Steve Herschbach

From the Fisher Facebook page: "We will be accepting pre-orders for the F-Pulse Monday, Nov. 13th. Pricing will be released then as well. We are anticipating a late November early December ship date on these new and exciting units."

From the Teknetics facebook page: "We will be accepting pre-orders for the Tek-Point Monday, Nov. 13th. Pricing will be released then as well. We are anticipating a late November early December ship date for this amazing pinpointer."

Only a concern with the high power prospecting units, and more so with ones running large coils. Almost all regular metal detectors you need not concern yourself. Minelab PI detectors and the GPZ 7000 are the big offenders. People get a bit carried away with the metal free thing in my opinion but it can't hurt and in some cases does really help.

It does get frustrating. The GPZ and the design of the DOD coil forces some hard choices. But many examples exist. The SDC 2300 could be placed in a Eureka style housing that can be hip or chest mounted and accept accessory coils. The reason it is not is because Minelab chooses it to be so. I have been beating on Garrett since day one with the ATX to make a light dry land version with light coils instead of using a heavy military housing. I went so far to customize one to specifically poke them in the eye with a stick to show how it can be done. All to no avail. They simply choose not to do it. In the case of the SDC and ATX I am convinced they want to use off the shelf military designs in order to be able to help recoup the cost of designing them. It also allows them to justify higher retail prices due to the special waterproof housing - which not a single prospector demanded was a requirement. Frankly, the Equinox has been a real eye-opener for me as I figured Minelab was just always going to stand for "heavy, slow, and expensive". The fact they have obviously been paying attention and listening AND RESPONDING gives me great hope that going forward we will see renewed emphasis on ergonomics.

I do not like to overpay for coils, and anything over about $250 I think is too much. However, if you look at a Garrett 20" mono coil with integrated fiberglass lower rod and think you can make one for $25 then you obviously have no idea what it costs to make things. Just like you have no idea of the amount of electronics in a GPZ case and the costs involved. Engineers work for years developing new products and presumably you think they should not get paid, or that those development costs should not be recouped. There is more to the cost of things than just the material involved. However, everyone is entitled to their opinion and I agree with the basic concept of objecting to overpriced coils, so good on you. Best bet for you is to boycott both Garrett and Minelab and support brands that do things the way you prefer.

If you have questions about the Equinox, please post them to new topics on the new forum instead of here. Thanks!

If you have questions about the Equinox, please post them to new topics on the new forum instead of here. Thanks!

There actually is an insurance policy. The Equinox can be operated while "charging". In other words, any aftermarket USB style portable power pack will run the detector. In theory if the battery is totally dead for any reason, just use the USB power cord to attach a power pack and strap it anywhere on the detector (under the armrest?) and you are good to go. So it's not like the battery goes dead and you are out of luck.

Minelab maintains a Facebook page. The is no “official” Equinox Facebook page unless it is run directly by Minelab. The reality Sherry is simple. Replaceable battery compartments have been and always will be a potential leak location. One grain of sand on a door ring can equal a leak. So eliminating a leak location by using sealed batteries is a good thing. Do you own a cell phone? Do you worry about how many times you can charge it? Do you know how long the battery will last and how to replace it? Do you check dates on other rechargeable items you might buy to make sure they have not been on the shelf too long? If none of these things are huge concerns, then there is no reason to make it so with a metal detector. More to the point - there are a zillion Deus units out there where the coil, controller, and headphones all have sealed batteries. Are they failing at an unforeseen rate? Minelab is not treading new ground here. Having said all that, great question. The battery will last for years but will eventually need to be replaced. A battery replacement program stated up front with a cost would go a long way to addressing concerns like you are having Sherry. These are still early days and people are quite impatient for more answers that I am sure will arrive soon. In the meantime, any concerns at all - just wait! Nobody has to be a first adopter.

To me a beach is a huge panning device, with heavies concentrating in some places and light material elsewhere. The best times to detect are often after storms and so only locals on the spot are poised to get the goods in the best of times. Visitors have to just deal with whatever conditions exist on arrival, and odds unfortunately are they will not be favorable.

They are probably still figuring that out. The CTX06 coil sells for $299. Now, will people want to pay $299 for a coil to put on a $649 detector? Doubtful. Should be more like $199 at most and for a 6” coil most of the competition is actually closer to $149. We have to just wait and see. As aggressive as Minelab is being I am hoping we are not disappointed.

Well of course Multi-IQ does not exist in other metal detectors, and so can't be had in competitive models. However, multifrequency exists in other models and Minelab says nothing about multifrequency being obsolete. Just the opposite. They are staking their future bet on multifrequency. Regarding that, Minelab states: "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." Now, you can ignore that as Minelab trying to play the middle ground, but you also might just consider for a moment that the statement might be factual. And what it is saying is that Multi-IQ has some advantages "more sensitive to high frequency targets" and "much faster recovery speed" and that BBS/FBS retains some advantages "Multi-IQ copes with saltwater and beach conditions almost as well as BBS/FBS (emphasis added) and "BBS/FBS still have an advantage for finding high conductive silver coins". I will be frank. I word things the way I do for specific reasons. I have seen the damage done in the past by people making machines out to be something they are not. Making the Equinox out to be a magic wand will result in disappointment when it is discovered to be a metal detector. Better to underpromise and overdeliver I say. Therefore while I am involved in and will be commenting heavily on the Equinox one thing I am not going to do is make excessive claims about its absolute performance. It simply is good enough for me that it puts numerous existing technologies in an elegant package at an excellent price. Multi-IQ is of course unique and will bring something to the table other detectors lack, but that is more just icing on the cake as far as I am concerned. I have absolutely no doubt it will outperform BBS/FBS in dense trash, just like a Deus outdoes BBS/FBS in dense trash. That's obviously the main target here; Minelab even mentions the Deus by name in their latest video. Brandon Neice - “It's almost like the Deus and CTX got together and made a baby”! The focus here is mostly on speed and target id accuracy. So, the BBS and FBS machines will punch deeper on silver? Well, again, people are reading things into very carefully crafted statements that are not there. What Minelab states is "still have an advantage" not "goes deeper". That advantage in the case of the CTX could well be claimed to be Target Trace. Target Trace offers excellent visual clues to a target, and the Equinox lacks Target Trace. So a CTX with Target Trace could be said to have an advantage under all conditions over the Equinox due to this. I am not stating this as fact but as just an example of how people interpret things to mean what they want. At the end of the day only Minelab knows how Multi-IQ works. I am sure all this will fuel speculation and internet battles for some time to come. I wish people lots of luck with all that. I have already decided I am all in with the Equinox and my focus will be entirely on getting the best performance I can out of the detector and helping others to do so. I will let others have the fun of battling out this versus that because I have already left that battle behind. Five other detectors sold so far and a couple more to go! Final note - this forum is a Fan Club and people here can be expected to be biased in favor of the Equinox. Anyone getting their hands on one and wanting to do "this versus that" comparisons would be welcome to do so by posting on the Detector Advice & Comparisons Forum. It is the appropriate location for machine to machine comparisons.

Speculation is speculation. Detecting being what it is what works best varies depending on the situation. Until enough real people undertake real world use and compare notes we just don’t know we don’t know where and how what mode might work best. There are likely situations with gold nuggets where different modes may serve better depending on the situation. Same with speculation and coils. You can bet people will want to make aftermarket coils. What coils they might make and what benefits they may offer - who knows? Might a coil tuned for a specific frequency be beneficial? Maybe. Or maybe not. I tend to think it might, but I could be wrong. So where does that leave us? Speculating.

You can run in a multifrequency mode, or pick a single frequency to run at. Minelab customizes the multifrequency for each mode but you do not have the ability modify that mix nor has that been possible with other multifrequency detectors. Since no previous machines are using Multi-IQ what people experience as regards other multifrequency machines does not matter. More information regarding Multi-IQ and how it works in relation to single frequencies will be forthcoming soon.

Whether people can handle it or not is a side issue. Repetitive motion injury is real and anything that can be done to make detectors lighter and more ergonomic has to be a goal. If I can choose between two machines that are near identical in every way, but one is significantly lighter, I am going with lighter. In the end it is a competitive advantage for any brand that achieves it. The Equinox is a sign Minelab really has heard us on this however so there is hope.

First look at the new Teknetics T2 + (click or double-click image for much larger version)

Welcome to the Club! There has been commentary on "why aren't the coils wireless". Well, the number one reason is wireless coils have built in batteries and are very expensive. A less obvious reason is that this detector is intended to be used wading or submerged, and wireless coils cannot work underwater unless a antenna wire is added to the coil to bring the signal to the control box. Normal WiFi signals just do not penetrate water at all. It is possible to do underwater wireless, but the systems made so far are very expensive. Finally, it is hard to make small wireless coils unless an external battery is added, and that sort of defeats the whole point. Long story short - wired coils mean more coils faster, made in greater variety, at lower cost. Three coils is a start, but with this sure to be a best selling detector there is a high likelihood many more coil options will appear as time passes. For instance, I have been lobbying for a 5" x 10" coil specifically tuned for the 20/40 kHz Gold Mode on the Equinox 800.

Definitely a weight and balance problem. The main problem being that coil. It is easy to shave weight off the body/battery but then you get nose heavy, and that is almost worse. The SD design was brilliant in allowing a wide range of coils to balance properly. It would be easy to stuff a GPZ in a GPX box with back mounted battery, but then you are back to tethers etc. I once advocated for a GPX stuffed into a CTX package (I called it the CTX 5000), so maybe I had a tiny bit to do with the GPZ ending up as a "fat CTX". However, when I made that suggestion in 2012 the idea was for it to weigh no more than a CTX, which at a beautifully balanced 5.3 lbs is a nice handling detector. The GPZ ending up a solid two pounds heavier - that I never voted for! I and others in the U.S. in particular want a smaller GPZ coil. A smaller coil would lighten the front end, where it really counts. Then the smaller CTX battery could be used and between a smaller coil and smaller battery you might shave a pound off the GPZ without doing major surgery. I would like to see a lighter GPZ also but reasonably accurate ferrous discrimination is even higher on my wish list for the GPZ.

That may be more an internet connection and timeout problem if the images are extremely large. Reducing the image size will most likely solve the issue. Anybody who needs a very simple photo resizer should check out Simple Resize: Simple Resize for Apple Simple Resize for Android My favorite PC based app is IrfanView Portable which is so fast and compact it can run from a memory stick. More than a resize app, I do all the photo editing for my website on IrfanView and MS Paint.

I currently have my Gold Monster mounted on one of those very same three piece rods for the early GP models. The upper rod snaps together underneath where the GM1000 clamps on. Unfortunately Minelab quietly discontinued them. The new upper rods are the same length but are a solid piece. Works fine also but does not break down quite as far due to the length.

I have never seen anything like it in over 40 years in the business. We do see tons of interest in a new gold model, like the GPZ for example, but that is actually very limited to the prospectors. Other detectors have had major interest before details have been known, only to drop off rapidly when the reality is underwhelming. I think Minelab has been wise doing a slow reveal as the Equinox just keeps looking better the more you know about it. I am very much of a mind that we are at a basic limit of sorts as regards depth of detection. That being the case it for me has come down to finding a machine that packs as much capability as possible into a single unit. The last couple years have been a little frustrating as I have cast about trying to find that "perfect machine for me". In a nutshell I hunt for coins, jewelry, and gold nuggets, and I detect both on dry land and in saltwater. That means my perfect machine needs to be waterproof, have multifrequency for saltwater, and single frequency for gold nuggets. I also want built in wireless headphone capability and updates via the internet. Finally, I want it to weigh under 3.5 lbs, which in my opinion is the most any new VLF type detector should weigh. It is a case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. Many detectors have come close, but the Equinox is the first to hit all my checkboxes, and so I am coming out as an official Minelab Equinox Fanboy. I simply am not interested in any offerings from anyone else unless they have similar capability (say, a White's V3i stuffed into a MX Sport case). Minelab is getting some flack over the marketing hyperbole, but the fact for me at least is I really am not interested in any more single frequency VLF releases. I would not say they are obsolete as in have no use and won't be sold anymore. But they are obsolete as far as my interest in what suddenly looks like old technology only suitable for machines selling for under $600 and mostly as entry level units. There will be a few specialty units like the Gold Monster that are highly optimised for a single task, but I can't for the life of me see any more why anyone would want to pay over $600 for any normal single frequency detector. The Equinox 600 at $649 throws up a pretty solid wall of expectations especially for detectors running $600 or more. For anyone but a gold prospector the Equinox 600 at $649 is all the detector a person might want. And even for casual prospecting the 15 khz single frequency options and the Field Mode multifrequency options on the Equinox 600 will serve well enough for people who might only look for gold nuggets once or twice a year.

In my opinion the new Minelab Equinox is going to be one of the most popular metal detectors ever made. There is overwhelming interest in the detector that is likely to be continuous and ongoing for quite some time. It threatens to overwhelm the main Minelab forum and so I have created a new sub-forum especially for those interested in the Equinox. It will be a place where future owners can hang out and swap information and stories without turning others off with all the gaga enthusiasm. I admit to being one of those enthusiastic people myself so this is quite self serving! I am in fact in danger of being an outright fanboy, and so have called the new forum the Minelab Equinox Fan Club. If you are interested check it out. If not now you can avoid all the hype!

In my opinion the new Minelab Equinox is going to be one of the most popular metal detectors ever made. There is overwhelming interest in the detector that is likely to be continuous and ongoing for quite some time. It threatens to overwhelm the main Minelab forum and so I have created a new sub-forum especially for those interested in the Equinox. It will be a place where future owners can hang out and swap information and stories without turning others off with all the gaga enthusiasm. I admit to being one of those enthusiastic people myself so this is quite self serving! I am in fact in danger of being an outright fanboy, and so have called the new forum the Minelab Equinox Fan Club. If you are interested check it out. If not now you can avoid all the hype!

Was it a question? Updates via the internet were announced in the very first video out of Detectival. Anyway, it does give at least some insurance that if a bug is found an easy fix awaits without the need to mail the detector in. This should be standard on any new detector that has even a hint of complexity. I said it before and will say it again. There is nothing in the Equinox that can't be found separately in other detectors. What makes the Equinox unique is the number of features in one detector. It can't be duplicated in other detectors without having at least a couple machines. And in a light weight package at a very low price.

There is an excellent detailed review of the new Pro-Find pinpointer by Derek McLennan at Treasure Talk