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As many of you have no doubt heard, the COVID19 situation in El Paso is pretty serious. I posted a while ago information I got from them that they were busy working and shipping product (not so many AQ’s - but). Well, I just had a chance to talk to my main contact in Sales Management at FTP and I think it is useful to share the general message I got. She explained to me that the (new) facility at FTP has advanced air circulation and filtration systems - that all personnel have been provided with highly effective face masks and that workstations and all other aspects of the internal organization of where people work and how they interact with each other have been carefully arranged to absolutely minimize the chance of infection. Her general comment was - the time we spend at work is the safest part of our days. Tom (the President) is deeply involved in making this a safe workplace and has spared no expense in doing so.

Well, my lake hunting days are coming to end due to a move to Hamilton TX very soon. Had a very good day hunting at the waterline as the lake level continues to drop. Ended up with 5 rings, 3 silver, 1 10k class ring and a junk toe ring. 2 of the silver rings are James Avery's. I'll begin to track down the owner of the class ring. I can't make out the year as it's almost completely worn off. But, maybe the school can fill in the blanks. The bigger silver ring hit at 32-34...the other 2, solid 26...the 10k gold ring locked on at 14

So the tides were decent enough on my days off to try again for some gold with the AQ or GPX. Since my beaches will not relent with the sanding in, I decided to try another strategy. Day one was split between the AQ for low tide and the GPX for deep silver. With the beach heavily sanded at low tide, all I could do was get some junk jewelry with the AQ. The GPX scored 3 silvers using the monster 18"DD Detech coil. It must have been a sight watching this guy struggle with that coil while holding a side stick and a big spade shovel 😄 The GPX wins that day. But... Day two was raining, so the GPX loses by default ... tough luck GPX (needs to be waterproof, hint, hint) So all day long I used the AQ at another beach which has a decent low tide. But as usual around here, it was sanded in more than ever. Low tide produced very few targets, just 3 zinc cents, some small junk jewelry and bottle caps. It looked like a wasted trip. But I wandered around all over, from high to low tide looking for a break. I knew that the rings were out of reach by the level of the sand against a breaker wall, so I decided to look for small jewelry in hopes of finding a gold stud or even a charm. No luck until I hit a small slope. By this time I had put gold out of my mind and just wanted to dig for the rest of the day. I used the all metal mode exclusively, just to boost the number of targets. I did get a lot of iron and bottle caps but then it happened. I got gold!!!!! No, not Joe or Mitchel kind of gold, 🙄 but more like anything I can get will do gold. So a small prayer necklace pendant shows up. I could tell it was gold right away. 10k it is...my FIRST gold with the AQ. I could now relax. So I started to grid this area carefully and a little while later I got a hit and could see a small bit of the target I thought was going to be a small silver earring. But it turned out to be a 10k diamond studded Ankh symbol. Looks like a cross with a loop at the top. It's used in ancient Egypt, representing the symbol of life. Gorgeous little piece and my SECOND gold with the AQ. I was in shock. So I start to look around as I am getting back up and about 3 feet from that target I can visually see pieces of a gold rope chain sticking out of the sand. In my moment of professionalism, I tried every combination on the AQ to better find chains......... Actually I just grabbed that thing as fast as I could 😂 So I haven't tried the AQ to see if it actually would pick the chain up or not. But technically not my THIRD gold of the day since it is .925 with 1/12 10K overlay. I think they call that Vermeil. My bad day turned real good, real fast. I hunted a while longer and called it a day. Thank you AQ for hitting that first gold target and making me stay in that area!

GB, For the most part, the musketballs are generally thought to have been in small barrels from the 1715 Fleet! And are generally found in groups! There is some conjecture on the spent bullets, but they appear to be from between the 40's and 60's! From people just target shooting into the bank! There was also alot of WW2 training going on not too far South of here with live ammunition, including 50 cal. and bombs! That coin was a 65' quarter! Underneath which may be a smashed musketball, or spru piece! And the other one is one of those possible WW2 spent bullets!👍👍

This topic comes up often (for metal detectors in general, not just the Minelab Eqx). From what I've learned here and in other readings, 'mineralization' as used in metal detecting refers to ferromagnetic minerals which are far and away dominated by certain (not all) iron oxides, particularly Fe3O4. Two naturally occurring minerals which are the most responsible are magnetite and maghemite (but not hematite, which is the most common ore used in iron processing, AFAIK). Ground balancing is matching adjusting for the phase shift of ground minerals in general, and although Fe3O4 will contribute, there's more to ground phase than the ferromagnetic component. Thus knowing the ground phase or ground balance setting doesn't tell you the mineralization. (Some detectors such as the Fisher Gold Bug, the Fisher F75, the XP Deus, and some White's models have actual ferromagnetic mineralization strength readouts.) The Equinox unfortunately does not. I think the recommendation for ground balancing of the Eqx goes like this: "When first learning the detector, leave it at 0. As you get more comfortable with the detector, adjust it." I always adjust mine at turn-on if I don't foget, but it often tells me when it's set improperly by grunting when my coil isn't swung perfectly parallel to the ground. Even in my moderate ground it can change over scales of 10's of meters, so I often adjust in the middle of a hunt. Also note that each mode and even single frequency within a search category (Park 1, Park 2, Field 1, etc.) has its own ground balance setting. (Ground balance is a 'local' setting, not a 'global' setting, using terms from the Eqx manual.) BTW, welcome to the detectorprospector.com forum, longbow62!

Many people think that gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in January of 1848 but it was actually discovered on March 9, 1842 in Southern California. That is the official 'story' here: http://www.hometownstation.com/santa-clarita-latest-news/in-history-placerita-canyon-celebrates-176th-anniversary-of-the-oak-of-the-golden-dream-224619 Mitchel

With the fantastic weather in the Rye Patch region during the month of October, I was chomping at the bit to get down there, but my summer job didn't end until the 30th. It still took me a few days afterward to get everything wrapped up, so I finally hit the road and met up with Gerry and friends at Rye Patch the following Tuesday. The detector training class we were scheduled to give that weekend ended up being cancelled, thanks to a winter storm that was forecast to move into the area on Friday. Needless to say, having only two days of optimal detecting conditions before being snowed out and forced to move on to Arizona was a total bummer.😞 Intent on finding a few bits of gold in-spite of the looming storm system and armed with our trusty Minelab GPZ 7000 gold detectors (and one SDC 2300 - also quite trusty, btw), we hit an old patch in hopes of digging up some previously overlooked yellow metal. Only two small nuggets were found after a couple of hours searching with four coils on the ground - not a very good start. It was then that I remembered another old patch nearby that I had completely forgotten about, it had been so long since I had been there. It wasn't a very good producer back in the day, but perhaps we would be able to find a few nuggets that the VLF and early PI machines may have left behind. Within minutes of hitting the ground, my good friend Chef Rusty and I both popped a shallow sub-gram nugget; not a bad start. Soon, everyone was digging good gold! My second target gave an obvious yet deep sounding signal response from the GPZ's stock 14” coil. I imagined it to be a three or four gram piece at a depth of 12” to 18”. Gerry noticed me digging quite an excavation and came over to capture the action on video. At a measured depth of 20”, the target was finally out of the hole, and as I held it aloft there was an audible gasp from the audience that had gathered to watch, followed by cheers and fist-bumps: After a thorough cleaning, the specimen weighed in at a whopping 40 grams - a totally unexpected and pleasant surprise! The nuggets kept biting sporadically for everyone the rest of the day, and the same was repeated the following day. Just goes to show that sometimes the ZVT tech can really ignite an old burned-out nugget patch. Much fun was had by all, and it really made up for such a short two-day detecting trip. Pictured below are my finds, including the 40 gram chunk, a couple nuggets at over 8 grams, and all the small bits, with a total combined weight of over 66 grams.

From this Codan annual report document "During FY21, Minelab will introduce a new gold detector, which will include the best features from both the SDC 2300 and GPX platforms" "Minelab will soon release a new GPX detector which introduces an ease of use technology, GeoSense Pulse Induction, and will sit within the premium end of our gold detector product portfolio." Also: "progressed the development of our new GPX replacement gold detector, to be released in FY21;" So, it is indeed intended as a 4500/5000 replacement, maybe SDC too. And if it's in the premium end of the product portfolio, I have to grudgingly assume it's going to be inordinately expensive. From the CEO address at the annual meeting on Oct 28th. "We continue to accelerate the pace of innovation in Minelab. Over the past two years we have moved from simultaneously developing three new metal detecting products to six, which has increased the frequency of new product releases to the market." I haven't kept track of what they are working on or have released in the coin/relic and military world. Aside from the 6000, does that leave room for any other new detectors being developed in that "six" new metal detecting products?

Looks to be pot metal to me. Not very good definition in it's appearance. Maybe a fantasy ring? GaryC/Oregon Coast

Hey all, I got up to Treasure Coast for a couple of hunts, to break in my new/used Equinox! I haven't had one for a few months, but i got back into it in a hurry! The area is always full of detectorists for any rare erosion event, and this past week was no different! The blue erosion bags are a main indicator of the level of erosion present! Normally they are covered by up to several feet of sand! The orange sand is the original sand we look for, when looking for the old stuff! Last friday was the better of the two days i was there! I found a few pieces of lead, iron, copper, and modern coins! For a few lucky hunters, there were musket ball's and spent bullets! There were a few coin and artifact finds, but those were on various other beaches nearby! The highlight of this trip was recognizing, than meeting a local legend here; Terry Shannon, a super nice, very experienced detectorist, and author! He has a few very good books out on Amazon! He was my best "find" of the day! I also went Monday, but i caught the tide incoming, and just got beat up by the big waves, with very few targets! But i will keep going there, whenever i get the chance, to finally find some of the elusive and rare Spanish items!👍👍

Gary, That's where all the item's i detected where found this time! I figure that they act like riffles for gold! But things also get blasted out of these areas, back up near the cliff, or washed out to the water! Okara, There are two different colors that i have seen! The blue one's run about a half mile, and are only here, as far as i know! The white one's I've only seen in front of one house! 👍👍

The is the best news I have heard in a while. Peoples safety is more important then getting my AQ. The second best new is when my number comes up.

Thanks VL, I was using the TDI Beach Hunter. Like the AQ it hits the low conductors pretty well.

Hey everyone! Its been a while since i posted last. Recently i did a comparison video of the Proline and Keene full size 4 inch dredges. It think it is a great resource for those looking to buy a dredge in the near future. I go through each component and talk about my reasoning and though process behind why one is preferred over the other. This is definitely not a video for fanboys of either brand lol. The main point of it is to get potential dredge buyers thinking about there intended use of the dredge and how various features on either one may be better for there intended use. Hope yall enjoy and please leave any feed back. Discussions are the reason im here !

Haha...I had one of those, the guy lost her ring and they were married 30 year when I returned her ring.

More information would be helpful, such as: 1) What Equinox mode and what frequency? What sensitivity/gain setting? 2) Did you ground balance (i.e. automatic or ground grab or manual)? 3) Which coil were you using? 4) Was your hole large enough to get the coil into? Wide enough to sweep the coil? 5) Did you use the detector's pinpoint function to estimate the lateral size of the object? 6) When the coil was still on/at the surface level, how many bars showed on the strength/depth meter? 7) Were you using a handheld pinpointer, and if so, did it ever sound-off on the target (i.e. after digging to the max depth)?

There is one market segment in recreational detectors that Minelab does not have a model to cover - a PI beach machine for dry sand, wet sand and wading. Either the GPX6000 will have a beach mode(s) - much like Equinox 800 is primarily a coin/relic machine with a gold mode tacked on so GPX6000 will be gold machine with a beach mode - all of a sudden you have two detectors in one and the very high price become easier to justify or they will have a dedicated PI beach machine. Im sure there is a Minelab white board somewhere with Fisher AQ Impulse written on it and a lot of brainstorming notes around it.

The MS-3 standalone and MS-3 with Z-Lynk module headphones both have low battery indicator LEDs on the left side of the power button. If it starts flashing, 3 hours or so are left. I just charge them once a week or so. They do seem to last 20 to 30 hours on one charge. Some of my bluetooth headphones have warning chimes when there is 1 hour or so left which to me is good since I definitely will not see the LED on my Garretts blinking when they are on my head. Otherwise, the MS-3s are really nice.

Congrats on your first and second AQ Gold. Great eyeball find. Maybe I need to start wearing my glasses more. HH Mike

I would like to see a "smart detector". One that becomes more intelligent the more you use it. Collecting data about each target and using an algorithm for a more accurate ID. Soil condition, reactive signal, resistive or loss component, shape and strength of the eddy current are just some of the factors that determine the ID of an object. These could be captured and after digging up the target, the user would input what the target was. Perhaps a secondary number like the ctx 3030 would then display what the target would be based on past targets. The machine would become "smarter" the more it is used. I'm not asking for too much am I? 😝

Sounds like that will be a great detector for guys just getting into nugget prospecting. But it does not sound like it will be something productive for going over old patches, if they are just using similar tech as the current issues. Wait and see I guess...

Looks like novelty jewelry probably pewter or if it is plated at all then zinc. Cross itself looks to be a color fill.

I believe that their plan for the Final AQ version release is April ‘21. My own opinion on whether that date will hold is not relevant.

Here is a bit more history about Southern California gold. You have to read about a little bit of 'other' history but there are some gems in this article for local gold prospectors. https://signalscv.com/2020/11/the-time-ranger-special-clint-mckinney-tom-frew-issue/ MORE TALES OF SCV GOLD — We keep adjusting our calendars about the first discovery of gold in California and Santa Clarita. For years, the date of the first major gold strike was thought to be in 1842 in Placerita Canyon by don Francisco Lopez. Other reports place that date even earlier in San Francisquito Canyon in the 1820s. In a conversation with The Signal by Judge John Powell, who served as magistrate here for 50 years in the 19th and early 20th centuries, that first gold discovery was even earlier. According to Powell, from a conversation he reportedly had with Andres Pico (of Pico Canyon fame and brother to California Gov. Pio Pico), Piute Indians found large gold nuggets in the Placerita Creek all the way back in 1796. (That would be the same year as the Lost Padre Mine in Castaic, where millions were taken out in gold.) The exact location was described as “… in the bedrock of the narrows in Placerita Canyon, 4 miles from (downtown Newhall).” The Indians brought them to the padres at the brand new construction site of the San Fernando Mission. The missionaries built rockers and sluice boxes and mined the gold. According to The Signal of Nov. 19, 1920, “No one seems to know just how much gold was mined, but it is supposed to have been a considerable sum.” THE GOLD MINE THAT WOULD NOT GO AWAY — Annie Rose Briggs rediscovered the historic Lost Padre Mine northeast of Castaic. The cave had originally been discovered by Indians and had been worked by padres and their neophytes, pulling out $3 million in gold from 1843 and on. The mine was boarded up and hidden by the padres and rumor is they hid the gold in the hills rather than give it to the Mexican government. A Dr. Bragg later “rediscovered” the pit, trading a thoroughbred horse for the location. Dr. Bragg hired a local Newhall gunfighter, Bronco Charley Riley, to manage it. Riley’s crew mined an additional $1 million from it. One day, in a drunken rage, Riley murdered eight Indian miners and buried them in the cave. He threatened to kill Dr. Bragg, too, saying he was tired of doing all the work and the horse-racing doctor getting all the money. Dr. Bragg, fearing for his life, never returned to his own mine. A few days later, Bronco Charley was sleeping off a drunk in a clapboard lean-to shack when someone snuck up on the cabin, stuck a shotgun through a hole in the wall and just about blew Riley’s head clean off. Most of the gold and silver was gone from the cache, but there was a rich vein of quartz that Mrs. Briggs made a comfortable profit from. ANNIE’S GOLD, PART II — Just for the record, my good pal Clint McKinney and his dad rediscovered the Lost Padre in 1968, working for an elderly Annie Briggs. When they showed her the entrance, she fired them on the spot, then blew the place to smithereens.

No, it looks like a normal eagle. It does have a little shield type thing under the eagle.

I understand the need to protect your "honey holes"! That's tough to do on any day! I do my best to give other guy's a wide birth! When going the opposite direction! And if i hear any other detector's in my headphones, i will be the first to shut mine off! A few have been thankful for me giving way, and actually stopped to chat a bit! I especially try to be as respectful of the regulars I've seen, because they sometimes share some tidbits of information about locations, and finds! But that's just the icing on the cake!👍👍

Well, not sure what you mean by AT/GB? Since I have owned the Nox I have always run a secondary program against my Auto/tracking program on "iffy" signals. NOT ONE program to date including the CJC -9 GB program to the "0" fixed program have been able to beat the "auto/tracking" program. I was in the process of another program comparison when my time was cut short. Hoping to get back on the machine soon. I have found everything from rings to chains. Dave

Nice pictures. I see different colored bags. Do the blue ones show more of an erosion effect took place or is it just different colors. Are they pretty much all along the treasure coast or just in certain areas. Thanks! Bob K

I would think the finds would be around the bags in the depressions, just a thought. GaryC/Oregon Coast

Spent a nice day at the beach chasing the tide out. Only found about 8 coins but 3 rings (1 gold, 2 silver), a thin silver chain with silver name tags and a large copper bracelet. When I tried to untangle the silver chain it broke in a couple of places and when cleaning the bracelet I knocked out some mother of pearl inlay. The gold band is stamped 14K and weighs 4 grams. Not the biggest ring but a beautiful sight lying in the wet sand. The bracelet is stamped "Mexico cobre". Cobre is Spanish for copper. Not valuable but a different and fun find. GL&HH!

Thanks Joe. Your battery had a lot to do with it. I was able to do what I wanted, when I wanted and not worry about battery time. I think that my decision making prior was based on odds of finding things instead of instinct. So far I ran the battery twice for a total of 8 hours. I'll probably charge it only because I don't like swapping batteries midstream.

The Ankh is 1" and the loop is another 3/8", so decent size but not overly huge. Also that chain is 22" long

Thanks GBA, You are spot on. I actually found the other part of the rosary a couple weeks ago. It is stamped Italy but it looks like tungsten carbide. Ironically, I found both parts of the rosary where I have been searching for the matching half of the Cartier bracelet I found last month so I think that it's a good sign! I think that the copper bracelet was lost in the surf like most of my recent finds. I've been focusing on hunting farther out during the lower tides.

Simon, I was using a used Nox 800 i recently bought, in a "box of parts" for $315! It was a barebones unit with no headphones, wireless unit, or lower shaft! This was it's maiden hunt! The huge sandbags actually work very well! And yes, they are full of sand! I wish they would use them all over, instead of constantly pumping useless amounts of expensive sand on the beaches! Only to be washed away every year! Kac, I would love a PI! Are you offering to send me one??😁 Maybe when my other machines are paid off, i will get one, but i have spent my limit for awhile! I am interested in future AQ development, but we will see what comes out in the next year or two! 👍👍

I recognize part of a rosary (Roman Catholic bead set for keeping track of a prayer series): I can't tell from the photos if yours is precious metal (silver) or not. If 'yes', maybe the remainder is still out there and worth another check. Not surprisingly these come made of a variety of materials (from plastic to olive seeds to precious metals and gems). Didn't know the beach was a popular place to use one 😁 -- possibly in someone's purse or pocket that accidentally fell out. That's a nice variety of finds. The bracelet is pretty interesting. I'm surprised someone didn't find/pick that up from just sight.

Yes guys, to avoid any confusion, all the nuggets pictured so far in this post were found by yours truly.🙂

Like I said earlier, Minelab has not published a chart for the Equinox. As Steve said in his article that I linked, they possibly never will. It might give away too many clues about the frequencies, how they are processing the return signals and averaging multiple ground balance points. Plus, you would need 8 charts to cover the 8 search modes in multi along with possibly more charts for the Park, Field and Gold modes in single frequencies for the Equinox 800. What Abenson described above is exactly my experience in 4 to 5 bar dirt as read on the Tek G2+, Gold Kruzer and almost full mineralization bar on the Deus except that my usual ground balance numbers are -3 to +9. You can find out if your ground is medium hot pretty quickly if you use Park or Field 2 with default settings except use 5 or 50 tones. Find some clean ground, do a noise reduction and ground balance. Hit the horseshoe button to accept all targets and sweep your coil. If you get lots of low tone pops and clicks that register in the -9 to -6 range as you sweep your coil your ground has plenty of magnetite or fertilizer. If your ground is pretty quiet, your dirt at that spot is fairly mild.

I wasn't able to take advantage of the great beach conditions this past weekend but I hunted yesterday to see if there were any stragglers left behind. There weren't a whole lot of good targets but I did find about $1.50 in clad, 2 rings, 2 cheap chains and a fair amount a lightweight trash. One of the rings was stainless steel but the other was a hefty sterling silver ring of 14+ grams. Pretty sure that this ring had been there a while because of the tarnish and it was a little bent from tumbling in the rocks, I presume. http://metaldetectingforum.com/picture.php?albumid=832&pictureid=82490http://metaldetectingforum.com/picture.php?albumid=832&pictureid=82491 I would have loved to have found some gold but at least the silver is interesting and a sign that the gold could have still been within reach. Maybe next time! http://metaldetectingforum.com/images/smilies/yes.gif __________________

Those numbers and indications are for the Fisher Gold Bug Pro/F19/G2+/Time Ranger Pro. They do not necessarily correlate with the Equinox which has a ground balance number range from -9 to +99 and Minelab has not published any information for the Equinox that I know of that equates ground balance numbers to degree or type of mineralization except for salt water beaches. For a fun read: Ground Balancing The Minelab Equinox

Good idea on the tags. I haven't found any of them recently.

When my brother inlaw and I was getting ounces of old 18ct rings upto our waist in the beach, he found these teeths made from gold sovereigns. They were not a matching pair.

Welcome, little_fellow! There is also silver in your province. Check out posts made by fellow Ontario resident Jim Hemmingway in which he shows pictures of his native silver finds and talks about his adventures. https://www.detectorprospector.com/search/?&q=silver&author=Jim Hemmingway&search_and_or=and&sortby=relevancy

Despite the bad weather i headed to the storm just to test my newly purchase waterproof jacket.Wind ,rain ,sand flying like out of a sand blaster...... i had it all. But i was warm and dry ,Machine was acting a bit funny because i think of the too many ground mineralisation changes(as mentioned in a another post) i tried different setting but it was tough ,managed few targets nonetheless but a pretty poor ratio for 3hours of detecting ........beach is hunted daily so i am not faulting the machine. The pin was dug knowing it was iron 100% just for the fun Enjoy RR

Who would want that idiot as an advisor?

Phrunt, I thought it was possible that perhaps this could be the case also, but one thing I can confirm is that I spoke on the phone with someone having trouble pairing their Miccus 5.0 headphones. They had a recently purchased EQX. After we stepped through the pairing process together, the headphones paired with no issues. That is NOT to say that none of these pairing issues reside within the EQX units themselves; I have a friend with an Equinox that has to go through the FULL pairing process EVERY time he turns on his machine (i.e. the machine is not "remembering" the fact that he has paired his headphones before, and therefore pairing up quickly -- which should be the case after the initial pairing process). So, it seems to be something quirky with his machine. Along those lines, I have also heard of others who can't get their headphones to pair (ML80, or other versions of BT80 phones), and Minelab had to replace the control box. So, there is that issue on occasion, as well -- which "muddies the water" in terms of figuring out exactly what the issue is, when there is a pairing problem. The bottom line though, is that I'm pretty sure at this point that 5.0 Bluetooth headphones will work properly with the EQX, and that most if not all of the pairing issues are either "user error," in the pairing process, or an actual problem with either the headphones, or the Equinox, themselves. The last thing I will say, is, ALL Bluetooth 5.0 products are required to be "backwards compatible" with earlier Bluetooth devices, as I understand it. SO, a Bluetooth 5.0 headphone receiving a Bluetooth 4.1 transmission (i.e. from an Equinox, for instance) are supposed to work properly, even though they are a newer (5.0) version Bluetooth than the device they are pairing to. Certain "profiles," that are a part of "Bluetooth 5.0," like the A2DP profile mentioned in Steve H's. post initially, require that BOTH devices are capable of utilizing that profile, and so you won't experience the full benefits of Bluetooth 5.0 unless both devices are Bluetooth 5.0. That's similar to how even though the Equinox transmits aptX-LL, the Bluetooth phones you choose must ALSO support aptX-LL, if you wish to utilize the aptX-LL's improved speed. But, you can still pair, and use, a pair of non-aptX-LL headphones with the Equinox (you won't get the aptX-LL functionality unless BOTH devices support that profile). Bottom line, the basic Bluetooth functionality (i.e. pairing, etc.) should be version independent, between devices. This is my understanding of how all of this works... Steve

Outstanding information, RME. Thanks for posting. I was going to call Miccus today, and I still may, but what they told you is essentially what I had figured -- that some customers had issues pairing (for whatever reason), and so Miccus is "offering a disclaimer," just in case. I know that I have had success pairing the 5.0 version to my Equinox, as I said, so I really believe it to be mistakes that some have made in the pairing process that are leading to the issue. I can't figure out a logical reason why the 5.0 would pair with SOME Equinoxes, and not others; I've verified that the 5.0 version of the SR-71s DO PAIR with an Equinox running the latest Minelab firmware version (2.0), as some suspected that maybe Minelab's 2.0 version of firmware caused the Equinox to be incompatible with the Miccus phones (it did not). I also take interest in their note that the SR-71s are more "tuned" to the Equinox's tones/pitches. I can confirm that to be ABSOLUTELY true; several other-branded BT80 phones sound very much superior to the ML80; the ML80 are more "muddy," more "bassy," and less clear on the high tones especially, than the other-branded BT80 phones I've used. It's very noticeable... Steve

Re: Miccus SR-71 Stealth wireless headphones Jan 17 at 3:12 PM PrintRaw message Miccus <support@miccus.com> To: Hello Roy - Thanks for asking. Some customers have told us that the Equinox 600 / 800 do not like the Bluetooth 5.0 version of the SR-71 Stealth Headphones. Other customers have told us that they work fine with the Bluetooth 5.0 version of SR-71 Stealth Headphones. I'm not sure which is accurate, but just to be safe, you may want to try a version of headphones that uses Bluetooth version 4.1 or 4.2. All current stock of available SR-71 Stealth Headphones uses Bluetooth version 5.0. The Minelab ML-80 are basically the same headphones, but they are still using an earlier version of Bluetooth. The other only real difference is that we have custom tuned the EQ curve in our headphones so they have a much clearer sound. I hope this helps. Kind Regards, On Fri, Jan 17, 2020 at 2:52 PM RME <@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hi all, As Chase noted, I DID test a new pair of 5.0 Bluetooth Miccus SR-71 (at least, that's what the label on the packaging said). In my testing, they WOULD pair with my EQX 800 -- no issues at all. I've been working to get to the bottom of this "headphones won't pair" issue that has cropped up on the forum recently, and after testing a set that paired properly, I had concluded that there was no issue pairing them with the Equinox. But then, Miccus started including this disclaimer...Hmm. I will see if I can produce a video showing the Miccus phones, pairing flawlessly with my Equinox, and then post it one the forums. I will also try giving Miccus a call, as I wonder if they haven't put that "disclaimer" on these new SR-71s, simply due to some folks who were having trouble pairing for OTHER reasons (user error, for instance), assumed the issue was the 5.0 Bluetooth, and then contacted Miccus. I do not think that Miccus has actually tested the phones on an Equinox themselves, so I will see if I can't get this cleared up. I have also looked into purchasing a bunch of these BT-80 headphones directly from the manufacturer (not from Miccus, but from the actual factory that produces them), in the 4.1 Bluetooth version that we know FOR CERTAIN will pair with the Equinox, and then offering them for sale through Steve's Detector Rods. However, the factory requires a minimum order quantity of 1000 sets! I "sweet talked" them down on that number, to the best of my ability (LOL), but the smallest number they will sell me is 100 sets, and that's still a big number, given the price per pair (especially since I don't know how many folks would actually be interested in purchasing). I'm still considering... Anyway, I'll offer an update as soon as I can... Thanks! Steve

Thanks guys for the information as I was going to order another set of headphones in a couple of months. I will keep this in mind for when I do get another set.

The Miccus product note notwithstanding, DP forum member Steveg (of Steve's Detector Rods) has run a test and has successfully paired a recently purchased BT 5.0 version of the Miccus SR-71's with Equinox as documented here). It is a mixed bag, to be sure, so as always in these tech compatibility situations, your mileage may vary, so buyer beware. If you want to roll the dice, make sure you purchase from a vendor who accepts returns. There are still alternatives out there too such as similar model clone phones from Trond.