Cal_Cobra

Many at fire sale prices

Couldn't have said it better Steve! There are valid reasons AOL, DVDs, and landlines have gone the way of The dodo Myself I enjoy trying new things, and I understand that not everyone may be in a position to do so. Before the Equinox came out the used detector market was fairly stable, so it wasn't that big a deal to sell off an old unit to purchase a new one, but the market dropped out after the Equinox was announced, but I think I will finally be down to two machines- the EQ800 and the Makro Multi Kruzer, between those two machines I cannot imagine a site I couldn't tackle.

Perhaps instead of being evangelists for the EQ, we should all go dark. Just post finds, or nothing at all, or whatever, but stop touting the EQ. What I find, most people resist change, it's human nature. The older we get the harder it is to embrace change. Let's be honest, the demographics of detectorists is skewed towards the right on the age graph, so there's a lot of resistance to change there. What surprises me the most, is the amount of existing Minelab fans in that camp. My hunt partner is a perfect example. Cannot tell you how long he held out with an old school flip phone....sigh. Now that he has a smart phone, I literally cannot get him to put it down. We go on a road trip and he's answering emails, making calls, texting and looking at the forums WHILE HE'S DRIVING He's been equally resistant to giving the EQ a chance. He did some cursory air tests on it and already exclaimed it did no better then his beloved Exp2! I forwarded and asked him to read the Treasure Talk blogs, especially the last issue that explains in more detail why the EQ is different. He hasn't so much as read the manual, instead calls me to spoon feed him "OK, so what do I do?, how do you set this up?". Very disappointing to say the least. To be honest, now I kind of hope he sells it off, perhaps I'll finally have a leg up on him when we revisit our old haunts

I believe this is their second generation of what amounts to a GPR in a detector format. I'd imagine that as technology gets cheaper and cheaper to implement, so to will devices like this, and likely smaller. Perhaps we'll eventually see that separate display logger integrated into a single hand held detector.

Awesome find!! Major congrats to the finder!! A guy here found a gold coin cache years ago, their out there.

Maybe never? Depends on the technology of the coil. If it's a proprietary design like the ones for the CTX, it might have to be made by a Minelab partner, like Coiltek. I'd love to see Detech, NEL or Mars make coils for it, the more options, the better. We definitely need a 10" x 4"/5"/6" closed design coil for relic hunting and prospecting, and a small coil for trash and iron.

Very slick, I like it! I always felt that the Go Find collapsable format was the ultimate compact format, and always figured that Minelab was using that format as a test mule for future products, which I suppose it is, the made more Go Finds

Looking forward to that coil too, bet it'll be deadly at iron infested relic sites. Hope it doesn't loose a lot of depth over the stock 11" coil, that'll be interesting to see.

Very well said Steve! I've been having such a challenge trying to convince my hunt partner that his Exp2 is 20 year old technology, and impress upon him to give the EQ800 a fair shake. Contrary to me seeding him good vids, and the well written Minelab Tech Talk series on the EQ and Multi-IQ technology, he continues to convince himself that his Exp2 is a superior device. He just received his EQ800 Monday, and his big plan is one test at a park, and if he doesn't immediately see the wow factor, he's dumping it on fleabay. Oh well, I tried to lead the horse to the water.... I kind of feel that way towards the rest of the naysayers, because to be honest it doesn't affect me one bit. I don't really care anymore what detector they use. Actually that's not entirely true, I'd prefer folks continue using their legacy detectors, because that leaves more finds for us EQ users to dig

Nice job Tim, enjoyed reading your report and glad to see the trend continue.

Sorry bout that Chase, didn't read far enough That's what happens when you try to squeeze in some forum reading while working - lol BTW I bought the SoundPeats, and they sound OK, but I think I like the EQ800 headphones better, so will likely send the SoundPeats back, and stick with the factory BT headphones. If I get into beach detecting, I may revisit the SoundPeats....but for relic & park detecting, the factory BT headphones work great IMHO. HH, Cal

Good write-up, will re-read it again when I get home from work. They probably should've left out the "If you haven’t tried EQUINOX yet – why not give it go" part considering many still have a sour taste left from the roll-out (and many still haven't yet received theirs) but aside from that, very interesting article, certainly worthy of a second reading.

Another option would be to get some AptX BT wireless sport earbuds with a high IP rating (weather resistant/water proof). Their marketed towards the sports crowd as sweat proof. SoundPeats makes some in the $25-$30 range that actually rate well on amazon.

Good job buddy!! The Nox is bringing home the goods, it's going to be fun rehunting old haunts, I'm pretty sure they still hold lots of good finds!

This particular spot isn't that big. Back in the 40's -80's one could rent a paddle boat and paddle around the little lake here, and people would picnic on the hillside. It's small, maybe a quarter the size of a football field at the most. The spot I started getting the silver out of, was about the only place I could hunt because the grass has turned into a jungle there, but I know for a fact that I've been over that same spot with my F75, and other detectors I've owned since, and buddies that I took with my went over it with their Etrac (don't think the CTX was out yet). So, sure it's possible it was missed, but I believe I have detected this exact little patch of ground multiple times in the past, so I believe it was the detector. That's my goal, but it will likely be at a relic site. PSD....that's hilarious... I was already having PGD after lucking out on that gold ring on my first hunt, but since then no more, although I was at one spot with tons of nickel ranged signals, but darned if the ones I dug weren't all pull tabs I have to say that it's a very fun detector to use, as is the Kruzer, so I believe between the two detectors, I have any site that I'd ever encounter well covered Thanks everyone for watching, and HH! Cal

I had a funny experience. Last summer there was a park scrape at an 1860's San Francisco park, and one evening I was detecting it with my Racer2 and I got a funky signal, just like you describe. It had repeatable high tone, but seemed really large, but at one point I could get a fairly repeatable high 80's signal. I dug and found a big piece of old 1800's copper wire all twisted up into a large formation, and figured that was the culprit, but I swung over the spot again, and this time was getting a solid 89, nice and tight small signal, and dug out a barber quarter. The irony is that this was an area that had the grass just barely scrapped off, in a park that had been hunted to death, so I have no doubt that signal had been detected dozens of times over the years, but folks simply figured because it sounded so funky and possibly large, they moved on. HH, Cal

Nice report Chase!! What settings are you using for the beach? HH, Cal

Nice hunt!!! And so the trend continues

Took the EQ800 to a spot that petered out long ago, and had a pretty good hunt. HH, Cal

The EQ loves nickels doesn't it. I noticed that crusty bent nails are more abound when using Field2 vs FIeld1. That said, I think I like FIeld2 better so far, just seems like I get better depth and make more finds using Field2, but I have a lot to learn.

The stand looks very nice, no doubt about it, but to be honest, I have to admit that the EQ800 stand is one of the best stock engineered stands for not falling over I've ever used. Every detector I've ever had in the past, be it Minelab, Fisher, Teknetics, Makro, Nokta, Garrett, doesn't really matter, they all tip over, so very easily, so I'd about given up on a detector maker actually making a stand that actually stood the machine up. With the EQ it's darn near impossible for the detector to fall over. Heck even in the back of my vehicle it stays upright the entire ride and let's just say I'm not a gentle driver - lol I had a stand like the one the one shown for my Sov, yes it works, and maybe it's just me, but the less junk I have attached to my detector, the lighter it is, not to mention the ergonomics are better, and it's not getting tangled up on anything.

Thanks TNSS, appreciate the vote of confidence. Tom's a tough nut to crack as far as trying new detectors, he's attached to his Explorer, (success is hard to argue) I hope he gives the EQ a fair shake, and if he does, I suspect he'll be pleasantly surprised. It's not a CTX, Etrac, Dues, etc., which I've tried to impress upon him not to expect it to be, it's different, and I think if you go into it with that impression, you can do well with it, but if you try to make it something it's not, chances are you'll be disappointed. I can't wait to get to our ghost town sites.

I'm planning to detect all day Saturday, neat place, has turf and relic sites to detect. Not too old, but I've dug plenty of silver and jewelry there over the years, and I like taking the EQ800 to a place I'm familiar with as you know what to expect as far as soil conditions, iron, etc. If I can pull some goodies out of this site, I'll be super impressed. TNSS I'm planning to try auto tracking tomorrow - noise cancel, auto GB, then switch to tracking and see how she does. Steve H. said he had found the EQ auto ground tracking to work excellent. I'm thinking of detecting in Field2, discriminating nothing, dial iron audio down to reduce audio fatigue so I can hear the iron zones. Not much of a modification from the default program, and maybe, just maybe leaving the iron disc'd out isn't a bad idea, as it sure makes for fun detecting, but on the other hand, it's sure enjoyable to have such a quite detector that brings home the goods!

Makro had the DEEPHUNTER 3D and JEOHUNTER 3D DUAL SYSTEM and the Invenio appears to be the evolution of those products. Heck split the cost with a hunting buddy, and either split the finds or split the time on the unit, might be a great way to find the deep stuff you'll never get with a PI or whatever your using out there. I saw a video of a guy in Russia that had this giant detector loop, it was so large that a person wore it in a harness and walked the loop to detect. He was looking for 5-8 foot deep cannon balls from the Napoleonic Wars in Russia. Apparently these GIANT sized cannot balls are worth like $20K each. He found several, and the location and recovery process was documented and posted on youtube. Pretty amazing, and finding just one of those moved his investment into profit.

That's good info. So Field2 should be good to go in mineralized soil for relic hunting, the recovery is set to 7. How about un-disc'ing the iron, and turning down the iron audio and leaving everything else in Field2 set as is so you can tell when your in iron zones? Thanks for the report, that kind of info's helpful.