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Equinox 600 Vs Fisher F44 & F70


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Yes I most certainly agree. This is much better forum in that regard. The last thing I want to do is offend a lot of the equinox users. On the gold test The F70 was set on auto tune or all metal. Sensitivity was set to 85 Threshold was set at 1. 

I also tested the 600 set at 5 hz against the f44 and the f44 was much better then the 600 regardless of the setting on the 600 at 5 hz. For testing on the gold nugget and other items.

Yes, the equinox 600 is water proof but I don't go diving with my fishers. The f44 is splash proof and with a rain cover on it I have submerged it briefly without any problem and I have done a lot of water hunting with it.

I don't used f70 on the beach. I use the f70 along with Whites Tdl for nugget hunting and gold prospecting.  

Other comparison tests I did were trash separation tests with a 1959 penny, a nickel and 3 in nail. All targets were put a few inches from each other. This test I did with the f44 and on the 600 in Park 1 and 2. The  600 was set at the factory default settings with the iron discrimination off. The 600 did not do well in the park 1 setting. Missing the penny all the time and rarely picking up the nickel But did do better in the park 2 setting  The 44 did a  better job of picking up all three overall. The 600 was set to factory defaults with iron discrimination off on that test.

Some have ask why I make a issue out of the fact that the 600 does not have a all metal mode. Well here are the reasons - When I pay $650.00 for a machine I expect it to have that option on it -period. Their is no excuse why it does not. Many serious experienced detectorists use nothing but all metal mode for all the advantages it has over program modes  I wonder why I didn't notice this omission earlier but I thought park 2 with the iron discrimination off was the all metal mode till I did some research recently. 

Personally  I would rather use  3 machines which are best for each type hunting that I do then use one machine that by my estimation does a OK job but not a great job. I tried the  600 on the chance that some of the things I read might be true but with the exception of its performance on the beaches of the Florida keys I was not impressed. The f44 is a better relic hunter and better in trashy areas. the f70 is more sensitive to gold nuggets and not just gold nuggets but gold ore too and it does not even come close to the Whites tdl on gold in general.

Yes, The fishers in general have a problem with falsing, but I have learned to deal with that issue. I figure that the fishers programming which is designed to make the machines as sensitive as possible leads to that problem. 

I hate to say it but someone was using the their Fisher F19 as a substitute in comparing my f44 to the 600. The f44 and f22 are two different machines. Yes they have similarities but a lot of differences. And I run my F44 differently. 

The 600 is my first mine labs machine but certainly not my last. I have my eyes on a gpx 4500. I must say that This machine has very good build quality. Certainly better then the fishers, but you do pay for it.  The coil wobble issue is certainly a design flaw that needs to be corrected. Also the arm brace is too wide, which unless you use a strap, which I don't like using,  leads to control issues. And finally,  Mine lab's use of non swapable battery is a issue. Sure you can strap a power pack to your machine but that leads to a lot of other issues. Like not being able to submerge your machine till its charged. I am so use to being able to just swap in a new battery with my other machines, its kinda of pain to have to keep an eye on the battery icon and then having to remember to recharge the machine every night. 

A lot of you refer to the nox 800. I did not test the 800. It sounds like a superior machine to the 600 especially when it comes to gold. 

The bottom line is- as Steve H has said in the past - no single machine- be it PI or VLF will work the best in every situatio-. Minelabs attempts at creating such a machine are laudable, but past history has shown other wise. Regardless, I wish them success in the future. 

If nothing else the 600 does excel as a saltwater beach machine and I may kept it just for that purpose, that if I don't buy another PI machine

I have used my machines for gold prospecting and nugget hunting in Arizona, New Mexico, the black hills and copper nugget hunting in northern Michigan. Gold prospecting in Canada, Relic hunting in many old ghost towns out west and beach hunting in the florida keys . Oh, and coin jewelry shooting in many parks and beaches across the midwest. 

 I have owned or do own all of the following machines. - Garrett AT pro/gold.  Garrett 250,  Whites Tdl , Fisher gold bug pro, Fisher F70, F44 bounty hunter discovery 3300, Bounty hunter land ranger pro  Tasoro Vaquero. All the best, Michael M 

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Sounds like you are focused on gold primarily so the 800 would have been a better choice.  

You seem to be doing a lot of your test with the 600 in single, why?  Also, testing gold targets at 5khz does not make sense to me.

I suspect the issue you were seeing with the penny separation test in Parkb1 are due to the lower default recovery speed and high default iron bias settings in Park 1.  Park 1 defaults are not optimized for target separation. 

True all metal is bringing what additional to the table vs. the Equinox implemention?  You still haven’t articulated that.

Thanks for the additional info.  It’s clear you could unlock more potential out if you Equinox if you took more time to understand Multi IQ, the user settings and the target type objectives of the various modes.  Steve has provided a number of resources right here on site to help you do that.  

This is a good starting point.  Most of the info applies to the 600 as well.

Then this is a gold mine of info on Equinox

HTH

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Hi,

thank you for including your settings for the F70 vs the Nox 600 in your gold test. As has been said by me and others your test was probably not a fair comparison since you have repeatedly said that the 600 does not have an all metal mode. 

I'm the guy that mentioned the F19. I didn't refer to it because I misread your previous posts. I mentioned it because I don't own an F70/75 and the F19's all metal mode and transmit frequency are very similar to the all metal mode on the F70/F75s and I expect it to out perform the Nox 600 on just about any gold targets in all metal mode and it does. It does not out perform my Nox 800 however as it shouldn't due to the characteristics of the 800.

You mentioned two tests with the F44 vs the Nox 600 near the beginning of your last post. You gave good details about the nature of the coin/nail test and the settings for the Nox 600 but you did not reveal what the F44 was set on for these tests. There is another post on this forum which concerns the 600 and 800 falsing in the zinc penny range 17-22,  when detecting nails which can mask a penny or anything in that conductive range. It could be addressed in the next software update.  I know you were using a copper penny but its target ID is pretty close to that falsing area. I can assure you that some people on this forum would like to try this test for themselves since it is really cold and frozen where a lot of us live and we need something to do with our metal detectors besides hack at ice. I can only test the 600 since I chose not to buy an F44 after trying one for awhile, for various reasons which are mentioned in another post about the Fisher 2018 product lineup. 

The structural negatives that you mentioned about the Nox 600 (they are the same on the 800) have been talked about here too. We are definitely fans but those flaws are obvious. Both of mine have shaft wobble issues. I have heard that a refit will be coming soon to all customers that have this problem. I complained about the arm cuff a little until it got cold here. Now it makes a lot more sense. I can wear as many layers as I want and my arm will still fit in the arm cuff!!! I am a big fan of the rechargeable batteries and I make sure I have a portable quick charger nearby on long hunts.

I am at a bit of a loss as to why you bought an Equinox 600 in the first place.  I bought my 600 (knowing that it did not have an all metal mode) because obtaining an 800 was next to impossible at the time. I wanted to learn as much as I could about the Equinox line before the 800s became available to us regular folks. Being a part-time gold prospector and a big fan of the X-Terra 705's all metal/prospecting  mode (not a big fan of the rest of the detector!)  I was eager to have something similar with a lot more transmit power which the 800 definitely has. Maybe you will get a chance to try one someday. 

Jeff

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Hi,

I tried your scenario outdoors with a nickel, copper penny and a nail with a Nox 600 11" coil in Park 2, no iron discrimination, sensitivity at 15 (too much EMI for any higher) otherwise preset settings, 5 tones. I did not try Park 1 for the same reasons mentioned by Chase Goldman previously. I tried every arrangement I could think of including putting the nail on the penny. This configuration:  nail - copper penny - nickel  1/4" apart or less from each other was the only one where I could not hear the copper penny. In 5 tones, the nickel seemed to dominate the conversation but I could still hear the nail and the penny at any distance greater than 1/4".   Again, I could not try it with the F44 since I don't have one and you didn't let us know how to set it up for the test.

If you keep your Equinox 600, I think you will find that Park 1 is great for coin shooting in moderately trashy areas for surface to about 4" depth  coin sized targets in most soil situations. It is a basic program only and is helpful to get anyone started with the 600 or 800.  I still use it a lot to clean out the easy coin and trash targets in areas that I want to investigate more later and at greater depth with Park 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hi Jeff, Thanks for the reply and interest in my post.  The settings on the f44 for the coin nail test were 16 on the sensitivity  and all metal mode. After hearing your results jeff, I am going to do a retest of the coin nail test. But it might be a while as I lent my f44 to a friend today.  Why did I buy the 600 instead of the 800? Some people asked. Simple answer - Because I got a great deal on the 600 even though I had read that the 800 was better machine.  Why did I buy a eqinox machine at all especially if I was happy with my fishers whites and garretts?  The answer is Because as I said before is that I have used machines from almost every manufacturer except minelabs and I saw the eqinox  as a good machine to try out the current best that minelabs has to offer. I wanted to find out if there was any truth to all the minelabs hype I had been reading on the internet. The answer to that question is mostly no.  And that's where I am coming from.  The eqinox has its strengths and weaknesses like all the other machines I have tested. It certainty is not the holy Grail  -do all- of metal detectors that some making it out to be.  I would take the f44 or my land ranger pro over it any day for relic and coin hunting, and my White TDI with certain coils blows it out out of the water for gold prospecting.  The only area where I.found the 600 to really excell was as a VLF salt water beach  machine. The discrimination was nice to have as I have used many PI machines with no discrimination. The PI machines still had much better depth then the 600 although. All the best, Michael

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Michael the TDI and Equinox use Completely different technology (PI and VLF)for detection and usually aren’t compared to each other except for showing the different uses for each, and again the 600 wasn’t designed for nugget hunting.  

As for the F44 and Land ranger performing better the the Equinox. I can see where some people who hunt on mild ground or have very little experience running a Multi Frequency Minelab might think that.  They are different and some people don’t take to them.  Sounds like you will probably do better with your Fishers if that’s what your comfortable with.  

I’m sure you will have no problem trading your Equinox for another Fisher.

Bryan

 

 

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Hi Michael,

thanks for the reply including the settings for your F44 vs the Equinox 600. 

Comparing any two VLF detectors no matter what they cost or how they have been hyped with one in all metal and one in a discrimination mode is like racing a V8 engine car against a non-turbo 4 banger on a one mile straight away. The winner is predictable.

As most people here have said your testing would be more valid if it had been done with an Equinox 800 in all metal or if all your testing with your Fisher detectors had been done in a discrimination mode against the Equinox 600.

I actually agree with you about the lack of an all metal mode on the Equinox 600. For the price one pays for it I would happily have given up one of the Field or Beach modes for an all metal mode. But that is how Minelab has usually done things when it comes to their VLF detector families like the X-Terra series and the Go Finds too. They always leave off features in their less priced models which makes me think there really might be an Equinox 1000 someday.

Jeff

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