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1 hour ago, Jeff McClendon said:

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

Supposed to be thankful there is a volume control? :mellow:

1 hour ago, Jeff McClendon said:

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.

I'm a computer nerd and tech junkie and I can learn anything. I'm also a sales and marketing expert whose expertise is what people want in metal detectors and what constitutes a good user interface. The fact I can learn the Deus menu system has nothing to do with it being good or not. It's poorly designed for the average user, the average buyer, the average person XP wants to win over. The good news for them is it's only after the sale that people go WTF and dig in and do what they have to do to make it work. And of course once a few magic settings are found that's done, move on. No company ever improves though unless people speak up, and I'm not shy of that. :smile:

Enough of the negatives though. I have said and say again it's a great performing detector, and end of day that's really all that counts. We detectorists will put up with almost anything if it gives us a performance edge. I once told Minelab they could embed razor blades in the armrest, and people would use it and bleed if it just finds nuggets deeper. So I'll shut up now with the whining and from here on out just go use the thing, and hopefully post some happy results when I get back to it. Happy New Year!

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13 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Supposed to be thankful there is a volume control? :mellow:

Yeah, Deus 1 had an onboard clock and a huge amount of features but......no speaker volume control, similar with the ORX.......go figure.

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18 minutes ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

I'm now finding things I could only dream of finding before. It's not that the Nox couldn't find these things, it's because I couldn't find them with the Nox.

Genius. Pure genius.

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13 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

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.

Steve, your post really struck a cord.. Despite my sometimes loud whining and whinging, I must admit that my D2 has also outperformed the Equinox.. I'm thinking about some deep silver coins and tiny gold earrings that the Equinox completely misread or couldn't see at all.. But what did I do with this awesome new-found knowledge? You guessed it, when hunting for deep silver or small gold I still grab the Equinox each time.. 

I guess this is partly because the Equinox is a reliable old workhorse and partly because it has larger coils for beach hunting.. But this will all change in 2023.. Your post has given me a nudge to give the D2 a better go before I get all absorbed by Minelab's new toys, and had a chance to find out just how good the D2 really is..

        

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The underwater coil cable attachment is why I never considered the D2 for a beach machine.  Most of the time when I hunt beaches, I am in chest deep water.  The Nox is more appealing to me for that reason. The curve ball for me was in my other post regarding the lake I went to and all the water was gone.  On my 2nd hunt I opted to bring the D2 and was surprised at what I had missed on the initial Nox hunt and has me rethinking my dismissal of the D2 as a beach machine. I may have to run that stupid wire after all.  

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15 hours ago, Erik Oostra said:

Your post has given me a nudge to give the D2 a better go before I get all absorbed by Minelab's new toys, and had a chance to find out just how good the D2 really is..     

WTG Eric.  And if it still doesn't click (it's a hit or miss proposition - some love it, some don't ever click with it and its not for lack of trying - I get it), that Nox 900 looks like it will fill the bill nicely to do some of things and go some of the places your 800 couldn't.  Good Luck in 2023.

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1 hour ago, Daniel Tn said:

I may have to run that stupid wire after all.  

I've found that for wading the Equinox is a better detector out of those two.. For deeper water I like the Nox's wired coils and stiff shaft.. I'm tall and have the shaft on the D2 extended as far as it'll go, this makes the whole show mighty wobbly when dragging it through water.. And it's not just that stupid wire, it's also how it's attached to the coil.. I don't think the XP engineers ever tested the D2 in water deeper than their ankles, because they would've realised how easily the antenna wire assembly comes apart when dragging it through sand (also at the other end where it pulls off the control box in the surf).. 

 Underwater it's a different tale.. I've gotten used to the D2 as a scuba detector, mainly because as such it has a short shaft and wobbliness is no longer a concern.. Although underwater it sprouts even more wires as you'll also need the bone-phones with their long ultra tangly cord.. Have fun.. 🤪  

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7 hours ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

Yes!!! This right here!

Welcome to the dark side, Steve, we've been waiting for you. 😄

From my limited perspective and coming from the Nox 800, when I recieved the D2 last April, I resolved to use only it until I felt like I learned it well enough to be able to switch back and forth between my two detectors at any time. I was very comfortable with the ol' Nox, and early into the D2 learning curve there were a few times that I  though of just grabbing the Nox and go a-finding, but I fought the urges and stayed the course with the D2. Now I'm glad I did.

It wasn't long before the D2 menu system was a non issue and it became just muscle memory with continued use. The real curve for me has been learning all the relationships and purposes of the various controls like sensitvity, iron bias, recovery speed/reactivity, discrimination, notch, tonal nuances, ect., all of which you more experienced detectorists are already familiar with. These controls were conveniently somewhat limited on my previous detector and I really didn't know what was missing or understand the concepts until I had more time on the D2. Now that I understand the D2 (and detecting) a little more, and am continuing to grow and experiment with settings without messing anything up, I no longer have the urge to grab the ol' standby.

I'm now finding things I could only dream of finding before. It's not that the Nox couldn't find these things, it's because I couldn't find them with the Nox. I just settled into a few patterns with the Nox that I was comfortable with and never ventured beyond that. The Deus 2 forced me out of my comfort zone and forced me to learn more about detecting, and it has payed off with more and better finds. The journey continues but I'm having a great time with the D2 and don't really miss the ol' standby. Now when that D2 10x5" coil comes out, my journey will be complete! 😎

 

This almost exactly mirrors my thoughts on the D2.  I say almost because I clicked with deus the first time out.  It’s an absolute joy to swing with that 9” coil.  I became comfortable very quickly with the menu setup, writing and saving programs and the button layout.  (One thing I don’t like about the button layout is turning the pinpoint function on and off.   They should have made use of the same button to turn it on and off instead of having to switch.)

 

 I loved my nox.  It was my first really, really good and most expensive detector since I started detecting about 6 years ago. I used it since they first came out and thought I was doing well with it.  But since getting the D2 I’ve only had the nox out twice!   And both of those times it felt like a tank with the 11” coil and its tones sounded so foreign.  I couldn’t even remember how to ground balance it.   I had to look up the nox manual on my phone😂.  I don’t think I’ll sell my nox though.  It’s a great detector and makes a great back up detector.  I have the 6” inch coil on now, so it’s pretty light and easy to swing, but I still prefer the deus.  
 

About the wireless aspect.  I too became a little miffed about this when out in the woods detecting a spring.  I wanted to detect the bottom of the spring reservoir but as soon as I submerged my coil the detector quit. It took me a few seconds to figure out why!  However, I can see a real big advantage to not having a hardwired coil if I was ever to detect a crawl space or a cave or some other place where you might be on all fours.  You can just hold that lower shaft and swing it around like a wand.  Other than submerging the coil and losing the signal, I like the wireless coils.  

I like my deus so much that I hardly ever think about the manticore.  I am almost certain I won’t buy one, unless in a year or two’s time it’s really is out performing the D2.  But hopefully XP will keep updating the D2 and it’ll perform just as well or better than the manticore.  
 

 

 

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7 hours ago, NCtoad said:

....
 I like my deus so much that I hardly ever think about the manticore.  I am almost certain I won’t buy one, unless in a year or two’s time it’s really is out performing the D2.  But hopefully XP will keep updating the D2 and it’ll perform just as well or better than the manticore.  
 

 

 

You will probably see that when you have used a Deus( 1 or 2 ) for some time and you are happy with it , it is very difficult to come back to an other brand ... At least for detector lightness reasons , but for separation in the irons and reactivity on targets too .

I mean for coin-relic inland hunting . For beach huting it is different , it looks like the MLs are still the kings of the beach in the world , this even in France ... 🙂

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