Minelab Equinox 800 Vs White's V3i

[carl6405]

Last weekend I found my first Gold ring with my new to me ML EQ800! Wife and I celebrated the day. But on to my comments..

Just wanted to add another 2 cents worth to this conversation. Because of living in suburbia, my main hunting sites are parks and schools, and for a detectorist, translates into.. a lot of trash in the ground. Also, I have been using only Whites detectors over the past 3 years and mainly the V3i over the past 1.5 years.

I have been using the ML EQ 800 solely over the past month and am coming to know this detector quite well now. My biggest problem with this machine is I wish it had more Target ID numbers like the Whites with +95 Target ID numbers. To me this is a problem because I have found too many trash items under the nickel ID of 11-13. On the Whites V3i a 19 target ID will almost always guarantee a nickel or a ring.

ML EQ 800 - TID 11-13 I have found (Gold Ring, nickels, can slaw, rolled over pull tabs, condiment packets, foil) Would have never found foil or can slaw in the nickel range with the V3i.

I have notched out the TID 14 which does help a lot with most modern pull tabs, but not all.

With the ML EQ 800, I have had to change the way I detect and pay more attention to the way a target sounds when pin pointing. Listening for the quick drop off in sound as I wave the coil over the target.

 

[MattPa]

These are my 2 main machines. So far I have compared about 100 targets. The 800 missed a few that the v3i picked up. The info the v3i gives saves a lot of trash digging. I like the weight of the 800 and love that its waterproof. It definitely does not replace the V for a land detector.

[EL NINO77]

 

[EL NINO77]

Optimal coil  for SPECTRA V3- maintain high sensitivity and depth and separation to tiny things -0.05 gram gold O segment at a depth of 10cm, and reach enough depth on the coins -ag Denar in a depth of 23cm similar to the standard large coils ...- somehow similar simulating the Park 2 program at Equinox-likewise, I know the multifrequency 3F Whites Spectra V3. I have achieved very good results at the mars sniper 6X10 coil with Rxgain9-TX boost ON, DS95-96 ,,, even when detecting SEF 12x10 coil  is is a little bit more-better to give a signal on small coins -in 23cm. but again it is slightly less sensitive to 0.05gram gold O segment in depth of 10cm.In this game there is a lot of factor - magnitude of coil-ground signal, resilience-sensitivity to Emi, Separation, sensitivity to very tiny things, and reach to very small things and also male and large coins. so the optimum coil size is somewhere in the 7X10 or 8x9 range to maintain depth, sensitivity, separation, good resistance to EMI and ground mineralization, and quiet work on high sensitivity.
 

[☠ Cipher]

I'm a few months into the Equinox by now and growing into it. I think it's a great machine, and I've actually never expected much from it other than the hope that it would give me V3i style multifrequency water operation, so I can go with it where my V3i can't.

On land though, I can't say that it's a replacement for the V3i. I'm finding what I'm seeing reported here, that the Equinox is not noticing many targets that the V3i does particularly when they are deeper. I'm finding that it's not quite as deep or as sure of itself as my V3i. There aren't as many tools to rule out junk that my V3i is pretty clear on.

It can't be overstated though that I've gone through extraordinary effort to understand the V3i and how to get the most out of it. For the conditions that I deal with I have the V3i dialed right in to where I feel I'm getting the most out of it. I am not yet at that level of confidence with the Equinox that I feel I'm getting every bit of performance it offers, but pretty close.

What I can say about the Equinox is that it is even faster than I imagined. I thought that with 200 points of reactivity and the kind of horsepower the V3i has for a processor that it would be able to pretty closely follow the speed of the Equinox if I maxed both out. Not so. Not even close. The Equinox is far quicker Nomatter what I do to the V3i. In heavy trash there's no doubt the Equinox would be my weapon of choice. In harsh ground it would be my weapon of choice. In mild to moderate ground and trash conditions the V3i remains a very powerful coin and jewelry tool.

I have noticed that both work best with a conservative sweep speed. Even where the Equinox is maxed out, it is more likely to see those elusive targets if you take your time. Early on I got into a habit of assuming that because of its speed I could swing it at a pretty brisk pace and just investigate when it hit on something. When I began to slow it down a bit it started to see things it hadn't hit on before in the same patch of ground, like a nice buffalo nickel.

I'm getting pretty good at sniffing nickels out with it now, usually a solid 13. That's one thing I love about both machines. Once you get to know them, they don't have the trouble with nickels and pull tabs that plague most hunts and most units. Until I got my hands on these two I didnt even consider nickels worth the trouble of chasing. All considered, I feel I have a deadly combo here and I don't think I'd change it. Toward the end of the season when prices of used machines is at the lowest, im going to give the CTX-3030 another go. Other than that I've given all the other machines of note a fair shake. The CTX is the only one I didn't get as much time with as I'd liked to have had. For now, my V3i is still my go-to. There's something about White's machines that agree with Northeastern conditions. They all do very well here. 

Ill update again later in the season on how these two compare and contrast with more experience on the Equinox. 

[EL NINO77]

This is a very good comparison of Spectra and Equinox -  detectors with the high standard of detection quality - what you wrote, all you can do is that the user of these detectors will try to get the best of both detectors ...

[auminesweeper]

I am surprized at the EQ missing that, I have always admired the V3i but to me it is over complex and the tracking is not as hot as other Whites machines, I never felt the love for the V3i like other models, It's a great detector but all those menu's take up detecting time pretty much like the old Eagle II SL 90's, I just don't know what White's Goal was when making the V3i, It's too busy and they gave it a good frequency for Gold but never gave it a tracking system to match and I don't think it has the Hyper Gain that other Whites models have either so it can see really tiny bits, I think it is a good machine but it seems to have lost focus So then it was easier to stuff it full of adjustable stuff and that was a mistake because I think it drove many folks away, I know it did me, for me it's about the detecting and the company and the finds and all that complexity does not offer any advantage over other Whites models in their lineup, Yes it is a work of art, But for what purpose, For Arts sake ?

[EL NINO77]

I think the Whites Spectra V3 has technically surpassed its time ... now there are more configurable detectors available on the market, and the detectorist are starting to think of individual settings on the detector's 

[☠ Cipher]

I agree that the tracking and ground balance system of the V3i is not its strongest asset. Carl was pretty clear that it was a regrettable weakness that was the result of frequency cross talk caused by less than ideal filtering. I find it not to be a problem in my soil. I get a good ground balance here and even over in the farm land where the soil is harsher it can take a bit more effort but I get it dialed in and lock it. I've found it to be a pretty sensitive machine, well balanced across the spectrum of metals, which is what made me lean its way rather than the CTX. It is a busy machine but once you develop an eye for all that is going on it is very helpful to discriminating out undesirable targets at a mere glance. Anytime I second guess what it's telling me I come away more confident that its speaking my language. All the complication that drove others away is what attracted me to it. I want as much control as I can get and Whites was very generous to that end with this machine. The important thing to understand about the V3i is if you study each feature, keep good records and save your programs you don't have to get lost in adjustments and fiddling with it past the initial setup. I have a lot of fun experimenting and testing the limits. Then wherever I go with it I have a program saved for it. Where it is weak I have the Equinox. I'm pretty happy with how they compliment each other. But I definitely get why the V3i is not for everyone. It does take some time, effort and tedious rote to optimize, but I've also learned so much and believe it was worth it. 

[EL NINO77]

I think a long time about the possibility that Whites would have produced and used the "i-coil" Intelligent Coil at SpectraV3 - with a bunch of electronics in the coil ...