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MX Sport 749.00 - ? - Equinox 800 899.00


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I've thought about what's happening in the metal detecting market often lately. In my thoughts, the Equinox was a hard blow to the other manufacturers, but not the first shot at them. Minelab started this process long before the Equinox was unveiled. For me it started with the Explorer II (which I did not like) so I traded it back for a DFX, as I was a White's guy since 1972. But their long over due release of the V3i made me try Minelab again with the E Trac… followed by the CTX, GPX and now the Equinox. While Minelab was gearing up and innovating, other brands were still selling repackaged old technology. They were unable or unwilling to change. Fast forward  to now and they find themselves extremely far behind in technology. They may never recover. I fault them for that.  I too will never look at any single frequency machine again unless it ID's GOLD (100% of the time) That I would buy :laugh: Seriously, the bottom market can not support all the other manufacturers. So they must compete with the Equinox or come out with some new, unbelievable technology. The question in my mind is not whether they will survive, but rather do they deserve to survive?

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One of the disadvantages of many of the U.S. based manufacturers is that they have been closely held family run businesses.  That means that if the CEO makes poor decisions then there is "no replace or fire the CEO".  This has also led to some internal family conflicts which distracts and diverts energy/attention from the business itself.  Then there is the matter of aging and the transition of management to younger individuals. 

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I think there are available hardware engineers; but, the company has to be able and willing to put the resources into hiring them and supporting them on projects.  If a detector manufacturer reaches the point where it only wants to direct resources to marketing and sales, it's probably in a death spiral.

I like Minelab's dry understatement:  "An understanding of electromagnetics would be a significant advantage."  BTW, I see Whites is also looking to hire a design engineer.

https://www.whiteselectronics.com/jobs/

 

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Dubious

 You said White’s is looking for a design engineer and here I am sitting by the phone waiting for that call . I would think my phone should be ringing off the hook by now .

 Like so many things I just don’t understand it.haha

 Chuck 

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On 11/21/2018 at 12:07 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

MX Sport did not make the cut for my list of 21st Century Metal Detectors due to the lack of built in wireless headphone capability. An arbitrary requirement on my part for sure, but one I think a lot of people would agree with. In my opinion it is past time that any top end detector include wireless headphone capability as a standard feature.

Very good point, and if you buy a wireless set up for MX sport your paying close to Equinox 800 with headphones and all the benefits of new tecnology

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To be honest, even if given a MX Sport for free, the likely hood that I'd ever use it is about zero.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's a fine detector in its own right, but already having the EQ800 and Makro Multi Kruzer, it simply brings nothing to the table that these two fine detectors don't already have covered. 

Sadly I think that's the reality for many, if not all single frequency VLF machines out there at the moment.  

Come on White's, you can do better, give us an updated V3i in a MX Sport like waterproof lightweight housing and you'll have a BIG hit on your hands.  

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On 11/30/2018 at 2:25 AM, Cal_Cobra said:

To be honest, even if given a MX Sport for free, the likely hood that I'd ever use it is about zero.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's a fine detector in its own right, but already having the EQ800 and Makro Multi Kruzer, it simply brings nothing to the table that these two fine detectors don't already have covered. 

Sadly I think that's the reality for many, if not all single frequency VLF machines out there at the moment.  

Come on White's, you can do better, give us an updated V3i in a MX Sport like waterproof lightweight housing and you'll have a BIG hit on your hands.  

White's does offer absolutely fantastic customer service.  While Minelab is improving and Makro is already very good, White's is simply far and away the best in the industry and the gold standard for customer service.  This is coming from someone who has used most makes and have experience with each.     

But I agree that they really need to come out with an updated V3i.  They were really onto something great with that detector and they just need to take it over the finish line and make it into a near perfect flagship with just a few improvements. 

They don't have to make it super light weight either.  If they can keep the weight down to around 3.5 lbs or so, that would be perfectly OK so long as the balance was good.  I actually found my CTX to be easier to hunt with for long periods than my equinox because the balance was so much better on the CTX.  (I'm 6'4" and I've heard that the equinox balances ok for shorter guys, but certainly not for me.)  One idea for future detector design I've had is to put the battery under the arm cuff and make it so it can be slid forwards or backwards a couple inches to aid in finding a good balance.  This would not only accommodate for height differences, but would also allow adjustment for different size coils to keep the proper balance point.  As long as weight is kept reasonable, balance is actually more important for the ability to endure long hunts.  

Put the new V3i in a modified MX Sport enclosure, add aptx low latency wirelesss headphone capability, update the processor, improve the ground balancing system, keep the color analysis screens (Spectragraph rocks!), simplify the controls some, and I bet White's would soon regain dominance of the flagship market.  

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Whites needs a makeover for sure. Their latest detector, the Goldmaster 24k still has a big box under the arm cuff. That is  unacceptable with today’s technology if they want to continue to compete.

Bryan

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With the Goldmaster 24k, I believe the box under the arm cuff just houses the AA batteries.  That's a reasonable way to do it, IMHO, for a machine that is not waterproof.  The alternative would be to have the S-shaft hollow and thick enough at that point to incorporate a battery holder inside, with separate legs underneath for stability (like the Minelab Etrac and others). For a much more unsightly hanging box, look at the Minelab GPX 5000.  It seems to sell all right in spite of it ?

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