Deus 2 Legend Equinox 800 Wild Target Testing

[Jeff McClendon]

I finally had a chance to do wild target comparison testing in a Denver Colorado area public park using Deus 2 9" coil, Legend 11" coil and Equinox 800 11" coil.

Absolutely nothing is implied by doing these tests. I don't work for these detector companies and I gain nothing from doing this testing except for the knowledge it gives me. I am sharing this experience here on this forum. I am not trying to prove anything whatsoever. I liked all three detectors before the test and I still like all three detectors very much. They have many similarities and just a few basic differences at least when it concerns this test, on this day, in these ground/target conditions.

So, the ground was damp, temperature was 82 F with light breeze and partly cloudy.

Deus 2's mineralization graph consistently displayed 10 out of 12 bars, so highly iron mineralized ground.

I chose a 30 foot by 7 foot area and flagged six targets. Actually I only had six flags but there were seven targets. Target number 2 was actually two adjacent targets.

I used Deus 2 to first locate and choose these targets. Target depths below include 1" of grass/ground clearance.

I chose these targets to flag because: 

---they were fairly obvious deeper targets,

---there seemed to be iron, low conductor, mid conductor and high conductor non-ferrous targets included in the target selection

---all of these targets had consistent enough target IDs and tones for me to make an educated guess about what they were before digging

--- all of these targets were probably coin sized and at least 6" deep which was determined by audio response, displayed depth readings and they were all out of range of my Teknetics Tek Point pinpointer set to Max which usually means 4.5".

You can stop reading right here if you want. All three detectors had very similar results on these seven targets and the information they gave was remarkably consistent and accurate considering the depth of these targets and the high iron mineralization.

However, before digging the flagged targets I ran all three detectors over the grid area and counted the number of targets that I determined were solid 2 way response targets. They could be ferrous, mixed ferrous or non-ferrous but they had to have repeatable 2 way responses. Size was not considered. Most were shallower than the flagged targets by their audio responses and depth readings. After the test I recovered 15 of these targets that were in the surface to 4" depth range before stopping since the grid area was starting to look really bad from my recovering 22 targets including the flagged targets. I used the Legend to recover those 15 targets.

Deus 2 detected 31 targets that matched that description in the 30' by 7' area. The Legend detected 43 and the Equinox detected 54. Those were detected 2 way repeatable targets. There were many more that weren't 2 way repeatable by the way. So, this was a small area with lots of targets that could cause masking, etc.!!!!!!

Settings:

Deus 2, 9" coil, Detech over the ear headphones with WS6 Puck installed.......Modified Program 2 Sensitive, 5 tones, disc. 10, sens. 95, Freq. shift 3, Iron Vol. 3, Reactivity 2, Audio response 4, Bottle cap reject 1, Notch OFF, Silencer 1, Ground Balance 86 (I chose the Sensitive program because it ground balances the best in the iron mineralization present here of all the higher weighted programs with very few spurious ground responses in the Coke 23 to 25 range)

Legend, 11" coil, stock Bluetooth over the ear headphones.......Park Multi 1, 6 tones, disc. 0 to 3 rejected, sens. 26, freq. shift 10, recovery speed 5, iron filter (fixed) 8, iron volume 4, no notches, ground balance 9.  The Legend ground balanced easily with no issues with spurious ground responses.

Equinox 800, 11" coil, Avantree Studio Pro over the ear BT headphones, Park 1 Multi, 5 tones, disc -9 to -5 rejected, sens. 22, freq. shift 8, iron volume 4, recovery speed 5, F2 iron bias 2, no notches, ground balance 2. The Equinox ground balanced easily with no issues with spurious ground responses.

 

Target 1  6.5" deep small aluminum ring pull with just the ring....no beaver tail

All three detectors detected this target correctly.

Deus 2  TID 62           Legend TID 25          Equinox 800 TID 12-13

 

 

Target 2A  US Jefferson Nickel 2004 Lewis and Clark "Keel Boat" and Target 2B  unidentified mixed aluminum/iron target

Both targets were 7" deep and they were 3" apart. All three detectors detected both targets separately and correctly.

Deus 2 target 2A  TID 62, target 2B  TID 83-85 with iron audio responses

Legend target 2A  TID 26, target 2B  TID 40-41 with iron audio responses (targets were too deep for Ferro Check reliability)

Equinox 800 target 2A  TID 12-13, target 2B  TID 22-23 with iron audio responses

 

Target 3  7" deep 1977 Lincoln Memorial copper penny

All three detectors detected this target correctly and easily.

Deus 2 TID 89-90      Legend TID 47-48       Equinox 800 TID 27-28

 

Target 4 7"deep 1959 Lincoln Memorial copper penny

All three detectors detected this target correctly even though there were iron targets/responses all around it which made the exact location of this penny tough to pinpoint.

Deus 2 TID 89-99,       Legend  TID 48-60        Equinox 800  28 to 39

 

Target 5  9" deep 1965 Lincoln Memorial copper penny

This target was detected correctly by all three detectors even though there were iron targets/responses all around it. By far the toughest target of the test.

Deus 2  TID 91-99      Legend TID 50-60    Equinox 800 TID 30-39

 

 

Target 6  8" deep 3" long  late 1800s to early 1900s square nail

All three detectors detected this target with mid conductor falsing and with iron responses. I guessed a very corroded zinc penny, mangled aluminum screw cap or nail before digging.

Deus 2 TID 81-88 with plenty of iron responses,   Legend TID 38-44 with plenty of iron responses (too deep for Ferro Check reliability)   Equinox 800   TID 21-25 with plenty of iron responses.

 

This test did teach me one really important fact. Not on a soapbox here just stating the obvious.

There were many people including me that doubted the ability of Nokta Makro and XP to come up with effective simultaneous multi frequency operation that could compete with the Equinox platform. We all experienced the release of Deus 2 and the Legend and all of the turmoil and vitriol that went with those releases and with the hype both positive and negative afterwards. I will just say that in particular.......the Legend is an outstanding metal detector. Its precursor, the Simplex (I detected this park with one) simply would not have hit these flagged targets in this dirt very well if at all and certainly with very poor target ID/tone accuracy. The same goes for the original Deus 1 (also detected this park with one). So both companies have released great SMF detectors no matter what anyone says to the contrary.

[Againstmywill]

That's a lot of work! Thanks for the comparison; well done!

[Jeff McClendon]

5 minutes ago, Againstmywill said:

That's a lot of work! Thanks for the comparison; well done!

Thanks.

I did it for myself really. I am especially trying to find the roughly reliable depth limit in my dirt conditions for Deus 2 with the 9" coil.

Just like anybody else with some experience, I want to choose the right detector for the site. I can't do that until I know what it can do.  

Hopefully, I can find a spot as trashed as this one but with even deeper targets in the future.

[Tometusns]

Thanks for sharing Jeff. 

[Joe Beechnut OBN]

Nice work Jeff! I can say over the years by testing and comparing I learned way more than just by hunting. You really put a lot of time in to this one!  Thank You!

[NAGANT]

Thanks!  The totals for 2 way targets is interesting also but not sure what to make of it.  Is it that deus and legend discriminate better with the settings used?

[Jeff McClendon]

14 minutes ago, NAGANT said:

Thanks!  The totals for 2 way targets is interesting also but not sure what to make of it.  Is it that deus and legend discriminate better with the settings used?

All three had similar discrimination settings meaning the lowest 1/3 of their iron target ID range was rejected to help deal with ground noise from the high mineralization.

Personally, I think it has to do with an engineering/design choice. Deus 2 seems to have its overall gain or some other background setting (frequency weighting??) adjusted to ignore really small targets. The Legend is more middle of the road and the Equinox is adjusted to really hit hard on a more wide range of target sizes including really tiny ones. Just my opinion from really testing all three on tiny gold nuggets, micro jewelry, tiny lead targets and tiny aluminum.

[abenson]

Nice write up Jeff. Lots of good info in that report.

[Chase Goldman]

Thanks Jeff! 

Yeah.  I love all three of those machines. 

Deus 2 for the ergonomics/compactness/minimalist/reconfigurable design, killer iron performance, solid beach performance, improved coin shooting over its predecessors, and great all around relic performance in a variety of situations/conditions.  If I can take only one detector with me, this is the one, because I can take it with me regardless of whether I'm flying, driving, biking, boating, or hiking to my ultimate detecting destination and it can get the job done when I get there, whatever the situation and conditions might be.

Legend for its unmatched killer value, packed features, customer focused and responsive team, great ergonomics and user interface, and promise of an excellent accessory coil selection.  I need to give it more love and quietly cheat on the D2 more with it...

And finally the 4.5 year old "granddaddy", Equinox, which is  still going strong and frankly I think the industry game changer in terms of features and performance for what was at the time, a price point step change.  It really set the stage for what was to come and was the catalyst for Deus 2 and Legend.  Even though I am spending more time with the new kids on the block, it is still has a few unique tricks up its sleeve and is present in the vehicle when I depart on EVERY metal detecting excursion.

And at the end of the day, we are the beneficiaries of this healthy 3-way product competition.

Variety is the spice of life and despite the similarities in performance documented by Jeff, one key thing to note from Jeff's controlled adventure is that all three detectors brought their unique advantages to the table when Jeff decided to carpet bomb that patch of ground.  If you have the luxury of time, access, and can afford to do it, it never hurts to hit a site with multiple different capable detectors (that you have really taken the time to learn to use to their max capabilities) because regardless of how capable they are in performance, they all also see the ground differently enough such that no one detector is likely to see every keeper buried there.

[JCR]

Excellent testing Jeff. And to the heart summation Chase.