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Steve just remember long press (now I forgot which button) for volume 🙂 ...Like you Ive not been using it whole lot. I've come to use it only for relic sites with lots of nails much like my old trusty Deus 1 which I really should sell as I've not used it at all since getting the deus 2 The menu system sucks and I use it just enough to have to re learn it every time I use it..it is a very impressive machine however and  I really should use it more but darn Minelab and their new turn outs....I'm like dog chasing my tail  now. XP needs to make different shafts for their large coils..

strick 

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5 minutes ago, strick said:

Steve just remember long press (now I forgot which button) for volume 🙂 ...Like you Ive not been using it whole lot. I've come to use it only for relic sites with lots of nails much like my old trusty Deus 1 which I really should sell as I've not used it at all since getting the deus 2 The menu system sucks and I use it just enough to have to re learn it every time I use it..it is a very impressive machine however and  I really should use it more but darn Minelab and their new turn outs....I'm like dog chasing my tail  now. XP needs to make different shafts for their large coils..

strick 

I mean seriously, 50 years of metal detecting, and I had to ask somebody in the field how to adjust the volume on the external speaker because I had no manual with me, and was out of cell range for the internet. Well sure, long press the secret button, why did I not think of that? Great detector, but when I can't find the volume control for the external speaker..... really XP?

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I bought a Deus II just for underwater hunting in Hawaii. Took it over last week and had to update it. It was difficult to understand even how to update it (which I finally got to work) and not to mention figure out how to get it into underwater mode without screwing up any of the other settings, I just dry sand detected with the Equinox instead. I purchased the underwater shaft kit for it and set it all up. Maybe next trip I'll give it a go? Or maybe I'll just use a Manticore/ Nox 900 underwater? The Minelab is so user friendly compared to the Deus II!

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If I was updating the Deus 2 menus system I would throw the entire thing in the garbage and start over. It's a menu system designed by engineer nerds, not something designed for the average user. Yeah, it's all there, once you figure it out, but they sure are not making it easy. I wonder how many of us old dogs actually do just go back to whatever we had because the XP way is so convoluted? Maybe a sales impediment there and a note for the XP designers for the future.

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This year, I resolve to remember last year’s resolution.

Also, I resolve to buy a new detector I do not need, and use it in a way that is really not necessary at all, and enjoy the heck out of it. This one, for the first time in my life, will not be more detector than what I have, but less. Less little details to remember, less tech savvy needed, actually Simplexity itself. 

Every year I fall further behind the times with detectors, and want them simpler. Really, with what the XP people are so obviously capable of, they could make an all-manual detector that would let me set everything how I want. Everything automatic and in modes converted to just knobs to turn to tweak it how i like. The Deus and Deus 2 have all the adjustments I want already, but I would need a teenager to show me where they are.

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Deus (1 or 2) vs. Equinox {6,7,8,9,16} reminds me of Apple vs. Microsoft.  (And maybe Apple vs. Android.)  Both are detectors (computers).  They share a lot of similarities.  They have some significant(?) differences.  Both have their zealous followers.  And some (who can afford) have both.  (True) expert techies can actually measure and even get value from the hard performance differences.  99% of detectorists (just like computer users) will never notice those, except possibly in their imaginations.  For them it comes down to the features, weight&balance, charging options, accessories, menu excursions, canned programs, even just the aesthetics, oh, and less I forget (too late; already did) -- price.

Lots of YouTube videos (and maybe even some posts by otherwise knowledgeable detectorists here) exhibit the hidden biases of zealots or simply of fanboys.  It can be a tough minefield to cross for a person deciding between the competitors' models.  On the positive side, we are fortunate to have a serious competition.

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Steve, at least Deus 2 actually has an external speaker volume adjustment feature within the remote..........

My new years resolutions for this year were to sell the metal detector tech I don't need, don't purchase any more detectors for one year and to really learn what I have and how they compliment each other and especially what their weaknesses are. So I made sure I bought the Nox 900 before January 1st and I sold two little used detectors last week which easily paid for the Nox 900. Now, I hope I can keep that no new detectors resolution🙄

I am fortunate enough (not because I have tons of money.....I definitely don't) to have an evolving metal detector budget that I can play with that I set aside when I retired from full-time everyday work. I also live in one of those places where most SMF detector tech offers a huge advantage over single frequency VLFs especially on deeper coin sized targets.

So, I continue to have and use the Equinox 800, Equinox 900, Nokta Legend and XP Deus 2.

Right now, the only detector out of those four that I would totally trust to perform well and easily without much hassle in any detecting situation I might face would be the Nokta Legend even though its user interface for me anyway kind of sucks.

Maybe I will trust the Equinox 900 more later on after submerging it and getting more used to its expanded target IDs

The Equinox 800 that I still own is just a really solid performer but I wouldn't take it to a thick bed of nails site looking for world class unmasking and I won't be submerging it.

Deus 2's user interface as it is currently configured was not hard for me to learn since I have many years using Deus 1 and the ORX. Deus 2 still has some pretty big weaknesses that I have already discussed on here so I won't repeat them. XP's next Deus 2 update will hopefully address them. The charging of three or more components is tedious to keep up with for me. Three times I have arrived at a hunt site with a dead coil battery.........and I checked the battery level for the coil before I left. It was half full. I rarely use Deep HC. Attaching wires for underwater and putting components in waterproof pouches, hey it works but......

I paid less than $600 for a Nokta Legend and $60 for a pair of lightly used Nokta waterproof wired headphones. I plug in the charging cable on the back of the Legend control pod and I'm done. No wires to knock off, control pods to knock off, etc. That detector has paid for itself and then some really quickly by the way.

Now, since this is the XP forum, Deus 2 for me anyway as of right now is the best performing SMF VLF detector for detecting 0.5 gram targets and bigger on land in a carpet of iron trash and/or modern aluminum trash that I have ever used IF the targets I am after aren't deeper than 6 to 8". Deeper than that, iron mineralization here really skews the target IDs and attenuates overall depth, but that 6 to 8" is heavenly compared to Deus 1 and the ORX.

Just for fun, I can get my Deus 2, Nox 900 AND my GPX 6000 in my Minelab backpack along with extra coils, my lunch and other gear........Paid $50 for it and it has really held up to some punishment and still looks great. Those XP backpacks look fantastic too by the way.

 

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2 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Maybe I'm an old dog, and some new tricks are getting hard for me. I don't like and will never be a fan of wireless coils. Don't waste your breath or time trying to convince me otherwise. I have my reasons, and nothing anyone is going to say will change my mind. I dream of a Deus 2 with a wide selection of dumb plug in coils for $200 each. That require no silly little wire to work underwater - so much for wireless. Every underwater hunter wants a $400 wired wireless coil with a wire that's as thin and delicate as is possible, right? But that's beside the point.

I know for a fact this detector performs. Saw it with my own eyes, and because of that knowledge I got one last year. But I have been using an Equinox for over four years now, and am really tuned in to it's tones, and yes, it's better coil selection. Where are my 10x5 and 15x12 Deus 2 coils? So the truth is I did not give my new Deus 2 the love it deserved, and tended to grab my Equinox instead. This despite my seeing with my own eyes that it can outperform the Equinox. Talk about stuck in a rut. But it shows the power of knowing a detector well, it's settings, it's tones, etc. The Deus 2 was a foreign object and I was just not getting along too well with it. I was even thinking I would sell it, with only a few hours use on it in the last year.

Well, I'm not ready to admit I'm too old to learn new tricks quite yet. So I resolve in 2023 to give my Deus 2 the love and attention it deserves. I even changed my profile to remind myself not to grab that Equinox, nope, it does not exist, don't go there. It's dumb to have a new toy and already have my eye on other new toys when I have not even played much with the new toy I already have! :laugh: Only bad part is that having made this decision, I have to wait a couple months yet for the ground to thaw.

While I'm waiting, please XP, give me a New Year's wish, and give us an update that makes the 5x10 coil work on my Deus 2. A 15x12 would honestly just screw the ergonomics, but your small elliptical, now that's a coil a lot of us would like to have, and would seal the deal for me on the Deus 2 and XP fan club membership. :smile:

Yeah, and add my nits about not having the big coil yet, the hokey way the remote is mounted, and the fact that the coils will go dead just sitting for a while, and it makes my decision to sell it much easier.

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