Bill (S. CA)

For those of you who are intending to get wet with your Equinox, there are now several options.  Of course there are the Minelab headphones, and Grey Ghost has a model they have brought out.  I don't know anyone who is using them yet but both are pretty established outfits.  Tony Eisenhower is making a custom set (see his YouTube video) and I have two friends who love them.  And now you can add one more...under the brand name of Patriot.  Some of you may know that brand and its maker, Joe Demarco, a very well known hunter.   His Patriot land phones are very good - I have known several hunts who have liked them.  I should imagine his waterproof headphones are equally good.  Here's a link to his phones: http://demarcodetectorsales.com/en/patriot-equinox-water-weq

No advocacy here of one over the other but I thought it might be helpful to put the current choices all up in one place if you are considering waterproof headphones for your Equinox.

Bill

FYI the Kellyco LS Pelso headphones had bad connectors and have been pulled by Kellyco.  I'm told they are awaiting a 2nd shipment with modified connectors.  Frankly I think Steve is right, better to go with the ML headphones until a reliable alternative presents itself.  DetectorPro would do well to send Steve a set of their new Grey Ghosts to test.

Bill

Steve,

I wish I had the hours in that you do on the Equinox but in the time I have used it the results have, and continue to be, pretty amazing.

Let me share with you a little test I did on Saturday at a very heavily hunted, trash filled park here in LA.  My buddy, Randy, brought his 800 and I brought my Etrac with a Dtech 8" small coil.  I have done very well with the Etrac using this small coil.

We were both digging clad, nothing special.  Then Randy called me over to check a bouncing signal in the teens on his 800.  I scanned it with the Etrac and did not get anything.  No null, nothing.  I could hit the target in pinpoint.  Randy dug down and at about 6" found a little half of a brass locket.  Not a big value item but still, the 800 saw it and the Etrac, even with a small coil, didn't.

There was only one other target of merit that bears mentioning.  Randy got a chirpy "25" on his 800, not real deep, but he figured it was a clad dime. I scanned over the target and once again got nothing.  I tried pinpoint and the Etrac would barely read it.  Randy dug down and around 4" he popped out a clad dime.  I know this stretch of the park we were hunting and there is no way that a clad dime at 4" should have been missed (it was clearly not a fresh drop).  Yet it was.

These two targets just reaffirmed what all of us are already well aware of: the Equinox is a different animal.  Even machines like Etracs, which have ruled the roost so to speak for many years, missed tough and easy targets due to target masking.  The Equinox is able to sniff out these targets so truly the expression "hunted out" does not apply to anyone using one.

Now I just need to work on the "more hours to hunt" part of all this...

Bill (S. CA)

Walter,

I think you overdosed on way too much tweaking.  For a park you should have started out in Park 1 with no adjustments and just hunted.  As many have pointed out, the presets on the Equinox are quite good.  Do a factory reset with the detector and then don't screw with anything in terms of adjustments.  Turn the detector on, select Park 1, noise cancel and then hunt.  There should be no need to ground balance, change modes or mess with any adjustments.  If the park is really trashy, just start out digging good targets like quarters and dimes and leave the low conductors alone for the moment. 

The detector is very easy to use.  No need to over think it.

Hope this helps.  Others here have a lot more hours than I do on my 800 so I'm sure they will pitch in with advice as well.

Good luck, you'll get it!

Bill

Steve,

I'll throw my 1.5 cents worth in on this one.  Over the years I have had some good luck getting gold rings on nickel signals.  In the parks I hunt most hunters lump them in with tabs and foil and ignore them.  My last hunt with a White's MX7 I was testing got me a nice small gold ring that came through as a solid nickel reading.  So I always dig nickel signals. 

Bill

Steve,

I have seen several posts by new owners of Equinox's who have been tinkering with the recovery speed, in most cases lowering it significantly.  What is your view on this?  It seems to me that doing this would comprise one of the strong points of the Equinox versus say an Explorer or CTX. 

Bill

Steve,

Thank you for providing an informed voice to the Equinox discussion.  It was desperately needed given the amount of nonsensical postings that have come up about the machines, with many of them being from people who haven't even use an Equinox.

Bill