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For those of you who may not think or believe that Minelab cares about their customers or that they pay attention to these forums, I had a very nice, lengthy phone call from one of the Equinox 700/900 design engineers tonight (4/28) in order to talk about the experiences I was having with the Equinox 900 that I own. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this topic and who kept it real, no nonsense and as factual as possible. Minelab does care about the experiences we are having especially with new models and also when they are reported in a level headed way. For you GPX 6000 owners, I did give the gentleman that called me a huge thanks for the speaker/audio/EMI mod and I gave him and Minelab a special request for a small DD coil for the GPX 6000. Maybe it will happen. later, Jeff

It's been a while, I also need to do a wrap up of relic season, but I went to Myrtle Beach for a week. I was hoping to score some high end stuff, but I was in the Southern campground district instead of the hotel strip. Spring break had just ended two days before we got there. The campground is enormous, more than 800 campsites and about 2,000 lease/rental houses. It also has about a mile of beach, and there are two more large campgrounds heading north as well as a couple large condo buildings. Each morning and most afternoons I got to hunt the beach at low tide, the tide is about 5 feet so it goes way out. There were 4 sections, High dry, trough as seen above, mid dry, and wet. The top 3 were all random finds, in the wet you could zigzag for a short time to the surf, and soon you would find a line of good finds. The best stuff was probably in the surf trough but I didn't go in the water, especially after seeing a kid running down the beach with a 3 foot shark in his hands to show his parents. 😀 Tried to get a good shot but all I got was this: I know, what shark? 🤔 You can see the hotel district in the background, never made it there, it was about 4 miles up the beach. Overall it was kinda disappointing, but still fun and I lost over 5 pounds over the week. I met other detectorists who were complaining instead of lying about the dearth of finds, I kinda had to laugh. I was using the Deus 2 with the 13" coil and a modified Beach Sensitive program done sort of like my Relic Reaper program. No disc, no notch, ears for discrimination. I knew from reading others' posts that there would be all kinds of crazy IDs and sometimes no ID, but I dug everything that sounded good. Thing was everything was deep for the most part. I got so I'd scoop at least 5 times not only to beat fill-in, but to get to the find which was usually in the 4th or 5th scoop, anywhere from 8-12" deep. Because using square full tones and turning on a find identifies almost all iron, I had no problem skipping it but dug some randomly either because it was close to the surface and dangerous, or just to check. I did find that low tones with IDs of 5 to 15 were usually bling jewelry. I also blessed the 'no beach tents' signs which kept stakes to a minimum. It was the only thing you couldn't legally do on the beach 🤣 Here's my Day 1 trash getting used to the place: Glad I got rid of that surface trap iron! This is my last days' trash showing that I got better but still watched for surface iron: Ok. Now for the finds: Crap finds Bling finds A small handful of junk jewelry including a tungsten ring, a stainless spinner, 3 earrings, a tiny ankle bracelet chain, and some earring parts. The best one is below, .925 with a big CZ. Big finds: A huge monster truck Hummer that was 2 feet down, a small toy car, sunglasses. An iPhone 13 and case that was about 6" under the surf and vertical, it would have been 6 feet under water at high tide so it is dead. A huge bling buckle found close to the surf about a foot down, I think it took 8 scoops to get it. It has rhinestones or CZs and is some kind of plated zinc. https://www.buckle.com/blazin-roxx-glitz-belt-buckle/prd-5491537906 Coins: 99 coins, oldest was probably 70s. The place was huge and so nice that we booked it again next year before leaving, my wife loves the local shopping and restaurants. Shame I couldn't get her a gold or silver ring. A few more gratuitous photos of the place: Cool spider crab

I got back to my roots yesterday at the local river for a dig. I am just amazed at how much gold is lurking in those plant roots from the upper flood plain when I wash them. Most people ignore them, so often times the gold has been building up for many years. The drop riffle design is a perfect fit too. You can wash them in the hopper, and what roots that get loose in the sluice just roll over the drop riffles. They do plug up the classifier screen a bit, but a quick scrub with a brush cleans them up quickly!

I don't watch many detecting vids at all, but I do watch Loren's. And Abenson, and Rattlehead's too. That's pretty much it. I'm seeing just the same for EMI. I was going to do that static test last week, but didn't because of rain. Now I don't need to bother 😂. But really, just using the Manticore in EMI riddled parks I'm familiar with using the Nox, it's very obvious the Manticore handles EMI better. I do have a nit picky disagreement with Loren's overall assessment though. For me, in parks - not a lot of iron my parks, but a lot of non ferrous trash, the Manticore absolutely is a turn it on and go machine. Doing nothing but noise cancel, GB and adjust sensitivity, leaving ferrous limits and disc at defaults, it's tearing up the silver and clad in the trashy parks for me with very little learning curve. Mostly just adjusting to the new VDI scheme. It LOVES nickels, too. I got in a 90 minute park hunt this afternoon and once again half my total coins were nickels and the only square tabs I dug I was expecting them to be square tabs. - Dave

Loren provides a very interesting assessment of the Manticore after 100 hours of use:

June 2 2002 Part One Gold Cleanups And Hooligans We got up to the the mine site early while Jacob started the gold cleanup. When Vern was hiking up the mountain to start the pump he was confronted by three men who stopped him and started asking questions. Jim and I heard the air horn he carried signal three rapid blasts which meant trouble. We hustled up the mountain as fast as we could. I had my 9 MM semi auto on me and Jim always carried a 44 revolver. When we got up to where Vern was located we could see he was in a heated argument with three middle aged men. They did not look to be armed. I asked what all the ruckus was about. Vern said they were looking for trouble and were about to get it in spades. Now Vern is the young guy in the crew and full of vinegar. I tried to calm the situation down before things got out of hand. I asked the men what the trouble was. They wanted to know what we were doing on the mountain and why we had equipment to dig up the earth and make a mess. I calmly explained that we were permitted and bonded miners who were here to work and had no intention of destroying the beauty of the area. I also explained to them that when we had finished our work for the season the ground would be put back in good shape and they should not worry. Vern chimed in that these were probably the scum who had cut our water line. The three of them would not look him in the eye and I suspected he may be right. However, we would not be able to prove that and my intention was to alleviate any pending trouble. I did warn them that our activities were legal and any attempt to sabotage or create trouble for our project would be met with the law. With that they trudged away muttering to each other. Vern said wait until Jacob hears about this and that he was right, trouble was starting already. TO BE CONTINUED .....................

Many farmers swear to this day that crop planting should be done during different phases of the moon for different crops. My problem with detecting under a full moon is the sudden growth of hair gets in my eyes and it becomes difficult to hold the detector with my paws.

Some time ago I had to make a decision about buying a new coil for my 7000, buying a 6000 or buying an Axiom. I decided to buy a 15" CC X-Coil and it arrived about a month ago. The family is off on a trip so yesterday was my first try with the new coil. The coil was sent by post with a tracking number all the way from Kazakhstan. Here is the coil as I unpackaged it. The coil I've had on for the last few years has been the 15x10 Spirial X-Coil so seemingly there is not that much difference but in actual use I think there is a great difference. I've found lots of nuggets with the Spiral, but I just had this feeling that it could be better based on what Simon has said. Simon was right. My testing ground is a place where I and many others have been for years. When we first started there we were able to find quite a bit of trash and WWII 50 cal and shells. Those are long gone and so are most of the little wires which gave us such good 'potential' among the nuggets and hot rocks. My testing method was to go out with the coil I had on first and then come back and put on the new 15" CC. I marked targets I found but did not dig them. I had three areas/targets marked by the time I made it back to the SUV. I switched the coils by unscrewing the adapter with the chip from the 7000 and screwing in the new coil and replacing that back on the 7000. I didn't change the settings and I tested the new 15" CC on my test gold chips laying on the ground. The sensitivity was at 12. Ground smoothing low, high yield, normal and I use the SP01. The first thing I noticed when going over the test chips was that you had to have the coil directly over the nugget or you couldn't hear it. And furthermore, as Simon had told me the receive coil is smaller than the outer coil so it acted as a smaller coil. I didn't mind because it is a light coil. It seems ligher than the Spiral but I'd have to check it. So off I went to find the 3 marked targets, but I had pretty much of a dead battery in my phone. I put the phone on a charger and took off in search of my 'marks!' Finding the marks proved to be a bit harder than I first imagined. All the pretty flowers and dried bushes looked the same. My first mark was about 15 minutes from the start. I spied it and before I could get there, I got a loud target. It was a little sharp and it could be bullet jackets or the wires. It wasn't very deep so it moved with the light scrapes, but I couldn't see it in the scoop. It got down to a little bit of black sand and then I saw it. A little, flakey nugget! This coil can hunt I said to myself. I had to go back and get my phone so I could take some pictures. I'll have to add I carried it around later and it didn't cause an EMI problem for the coil. When I came back these are the pictures I took. I was impressed by a coil that big finding a nugget that small. The 7000 allows you to mark 'find points' which I have always liked. It asks you the depth which I said was 2" and the weight which I said was .1g. I was on the board and no matter what happened the rest of the day I had a nugget. This was good for me because the last 3 trips I've made to this location I got skunked. I then went to the target I had marked about 10 feet and it was a piece of trash. I went on to check the other marks I had made and could see all of those targets except one. I had dug one target and left it in the hole with the Spiral. It was a wire and the 15"CC did not see it. Another thing the 15 did not see was the hot rocks. That was a good thing. I was learning how to use it as I got into a couple of hours. At first I was worried that I was going to miss things under the bushes because the outer coil would be 'dead' and I couldn't get the center of the coil under the bush. Larger bullet trash and a couple of cans showed me that I could hear targets before the coil got to it. I was digging under bushes. It was time to leave this spot and go to another pounded spot where I wanted to test the new coil for depth. I knew this was deeper and perhaps the main reason why I bought it for $1200. I covered a lot of areas with no joy but I was learning to use the coil. There was one area that held deeper nuggets and that is not something I am good at. I can hear shallow nuggets that scream but deep iffys get the best of me. With that in mind I was looking for a repeatable iffy at this location and I found one. I dug a couple of inches as the first nugget and it was still iffy. I dug more and it brightened a little but not enough to make me think it was a nugget. Now I'm down about 6-7" in some moist desert soil with a lot of iron hanging off the magnet on the pick. I run the coil over the dig out pile and it screams! It is right on top. I scooped it and said YES. I don't remember digging a deeper small nugget than this. The phone was a long way from me so I don't have a picture but once again, this coil can hunt. I'm ready for Rye Patch now. Franconia here I come. Watch out Quartzsite. Here are my results. Notice just to the right of the .06 nugget on the scale a little wire piece. The 15" found that also. The desert revived me and reinvigorated me. For the next few weeks I'll go as much as possible. This was my trash.

Recently my old RTG sand scoop started to fall apart. Served me well but I put the bugger through hell and then some. I have a regular scoop but it's big, wide and I prefer the basket type as they shake out easier. There was a thread about scoops and Michael pointed out Boarderline Engineering so thought I would give them a try. The scoop is absolutely built to last with impecable quality and attention to detail. It should work well around the lakes and rivers here as well as the beach. I bought the heavier duty all stainless as the lightweight ones can bend too easy getting rocks and gravel out of the way. Probably be the last scoop I'll need to buy.

It even came with a key! Unfortunately even if I can get it to turn on I don’t think I would be able to fit in it... 🤣

In my travels which I did a considerable amount of from 2011-18, I consider parts of Nevada the most remote overall. I've chased gold, meteorites and rocks with a moderate success at each once I got the hang of it. I couldn't get to the most remote places that you are looking at because I didn't do it full time. I also didn't have the real remote equipment like a quad or the new electric bikes. I'd get to a place after driving all night and do a lot of walking. That is what I enjoyed. As Rye Patch has played out over the years and most 'remote' locations have been visited I started researching Northeastern Nevada. I took one trip there and knew I was 'out of my league' because of its vastness. I'm going to give you the pointy finger there. Many of those areas have been claimed by the big mining companies after the trends. I heard about a guy who is able to detect on their lands that does quite well. He's been at it for years. I knew a geologist who sent me to some central Nevada mountains. It didn't work out for me but maybe for you. When you are in Arizona, I'd have a face to face with Clay. You can only do so much here on Steve's forum or the internet. Good luck. Mitchel

Yes! Yes. One reason I am not buying one right now. Also, the added coil structure on the 11" coil catches more sand and water and can be a PIA when trying to swing on the sand. Personally, I would wait for a {10X something coil} and dedicate it to water only. I just do not understand this engineering concept of offset coils which make detectors harder to use in many conditions.

Agree 100% Midalake . I found it to be excellent straight out of the box on the beach . The "prolonged suffering" has come when relic hunting , and up to about 80 hours use I had nagging doubts that I had made a mistake buying the Manticore . I really liked Loren's vid as he was able to put many of my thoughts into words . At 150 plus hours use now I am entering a period of admiration for the Manticore and will be very wary of any update from Minelab that may dumb the machine down . I am now digging very little iron as I learn the Manti's language . There is a depth advantage over the Nox , it's not huge but it's there . It's great at co located targets . Sound in enhanced is great . Ergonomics are better with the handle shape a massive improvement , no longer do I suffer carpal tunnel pain after a few hours hunting The only real downside is the off center coil mount that sees the coil tipping up in thick going . And the useless coil cover . All my Nox coils had covers so tight that I was worried about breaking them during removal . The Manticore cover pops off every time it makes contact with a fern stem or rock .

The moon DOES have an influence on life here, and people often scoffed about things we now know to be true about that influence. There is an impact on the earths magnetic field, and that in turn might affect detecting. Is it enough I’m going to worry about it? Doubtful, but the real answer frankly is I just don’t know. Weird things happen at times when I’m detecting, and maybe the moons position combined with extreme solar activity explains them. https://www.iflscience.com/even-the-earth-s-magnetic-field-has-moon-driven-tides-67410 https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity/solar-flares.html

Great reporting Jeff, thanks. I have always and to this day still think the Equinox was the machine that made the clear and undeniable jump beyond what came before. My expectations for anything since have been minimal, and everything I’ve seen has told me I was not wrong in that.

Minelab, What the bleep did you do to my Equinox? This is going to be a rant. Hopefully I will be able to keep it clean and factual. Today, April 25, 2023 I completed the first 100 hours of moderate to high iron mineralization turf hunting for coins and jewelry with the Equinox 900. I also have 30 hours of gold prospecting and 10 hours of saltwater beach hunting so far with the Equinox 900. I thoroughly enjoyed gold prospecting with the Equinox 900 using the 6” and Coiltek 10X5” coils. It performed like I am used to with the Equinox 800 using its two Gold modes set for multi frequency operation. My saltwater beach hunts at Los Angeles and San Diego area beaches were inconclusive, mostly because of bad weather (very few people out) and sanded in conditions. So I am going to try to give a review of the Equinox 900 from my experiences with it on land for coin and jewelry detecting in moderate to high iron mineralization at local parks with varying degrees of steel alloy and aluminum trash where even modern coins can be down to 8” deep. I really like the upgraded shaft system, new hand grip angle design, new arm cuff, thicker 11” coil ears and hopefully the new waterproofed control housing of my Equinox 900. I also really like the vibrating hand grip feature along with its customization provided on the 900. Plus, I really like the seemingly improved iron handling and the definitely improved target separation and recovery speed. Depth seems to be a bit better. Sensitivity has been increased from 25 to 28. EMI mitigation is similar to the 800. The ML85 headphones are a slight improvement to me as far as being less muffled and bass heavy compared to the ML80s. They do not offer the best ambient noise prevention compared to some other manufacturer provided wireless headphones or the most balanced sound quality. They do pair easily. I do notice some wireless signal drop outs if I turn me head quickly, etc. The display, backlight (red) and user interface are mostly unchanged from the 800. I still wish the 900 had more than one User Profile. The onboard pinpoint function is much more stable than the wonky pinpoint activity built into the 600 and 800. It does have a form of real-time target ID also while in pinpoint mode. The addition of Depth Tones or ferrous/non-ferrous 2 tone VCO audio for the Park, Field and Beach modes seemed like a nice addition. I have no problem with the VCO ferrous tone. The VCO non-ferrous tone sounds really bad through my ML85s with lots of incongruous drop outs and strangled, inconsistent, ridiculously high tones. Alright, anybody that knows me personally or knows me from these forums knows how much I like to outright rabidly love the Equinox 800 even with its questionable waterproofing, stock shaft build quality, pinpoint function/non function and its compressed low to mid conductor target IDs. I hunt in many public areas that are drought prone so these municipalities only allow coin popping/screwdriver target recovery. Big fines and possible confiscation of equipment if a person is caught digging with a shovel of any kind in these public areas. Accurate target IDs are essential for me in these areas along with accurate tones and accurate tone quality. So, I spent another 3 hours of my life today, using the Equinox 900 at a very modern trashed park that I have repeatedly hunted over the last four years. I will give the Equinox 900 credit. I did find 11 clad dimes and 13 pre 1982 copper Memorial pennies which were in the 4” to 8” deep range. These could have easily been silver dimes and earlier pennies. I have pulled many silver Roosevelt dimes out of this park along with some Mercury dimes, wheat pennies and Indian head pennies. I also found 6 modern nickels that I had missed. I will chalk those finds up to the improved Equinox 900 target separation and recovery speed. Did I have a good time using the Equinox 900. Absolutely not. If I had been blindfolded and someone handed me a detector that I could only use 5 tone audio for target ID, I would have guessed the detector I was using was a Garrett Apex or the new X-Terra Pro in 5 kHz. Target audio was all over the place even on shallow targets. The actual numerical target IDs were too of course, even on shallow targets. I had my 900 setup for 5 tone operation with tone breaks set at -19 to 0 for iron, 1 to 23 for low conductor aluminum foil, small can slaw and small gold jewelry, a small US nickel bin from 24 to 27, all sorts of pull-tabs and aluminum trash and zinc pennies from 28 to 69, and the rest of the US high conductor coins and silver jewelry bin from 70 to 99. I also double checked many of the clad dimes and copper pennies before digging using the AT full tones audio setting. I was using Park 1 Multi, sensitivity 25 of 28, ground balance and EMI noise reduction performed, accepted -9 to +99 target IDs, 5 tones, threshold tone OFF, iron audio volume level set high enough to clearly hear it through headphones, recovery speed 5, iron bias 1 which was enough to make most steel crown bottle caps have some iron tone audio and tonal breakup. This is what I experienced…….. - 4”+ deep flat laying clad dimes and copper pennies were triple beeping during left/right DD coil passes as if they were on the surface. - Target IDs for those 24 high conductor coins were ranging from 68 to 98 during normal sweeps circling those coin targets whether they were 4” deep or 8” deep with very little possibility of telling the difference between a clad dime and copper Memorial penny. - Those target audio responses were crossing over a user set audio tone break. - The wide target ID range was not caused by co-located targets…..it happened on every one of the 11 clad dimes and 13 95% copper pennies. - Soil conditions were slightly moist but nothing unusual. - Surface to 4” deep US nickels had target IDs from 23 to 28 during sweeps around the targets so tone audio encompassed three user set tone bins. - Switching to full tones had zero effect on tone accuracy or target ID accuracy. - Similar audio and tone behavior happened on various types of pull-tabs, can slaw, aluminum bottle caps and of course steel alloy bottle caps. Basically, I could have had similar results using the Equinox 900 set on 10 kHz. Target ID and tone stability were non-existent compared to the Equinox 800 in Park 1 with similar settings. The kaleidoscope of sounds produced on beginner level basic targets in 5 tones or all tones was a joke. Single digit notching might as well have been 5 digit notching since basic targets had at least 5 or more different but repeatable target IDs instead of the 1 to 3 standard target IDs seen detecting the same targets using the Equinox 800. Sure, I wanted a slightly expanded target ID range update on the Equinox 600/800. Nokta got it just about right by adding an extra 10 target IDs between the ferrous/non ferrous tone break (ID +11) and the mid to high conductor tone break around +40 on the Legend. Minelab, why did you instead go from 50 total target IDs to 120? Whose bright idea was that? Who field tested these detectors for overall target ID accuracy and stability? This hunt today WAS NOT AN ISOLATED INCIDENT or one off. It has been this way for me since hour number 1 of coin and jewelry detecting in my area. I still have an Equinox 800. I have used the new, improved coil ear 11" coil that came with my 900 on my 800 with no issues. Using the 10X5" Coiltek on my 900 does little to improve target ID accuracy and multi tone stability. There have been rumors and some indications that a software update may be in the works for the Manticore. For heaven sakes Minelab, offer one on the Equinox 700/900 too for target ID stability! I am not looking for answers or advice from anyone on this forum about what I wrote and experienced. If you want to agree or disagree with what I have experienced, that is totally fine. Just don't try to theorize, pontificate or otherwise tell me I don't know what I'm doing. Even though I only have 100+ hours on the Equinox 900, I know how to use this detector. Minelab, you are welcome to write a response explaining this detector behavior. thanks for reading if you made it this far. Sorry for the long post and the rant.

The ability to accurately ID a good target at depth on the beach is a real plus particularly when one program IDs the good target in the pull tab range while the other yells “dig me” 😉 https://youtu.be/nbyAwzDbVuw

So, I get a call to help out at a Revolutionary War camp site.... I declined 😥 Hell no 😄. So 4 of us spent the day working with Archaeologists doing the metal detecting survey for them. Total Regiment buttons were 10 plus 3 round ball. This place has been hunted twice before with detectors, so we did pretty good, considering the grass was really tall and there were cow droppings everywhere. 💩 I ended up with 5 Regiment buttons and 2 round ball, plus other good stuff. I only used the GPX 5000 since the grass was so high and iron was rather light, considering the present occupation. I also found a large colonial copper & a small copper coin - both unreadable - and a odd 2 piece button that I can't figure out what the heck it is. Pictured are 3 of the Rev War buttons, since they are the only readable ones, plus the odd button. If anyone has ever seen that odd button before, I would appreciate any info on it. I've detected a lot of cellar holes and other old locations in my life, and have found quite a few military buttons, but these are my first Rev War buttons ever. Nice to get that monkey off my back.

I need another picture of the shark.......

I watched the video. I think History Teacher is a really good guy. The person referenced in the video who came up with the idea behind it, who from his own telling has zero saltwater beach experience...........? In my opinion that video showed more about what overall weight of a target (not non-ferrous conductivity) has to do with audio responses using differently weighted SMF programs than it did about target ID. For me anyway, I would be much more concerned about a 2.5 gram zinc penny with a target ID around 84 and a man or woman's ring with enough gold in it to weigh 6 to 10 grams and have a target ID of 82 if they were buried in the 6 to 10" range at a really mild mineralization beach like the one in the video, where they both might retain their target IDs a little better and have much more solid audio especially in the case of a zinc penny. David's entire premise is to avoid digging zinc pennies which is much more of a land based attitude. Unfortunately, if a person is deliberately trying to find larger gold rings, digging good sounding zinc pennyish type IDs is a requirement whether on turf or at the beach. Personally, I just want a ferrous/non-ferrous choice on the saltwater beaches I go to if that is even possible due to levels of black sand. Target IDs are only accurate on shallower targets if at all on many of those beaches.

Simon, you might have to do the measuring and photos for GoodAmount to try this, all my stuff is now packed for a detecting trip, but I like the idea of this. And I know there are a reasonable few X-Coils in VIC and a couple of guys have 8" ones, but they might be packed up ready to go as well So Simon might have to try and help you with the info for now anyway. cheers dave

I run my antenna wire under the WS6 through the bottom hole in the WS4/WS6 accessory holder. I do not submerge the WS6, but can immerse it almost to the holder. Make sure to strip the coax at both ends to the proper length and shrink wrap both ends. In my case I did not shrink wrap the end that goes to the WS6.

It appears to be the very rare and hard to find invisirock.

It might be best @davsgold measure up his 8" X-coil and send you dimensions, that way you're not dealing with international shipping and he could test it out, I'm happy to provide photos and sizing for any coils though. Thanks for the very nice offer.

That's a really good video, an education for sure, it should be watched by every Manticore owner. It is a more difficult detector than the Nox for sure, it's not just a turn on and go and be happy detector like the Nox is. It's also fantastic in EMI, he's got that right, the best detector with multi frequencies I've used by far. I've been singing it's praises with EMI since day 1 as it's so easy to notice how much better it is. That long press EMI scan should have been on the GPX 6000, shame they only worked it out in time for the Manticore and not a detector double to triple it's price.

With well North of 150 hours on the Manti now I feel much more in sync with the machine . My Nox 800 is definitely a backup machine now . Lets hope we don't have to wait much longer for a small coil . Pics below from some beach and relic trips .

I really enjoyed that video by Loren. However, I usually enjoy his videos so maybe I am not the best judge. I like them because he always has some aspects of his videos that demonstrate very clear thinking. He also comes up with some great phrases. My favorite in this video was "prolonged suffering" in relation to how long it takes to finally "get" (or not) what a detector is telling you. At least with some detectors, that prolonged suffering is trying to tell me that the detector I am using is not matched up well with my abilities which could mean it has inferior technology or just the wrong technology for the environment and targets that I am using it for. It could also mean that my abilities are far inferior to the detector's abilities. Other times like Loren is experiencing, this prolonged suffering is part of the learning process when a detector is probably accurately telling the user more than they can handle and hopefully that will get better with more experience. Sometimes (rarely for me) a new detector is just about a perfect fit. Has the Manticore been a perfect fit for anyone out there so far...........

…and the new coil cover fresh off the 3D printer.

I found the Medalion, St Paul winter carnival, Its made of cheep pot metal , I just want to forget winter tho, and this reminded me of winter

I am now a proud owner of a Nokta Legend 😄

Every time I get a hair away from pulling the trigger on a 900 or Manticore, I read something that makes go back to thinking I should just find a used 800 and wait for something better. Well keep up the reports, curious to hear if any planned or potential updates help, and if there is any compelling reason to use one of these newer machines for prospecting over an 800. I like new stuff, but not stuff that doesn't work well.

Didn't think of that one Dave. At least that coil has been promised and presumably is in production. Hope you get it soon. Just to be clear, Minelab contacted me via email using my information provided with my warranty registration. I did not contact them or request any help other than the sentence that I put near the end of my original post about being open to hearing from them.

Nice to see them talking to someone respectful and respected. Instead of the youtube influencer types. Wish you would have told them the Manticore guys are really hurting for the M8 coil though 😁. - Dave

Are you sure those pull tabs aren't silver? That AAA battery and the blue pull tab are especially nice!!! What did that plastic barrette ring up as on the D2? 🤣😂🤣😂 Glad you got away and dodged my aluminum curse HaHa. Oh and just for reference was the crab a low conductor or a high? Remember finding is fun, Not sucks. Great post as usual my friend!!!!!!!!!

The only benefit I see anyone will gain purchasing the LG30 is a much lighter coil The LG28 is a good coil but I find it to make the Legend very toe heavy.

Great write up and pics. I'm sure you still had a great time regardless of the hunting. Looks very sanded in and spongy. But my guess is you will try the hotel area next time. Of course the 1st thing I looked at was the gal wearing the watch. Didn't notice a ring though. Lol

It's a proximity antenna. No need to connect it directly to the WS6. Just attach it the the epoxy anywhere within 6" or so of the WS6.

There have been many great responses to this topic. Some have made corollaries between the Equinox 900 and Manticore. That is fine with me. I have never used a Manticore so I don't know. They do both have Multi IQ tech and they have very expanded target ID ranges that have been more than doubled compared to the Vanquish models and the Equinox 600 and 800. They have improved target separation and recovery speed over the Vanquish and earlier Equinox models also from my experience. Other posters have commiserated with my experiences and observations to varying degrees and also offered encouragement to hang in there. Thank You!!! Some posters have offered solutions to problems that some of us are experiencing. Whether those solutions are universally valid is questionable as they relate to the Equinox 900 being used in a multitude of detecting environments worldwide. This is why I respectfully asked for posters to refrain from trying to "fix" the prevailing characteristics of the Equinox 900 (and 700 by default) which are bothering some new users whether they have prior Equinox experience or not. Everyone that has posted and has actually used the Equinox 900 or the Manticore is reporting wider variations in target IDs on targets that do not have very wide variations when detected with the Vanquish models, Equinox 600/800, Legend or Deus 2. Some of this instability appears to be fairly severe up-averaging on 3" to 8" deep fairly easy targets whether they are coins, jewelry, relics or commonly occurring trash. The other detectors I mentioned may up-average some on those targets but not as much as the Equinox 900. Some of this target ID instability also appears to be a current characteristic of the Equinox 900 to not lock in on a predictable, firm target ID or tone that is readily repeatable or recognizable even on shallower, fairly easy targets. A third possibly related characteristic that some Manticore and Equinox 900 users are reporting is the very large amount of spurious, false positive, audio responses that sound like possible targets even using the most basic search modes with default or even lower sensitivity settings. Otherwise, at least for me, my Equinox 900's physical/ergonomic improvements are fantastic. Thanks Minelab! I am a gigantic fan, supporter and avid user of the Minelab Equinox series since they were first released. Anything I am reporting here needs to be flavored by that fact. I don't have any desire or reason to take unwarranted shots at any detector especially the Equinox. Maybe the learning curve for the Equinox 700/900 is just too big for me right now. I was not expecting any kind of a learning curve since I assumed the Equinox 700/900 would be a logical, seamless transition from the Equinox 600/800 especially for those that have hundreds to thousands of hours on those detectors in a wide variety of hunting conditions. My personal transition from the Equinox 600/800 to the Legend and Deus 2 was truly seamless, painless and took less than 10 hours. The "prolonged suffering" that I am experiencing, to coin a phrase from Loren Lemke's excellent Manticore Early Impressions video posted by Bill S in the Manticore area, is not something that I had planned on dealing with after thousands of Equinox 600/800 usage hours which were tough for about the first 50 hours but have been mostly sublime after that. After another 10 or so hours of prolonged suffering so far this week, maybe a light bulb will be turned on for me tomorrow when I take the 900 out again.....

Hey guys, yes the Quest WireFree gear is a paired wireless combo, either Transmitter/Receiver or Transmitter/Headphones. They will work just fine on anything you can plug it into. The standard audio cable is 6.35mm, but 3.5mm is also available for those wanting to connect to a gold monster, vanquish etc. So yes for the SDC, an adaptor cable is required. It's 2.4 ghz wireless, so can't directly pair to other (non Quest) gear. Much the same as Minelab's wireless modules, and the new headphones for Nox 700/900 and Manti. The mate kit with wireless receiver allows you to plug any wired headphones into it that you prefer, but if you want zero cables, then the WireFree Pro headphones basically have the receiver built in. I've had many GPZ7000 users over their years either lose their WM12 module, or drowned it etc and instead of buying a replacement bought the WireFree Pro headphones and have been happy with the results. Quest have Qualcomm Low Latency headphones that will pair directly to Equinox 600/800, Nokta Legend and GPX6000, and hopefully soon will have a standalone receiver version too.

Use 1950s USGS topo maps to find mine and prospect symbols in gold bearing locations. Do research to see if they are claimed or not. If not, check them out, if they are, contact the claim owner and make a deal. Chewing people out for asking advice is really not what this forum is about. I’ve given people pointers over the years, and if you can’t or won’t do the same…. silence is just as helpful as the lecture. Especially as regards new people who come here because this is supposed to be a place where people help people.

Here are some of my haunts.

Just sticking to the original question I’ll be simplistic about it. If I needed the detector to be fully submersible I’d get the AT Max. If not, I’d get the Vanquish 540, which is basically a stripped down Equinox in a dry land package. With either model take care of the battery issue by using AA rechargeable batteries.

If you are new to detecting, of the two you mentioned, I would pick the Vanquish 540. The 540 is a very easy to use, easy to listen to, easy to be successful with detector for a beginner. If you are new to detecting, of the two you mentioned, I would not pick the Garrett AT Max. The AT Max is a handful for even the most experienced detector users. As Phrunt said, the Legend is a Vanquish 540 with a lot more excellent features, its fully waterproof, comes with a 3 year warranty and is proven to work really well for a wide range of users with a wide range of experience.

With the price range you're looking in there is no detector that makes more sense than the Legend. You've got the most chance of success with a reliable modern technology SMF detector suitable for your water detecting. a Vanquish on steroids.

If you live on an island with saltwater and plan on using either of these detectors in the water........I would not pick either one especially if you really think you can fix water damaged detectors...good luck with that. Saltwater and salt in general takes a huge toll on detectors. I would go with a Nokta Legend or Equinox 600 or 700. Deus 2 if you can afford it. The warranties provided with those detectors are very important.

I had the pleasure to speak with Monte on the phone several times, and visit with him at one of his early Nevada WTHO trips. He introduced us to a standardized test methodology with his nail board. Between his great stories going back to the dawn of metal detecting, along with his dedication to push the envelope forward in regards to his perusal of relic hunting, Monte was a detecting legend. RIP Monte, you'll be missed.🤠

Thank you Steve for your excellent explanation of the condition! I know you have a LOT of experience specifically with the TDI from literally years of ueu (as well as most machines around), and since that's what I am using because I cannot justify a more sophisticated PI machine right now, I was wondering how those of us still using that detector can minimize that effect and use it more effectively. Most of us I suspect are running TDI with GB at around 8 and delay of 10us. I know that not using GB can be used in soils that are not badly mineralized for greater sensitivity. In soils that are not highly mineralized (soil that allows effective use of a VLF machine, for instance), it is better to run on GB Off, or to in GB and use less or more than the usual "8" that balances out perfectly in most conditions, ie. purposely running a bit unbalanced)? In other words, from your vast experience, are there settings other than those typically used that can "trick" or "fool" the detector to see things it would ordinarily not see (and mask) by varying adjustments that are favored to get a quite, stable threshold and 'quiet running'?" If running GB, would under balancing, or over balancing it by a, say, 1/2 or 1 unit result in better detection of small gold (at the cost of noisier or less stable operation). Or is the best solution with the TDI just to operate in proper GB and "ALL" conductivity and accept that you're just going to miss certain size/shape/character pieces of gold and call it good until one can afford a more modern and more sophisticated detector? I guess if I could better visualize the chart you provided I wouldn't ask, as the chart you likely contains the answer, but on the other hand maybe there's a practical-compromise setting that summarizes the best overall performance (minimum blind spot) without multiple passes at different varying settings. I am not addressing other PI detectors w/ regard to settings because I haven't used them, but if you have suggestions for other common machine settings to get the most from, I know that insight would be most welcome. Being able to have and use a GPZ7000 would be great to aspire to, as for now it's likely the best of the best and most capable "one-pass" unit on the market, albeit it at a price point relatively few can justify. Thanks, Bob

I think this chart was lost due to websites going offline, etc. It is by Reg Sniff, and attempts to illustrate the White's TDI tone shift on some targets, at different ground balance settings. Where the colored lines cross the “minimal audio change” line the object has fallen into the hole and is eliminated. At proper ground balance settings of around 8 on common ground the TDI exhibits a huge loss or inability to detect nuggets in the 1/4 ounce range, but due to nugget variability the actual loss is extremely hard to predict. See my photo chart below as to why that is. Gold nugget target id numbers Source

All ground balance systems tune out and miss gold nuggets. Gold responses and ground responses overlap. Tuning out any particular ground range or hot rock tunes out the gold that reads the same. Simply put ground balance really is just another type of discrimination system with similar issues with masking as you see with standard discrimination. Try to notch out aluminum, you will also notch out gold. Dual channel systems reduce this ground balance “hole” issue significantly but do not eliminate it, as in the GPX 6000 example given. If you are tuning out ground, you can lose gold. That’s why applying the minimal amount of ground balance needed and digging a few hot rocks is not a bad thing. Running multiple machines over ground will almost always reveal a few nuggets missed by other machines, or taking a detector like a GPX 5000 and running multiple times with multiple settings tends to find a few missed nuggets. The GPZ 7000 probably gets more gold in a single pass than anything else due to ZVT technology, but rest assured it still misses gold that reads just like the ground it is tuning out. If you don’t tune out the ground, you can’t find the gold either since now the ground also sounds off. Another example is tuning out saltwater. Gold and salt signal overlap. If you do not tune out the salt, wet salt ground signals continuously. Tune out the salt, now the gold that reads like salt goes away also. It actually is an issue that cannot be fixed using conductivity or signal constants as your basis of operation. Such blind spots are inherent in the technology. Steve’s Guide to Why Detecting Thin Gold Chains Is Difficult Steve's Guide to Detecting Tiny Gold Jewelry In Saltwater Steve's Guide to Testing Weak Gold Targets & Ground or Salt Settings All this was a long winded way of saying that the PI hole is severe with single channel machines like the TDI, where adjusting the ground balance can actually eliminate good targets just like a disc control, and people have used it was such. Dual channels lessen the problem but do not eliminate it. So while an Axiom would be far better than the TDI in that regard, it’s not perfect, nor is any detector that rejects anything. In fact, engaging the Axiom “ground balance window” feature engages a ground balance notch with a huge range that can be set to knock out almost anything, just like with the TDI, and needs huge caution when used for the same reason The bottom line is simple with metal detectors. Everything, everything is a trade off of sorts. Eliminating anything via filters has a dark side, one that is rarely mentioned. We focus on what we find, and we almost never know about what we are missing.

Hello. Maybe that will help you a little. XLT sheet.pdf Good Luck & Have Fun