Steve Herschbach

For me Multi-IQ is sort of beside the point. I like the Equinox because of the total package value it offers me. I have always needed two detectors to hunt saltwater or to nugget detect. The Equinox is the first metal detector ever made that excels at both saltwater jewelry detecting and gold nugget detecting. It is also an extremely good coin detector and dry land jewelry detector. In each of its categories it may not be the absolute best, but it rivals the very best. People compare the Equinox to machines costing two or three times more money and actually have to debate which is better. And any specialty machine that rivals the Equinox at one particular task falls flat when compared to some other area where the Equinox still shines. Deus vs Equinox in dense ferrous? Ok, Deus debatably has an edge, but now let’s talk Deus in saltwater. No comparison, Equinox slam dunk. CTX on silver coins vs Equinox. Ok, maybe CTX has an edge, but now let’s talk CTX on small gold nuggets. No comparison, Equinox wins. There are detectors that give Equinox a run in one particular area, but they lack the overall excellent performance of Equinox at all detecting tasks, and often cost far more. It’s light weight. It’s waterproof. I have no issues with straight shaft... my stock rods are fine. There are aftermarket rods if I want them. It has a very reliable rechargeable battery that gives me plenty of detecting time. It comes with wireless headphones that I have actually used and liked, unlike most headphones provided with detectors, which frankly are junk. I can use other wireless Bluetooth headphones if I want. It has a high speed audio option. There are multiple underwater headphone options. There are enough control options for discrimination, audio and more to satisfy me. While I could complain about wanting more coils the fact is the small, medium, and large do everything I need. If I wanted one and only one detector with as much genuine versatility as possible with excellent to superior performance in nearly every category, my pick would be the Minelab Equinox. This at bargain prices, the 600 representing perhaps the best value proposition available in metal detecting today. Unless I simply could not spend the few extra bucks, there is no way I would take a Vanquish or Simplex over an Equinox 600. Whether it is coins, relics, gold nuggets, or saltwater with Equinox I know I’ve got a machine that will run with the best detectors made. Since 80% of detecting is the operator, I’ll put myself in the field against anyone running any other VLF detector made and not be worried I’m going to be seriously outclassed. That’s why I use an Equinox for most of my detecting, and if I could only own one metal detector, it would be an Equinox.

Keep the Gold Bug 2, get a good PI to go with it. For me that means the best I can afford. Personally I’d have a very hard time going back to anything older than a GPX 4000, based on the battery system alone if nothing else. QED is an option but I do wish they had U.S. dealers at a minimum, U.S. service would be better yet, but so far they do not.

Just a few Norm

I sure enjoy seeing the finds you make that are what I’d describe as “heirloom jewelry.” The jewelry I find is typically more modern and often downright boring, like the ever popular men’s plain 14kt band.

My old shop in Alaska we would take most any raw placer gold in trade for anything we sold at 80% of spot price.

I actually already answered the question, it’s just not what people want to hear. It should be obvious machines don’t separate as well at depth as in the shallows. Nothing improves with depth. As far as machine differences, the details of why this is different than that are locked inside the proprietary and closely guarded processing programs. Why does the CTX do this at 6 inches and the Equinox do that? Only the engineers at Minelab can really answer that question, and they will not. All we can do is use the machines, observe what they actually do in the field in our ground and on our targets, then use whatever works best for us. Ask “why” all you want, you will never get a more honest and accurate answer than what I just gave.

Yeah, we know why they do it. It’s just that people like me are very sick of it and so it is now backfiring. They are not making me interested in their new detector, they are just irritating me. Especially when they specifically say they are not going to pull this crap, then go ahead and do it anyway. I was hoping to a new flagship to replace the over 20 year old GTI 2500 or a lightweight ATX, not another entry in the race to the bottom sweepstakes. Pass.

You are vastly overthinking this. Start with Park 1 unless you are on a saltwater beach, then use the beach modes. If the detector is unstable (false signals while sitting still) reduce the sensitivity. If it seems very stable, increase the sensitivity. Now go dig targets while paying attention to the target id numbers and sound. Do this for 50 hours at least, then it’s time to start asking more questions. You have to learn to walk before you can run.

So in the last video they say full product information coming, no stupid tease. Then proceed with the tease.

Well don’t I feel silly now, going on about the price of gold as if it mattered at all to anyone. Thanks for setting me straight John.

First thing I’d do is break it to examine a fresh surface. Looking at weathered surfaces is just a guessing game.

Yeah, it really is. That’s how all time high prices in dollars is measured. The buying power of the dollar is something else but does not change the fact that US$1920 an ounce would be a new record price in U.S. dollars.

Yes the site has updates regularly, but none I don’t know about... I have to load them. The fact that I and nobody else is reporting this problem is a rather large clue. The site is running fine for me on six different devices and several different browsers. You probably have a caching issue. The gallery went away a year ago. You mentioned everything but trying another browser.

Back up to over US$1750 today. Gold hit an all-time high of $1,917.90 per ounce in August 2011. We are only $168 away from breaking that record.

Ray has not logged onto the forum in almost three years. Hopefully he is ok.

Nothing has changed on the forum - it’s on your end. When in doubt use a different browser.

It is impossible for me to say "why" not having done the test myself and even then I may not know. That's what you are reporting and I accept that's what you saw. Why does the CTX not even beep on targets my Equinox beeps on? In a nutshell I'd say a difference in how the two machines process the targets, and nobody outside of Minelab knows exactly what the processing differences are, so it's all speculation. No one detector is perfect at all things and in my experience I can always find things with one detector that another missed simply because they have different operating characteristics. Minelab still sells plenty of CTX 3030 detectors because the Equinox did not make it obsolete. It's one of the finest detectors ever made and if for triple the price of an Equinox you could not find something it does better than an Equinox then a lot of people are getting ripped off.

No, just not pretty enough. They prefer to use actual models in their promotional stuff these days. No actual detecting experience required - no, that husky military looking he man does not actually use metal detectors. They never actually talk but they do look good. I guess I'm just jealous!

I guess you want some kind of answer for why you don't think the Equinox gets better separation than the CTX. The problem is where I hunt in dense targets the CTX goes blind on items the Equinox easily detects, so from my perspective it's a straw man argument. In other words, I disagree in general with your basic premise though of course there always will be specific situations where a CTX might do better. Yes, large coils can provide some sort of "see around" capability, that's well known. Bottom line if the CTX works better for you then that's what you should use. My experience was just the opposite, and I sold my CTX immediately upon getting some hours with the Equinox. A CTX with a 17" coil is a target hog though and I'm not knocking the machine at all. Different strokes for different folks, ground, and targets.

Do you want to use discrimination or not? You should dig everything, but if that is not practical, then use discrimination. Some people can dig trash all day, others not. The basic rule is... as long as any targets remain a nugget can still be found. The only truly hunted out location is one with no remaining targets. Hunted out = nothing goes beep. Many people hunt tailing piles that have been screened and so the idea is looking for large nuggets that went over the screen. Therefore the preference for larger coils. If the tailings were never screened and are comprised more of small material that might have small gold then a smaller coil might be better. There are no rules, only preferences and judgment calls about what works best for any given situation. Out of box thinking and flexibility go a long way in this endeavor.

Separation what? Sounds like you are saying you think the CTX ids better and has all the separation you need, and you don’t think the Equinox does better? Sounds more like a statement than a question, but I’ve not had my coffee yet and so may be missing it.

It’s not my advice, it’s how recovery speed works. It’s in the manual. Low recovery speed in dense trash misses targets. Out of electronic tune... nonsense. Why have a control if that were true? Maybe in a theoretical air test type way, but that ignores why the control exists. I said it above... here it is again. If any control has a perfect setting and no other setting is good for anything then the control would not exist. The machine would just be dialed in at that perfect setting. May as well say that the only sensitivity setting you should use is maximum - horrible advice. You will never actually learn anything without experimenting in the field. Pick a dense trash location and vary the control and see what happens.

What was the question exactly? Sounds like you are happy with what you have, and that’s great.

I’m very impressed especially by the number of chains you are recovering!

Thanks, I’m glad you found it helpful. When starting out leaving controls alone is best, but then picking just one and experimenting with it in the field to learn exactly what it does takes you to the next level. Problems occur when people adjust controls not knowing what it is they are adjusting. Adjusting multiple controls at once if you don't know what they do is always a bad idea. In a nutshell if targets are sparse, use lower recovery speeds. The higher the target density, the more benefit to higher recovery speeds. Hot rocks also qualify as targets, so there is benefit to running higher recovery speed in highly mineralized ground. Here are some more articles...