Steve Herschbach

Thanks for posting. Good through the end of April 2018. This would be an excellent program especially for anyone picking up an old F75 cheap on eBay. No reason not to upgrade unless you are really happy with the F75 you have as is. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Hey DDancer, if there is a question there for me I am not quite understanding it.

I don’t know what to tell you. I am just a kid at heart that loves detecting. I made it a permanent part of my life 45 years ago. I am incredibly fortunate now to be involved neck deep in my passion in life. I am sharing a part of that here. I know the blokes at Minelab are pouring heart and soul 24/7 into trying to make this the best metal detector they can make it to be. No holds barred. That’s the bald truth of the matter at this time.

Well, I will answer the question directly without side tangents on other machines since my guide is my stock answer on these type of questions. If you need waterproof get the AT Gold. Otherwise my vote is the MXT with two extra coils and 22 months remaining warranty.

When I was in the U.L. it seemed everyone wanted to find Celtic gold but I would much rather find a hammered gold coin. Some real works of art in my opinion. http://www.hammeredcoin.co.uk/page.php?page_id=25

Thanks Chris and I get exactly where you are coming from. Like I said in my post, there are many places where a VLF is preferred over a PI. My post was to highlight just how differently people's needs and desires are and what suits one person does not suit another. The thing is, I can only vouch for what suits me. I am not trying to sell anyone on Equinox and so I refuse to go out on a limb with anything but the most conservative of statements. I would much rather have you try an Equinox and think it was better than I let on. I would hate it if you got an Equinox and then were disappointed because I lead you to believe it was something it is not. I have never paid attention to anything people say about detectors except in a cursory fashion. My needs are my needs and the only way I know to sort out what works for me is to get them and try them. For anyone serious about this I see no other way. However, if anyone wants to buy me a ticket to the Caribbean I will pack Equinox up and go and test it against an Excalibur and post my thoughts. I bet if I did that it still would be questioned however. Some things a person just has to find out for themselves.

Welcome to the forum Hunter! I’m glad the views limiter thing made you pull the trigger. I posted one of your videos here recently. I rather enjoyed your no bones “I am a Fisher guy” presentation. Addressing the OP. It is nice to have people make introductions but many people really are shying of posting anything and trying to force it would scare them away. Many people lurk which is why I turn the view limiter in temporarily every few months. If it gets a few more people to join they are more likely to post. Even that I do not want to overdo however.

From the Makro Facebook page....

No worries Chuck - we are buddies! But it really is simple - if it is not from Minelab, ignore it. If I post that I know, and I can't reference a news release on Minelab's website, just jump right in and call me a liar. Minelab is the only source you can believe in this matter. Maybe somebody else will call it earlier, and call it right, but it means nothing unless Minelab publicly backs the statement. And even then until they are on dealer shelves....... I may delete this later but for now your post is serving the good purpose of trying to triple and quadruple get this into people's heads. I really am trying to help you avoid getting jerked around by this stuff.

That false rumor was just debunked this morning. Being on sale has nothing to do with machines being delivered.They are already on sale here in the U.S. A note to everyone. Any new posts about delivery that do not originate with Minelab will be deleted in the future. All it is doing is jerking people's chains. That would seem to be the intent behind whoever is originating this stuff (not you Chuck ). If it is not in an official Minelab statement, ignore it! I quite literally will not believe it myself until I see the news release posted on Minelab's website.

I am doing the best I can so thank you in return. It’s too bad their are so many trolls on the other forums these days or I would be posting all over like I used to do.

The focus with Equinox is tight, dependable target id, not the “bleedy-blendy” thing that requires a more specialized ear. Open gate designs tend to mimic analog designs of old whereas snapshot/gated audio is more an artifact of early digital designs. The question arises that when the gated “snapshots” are sped up to the point of microsecond responses that are shorter than can be differentiated by the human ear, is there any real difference from a practical standpoint? I believe the Equinox is working at the digital level obviously, but the discrete target snapshots are occurring so fast that it is possible to profile targets like bottle caps audibly as if it were an open gate design. It is hard to describe and as close as I can get is to have you imagine a CTX running at Deus like speed or faster. In dense modern trash with wide open discrimination and faster detect speeds Equinox will play a melody as fast as you can physically swing the detector, and yet the individual hits are distinct. All the above is just an opinion based on what I am hearing, nothing more. The following video let’s you listen and you can form your own opinion. Ignore the bit about the iron bar and just listen to the audio. Then you can tell me what you think it is doing. One thing to note in this video is that a DD coil will get multiple hits on extremely shallow targets or targets too close to the coil, and I believe that is contributing to some of the “busyness” displayed in this video. I use the same effect to alert me to shallow targets. Once the tone alerts you to a good hit you have to slow down and focus on that target to pick it out as is demonstrated halfway well in the video. And final note. The video displays what I consider to be an earlier, rougher version of the audio. It is even cleaner now. Remember, this is a prototype in the video, not a finished product!!! All videos currently in existence have to be taken with a grain of salt, but only to the positive side. Things have only improved with time.

I had a G2 but just sold it last month. The Gold Mode will be most familiar to people who have experience with the X-Terra 705 Prospecting Mode in that it will be at least as good as that but most likely better, if for no other reason than the 40 kHz option. Beyond that I simply cannot comment on details regarding the Gold Mode at this time.

Latest rumor seems to be Equinox going on sale in U.K. December 17 which people are interpreting as meaning they can get one. Nope, not going to happen. They have been for sale for some time actually if you care to put money down in one. Nothing magic about Dec 17. Far end of the extreme is March 1, 2018 shipping date. Where does this nonsense come from? If it is not in an official Minelab statement, ignore it!

Not until you receive it and register it online. This is an excellent question however because your ultimate warranty card is your purchase invoice with purchase date. Anyone with money down far in advance may want to be sure that whoever they buy from issues the final invoice when the detector ships. That would be normal practice but you never know with some dealers. I keep packing lists, etc for my files. Do remember that Minelab knows when they made a detector, so anyone who has money down right now need not worry about the warranty starting on a date before the detector is even made!

The full terms and conditions of the Minelab warranty may be found online at https://www.minelab.com/usa/customer-care/product-warranty/warranty-conditions

Ergonomically, the closer you can get to your natural stance with your arm hanging loose at your side, the better off you will be in general. Most people run coils out too far, which contributes to a detector being more nose heavy. And then there really is a tendency to pull back and up because the rod is too long, resulting in what you see in the picture. In the case of the photo shortening the rod and leaving the coil exactly where it is would allow the person pictured to let their arm hang more naturally.

Thanks to Derek we have clarification on the latest on the difference between the Equinox 600 and 800 as regards how the Detect Speeds line up. I must as always caution people none of this can be considered 100% until the final version of the firmware is "baked" for production. As for me, a setting of 6 has been my most common setting drifting down to 5 or maybe up to 7. In other words on the Equinox 800 a Detect Speed in the range of 5-6-7 seems best for me for all around use. I think faster recovery time/reactivity/detect speed not only helps in dense trash targets but with the effects of masking due to variations in highly mineralized ground (hot rock masking). There is just so much to experiment with and so little time........

Another thread on the subject...

Yeah, good question about the contacts. I wonder how long they will hold up in an abrasive environment? How thick is the gold coating? At least I have assumed they are gold but can't swear that's the case. It is a well protected locations so I can't see much abrasive action taking place there over time. I am sure there is a high confidence factor in the design but truthfully this is one of those things where only a few years of use will tell the real story. It's extremely low on my list of concerns personally. There is a good post here about my perspective on various saltwater detectors. It is not quite what people might think.

I don't generally do videos or at least I have not made myself do them yet. I did get a GoPro so that's a step in the right direction! Right now Minelab is not too keen on videos anyway pending getting the machine performance tweaked into final form as any videos of performance type things like nail board tests are a wee bit premature at this point. Even then I will likely let Brandon endure the hell that exists in the form of video critics on YouTube. I have done my own comparisons and they proved sufficient for me to decide what detector I am using going forward.

Yeah, I did not specifically address the disc options in Gold Mode. I am pointing out there are 20 khz and 40 khz options in the disc modes, not entirely the same thing, though maybe closer than your think. Sadly (or maybe happily as the case may be), my overall answer here is similar to that at http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/4738-mercury-dime-teaser/?do=findComment&comment=50562

Oh, I know what Rich is up to - just pulling my leg. Seriously, is anything "true" these days? You can find whatever "fact" you want on the internet. Do you want to believe the earth is flat? There is a website for that. Tend to like Equinox? Come here. Want to hate it? There are sites for that!

Even if you get weight and balance spot on, you can't fight people determined to make it harder on themselves. And life is not that simple anyway. Truth is in the turf I push down on the EQX 800 as I attempt to flatten the grass and get my coil closer to the ground. Or, due to the machine being so light, I will run the rod all the way out at times for a wider sweep. My gosh folks, I come from a 7.2 lb GPZ 7000!! Anyone who does not run machines in that class has no idea what real weight and balance issues are!

I have not nailed that down yet by a long shot. I am kind of being pulled in a zillion directions right now as regards Equinox and things are still in flux. Given my newfound fondness for using ground tracking on a continuous basis due to my use of the GPZ and Gold Monster, both of which I always use in ground tracking mode (only option on Gold Monster) I have come to have great respect for Minelabs ground tracking technology. It may be the final product with Equinox proves to be the same, but I just don't know yet. Mostly due to lack of time and other priorities. My last week away put a real crimp in things at a critical time. And I return to frozen ground in Reno - another roadblock.