Steve Herschbach

I can see how people can view the thread either way, but I don’t think simply pointing out what Minelab themselves is saying is being negative. I do feel a bit sorry for Minelab though when the Equinox is being constantly compared to a couple much more expensive detectors made by the very same company. When people are looking around at detectors they usually have budgets, and are looking at detectors within those budgets. Therefore when comparing anything most people feel that comparisons are only fair when items are similarly priced. Fair question - how does Equinox compare to detectors in the $650 - $900 range. Not quite so fair - how does Equinox compare to detectors in the $1500 - $2500 range. Maybe quite well, but one has to presume there is something to the higher price of those detectors that allows for their continued existence. Anyway, this thread does fall more into what could be expected of the Detector Advice & Comparison Forum and has been moved there now from the Equinox Fan Club. The Fan Club actually is primarily for people who have already decided they want a Equinox and who are not terribly interested in threads that question that decision. Plenty of that to go around elsewhere. On the other hand it is certainly a question of obvious interest to people and so of value, especially to people who are pre-ordering. All I can say is if this sort of question is really tops on somebody's mind then they really should be waiting for Equinox to hit the streets and independent evaluations to roll in. No harm, no foul, no worries, just a change of venue.

Minelab says "Multi IQ copes with saltwater and beach conditions almost as good as BBS/FBS" Seems straightforward to me. "Almost as good" is not "better". The silver part has nothing to do with the beach part of the statement. We are talking "coping with saltwater and beach conditions". My expectation is that Equinox will crush the intended competition in saltwater - similarly priced waterproof single frequency detectors. I have said it before and I will say it again - I still believe there is a place for Excalibur and CTX. Why anyone expects Equinox to handle saltwater and beach conditions better than BBS and FBS when even Minelab is making no claim of that sort is beyond me. When you expect something nobody is promising, it would seem to be a recipe for disappointment. I ditched my CTX mainly over the cost, the weight, and it being a bummer to pack. I figure only that Equinox will be "good enough" for my saltwater needs, nothing more. I expect it will be far better than many alternatives on the market. But I do not expect a detector good to 10 feet to replace a detector good to 250 feet (Excalibur) and I will be tickled pink if a $900 detector manages to be roughly in the same ballpark as a $2500 detector. Now freshwater is another story. I expect Equinox to slay BBS and FBS in situations where it can be run hotter than is possible in saltwater. The same would be true when actually out of the saltwater and up on the drier sand regions of the beach. But when Equinox hits the saltwater, the Beach Mode must downshift enough that the saltwater itself does not signal. That simple constraint imposes a limit on all detectors that operate in saltwater and Equinox is no different. This link compiles all the Minelab Multi-IQ tech docs that have been released so far.... http://www.detectorprospector.com/metal-detecting/minelab-multi-iq-technology-details-explained.htm

A new Treasure Talk blog by Gary Drayton... The CTX 3030 Road Warrior

A little ways down the first page of this forum you will find the Equinox Parts & Accessories Page. On that page the Equinox headphones are listed with part number.... The connector is totally different than the CTX connector and therefore these are a different part number.

I found this 1.11 ounce nugget back in 2002 at Ganes Creek, Alaska. My wife and I had four English bulldogs at the time, and this one reminded me of them so I dubbed it "The Bulldog Nugget". I later was with my mom showing her the gold, and she took an instant liking to it, so I gave it to her. She wanted it made into a pendant. I think it is a bit large for a pendant for a woman (be better for a football player) but that is what she wanted so I had it made up into a necklace for her. It's an even bet half the time that when I see mom she will have this nugget out and wearing it.

Not normally something to post about but since you all started it up - my first nuggets of 2018, a whole 0.7 grams of gold. Just 30.4 grams to go for my first ounce! Actually a little surprising to me how many people have already been out and found gold in the first week of the year.

Judy, if you are actually interested in waiting for the Equinox then perhaps just break out that Sovereign and take it for another spin? If not, there are many alternatives available on the market. Lets be real about timelines. From the December 21st official Minelab release date announcement: “Minelab is pleased to announce that the new EQUINOX Series of detectors is expected to be available for purchase worldwide from late January, 2018 onwards*. Since we first announced EQUINOX at Detectival in September, there has been unprecedented market interest in this product range. Volume production of detectors has started and will continue at a rapid rate across December and into the new year. Detectors are expected to be delivered to our sales channels in late January, subject to transportation scheduling. Customers who have pre-ordered detectors should thus expect to start receiving them from late January. We appreciate everyone’s patience in waiting for EQUINOX to be released and your ongoing interest. *Initial availability will be limited in all regions due to the very high pre-release demand. Please contact your local dealer for specific price and availability information. We will be doing our best to get detectors into the hands of our valued customers as soon as we possibly can.” Here is the key phrase: “Detectors are expected to be delivered to our sales channels in late January, subject to transportation scheduling. Customers who have pre-ordered detectors should thus expect to start receiving them from late January.” People tend to use the most optimistic interpretation of such notices. I always assume the worst. The notice tells me Minelab has until January 31 to “deliver to the sales channel” - in other words, to start shipping product. Seen in that light “start receiving them from late January” is an awkward way of saying “after late January” which translates into..... wait for it...... February! Then, as they note with the asterisk, high demand and rationing to dealers is likely to delay that. If that wait is unappealing there are many detectors under 3 lbs on the market that might serve depending on your own needs and desires in a detector. Several have been mentioned here already. One possibility is to grab one of the many excellent deals on barely used detectors with remaining warranty now appearing for sale on the internet. Then at least you can sell later for near what you paid, something I have done quite a few times. It is quite possible to get a good buy on a like new detector with warranty, use it a few months, and then sell it again with remaining warranty for more than you paid for it!

Welcome to the forum Alexander. I recommend you contact the people making the videos for explanations about the videos they are producing. We are all just viewers like you are. It is interesting because some people watch the videos and like what they see. Others watch the very same videos and are unhappy with what they see.

The Facebook group is now back, no explanation of what happened. Odd, but maybe that happens on Facebook a lot. I don’t know since I don’t pay anything more than minimal attention to Facebook.

Really great video - I am not just saying that. Brings back some fond memories . Good job, and thanks for posting!

Derek & Sharon McLennan plus Neil Jones were hosting the DUG THAT OFFICIAL MINELAB EQUINOX 800-600 GROUP on Facebook but the group seems to have disappeared? Hopefully temporary and not another sign that the trolls are winning

The second timeline helps explain that. The truth is Minelab owns a huge chunk of the gold detecting market, and that is where the big money has been for a decade now. Producing detectors for coin and relic hunters is a far distant and much smaller profit area. Minelab has focused their efforts on gold prospecting for most of the last ten years. It should be obvious that detectors like the GPX 5000, SDC 2300, and GPZ 7000 took up a lot of the available engineer time and monetary resources. Perhaps we are seeing attention shift the other direction now that Minelab has a relatively new stable of top performing gold machines out and in the field.

It depends on more than just frequency. In general lower frequencies are better behaved around salt water. The Fisher 1280X was one of the earliest successful waterproof induction balance designs and it runs at 2.4 kHz. However, the transmit gain, ground balance range, and other things matter also. Some detectors like the 14 kHz White’s MXT have a special “salt mode” just for dealing with saltwater. The 14 kHz Makro Racers are noted for being well behaved around saltwater due to an extended ground balance range. The bottom line is most serious saltwater hunters would tell you single frequency machines are not the way to go, with multifrequency and PI being the choice of people who hunt the surf every day. Comparing Waterproof VLF Detectors

I think there is a place for Excalibur, E-TRAC, CTX, and Equinox to co-exist. Different detectors, different strengths and weaknesses. From http://www.detectorprospector.com/metal-detecting/minelab-multi-iq-technology-details-explained.htm “How does Multi-IQ compare to BBS/FBS? Multi-IQ uses a different group of fundamental frequencies than BBS/FBS to generate a wide-band multi-frequency transmission signal that is more sensitive to high frequency targets and slightly less sensitive to low frequency targets. Multi-IQ uses the latest high-speed processors and advanced digital filtering techniques for a much faster recovery speed than BBS/FBS technologies. Multi-IQ copes with saltwater and beach conditions almost as well as BBS/FBS, however BBS/FBS still have an advantage for finding high conductive silver coins in all conditions.” (Emphasis added)

Problems with new machine releases in recent years from all brands have been close to 100% for having some sort of issues or problems. That is why I think new machines should have firmware update capability via the internet. Detectors are complicated enough that some early bugs are almost inevitable, and for early adopters in particular having the firmware update capability is a huge insurance policy. Especially when you consider that new detectors are like computers with operating systems. I am not worried about that aspect of Equinox since it does have the ability to be updated over the internet or at a dealer. Hardware is a different thing. Hardware issues can only be fixed by returning a detector to a repair facility. Equinox is a fairly simple design physically, which helps eliminate possible hardware issues, but the fact is things like overall waterproof integrity and durability can only be proven by many months, if not years of use. My personal take looking at Equinox is that Minelab has learned certain lessons. First, machines like the CTX are very expensive to make and not amenable to high speed manufacturing. Equinox as a simple pod on a stick should have very high manufacturing efficiencies that lower cost and improve reliability. The second is that things like removable batteries have always been a problem with waterproof detectors. Even if designed correctly, user error can result in failure, and you know who gets the blame when that happens. The solution is to just eliminate that issue entirely, which Minelab has done with Equinox. Finally, service is likely to be able to be performed at almost any basic facility, with board replacement just a given for internal failures, and pod replacement for more serious failures (leak and flood internals). Half of Minelab's service issues come from having complicated machines that create service issues in the first place, and Equinox is attacking the true cause of Minelabs service problems in the U.S. in particular, by creating an easy to service detector with less likelihood of failure. If a person does not want to have their heart broken with ANY new detector model by ANY manufacturer, then wait six months to a year after initial release before purchasing. It's not a Minelab thing or a XP thing or a White's thing. It's not even a metal detector thing - it's just a brand new electronic item thing. Early adopters are the final testing ground of any new device.

Target lock and bounce are related more to the shape of the target than anything. Nice round full pull tabs give nice, clean solid locks. Anything not round with square or pointy edges tend to bounce or break up. Round gold rings give beautiful, clean signals. Gold ear rings, chains, pendants - anything with square or pointy edges will tend to bounce or break up. My V3i has 190 target segments, 95 iron and 95 positive. The CTX has 1750 potential target id results. More target segments allows more room for bouncy signals to occur. Fewer segments creates more positive target id locks by lumping more potential targets under one target id. There is a trade occurring between target resolution and stability to a certain degree, but stability starts first with the target itself, and then continues on with the detector itself. The CTX is a good example of how a detector with lots of target id segments can still have solid locks, and other detectors with far fewer segments can have far jumpier numbers. One of the biggest causes of jumpy target id numbers is too much gain/sensitivity. Most detectors have fewer target id segments or bins than the Equinox and some have more. Whether 40 is enough, too few, or too many, I am sure people will differ on. The bottom line is I can tell a round ring or nickel from a scrunched aluminum item. An old 70’s style round ring pull tab - not so much. I have used the V3i and many detectors to cherry pick this “roundness”, which can be heard. The problem at the end of the day is that for every target id number on every detector, there are both gold and aluminum targets that give perfectly identical signals. Eliminating any one segment eliminates both the gold and the aluminum target. You can play percentage games with select notching and try to read targets for roundness versus irrregular shape, but in the end it is gambling. I usually just dig everything from foil to zinc and call it good. Metal Detectors With Reliable Target ID Numbers

All the coins were found running in multifrequency (Multi-IQ) mode.

A $2.5 gold coin is a small target so the larger coil on the CZ will not help any except for ground coverage. It could actually hurt depth in a magnetite mineralized beach. And CZ-20/21 coils are hardwired so not just something you swap out. A PI can give you some more punch in mineralized beaches, but at the cost of having to dig everything. Hair pins you never knew existed with a VLF appear everywhere. A TDI for wading or in my case an ATX for submersed work are both ground balancing PI detectors that do well on mineralized beaches. The White’s Surf PI does not ground balance but can also do well as long as you can maintain an even coil height over the sand. Again, kind of hard to say you need to run out and get a PI though given the trade involved regarding discrimination.

Updated my post above to add this template for use by myself and others when talking about target id segments and where targets appear, etc. You can create color versions like the one on the previous page by using a simple program like Microsoft paint to change the colors of the black squares. Click for larger version.

Personally I am a fan of the CZ so I vote sticking with what you have unless you wanted to use a PI. The CZ in particular has a good ground balanced all metal mode that serves well anywhere the trash is such that you can get away with digging everything. As close to a PI as you will get in the water without buying one. The Excalibur is probably the most mentioned alternative, but I don't think there is enough difference between the two, if any, to make it worth an additional purchase. Just my opinion though. Waterproof Metal Detector Comparison Chart

I don’t but then I don’t post videos. Welcome to the forum Tom!

I never said people don’t need training - just that I am not planning on doing any personally outside this forum. Whatever can’t be gleaned from the forum will hopefully be provided or offered as a service at the dealer level. If Minelab were to ever sponsor training sessions I might consider getting involved, but that would be about it as far as I am concerned. Welcome to the forum Joel!

Sadly, I have not used any accessory coils

Thanks Gerry, now I have to wait a couple hours for the swelling of my head to go down so my hat will fit again. Seriously, despite my age I am best viewed as a kid that loves detecting and who just wants to have fun. I don’t consider myself to be all that technically proficient when it comes to detecting. That’s part of the problem when people want video scientific proof of this or that. I just go use them and after 45 years of metal detecting I know what I like and what I don’t like. There are some detectors that might in theory “go deeper” but the overall package and day in, day out useability do also matter to me. All detectors have areas where they are merely “good enough” but make up for it by the overall aspects of the package. So what I see in Equinox is simply a detector that checks off a higher percentage of my desired features in one unit that I have before now ever encountered. It’s a really great package with excellent performance at a bargain price. I do think it is just the leading edge of things to come for at least the next decade from Minelab and so the more collective knowledge I can glean about the detector the better it is for me and I assume for you all also. The knowledge gained will probably be applicable for quite a few years.

You have spent enough time in Oz that I now can barely understand what you are talking about Paul!