Redneck

I owned 2 Russian detectors a few years back. One was the signum . Terrific air tests. But a real bugger to ground balance in my soil. Most times I had to carry a piece of red brick in my pouch , so I could use it to ground balance the detector, when I could not get it to ground balance in my soil. Then I had a coil go bad, and try to get a replacement coil under "warrantee", I spent months arguing with Igor , and finally threatened posting on all the forums about AKA's non service. They finally sent one. It was a well built unit, had a hodograph, like the Rutus alter 71, but just not a user friendly machine. The rutus was much easier to set up, with about the same performance, at half the price. I would not recommend an AKA to anyone. There are many detectors out there now for a fraction of the price of the Intronik, with better service , and much better folks to deal with. Not worth the risk in my opinion, based on past experience.

I finally got out today with the S+. I went to a near by park . Auto Ground balanced at 45. The soil consists of an inch of black dirt , the rest is a yellowish- orange clayish mix, with rocks mixed in. The deepest I have ever found dimes here is about 6", and a silver barber quarter at 7" , 6 years ago, using a T2. I have used the nox 800, SEpro, F70, Atpro, Racer, and others here. Lots of alum trash, can slaw and some iron. I turned the volume up to the max setting on the S+, My 60 yr old years like the higher volume, Sensitivity max, it ran pretty quiet, Relic mode, Using the green wireless nokta headphones, which are very lightweight and comfortable. I have smaller ears so the cups cover my whole ear. I headed out into the baseball outfield. Right field, on up to the 1st and 2nd baseline area. I got a 26-28 signal , figuring I had a nickel, and dug up a gold colored or plated Michael Kors pendant at one inch. Its 1/4" diameter, and very thin. Sensitive 11" coil! I hit a solid 25 signal and figure this has to be a nickel, it was a square tab cut in half. Later I hit a solid 24, and that was a nickel at an inch. Most of the aluminum crap comes in from 30 to 60, so I soon did not bother to dig those signals. Yes I could miss a gold ring, but I don't need another 5 gallon bucket of pulltabs in the shed. Zincolns were hitting in the high 60's, A dime hit near 80, and quarters were 89-91. I hit a good sounding signal, with the numbers hitting around 65. I massaged the signal and the numbers climbed into the mid to upper 70's. The depth meter I think was showing 3 bars ,so I dug a bigger plug and lifted it out. I rescanned, and it was showing upper 80's. I dug deeper and at 6" was a clad quarter! There were a few holes I dug that were 8-9" , but I just did not want to go deeper, so I let those targets in the ground. This detector is DEEP. It is as deep, or deeper than the detectors I mentioned in the beginning. The draw backs are it does not visually ID as deep as the audio detects, which is really no surprise. If you are detecting in a sand beach or relic hunting in a field, be prepared to dig deep. Another negative park hunting is aluminum. If you are in the park setting , it has 3 tones, but the high tone kicks in at 43, which will include a lot of aluminum in the high range. The next park visit I will notch out the numbers from 30 to 60, and will eliminate most aluminum. Al screw caps come in the low 70's , so those will get dug. I really like the 0-100 target range , with nickels coming in about 25, clad coins start in the high 60's and up. The compressed numbers on the Nox I did not like. I noticed a lot of targets that came in from 30 to 60, usually bounced around, indicating odd shaped aluminum. I'm thinking most rings will lock on to one or two numbers , so by watching the target id, it may be possible to dig up a ring amongst the aluminum. I like it that the detector can be shortened up to about 29", its a space saver. Also the shaft lock system you can set the shaft size where you want it, unlike the hole and button system that can be adjusted every 3 inches. It was a fun hour and a half, I rescued 12 coins. In this price range , it has to be the deepest unit on the market! The poor mans Nox, I nicknamed it! HH

My Simplex arrived today, and of course its snowing and 25 degrees out. Yesterday it was 75. So I'm stuck inside for a few days and figured I might as well make the most of the situation. Very well made unit. Here are some Target ID numbers, air testing, Silver half... 94 .Silver 25c …...90, silver dime ...83, nickle...25, one cent copper...73, 1c zinc 66, $1 gold coin...22, $2.50 gold....38, $5 gold, ….56. I like the wide spacing between the coins at the upper end of the scale. TRASH...……. rusty bottle cap....30's to 50's, plated cap....55, round pulltab with tail extended....30, round pulltab with tail bent over the ring....36, tail.....21, square tab....30, 3/4 " long lead fishing weight.....38. Alum twist cap...68. The relic mode tested out the deepest , followed by all metal , then park mode. I In relic mode, I manually set up the GB at 90, full sensitivity , volume at 4, no headphones. Inside my 12 x 24' shop with 3 fluorescent lite fixtures and a pellet stove cranking out heat. Repeatable audio signal, 50c silver …...17"...…. VID readout 11"...……...25c silver , 14" &10"...……...10c silver, 13" & 9", 5c......14" &11", 1c copper, 14" &10" , Ultra thin womans 14k gold ring......13" &10" $1 gold coin, 11" & 8", 2.50 gold coin..13" &10", 4% gold coin...15" & 10". In park mode with is 3 tone, and a faster speed, for better separation, same settings, as the relic mode, solid audio & solid VID readout is as follows. 50C....13" & 11", 25c....12" & 10", 10c....10" & 9", 5c....12" & 10", 1c..10" & 9", ultra thin gold 14k gold ring.....10" & 9" , $1 gold...9" & 6", 2.50 gold..11" & 9", $5 gold..12" & 10". Air depths in all metal mode were about an inch greater than the audio in park mode. These are all air tests, it will be interesting how this unit does in real soil testing conditions. I had an EQ800 and loved it, but had to let it go in summer when my wife ran up some hefty medical bills. This unit is waterproof like the EQ, but an affordable price tag( for me). I think I will really like the expanded target readout range. That was one thing I disliked about the EQ, was the compressed VID numbers. The EQ was one heck of a performer , but I think I will have just as much fun with this unit! When it warms up I will get out and share my results , thoughts and opinions! HH. Red

Back in June my wife got very sick. I ended up selling the EQ800. I will be getting a simplex , as it will be a better fit in my budget, but it is the waterproof design that has won me over, vs the Vanquish.

Amazing performance for the price. I have one coming in a few days.

I'd love to see them make a 4 x 18 coil. I had a Tesoro unit years ago, what a freaking clad broom. Should have kept it but I missed having a TID readout. If N/M made one for the Simplex, how many more Simplex's would they sell just for that coil? I bet a ton.

Garrett had a similar problem when they came out with their ATPro 's years ago. Some kind of coil shielding issue. It can happen to the best of them. I like how N/M come right out and admit it/ and correct it. Good Job.

Well I hope some of you guys jumped on the bull market currently taking place in the precious metals arena. My stock account is up over 75% so far this year. Gold is currently consolidating around $1500 an oz. Next stop is $1700-1800 , then another pullback or consolidation. The big boys feel gold should hit $3000 an Oz , in a year or two. Bullmarkets are fun, but its wise to also know when to take the profits and run . They can move fast up and down. Enjoy!

I think this is pretty slick. I use the EQ800 in shallow water to 3' deep. Our lake bottoms here are packed gravel. Its hard to pinpoint the target with a 11" coil. That 5" coil will be a slick pinpointer. It should cut my target recovery time by quite a bit. I also like the replaceable tip cover as Phrunt pointed out. I have to keep my Garrett carrot dry as the tip is starting to wear thru. I epoxied it, but care is warranted.

Its amazing what features we are now getting for the price. Its a real race to the bottom price wise. In a few years how many detector companies will be out of business?

I have never owned an xp, I'm tempted to try one also. I hear a lot of good things about them, what sends a chill up my leg is the light weight. My aching shoulder would love it. I think it would complement my nox 800 rather well. Just a tad pricey, I can live with that. I also like the simplicity of the controls. I don't use a detector full time to be able to remember all the fine tune settings that the deus has. I'll let the guinea people try them out first before I make my final decision. I like Calabash's videos he does in his test garden. I hope he videos it also in his patch of nasty test dirt he has. I have to wonder if the ORX was designed to compete with the Equinox?

Goldbrick, Daniel has a nox 600 and in his red dirt, the 600 does the best of all the vlf machines he has ever used . Daniel knows his stuff, been detecting for a long time and tells it like it is.

http://www.dankowskidetectors.com/discussions/read.php?2,152652,page=28 Here it is, read the post by Daniel. Nasa Tom that responds is helping market the unit. Maybe had some design input also.

On the Dankowski forum about a month ago, 2 guys were testing a Tarsacci in the Tennessee red dirt, and it did not do well at all. I would wait for more testing before I would part with $1500 . Now maybe they did not have it set up right, or the machine was defective, , or it does not do well in mineralized dirt? It seems to do well in salt environments.

If the overseas seller would put them on Ebay, that would make purchasing/ selling so simple.