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Equinox 600 Versus Equinox 800


daryl curtis

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Hi guys me and my partner are complete novices to this great hobby and looking for some help we live in Cornwall UK and want to get some metal detectors so I have been looking at the equinox 600 for us as it seems a little less complicated than the 800. But am I going to lose out on much by not having to 20 and 40 that's on the 800 but they both use this in multi mode so is my thinking any good that the 600 will be a good platform to learn on. Also can someone explain what the difference is as the 600 says tone break pitch and volume are ferrous and on 800 says ferrous /non ferrous might be a silly question but as i have said complete newbies to the hobby.

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The beach performance of the Equinox 600 and Equinox 800 is going to be identical. Again, the Equinox 800 Gold Mode might offer an advantage to those hunting micro jewelry in the bone dry sand. That mode would be useless however on wet salt sand.

Micro jewelry detecting is not for the faint of heart because in reality it turns into aluminum foil detecting. For what nearly all people consider to be beach hunting the two detectors are identical.

Since water hunters often hunt strictly by ear the extra audio customization options are the main thing the Equinox 800 offers to beach hunters versus the Equinox 600.

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  • 2 months later...

Thanks for posting this. I pre-ordered a 600, and was having doubts whether or not I made the right decision. After reading your post, I've concluded I'm probably ok.  Most of the features will not be necessary since I am an avid beach hunter. I don't need to move the tones around in 5 tone mode... I'd rather hear everything, I'll probably use the 50 tone mode.

Custom volumes not required, definitely won't be using VLF 20khz and 40khz modes... those would go nuts on the beach.

I'll spend the extra $250 on a good pair of water headphones.

Really looking forward to this machine.  I've been using a CZ21 for water and an ATPro for dry sand, and sometimes I show up and the wet sand looks torn up and perfect to hunt but my AT Pro ain't gonna do it. 

I only need this machine to replace my AT pro and give me some options in the wet sand.  If it replaces my CZ-21 (I'm not counting on it, but I'm open minded), I'll be in heaven.

 

 

 

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I am sure Minelab would rather everyone get an Equinox 800 since the production cost of the two detectors is probably identical. Most people will anyway. For the vast majority of detectorists out there I just think the Equinox 600 is the real killer value as it will find most anything the Equinox 800 will find for $250 less. The feature list is truly remarkable for $649.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/1/2018 at 12:15 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

I am sure Minelab would rather everyone get an Equinox 800 since the production cost of the two detectors is probably identical. Most people will anyway. For the vast majority of detectorists out there I just think the Equinox 600 is the real killer value as it will find most anything the Equinox 800 will find for $250 less. The feature list is truly remarkable for $649.

Yep, unfortunately, the 600 is in less supply than 800 though.   Great value comes with great wait apparently.  :(

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Although the software builds are somewhat different, the 600 and 800 are physically and electronically identical with the exception of the physical user profile save button which exists only on the 800.  That makes it not possible to 100% replicate the functionality of the 800 on the 600 simply by flashing 800 firmware on the 600.  I am certain that ML has put interlocks in place to keep people from inadvertently or intentionally doing that at the hobbiest level of expertise (though the cell phone industry shows us that it is practically impossible to stop determined hackers).  This means that ML does not appear to have a planned upgrade path for 600 users to get to 800 functionality simply through a future software upgrade (paid or otherwise).  Now as far as people with nefarious motives, well we have unfortunately seen plenty of counterfeit detectors out there ripping off all the manufacturers and users alike.

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16 minutes ago, DetectingMO said:

Yep, unfortunately, the 600 is in less supply than 800 though.   Great value comes with great wait apparently.  :(

Though that value is diminished somewhat if you factor in the cost of the wireless hardware (Aptx phones and WM08 module) included with the 800 vs. the 600 wired phones.

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