially on the smaller silver coins.  For this purpose the CTX is already outperforming the Equinox, so a newer one with faster processing which is a given and whatever other advancements they've been able to make in the software and hardware in over a decade would be a very appealing machine for me.  This isn't saying the Nox is bad, before I had my CTX I thought the Nox was awesome, the CTX is just better.

I have no doubt the Equinox has decimated the CTX's sales and any new CTX will have trouble taking that back for many especially with the far higher price point, although I'd want to buy it.

My poker Chips are also on a new CTX on a 6000 housing, really only 3 things on CTX needs improvement, recovery / cost / weight.

CTX going on 10 years old still a remarkable detector,  just look at it’s resale value, which is insane , for 10 year old technology. 

[longbow62]

I just don't see a new detector based on the CTX. If FBS II was a platform worth building on why is there Mulit-IQ? They could have made a striped down CTX and called it the Equinox. Personally even if they could make a CTX as light as an Equinox I doubt I'd be interested. I think the Equinox is a much better all around detector than the CTX anyway. I doubt many are going to ditch their Equinox for a lighter CTX unless they could somehow match or surpass the Equinox's recovery speed. I doubt FBS is capable of this because they seem to been all in with Multi-IQ.    

I always thought the Equinox was an early form of Multi-IQ. Like they had proved it worked well, but it was still in it's infancy. The Equinox just seems to me kind of less thought out than the Etrac or CTX. Like they said hey this Multi-IQ is new and it works great. Let's push out a new detector as fast as we can based on it, and we will fine tune the tech and detector for the next release.

 It's all speculation, and who knows they may have a new tech not based on Multi-IQ as the next release. 

[Jason-NEK]

Lets look at the biggest complaints of the Etrac and the CTX-

* First users complain that the Etrac and the CTX are both just too heavy to swing for long periods of time. 

* The Etrac is a slow and go metal detector, so the slower your swing the deeper the coil  will read the ground.

* The CTX is over 10 years old and like its cousin, the Etrac, its processor is also a slow and go system in order to get the best       depth.

With these things in mind wouldn't a new FBS3 system be the answer?  Keeping it all in a housing like the Equinox currently uses with an all new coil lineup.  Call it the Equinox 2 and make its processing system faster than any of the past units that Minelab has offered.  

[phrunt]

I wouldn't call it the Equinox 2, I'd call it the CTX 4040

The Equinox is an entirely different animal, the CTX really shines on deep silver, in my opinion in my soil destroys the Equinox on deep silver, although prior to owning the CTX I thought the Equinox was the greatest machine on deep silver as compared to my others it was king, mainly because of it's ability to ID silver deeper than my other detectors, until the CTX came along to my collection and did an even better job of it.

The Equinox is more of an all round detector, it can do it all, while the CTX can do most things for me it's a deep silver hunter, or even a superior coin machine overall and I do love target trace and it's enhanced ID's over the Nox.

If I was chasing gold nuggets or even gold rings I'd prefer the Equinox.  If I was in trash, I'd prefer the Equinox.

I think they should keep the two lines separate and I'm sure Minelab do too, they'd rather the CTX remain their high end coin hunter or else it'd be gone when the Nox came out, it has its differences, areas where it very much excels over the Equinox, likewise I'd much prefer to hunt for gold with the Nox.

I don't find the CTX heavy at all, perhaps as I use the GPX and GPZ so I'm used to weighty detectors, I find it really well balanced, a pleasure to swing and I mostly use the 17x13" coil on it but I understand people finding it heavy and modern detectors should be able to go on a diet, the weight isn't necessary. 

If they made an Equinox 1000 that improved on where it excels and vastly improved it's build quality and also made a CTX 4040 improving on it's FBS2 technology and the advantages it brings I'd want both.

[Rick N. MI]

I would like the new Equinox in whatever format to have great waterproofing and be very light weight. Light weight is the way of the future for detectors.

I wish someone would make coils designed to slice thru the water with ease for water hunters.