Cabo Chris

I wonder how many have sold/traded machines in anticipation of the Equinox? On other sites many have already done so or say they will. A good detector can pay for itself quickly and some of the Explorers up for sale inviting! I'm not a coin hunter, but have the impression that for deep silver Explorers shine? A detectorist could buy a bargain Explorer off the bay to hit the wet salt sand and have a first rate gold finder on the cheap! With gold $ still up there I wouldn't complain having to use an Explorer. I saw a Safari priced so low I had to look twice! Christmas is a good time to sell, but I'm not so sure a guy/gal would wait till Christmas to unload a CTX package? If the Equinox proves to be as good as we think, suspect there will be a sudden buyers market on good machines. I like just about everything I hear about the Equinox and hope it's better than my expectations. We have 8 on order with waterproof phones. Still, offloading ones CTX 3030/Excalibur on the cheap, might prove to be a mistake? BBS/FBS love gold at the beach!

Wow, a great time to purchase a used CTX 3030 or other ML... X-Terra, Sovereign... Explorers on the cheap! Have been watching for awhile. Several for sale and others already sold on the Bay and at decent prices! Wait until everyone else discovers the Equinox! All this on speculation? Just imagine should the Equinox really turn out to be that good (and hopefully will be)... Could really drive the value of other machines down? I do not ever recall seeing a detector dump like this. Now I'm waiting for owners to start dumping their Excaliburs!

On the F----s Forum one says Dec 16! It's too funny... elsewhere on that same forum is a 5+ page post/responses just full of bickering over demanding a release date!

Interesting... I wonder how many gold rings will be lost notching out a particular pesky common site-specific pull-tab with the Equinox? Digging tabs shallow water hunting can be a real pain, especially when one has limited vacation time. With BBS one can learn tab predictability by tone response, but I still dig em! Depending on the answer to my concern, it may be worth notching certain tabs out, despite the loss of some gold?

Steve, have you tried the 50 Tone Audio Response?

This extended Equinox release may be driving the other metal detector companies/competition crazy and might encourage them into releasing their own Equinox or Super-Detector! About a year ago a Whites engineer told me they're working on a new water machine technology that combines VLF and PI. Whites did give up on their BHID and may be working on a multi-frequency VLF/PI hybrid replacement? Tesoro once told me... just wait until you see our new water machine! Well where is it? And another person I know related with a detector company said, they could stuff all the workings of an Excalibur into just a set of headphones with todays circuitry! I'll be the first to admit excessive Equinox excitement... like a kid in a candy store, only the candy is all the loot my new Equinox will find! I may have to see a Shrink! Perhaps breathing techniques might help? I for one am happy ML is releasing this type of affordable detector at all. The big $ for Minelab could very well be with Gold/Military Detectors and not us Coin Shooters?

Then it's possible the Equinox is still being worked on and they have yet to go into production? Might as well get it right the first time.

ML is doing a great job keeping the Equinox Top Secret for sure. I've tried all my dealer sources and friends in the business and they know nothing! This may go down as the Greatest Detector Release ever? Perhaps my business might learn something from this marketing style... Equinox is on my mind nearly all the time! For those of you who want to use the waterproof headphones, ML was not sure of the availability, or would not tell me on the yellow Koss phones. I've asked several dealers about the availability of the water phones and so far none know anything. ML did tell me to let my dealer know to order the waterproof headphones now. He finally ordered them! Thought I would pass that on in case there's a waterproof headphone delay. Then again there might not be.

My detector needs are different than those of others and I view choosing a detector as selecting the right tool for the job. My group of treasure hunters makes several Caribbean trips a year and our fearless leader has been doing this since the Eighties. Sorry to repeat myself... we have tried just about every water machine and custom jobs made and for us the Minelab Excalibur finds the most gold in the least time- by far! When new treasure hunters join us we strongly advise using an Excalibur and when they don't, they find the least gold or none at all, including seasoned PI users. Why? Because BBS lets one cherry-pick on short vacations. (I'll be the first to say despite this the Excalibur is poor in heavy black sand) Not bragging, only want to support my claims- on some good vacations I've scooped more than 200 pieces of gold jewelry using an Excalibur in 10 days! So have others in my group and why we use BBS. I have suggested to ML many times to build a simpler and smaller Excalibur for finding mainly gold and platinum jewelry in the sea. Something lighter and easier to travel with, so one can travel with a back-up. I made several suggestions such as eliminating pinpoint and discrimination. ( We hunt by ear/tone response and never use discrimination) I also suggested this to Whites Electronics thinking perhaps BBS patents were expired? Whites told me they were working on a new water machine and one that combined VLF and PI technologies! Wow, where is it? I remember when the AT Pro came out and thought... now this is what I have in mind for travel. Garrett flat out told me it worked well in saltwater, so I bought 2 to test with dreams of traveling with 2 AT Pros. Here in Washington State... total AT Pro failure in our saltwater- nothing would quiet it down. Garrett gave me some advice and on my next Caribbean trip packed an AT Pro. Wow, I got it to work in the Caribbean salt but had to lower sensitivity to the point it would barely detect a gold test ring 2 inches in sand- Total failure for my needs, despite the AT Pro being a good detector. I love this hobby and could write on and on... and why I will mention believe it or not the newer 8 inch DetectorPro Underwater is a fantastic travel machine! It packs small, has 50 hour built in rechargeable battery, works at most Caribbean beaches and is remarkably sensitive to small gold! On one trip side by side to an Infinium and Excalibur, the Underwater hit on a small gold earring the other 2 machines could not see! I can see traveling with just 2 Underwaters for general water hunting Fresh/salt. My reservation is while using an Underwater one has to recover more surf targets than with an Excalibur which permits better cherry picking of targets more likely to be gold in less time. When the Equinox was announced.... Finally, a small waterproof affordable multi frequency machine! I have visions of the Equinox replacing my Excaliburs. A new lightweight, small, screened and easy to pack water machine! In my mind the Equinox was my new Excalibur and should accept that might not be the case. Clearly the Equinox will be a great detector. At first I read right over ML saying Multi-IQ handles salt almost as good as BBS/FBS and did not want to see that Cooling sentence. I kind of expected the Equinox to be as good as BBS in the salt. OK, almost as good is not bad and at least 75% as good, or perhaps 95% as good... which would be great and what I still want to expect! Make it So! Even if the Equinox is not as good in saltwater as BBS/FBS, perhaps its other technologies such as fast recovery speed will make up any differences? My concern is when dunking an Equinox in saltwater how will sensitivity need to be adjusted? I still have high Equinox expectations for my needs and obviously the only way to find out is to put the Equinox up against an Excalibur in The Caribbean Sea! I'm crossing my fingers for sure. Again Minelab, thank you for bring out such wonderful and new technologies!

Here are some Equinox Saltwater performance clues... Almost as well as BBS/FBS. My question now is define "almost".

https://thedailydetectorist.com/2017/12/11/one-dead-and-twelve-injured-in-failed-metal-detector-unvailing-stunts/ Just had to share!

I think it's a good video by ML demonstrating choices for beginners. I suspect many may be disappointed with the Equinox as despite being a new technology, it appears to be more simplistic than say even a CTX 3030. Absolutely nothing wrong with that for treasure hunters who prefer simple. As mostly a shallow water hunter in search of gold and platinum jewelry in the sea, I prefer an Excalibur. It's BBS technology and simplicity allow me to find the most gold in the least time on treasure hunting vacations. Do I consider my CTX 3030 to be a better detector than my Excalibur- yes! But I always choose the best tool for the job. Which machine is better than the other does not matter to me as much as which detector finds the most for my detecting/ style. For me Minelab machines have found more treasure than all the other brands I've tried combined. I place my faith in Minelab. As a small business owner I find the way Minelab has left us all speculating over the Equinox brilliant marketing! My hope is not that the Equinox is better or faster than say a Deus or other machines... But that the Equinox and it's new technology a better tool for me. As an example when I travel to the Caribbean with 4 to 6 other guys, we're limited on how many pieces of luggage we can fit into our rental vehicle. While I used to pack 2 checked pieces of luggage I now check only one, not only saving the extra $50 to $80 for the second bag, but space in our van. Then each checked bag is limited to 50lbs or another fee is charged, not to mention lugging a 60lb+ bag around a pain. Keeping your bag under 50lbs is a trick when one travels with 2 or 3 detectors. I always travel with a back-up machine and everything that goes with it. My hope is that the Equinox works as good as my Excalibur in shallow saltwater. It does not have to be better, just as good as. Because if it is, then traveling with a pair of Equinox will seriously reduce travel weight! Others obviously have different requirements. Who knows, the Equinox may turn out to be pure magic and I thank Minelab for the quality products and technology they bring to market hyping it up or not.

Good enough for such a compact detector! Would have liked to see depth on various gold size coins!

I'm still wondering how many frequencies the Equinox runs on in Multi? We know how many Frequencies BBS and FBS offer. I must be mistaken thinking Excalibur tones correspond to frequency response? Either way I'm wondering if the frequency range of the Equinox in Multi are 5, 10, 15, 20 and 40 combined, or a wider spectrum as implied by ML like perhaps 1-40/50+, the above possible chart range. That could correlate to the 50 tones option? Perhaps not, but I'm hoping the Equinox works great in saltwater and we all know how well BBS / FBS does that. I'm thinking the more Multi Equinox frequencies the better in salt??? I know, I know... I'll just have to wait!!!

When I called ML today and asked about Multi-IQ frequencies... Mums the word! In their M-IQ description ML states the single frequencies are used... "and more". Makes me ask how many more frequencies? Has this been touched upon here and does anyone know how many frequencies and their range? MLs only answer to that is M-IQ is a new technology. So I speculate something similar in frequencies to BBS or FBS, because of the 50 response tones selection? Might this mean M-IQ runs 50 frequencies? Or might target tones be determined by some other factor?

I called and spoke with K-CO yesterday and was told they will be getting some in this December and the rest in January. Perhaps the smaller dealers have to wait longer?

Oh, I just saw a previous post by Steve that clarifies some of my concerns.

I just called ML and their lips won't sink any ships for sure! Only fact I got was "This is a totally new technology". I asked if the MF in Beach mode was the same for both the 600 to 800... Hush, hush. But they implied without clarification other differences, like no user setting with 600 and something about not having the conductive vs. iron tones of the 800... not sure what that means? But I mostly hunt by tones in the sea for jewelry and that may be a possible reason for me to stick with the 800? Normally I would just wait and see and rarely rush in to anything, but am scheduled for a Caribbean shallow water hunt this Jan and it sure would be fun to test an Equinox there! Even if I got a machine in time, ML had no idea when the waterproof headphones would be available.

Obviously all our Equinox concerns will be answered soon, but after watching most of the posted Equinox videos online several times... I noticed when near one another all those Equinoxes seem noisy? I guess that's to be expected. Yet I think I also noticed many were set to max sensitivity? Obviously testing a new detector one wants to see max capability, but wonder where sensitivity will have to be set in actual field conditions for stability, such as in saltwater and how lowering sensitivity effects performance? From experience the Excalibur typically runs best at mid sensitivity, perhaps slightly more when in the sea, while still performing great on most jewelry. I hope that will be the case with the Equinox?

All the talk seems mostly over the Equinox 800. But what about the 600? My first inclination too was to get on the 800 list which I did. I wonder though, for a shallow water hunter such as myself, if the 600 might be a better choice? It costs less and the wireless capability is not needed underwater nor are the higher frequencies of the 800. For travel I could buy 2 600s and 2 sets of waterproof headphones (I like back-up on trips), for about the same price of 2 800s alone. I'm most interested in hunting saltwater and guessing/hoping the 600/800 in beach mode will perform similar to an Excalibur. Should that prove to be the case, then the Equinox 600 might suffice? That is if the 600 and 800 run on the same multi-frequencies in beach mode?

There is lots of confusion on the subject of air travel and batteries. The TSA/FFA chart above is a good start for one to research before travel. So many TSA agents and airline employees are confused. I travel with a group of shallow water treasure hunters and for years we have never had problems taking batteries. But things seem different today... throw in the confusion and one could run into problems traveling with any batteries. I have always packed my detectors and spare batteries in checked luggage. Since I travel with 2 or 3 machines, carry on has not been an option and fortunately for the most part my equipment has survived- other than some TSA/Customs agents go through your bag like a thief in the night! The mess they make of my stuff makes me angry, as there is no excuse for not caring for the property of others! When our group has come into problems traveling is with spare detector batteries in carry on and specifically upon return flights. Foreign security has gotten bent out of shape when they discover these odd batteries several times and to the point where some in my group almost missed their flights! Yet on my last Caribbean trip, I had no choice but to place all my batteries in my carry on. I did my research and wanted to follow battery rules and did not want to discover my batteries were confiscated from checked baggage upon my Island arrival. Besides the FFA chart Steve posted, there are airline rules too. Which brings more confusion because each airline has their own battery rules! A few months back I flew Air Canada and was told "No batteries whatsoever were allowed in checked bags" on the first leg of my first flight out of Seattle ... but the size of my carry on bag was restricted and had to be checked at the gate, which meant I had to remove all batteries from my carry on and hand carry them onto the flight! What a pain and when I went through Security in Seattle, they wanted to know why I was bringing so many batteries in my carry on? I explained Air Canada rules/showed an email I received from the airline and was delayed as TSA actually tested all my detector batteries on some sort of device. Not sure what it tested for but I was concerned for my batteries. Seriously, I placed everything with batteries in my carry on, including flashlights, scales, loupe, diamond tester... all because Air Canada told me over the phone and email no batteries in checked luggage. I used electrical tape to seal battery ends and packaged all batteries individually in bubble wrap bags. I also secured a sign on my checked luggage: NO BATTERIES IN THIS BAG, in hopes TSA would not fish around much seeing my detectors. At some point the FAA/TSA and airlines will get together on this battery stuff. All we need are a few more batteries bursting in The Mile High Club and there will be more restrictions. Regarding the Equinox with built in battery... for now TSA and airline staff will most likely not even have a clue a battery is in the machine. But if at some point all batteries are restricted in checked bags, which I believe will happen, one will have to pack the Equinox as carry on. Fortunately that looks possible with the Equinox design. In my mind traveling with an Equinox should be easier all the way around. Just remember to check with your airline for their battery rules. This is long because I became frustrated spending hours on the phone with TSA and airline, trying to learn how to do the right and safe thing and thus relating here. Funny... On this last trip a few in my group just packed their batteries wherever with no problems whatsoever! But at some point being clueless could result in confiscated batteries?

Hi and my first current post here. Guess my detecting passions lean towards gold nugget hunting, but mostly Caribbean shallow water treasure hunting. For years I have travelled with a group in search of such Caribbean Adventure, sharing comradery and expenses. I and others in our group have pretty much tried every water detector available, including customized land machines in waterproof boxes/bags, in search of the best Caribbean gold jewelry finder. There have been some Winners and mostly Losers for our style of hunting. On a 1 to 2 week treasure hunting vacation one needs an efficient detector that finds the most gold in the least time. I'll come right out and say the Top Dog for us has been the Minelab Excalibur- Period! The Excalibur consistently finds the most gold for us in the least time and so much so, all in our group use them. (our trips could almost be ML infomercials with a pile of Excaliburs in the back of our rental van!) I call the Excalibur a Caribbean Gold Magnet! (as many others already know). The Excalibur has a good balance for shallow water vacation travel. By that I mean, good in salt, loves gold, takes the abuse, long battery life and packable... The CTX 3030 has done well, but needs to be handled more gently, the battery does not last as long- with potential leak problems and is not easy to securely pack. The Garrett Infinium was the only PI that could give the Excal a run for the money and clearly outperform it in black sand. But listening to Infinium Hi-Lo and Lo-Hi tones some 8 hours a day becomes buggy! The ATX was interesting, but a heavy beast to pack. For quite some time I have suggested to ML that they come out with a new, smaller and lighter Excalibur... because the technology to do so is here! (I've been told an Excalibur can be stuffed into just headphones today!) A waterproof simplified BBS machine for beach/shallow water. Easy to pack so I can travel with 2 (one as back-up) and hot on gold jewelry. It does not even need an all metal mode, nor discrimination. With an Excalibur none in our group use discrimination- we hunt by ear/tone and rarely do we use pin-point. What I dreamed of was a lightweight Excalibur package and it looks like I will finally have to settle for something potentially even better- the Equinox! I want the new Equinox to work as I imagine so bad I can taste it! The ultimate Caribbean shallow water travel machine! Will it be? I sure hope so because just 1 or 2 gold/platinum finds will pay for this detector easy! I've decided to go out and join on the Equinox limb with others by ordering an 800. All it needs to do is find gold jewelry in the sea similar to an Excalibur. But can it? I suspect yes, because of what one can read between the lines. Like... Steve sold all his other similar machines! What doesn't that say about Equinox capability? Plus it would be very surprising ML would build a new technology multi-frequency waterproof detector, that didn't work well in saltwater? Then ML writes in plain English, talking about their Multi-IQ Technology "This enables maximum target sensitivity across all target types and sizes, while minimizing ground noise (especially in saltwater)". No, ML did not say their Equinox is a Killer saltwater machine here, but it sure is implied! I sure hope the Equinox release is soon, as I would love to take an Equinox on my next scheduled Caribbean trip this mid January! So Santa do you hear me now?