abenson

Honestly I never run my Equinox above recovery of 6 even in trash and it's on 4 most of the time. Whether that's right or wrong or you agree or disagree with that is your opinion. I do very well with it on those settings and have owned an Equinox since the day it was released.

What I’m about to share is totally my opinion of the XP Deus 2 and is based on the sites I hunt and soil conditions I have. My soil depending on the site varies from 3-5 bars on an F75. I’m going to try and leave any type of comparison to another brand out of this review. But I will make some reference to the Deus 1. Also, keep in mind I have bad ground and I hunt really trashy sites. 60% of my time is spent hunting Military sites and ghost towns. The other 40% is split between Parks, beaches, and gold nuggets. This review will mostly be about the performance of the machine, rather than the physical design of it. Over the last 3 or 4 weeks I’ve been using and testing the Deus 2 at various sites. Probably about 50 hours so far. Beach hunting is the only thing I haven’t tried yet. But from what I’ve seen the Deus 2 appears to excel (black sand may still be a question). Diving is something I rarely do so I will leave that to someone else. If you’ve ever used a Deus 1, the Deus 2 is going to be very similar in a lot of ways. I bought my first Deus in the Spring of 2016 and added an ORX in 2020 I believe. So, the platform is not new to me. I’m not going to really go into much of the ergonomics of the Deus 2 other than a few things that bug me. Most people know the ergonomics of the Deus machines are very good. One thing I will say that really bugs me is the small busy screen. To much info in too small of a space, enough said. Is the XP Deus 2 the best metal detector ever made? And is it worth $1600? That’s a question you’ll have to answer yourself. All I can say is I’m glad I have choices. Below is my take on a few site scenarios. Park Hunting-Tonally the Deus 2 is one of the best metal detectors on the market for sorting coins from trash IMO. If you are a jewelry or modern coin hunter, there probably isn’t a better unit on the market if you learn to use the Deus 2 in Full tones. It can really sort it’s way through can slaw and aluminum foil like no other and pick out coins and rings. Of course you will still have to deal with screw caps and pull tabs to some extent. Deep coin hunting is another matter though, I’m not really that fond of the machine when it comes to deep coin hunting specifically. For one I think it needs to be setup differently in my soil. I use the Park program (square audio) 5 tones and install some notches or tones to take care of stuff I don’t want to dig. I’ve been using disc at 10, first break at 58 100 hz, second break at 64 901 Hz to catch nickels, third break at 80 450 hz for most junk and everything above 80 at 901 Hz for IHP and up. Audio response 4, sensitivity 80, reactivity 1.5, silencer 2, and bottle cap reject 5. Not a bad setup and since the ID is more stable than the Deus 1 it works pretty good. In theory I should be able to ramp up the sensitivity, audio response and drop the reactivity to make those deep coins stand out. The problem is the Deus 2 in my soil starts to lose good ID at a little over 6”. Changing those settings to extremes only makes things worse with soil conditions and EMI I’m experiencing in most city sites. So I’m left with those 6” plus signals being very quiet and hard to catch unless I’m really concentrating. I’ve used the Deus 2 for about 5 hours in parks now and have yet to dig a bottle cap with the stock Park program. Relic Hunting-This IMO is one of the area the Deus 2 really shines. Most people are hunting relics in the woods, plowed fields or fields with grass (animals grazing). Usually, these sites are very littered with iron trash and can also have modern trash mixed in. Additionally, some areas can be rather void of trash but hide deep relics. This is where I have used the Deus 2 for most of my time. Areas that I have been over many times before with other machines are yielding relics I have missed. In and amongst the square nails I have been pulling buttons, bullets, percussion caps and camp lead that was all missed. My setup for relics is based off the park program. It has a good range of frequencies 4-24 Khz for the types of targets I’m hunting. I will usually dig target ID’s from the low 30’s and up. Here is why, small Navy tin backed cuff buttons 33 ID on the Deus 2, percussion caps and 3 cent nickels (not a trime) mid 40’s low 50’s, $1 gold coins depending on the type 58-61 and so forth. There’s really not anything above 33 I can not dig without losing stuff. My setup for these sites is as I said based off Park, reactivity 2, silencer 0, audio response 4, sensitivity 93, 3 tones with the disc set at 31, second break at 80 450 Hz, above 80 901 Hz so the really good stuff stands out like big buttons, bullets and coins. There are also iron targets I will dig at these sites which include picket pins, horseshoes, cannon balls, gun parts and gun tools. So, if it sounds like big iron, I’ll dig it. It lacks a little on depth in my soil compared to some of the other machines I have. But that's all I'll say about that for now. Gold Prospecting-The Deus 2 will work for gold nugget hunting about as well as other all-terrain metal detectors on the market. Because of the ground balance system, the Deus 2 is very well behaved. But if the area has a lot of hot rocks, it can be annoying. They are however pretty easy to ID. Sensitivity to small gold isn’t as good as I would like it to be. I feel a person will leave a lot of small gold behind when using the Deus 2 regardless of coil size. Which brings up another point. Coil options for gold nugget hunting aren’t the greatest, At this time the 9” round is the smallest coil available for the Deus 2. On .20 gram nuggets and up the Deus 2 does fine, smaller stuff it really can struggle on. I will set it up in Goldfield, threshold 3, audio response 4, reactivity 2, IAR 0, sensitivity as high as it will allow. I’ve used the Deus 2 for about 10 hours nugget hunting. Ghost Town Hunting-I’ve only hunted one area that I would consider ultra trashy like a ghost town for about 3 hours. But even with the 11” coil I was finding stuff that impressed me. I was pulling .22 lead and brass from some really trashy areas. For those that have used the Deus 1 in the past, know that the Deus 1 was the king of iron trash and it’s looking like the Deus 2 will be almost as good. With the addition of the bottle cap reject, it will now be easier to ID and possibly illuminate flat tin and bottle caps at these site. Looking forward to using it more when I get my 9” coil. Addition to original post: I forgot to add what my program settings were. I use Deep HC to base this program off. I set disc at 25 and everything above 25 at 901 Hz, (Pitch would probably be better but it really bugs my ears) sensitivity 85, audio response 3, reactivity 2.5, silencer 2, bottle cap reject at 5 and iron volume 4. Overall great metal detector IMO. It’s nice to know that 1 metal detector will cover about 80% of my sites and target types. I may edit some of this as things come to mind.

With the GoPro I'm using, NO. Cell phone doesn't appear to cause any issues either. Other cameras I have no idea. I know the majority of the EMI I'm experiencing is from both overhead and under ground power lines. Which unfortunately are all over in our cities.

Yes right at the power lines to no avail. One problem with the video is the camera being mounted right there by the speak. EMI sounds much worse than if the camera was further away. That being said if you watch a lot of the Deus 2 videos you'll hear EMI issues that people don't address. I feel it's more common than people think in the US. How much silent EMI is affecting the Deus 2 we don't even hear?

Nokta Makro's loss if they don't use him. Dumbest thing a company can do is get rid of someone that's going to tell it like it is. Did iffy jump to conclusions, maybe. We've all done it. But I for one would rather have control over iron bias. I think I'm smart enough to know when and how to use it.

Sounds to me like they don't know how to do it. But I could be wrong. I've been wrong before.

Won't work in my ground. Too much mineralization. I agree, some of the stuff can be turned off. But some things like reactivity and audio response only make things worse with the wrong settings. I say start with the stock programs and adjust as needed. A new user is going to get their self in trouble making adjustments to stock programs and not understanding what results to expect.

Damage control IMO. Unless you're not happy with the Equinox build quality. I see no reason to get a Legend and dump my Equinox.

Interesting video. But you give the settings that will work in optimal ground conditions. Which are no trash and no mineralization. Some people will need to use some if these filters to make the Deus 2 work for their sites. Best to adjust settings individually based on site conditions.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with your new Deus 2. I've got to agree with you/Steve about the beach thing. I really think that is the market XP wanted to enter and they went all out in that regard.

I'm finding deep HC to be the most manageable for EMI. Any program with the higher KHz spread is the worst, which unfortunately is most of the programs. Some of the EMI I'm encountering had no rhyme or reason to it. Comes and goes. Sensitivity down to 80 one minute and then gone. Turn up Sensitivity and a few minutes later it's super bad again.

EMI issues aside. The Deus 2 is still a pretty good do it all metal detector. But just like every other one out there. It's good at some things and not others. Like Steve said, I wonder if XP had any testers over here prior to release. Because it appear to me they didn't. Of all the metal detectors I've owed. It's the worst at handling EMI. But as you can see from the second video it can be managed. It's just a pain in the you know what to have to go through so much trouble to calm it down. Noise cancel, then frequency shift, drop the gain, drop the audio response, etc etc. Still good in thick iron, so I'm keeping it regardless of my EMI and mineralization issues.

Jeff PM'd me and told me how bad the video was. I knew it was going to be bad with the EMI issue and I wanted people to see what reality is using the Deus 2 in the city. Out on my relic sites away from power lines, it is very quiet. I have a park about 3 miles from me that I can't even use the Equinox in unless I run the Sensitivity down to 18. I took the Deus 2 there a few days ago and I have to run the sensitivity down into the high 60's to get it quiet. For me and the soil I have, single frequency is really not an option. I literally get 4" on a dime with single frequency. You'll see in this next video the Deus 2 still gets about the same depth with the EMI under control. So a 6" dime with accurate ID is way better than the Deus 1 at 4" in my dirt.

I'm going to do another video with EMI under control on the Deus 2 and match the Equinox sensitivity to match the Deus 2 level. That way we can see how they compare with EMI under control on the Deus 2

I've held off posting a video like this because of all the controversy with Deus 2 vs Equinox thing. Now that other people are getting the Deus 2 and showing that it struggles in mineralized dirt just like all other VLF's I decided to go ahead and post the video. I've said this to a few other people privately and I thank them for their comments and input. I actually filmed this test in my test garden 3 times over the past week and a half, deleted all but the last just to make sure I had all the programs in the Deus 2 figured out. I've been out with the Deus 2 on 3 different hunts about 4 hours each and I'm seeing the same results as this test show in my soil. So if you have higher or lower mineralization this probably doesn't apply. I've used the Deus 1 for about 6 years, so I'm not new to how it operates and the Deus 2 is very similar to the Deus 1. Just today I went out to a relic site and confirmed what I'm seeing in the test garden when I compare signals Deus 2 vs Equinox. I'm personally not getting rid of the Equinox, the Deus and Equinox are still yin and yang IMO. The Deus 2 in my city has a real issue with EMI, more so than the Equinox. It's going to be tough using it in a park around here. Might just be the 11" coil, I hope. Looks like Paystreak has the same EMI issues with the 9" coil as well. Some may ask about the relic program because I don't show it in the video. I will say it hits the deeper targets, But the results are still the same as the other programs in the video 00 ID.

Could be that in this case because all the items are on the same plain the coin is the stronger target. So that signal is overlapping the iron signal as the stronger of the 2. Interesting though I'll have to try it.

Here's a follow up video he did using the Equinox with a 6" coil. He makes sure the hole is clean. But doesn't give his settings, other than he says they are settings he uses when he hunts. I will say and I'm sure he knows this as he was packing down the soil when filling the hole back in, Equinox doesn't like freshly buried targets.

I think the Simplex is a great detector. Probably the best over all detector you can get for under $650. Of course that depends on what you're using it for. But for park, relics, ghost towns and freshwater beaches its great.

The menu does look at little more complicated than the Simplex. But I'm sure a few times through and you'd get it down.

Thanks for posting that video Jeff. My dirt is not quite that bad at my house but close. It's worse the closer I get to the mountains which are 5 minutes away. Once the snow melts again I may do a video of the Deus 2 in action on my test garden. Results will be very similar. BTW how dare anyone put a Simplex up against the Deus 2.

According to my dealer they only had limited numbers of 9" available. I spoke to one dealer yesterday that out of 3 shipments has still never got a 9" coil.

I too would like to get my 9" coil. Why they started out selling so many 11" coils is beyond me. Most people I know want the 9" but are forced to go with the 11" because that's all that's available. 5x10 is probably a year or 2 down the road if they make one at all.

1) low 80's is where that bullet hits out of the ground. Most of your iron nails are going to be 00 and single digits. Obviously other iron targets can be all over the scale depending on size and make up. Coke, foil, small gold is going to be/could be in the 20's. At a relic site I would actually start looking at TID's starting in the 30's small iron backed navy cuff buttons come in at the low 30's, percussion caps in the 40's, $1 gold coin about 59. 2) ground was frozen but the clods I was getting out of the holes turned to mud. So I would say yes moisture present and probably why the Beach mode did work best given the high alkaline soil. 3) for me I feel like the 4-24 KHz range is best for relic hunting (see the range of TID's above). But on this particular target 4-14 KHz should be optimal.

Yes 11" coil. No I wasn't using the D2 when I found the bullet. I'd rather not start a discussion about the detector that found the target initially at this time. More testing with the Deus 2 is needed before I make any conclusions. But yes I pretty much knew it would be a bullet.

Yea I'm not sure what's up with the GB. Doesn't seem to take too long, the GB usually takes 3 to 4 pumps. Very happy with the performance.