Cabin Fever

Here is another video with a little Equinox footage in it.. Mal uses it on the 3rd day of his hunt and also talks about it a little towards the end of the video.. Seems like he was impressed with the Equinox..

Bryan

I had a near by school I used to hunt because it was good for when I didn't have time to venture out further.. It was very frustrating.. I found over 30 wheats, before I finally scored a rosy out front near the street.. I later found a real deep merc dime several hunts ( and wheat cents) later.. All I can figure is that it was cherry picked for silver many years ago... As for those Washington tax tokens! I live in Washington and I have learned to hate those things.  Most times they will ring up as a quarter on my E-Trac.. I was hunting a very old park earlier this year and hit that beatiful, perfect, deeeep tone 8-10"down.. I very carefully dig down to unearth my Standing Liberty/Barber Quarter and out pops a Washington Tax token!!  20 minutes later I do the exact same thing! Mental Torture...    Your entire school yard is worth detecting but I would probably hit those trees between the old school location and the very bottom left corner near the houses.  Especially if those are old houses.  Out front along the street too..  Good luck.. there's a silver coin out there somewhere..

Bryan

Here is a slightly different version of this type of stand.  This one came with a used detector I bought some time ago so I did NOT make it.. forgive me for my lack of plumbing parts vocabulary but whoever made it, cut the top piece in half which allows it to snap on to the shaft very securely.. You can pull it on and off as you like. 

Bryan

5 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

It appears there are three sub-models at the same price, but what are the differences?  Is it just the decoration (two versions of camo and the non-camo)?

Yep.

48 minutes ago, Mike Hillis said:

Same old same old to me.   I don't see the Equinox really replacing much at all.    It will probably be alot like the Deus; one or two frequencies work really good and the rest are window dressing.    

As end all/do all basic treasure hunting metal detecting tool, the Garrett AT series are better designed.   The Garrett AT series is a use anywhere/take anywhere design Mr Charles Garrett would have been very happy with.  The MX Sport/Equinox is locked into a pole design and thereby limited in usage to the normal 

A two digit phase number identification makes it another beep dig detector just like all the others.   No enhanced visual identification to help me find good non-ferrous targets in non-ferrous trash.  No way to compare results. 

Can go on but out of time....back later.

HH
Mike

It's already "replacing" several of my detectors and I haven't even received the Equinox yet.. I'm not having any grand illusions of the Equinox out performing  every other detector on the market, but I can't think of any other detector out there with this kind of feature package and versatility.. Especially the "Garrett AT series "  Being its a Minelab I don't believe the extra frequencies will be "window dressing" either. Of course I could be wrong and we will soon find out.   

Respectfully, Bryan

Here is another depth test video.. foreign language (to me) but the results are unmistakable..   Very deep!  Fast too!

Bryan

Obsolete has many definitions... out dated, having been been replaced by something newer or better, less developed then formerly, etc... I don't think it's much of a stretch to be honest..  Even if the Equinox only performs as well as any other VLF in any given frequency, it makes all other general purpose coin/relic detectors on the market look out dated to me..  The Equinox feature package is no doubt an advancement compared to the same old VLFs that have been coming out for years now.  When is the last time you have this much excitement over a detector??  There is a reason for it. 

Bryan

Pretty close. The CTX 11" Pro Coil is very hard to beat.  One of the few stock coils you don't feel like you have to replace with an aftermarket coil. 

Bryan

25 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Most of this stuff the people running the machines seem to barely know how to run them. The Quest dealer in particular seems to have a hard time.

It has been pure frustration at times with some of these Equinox videos.. I just want to jump through my iPad and grab the detector from them!

Sheltons video he posted this morning was finally some relief from that.  Good stuff. 

Bryan

Best video yet!  Thanks for posting Shelton...  This is a really well thought out detector.  

Bryan

I can understand the wait and see what happens approach... Everybody has a different risk tolerance..I don't mind taking the risk and trying something new out.   I never have been very patient.  I enjoy playing around with a new detector and being part of the new release excitement..  All the big manufacturers have good warranties and from my experience have made things good quickly if something is not right.  If you are limited on funds or don't have a an extra detector to fall back on then waiting is probably the right move... 

Bryan

After running the Monster, I had no visions of the Equinox out performing it on small shallow gold.  For Prospecting I invision it as the tailing pile detector that I can slap a bigger coil on and drop down to 20 or even 15 kHz for the bigger, deeper nuggets in a trashy location.  I'm taking a gamble but I have already listed my Gold Racer for sale thinking this Equinox will take its place.   After the Monster came along, the only reason I was hanging on to the Gold Racer was because of the big coil and versatility...  How thing change fast!  Nothing against the Gold Racer, it's a fantastic detector but the Equinox, if it performs will just be too versatile not to own for the type of hunting I do..

Bryan

Here is another video. Some of the same stuff you might have seen already but some different footage in there too..  Shortly after the 4 minute mark if you listen close you will hear a guy ask how it does for prospecting.   Paraphrasing here, but the rep said its better then the 705 but probably not as good as the Monster.    I think that is a much more complicated question to answer but interesting anyway...  Another thing I couldn't quite make out but I think the rep said there was NO Multi Freq in Prospect mode.  (Don't quote me on that one) I did hear in another video that each mode has a specially tuned Multi Frequency.... There is a good closeup of the new pinpointer at the end too.. I wish they would have fired it up so you could hear it but they didn't..

here it is:.    

If its true, it might be the best thing that could have happened to them. Now they have time to figure out how they are going to respond to the shock and awe of the Equinox..  Like I said before I feel bad for these other companies who just came out with new detectors..   We will benefit in the end.  Prices of all existing detectors will eventually have to drop considerably, or they will have to respond with a detector that can compete with the features of the Equinox..

Bryan

Little more info in this video..   15x12 Coil!!  Specially tuned Multi Frequency for each hunt mode.

Dang!  I'm starting to feel like Minelab is like Apple.  They are getting me hooked in to their entire product line.  I wonder if you can belong to two cults at one time. 

Thought for sure any new Minelab was going to have Auto, Auto Plus Sensitivity  like the Monster, CTX, and E-Trac.. Unless I'm missing something?  I have kind of grown to appreciate the Auto sensitivity at times.  It's nice to have especially when I get in lazy mode and don't feel like pushing to the limits towards the end of the day.  

Bryan

The more l learn about this detector, the more I realize what a big hurt Minelab just put on the competition.. I almost feel sorry for them. Especially the company's that just came out with new detectors.  They suddenly look outdated and clumsy by a large margin...  

Bryan

Minelab's not messing around!  At these price points and features, this is going to sting the competition if these detectors perform.

Bryan

Awsome!  I'll be ordering an 800 for sure!

I'm definitely a fan of the internal method..  The CTX system works great.  I sold the CTX after running an E-Trac which I now prefer for coin hunting but the internal cable system doesn't work quite as well as the CTX.. It dosent shorten up as good as the CTX. Still much better then the external wrap though.  

Bryan

Here is a little gold found with my  Makro Gold Racer earlier this year on a sort outing. I really like the Makro detectors but my Monster has been getting all the use since I got it. The Gold Racer's not going anywhere at this time though.  It's more versatile then the Monster.  

Bryan

Most of today's coin and relic detectors including the T2 that have the ability to ground ballence will get you down to at least 6 inches with good ID.  What happens after that depends on your soil,  coil size, trash density, etc..  

Bryan

32 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Screwing around with detectors is a definite subset of the hobby and some people make an entire "thing" out of it. I am reaching one of those points where I want to ditch all that and just go detecting! It kind of seesaws back and forth for me in that regard.

Yes! I have completely burned myself out buying, testing and selling detectors.  I'm so overwhelmed with detectors and coils to sell that I'm paralyzed by it.. Hope to gain the mental strength to clear this stuff out this fall.  I'm almost dreading Minelabs new detector release next month too because I won't be able to help myself and give it a run. 

I've been on a mission myself over the last year trying out an embarrassing number of detectors in the search for the perfect few to keep..  I learned like you Steve that most of them are pretty close in performance..  I also learned that someone across the country from me detecting in their "highly minerized ground" was much different then what I experienced in my ground..  Most of my detecting is for old coins in parks and older homes..  The stand out detector for this type of hunting where I live is hands down the Minelab E-Trac or CTX. They have no real competition except maybe the V3i where I live and for the type of hunting I do.  After that you can flip a coin and choose any one of the mid frequency detectors from any of the major brands and and do about the same.   They all fall on their face in my soil after 6" ... I'm sitting on at least 10 detectors right now and desperately want to get down to around 4 or 5 at the most.. Right now my Etrac, Gold Racer and now Monster are the detectors I have no desire to sell. I think I'm going to keep my Macro Racer 2 also because it does well in heavy iron   and is a good nugget shooter too.  It also does slightly better in my ground then the other major brands. What I really need to ad is a PI machine but until I can spend more time nugget hunting I can't justify it yet. My VLFs are finding me gold when I do get the chance to go.