Jeff McClendon

Thanks Andy for the very fair and detailed report. I still own an 800 that has the Tele-Knox shaft system and I have a really nice Nox 900 from Gerry's Detectors.....thanks Gerry For those that are satisfied with their Nox 800s.....I get it especially if you are not a water hunter and you have invested in shaft upgrades like I did. All of the 600/800 coils are interchangeable with the 700/900 by the way. I was able to put the new 700/900 11" coil on my 800 too so they are also reverse interchangeable. My original Nox 800 11" coil ears are finally cracking so that is a good thing. As for the "fluff".......I haven't noticed any yet. The obvious exterior physical and feature improvements are real even if one might not use some of them very often like the 3 levels of red backlight, the flashlight and the handle vibration. They do work. As for actual performance improvements.......they are subtle but they are there. EMI is very close between the 800 and 900. Actual detecting.....here is an example: It's around 18 degrees F here and frozen solid so the only testing I can do is indoor in the least EMI affected part of my house which is my basement. I have a 14" Garrett green gold pan filled with clean but moderate to highly iron mineralized dirt from my backyard. No detectable targets in this dirt even running a GPX 6000 and the Nox 800 in Gold 2 over it. So its clean enough. I have 18 targets glued to thick plastic strips that are the size and thickness of medical wooden tongue depressors. There are forged and modern nails, steel, tin, 0.25 gram gold, lead, aluminum pull tabs/can slaw, brass shell casings, and US clad coins among the targets. When I turn them over I have no clue what they are. I put each one in order under that 4" of mineralized dirt three times. Nox 900 and Nox 800 were setup identically in Park 1 multi 5 tones using the 6" coil. I also used the Nox 900 in Park 1 multi using DP tones. All three tests were done with all target IDs accepted. The Nox 800 and I in 5 tones scored 9 correct, 2 partially correct and 7 failures to at least get the conductivity right. The Nox 900 and I in 5 tones scored 10 correct, 3 partially correct and 5 failures to at least get the conductivity right. The Nox 900 and I in DP tones scored 12 correct, 1 partially correct and 5 failures to at least get the conductivity right. The dirt is nasty, hard to ground balance and gives spurious iron responses around most lower conductive targets. I have thousands of hours on the Equinox 800 in 5 tones and these are my target strips that I made and I tested the 800 last. I thought for sure the 800 would win easily. The reason it didn't win and the same goes for the Nox 900 in 5 tones is solely chalked up to DP tones. The 800 and 900 in Park 1 multi, 5 tones simply could not detect two of the targets. The Nox 900 in DP tones detected them and gave the correct audio and target IDs. Those two targets were a half inch roughly square piece of rusted tin and the 0.25 gram gold nugget. I am well aware that using Park 1 multi to detect small tin pieces and small nuggets is not optimal due to its frequency weighting. That is not the point. The point is even using Park 1 multi, the 900 using DP tones easily hit those two ferrous/non ferrous borderline targets. For you Manticore folks, I believe something similar to DP tones lives in the Deep audio and Continuous Tones settings along with Prospecting audio. That is all a bit murky for me so I could be wrong. So, the performance differences are subtle, but they are clearly there even with me having about 15 hours of using the Nox 900 and less than an hour using DP tones.....

I just put my Legend in 5, 10, 15, 20 or 40 kHz single frequency with Pitch Tones and I basically have a Multi Kruzer............

Many times when I read responses to this question, people refer to the need or no need for gold prospecting as a reason to pick say an Equinox 600 vs an Equinox 800. To me that was and is taking away from the other great features that you don't get comparing the 600 to the 800. Most of them are audio related like wireless headphones, the WM08 module, being able to custom fit the tone breaks and actual audio tones to ones particular targets and hearing, along with having the option to use 20 or 40 kHz single frequency in a high EMI situation where the max 15 kHz on the Nox 600 might not get far enough away from the offending EMI's frequencies. Comparing the Equinox 700 vs the 800.......wow, that just got a whole lot more complicated in my opinion. The 700 comes with the awesome collapsible shaft system, much nicer arm cuff, beefed up 11" coil ears and the clincher for me anyway......DP tones in all six search modes and the ML85 wireless headphones are included with the 700. The shaft system and nicer arm cuff already saves around $150 for after market shafts for the 800. Not having to buy wireless headphones (you did with the 600) saves some more money, DP tones are something else and hopefully the 700 really is waterproof since it has an actual IP68 rating compared to the many flooded Equinox 600s and 800s. Back to the gold prospecting point that people often make. That reason is no longer a reason in my opinion. The Nox 700 due to DP tones, just became a really good gold prospecting detector compared to the Nox 600 being just OK. I did a little comparison air testing and in the ground testing with my Nox 900 using Gold 1 and Field 2 with Field 2 setup to match the settings of Gold 1. Other than the frequency weighting possibly being a little different between Gold 1 and Field 2 (impossible to know for sure) the only other big differences are the true threshold in the Gold modes vs the reference threshold of the other modes, Gold modes have VCO audio for all target IDs with no iron tone and no nulling threshold, versus Field 2 using DP tones the VCO audio is 2 tones with a moveable ferrous break point and nulling threshold. So I changed the ferrous tone break of DP tones using Field 2 multi down to -18 which meant -18 to +99 would give a non-ferrous higher VCO tone and -19 would give an iron grunt VCO tone versus Gold 1 VCO giving a higher VCO tone for all target IDs. The results on a 0.15 gram nugget and a 0.05 gram flake were virtually identical with a 1 to 2 millimeter difference at most in favor of Gold 1. Equinox 900 using basically the same settings but putting Field 2 in 1 or 2 tones like on the Nox 600, the results were between 1 and 2 centimeters of difference in favor of Gold 1. So, the excuse that the 800 or 900 has gold prospecting modes.........at least where the 700 is concerned, basically no longer applies in my opinion. PLUS, the Nox 700 and 900, due to DP tones, just got a lot hotter on micro gold/platinum/silver jewelry too in their Park, Field and Beach modes....... compared to the 600 and 800. I would get the 700 everyday over the Nox 800 and I would strongly consider the Nokta Legend over the Nox 800 too.

There are some great deals on used SDC 2300s at the moment online. They are very tempting. I was very tempted and almost pulled the trigger. Then my shoulder and back reminded me about where I often detect for gold nuggets and I stuck with my GPX 6000. Everyone that has held/used both on this forum has commented on the ease of use weight wise of the Axiom and GPX 6000 compared to the SDC 2300, the GPX 5000 series and the GPZ.

Since the SDC 2300 is waterproof, it also has proprietary waterproof audio jack connections . You will need an adapter cable with a female 1/4" plug-in along with the proprietary male plug-in on the other end in order to use your Z-Lynk system. They cost around $75 to $100 depending on availability. With the Axiom, Z-Lynk is included or not depending on which bundled package you get. At any rate, with either package, your Z-Lynk headphones will pair up easily. You are saying the SDC weight is manageable. Ash kept saying the SDC is light in the video you posted. In my opinion the SDC is not light......why was Ash using a guide stick and why do many users use a full harness system with the SDC 2300..... I never used a harness with my TDI SL or with my SPP. I don't use a harness with my GPX 6000 using the stock 11" coil or the Coiltek 10X5. I have heard that a harness is not necessary with the Axiom using the smaller coils. So manageable on relatively flat land and manageable on a mountain side picking ones way around shrubs, trees, boulders and talus slopes are two utterly different things when using the SDC 2300.

I have not been able to hold an Axiom but I will take the word of others on here that its ergonomics and weight are as good or slightly better than my GPX 6000. I have owned two SDC 2300s. I am no weakling (5' 11" 205 lbs) and have worked out all my life. The SDC 2300 for me, is a very heavy, unwieldy 5.7 lbs whereas the GPX 6000 is a very lightweight feeling 4.1 lbs with the Coiltek 10X5. I also hunt on my knees a lot at 10,000' elevation in between boulders and bushes on mountainsides. Never again will I use the SDC 2300 at any of those locations. Just my experience.

I got to do a little outdoor in the ground testing and air testing using Equinox 900 with 6" coil (too frozen for the 11") Field 2 Multi, sensitivity 22, all targets accepted, 5 tones, all tones and DP tones, recovery speed 5, iron bias 1, ferrous tone break set at 0 on a US nickel, zinc penny, clad dime and clad quarter along with two flattened lead targets weighing 0.25 and 0.5 grams. I didn't bother with target IDs since it is way too cold with another snowstorm approaching. Once again, DP tones easily had more audible, stronger hits on the in the ground targets-clad dime, 0.25 gram and 0.5 gram lead targets at 4" depth by about an inch. I could raise the coil over 4 inches off the ground (used a 2X4 on its side and the coil was not touching it during sweeps) over the 4" deep dime. All tones and 5 tones was about 3" off the ground and the signal was gone if I raised the coil at the same height as the 2X4. Air test was just the same. All tones and 5 tones had virtually identical results for just audible two way hits using the settings above during outdoor moderate EMI air testing. US nickel=10.5 " US zinc penny=9.5" US clad dime=9" US clad quarter=10" DP tones using the exact same settings gave just audible two way hits at:. US nickel=11.5" US zinc penny=10.5" US clad dime=10" US clad quarter=11" I don't see any reason why that same distance ratio would not be repeated in the other modes using similar settings.

Full tones deeper than DP.......that certainly was not the case with Full Tones vs Gold Modes VCO on the Nox 800 from my experience where I hunt, but that was using two very different search modes Full tones is not VCO audio so at least from my testing, it dies away quickly at the edge of detection just like 1, 2 and 5 tone slightly modulated audio on the Nox 800. It appears to be the same on the 900 just listening to All Tones, but I will check All Tones vs DP in the same mode when I get the chance.

F2

No clue. I haven't even used Field 2 on a hunt yet much less in iron trash. If I happened to do that however I would first setup the discrimination pattern to accept most if not all iron target IDs and put the tones on DP to take advantage of those VCO tones. Then I would fit the recovery speed to the site. Same for iron bias and sensitivity after doing a ground balance.

Absolutely. I have purchased newly released detectors from Minelab, XP, Garrett and Nokta during the last 4 years. All of them, every single model (two from Minelab) had either hardware, board level component or software issues right out of the box that either required physically shipping them back to a repair center or doing several software updates. The days of advanced metal detectors being perfect or even close to perfect at release seem to be over at least for the time being. Hopefully some very multilingual people at Minelab are carefully reading and watching (God Bless them by the way whoever they are) all of this online material about the Manticore. Give them a pay raise Minelab.

The next update for the Legend will be a Beta software update which was publicly announced by Nokta. They are openly requesting constructive end user feedback and even gave some feedback guidelines. Talk about breaking the mold….

I did not watch the posted video so I can't comment. I don't know if frequency weighting has been changed on the Equinox 900. Using 1 tone to full tones shouldn't effect the frequency weighting either. DP tones on the Equinox 900 are VCO medium to high tone for non-ferrous based on proximity and signal strength and VCO low iron grunt for ferrous. So highly modulated 2 tone audio. The only thing that comes close to that on the Equinox 800 is the VCO 1 tone highly modulated audio in the gold modes. From using the Nox 800 gold modes for gold prospecting and relic hunting when compared to the only slightly modulated audio of the other modes, the Gold modes VCO audio was deeper in moderate to high mineralization. Unfortunately it was limited to the Gold modes. So in the ground I hunt in the most, the gold modes are the deepest on coin sized objects not Park 1 but that is due to iron mineralization Now with DP tones the Nox 900 isn't limited to just using it in the gold modes and it is now 2 tone for the other modes which is a big plus for those that need a little extra depth and target separation caused by the highly modulated audio that doesn't drop off as quickly on deeper, small, or masked targets. Target conductivity should not matter due to using DP tones other than ferrous/non-ferrous. Frequency weighting will matter for target conductivity. Just my opinions.

Similar to Deus 1, Deus 2 and the Legend, DP tones may also have a target separation advantage for the Equinox 900 and the Manticore hopefully.

What is confusing you Dave????? Sorry the three separate columns are not lining up well. They look great on my Mac. They look bad on my IPad.

I got to do a little air testing today since we received 9" of heavy wet snow in Denver last night. These again are air tests. From my experience with the Equinox 800 Gold mode's VCO audio which is similar to DP tones, these results are normal. DP/VCO is just deeper even on actual in the ground targets. I tested the Nox 900 vs Nox 800 using the Coiltek 10X5" coil using 5 tones in Park 1. Then I put the Nox 900 in DP tones.... Here are the results. Same settings for both detectors.....Park 1 Multi, sensitivity - 20, volume - 20, threshold - 0, discrimination pattern - all targets accepted, recovery speed - 5, Iron bias - 1 800 5 tones 900 5 tones 900 DP tones US Nickel 11" 2 way hit no ID, 11.5" 2 way hit no ID 12.5" 2 way hit no ID 9" 2 way hit good ID, 9.5" 2 way hit good ID 11" 2 way hit good ID US Zinc Penny 10.25" 2 way hit no ID 10.5" 2 way hit no ID 11.5" 2 way hit no ID 8.25" 2 way hit good ID 8.5" 2 way hit good ID 10" 2 way hit good ID US Clad Dime 9.75" 2 way hit no ID 10.5" 2 way hit no ID 11" 2 way hit no ID 8.25" 2 way hit good ID 8.5" 2 way hit good ID 9.5" 2 way hit good ID US Quarter 11" 2 way hit no ID 11.5" 2 way hit no ID 12" 2 way hit no ID 9.25" 2 way hit good ID 9.5" 2 way hit good ID 10.5" 2 way hit good ID

Deus 2 = 25 to 29 Legend = 11 to 14

Me being an inland gold jewelry hunter.......Here is an Equinox 900 low/mid conductor targets photo. This was done in Park 1 Multi, sensitivity 20, recovery speed 5, iron bias 1 using the 11" coil with the targets being passed about 3" from the center of the coil opposite the coil nut. This photo is of targets that I find often that are regularly shaped. I did not include random bits of foil or can slaw and I also didn't include damaged/bent pull tabs which can definitely change the target ID. BIG DISCLAIMER........this is a photo of air tested target IDs. Even from my little time behind the 900, some of these change slightly with depth, soil conditions and search mode used. So this photo is for reference and for hunt strategies only and is absolutely not definitive. It starts with tiny gold chains and earrings and ends with a copper jacketed 40 S&W hollow point slug. Coins are 1853 US $1 gold coin, modern nickel, Indian Head penny and zinc penny. Women's small engagement/promise rings are in the teens. Bigger rings are everywhere up to almost 60. The highest reading gold ring I have is 18 K and weighs 10 grams. Targets are placed below their target IDs.

All of the places I have used the 900 that I have reported on have EMI issues. They aren't so bad that single frequency is required but they have plenty of EMI. I already reported on that above. I also have had similar results inside my home and in my yard. Normally I have to keep my Nox 800 below sensitivity 20 and nearer to 15. I have been able to have the Nox 900 no lower than 18 sensitivity inside and as high as 22 in my backyard without being driven mad. That is an improvement unless sensitivity 22 on the 900 is equivalent to 19 on the 800. From my experience so far, Minelab didn't change the sensitivity gradient between the Nox 800 and the Nox 900. They just added 3 more sensitivity levels on the end of the Nox 800 existing 25 scale. So, if that is true, EMI is being handled a bit better by the Nox 900.

The ground has thawed out enough to do a couple of hunts with the Equinox 900. Yesterday (12/26/22) I did some comparison testing and a short freshwater beach hunt where I dug every target and got to help an 8 year old that I met there named Penny conduct here first hunt with a tiny but actually decent kids detector that did very well, . Today I hunted an incredibly trashed park where much of the trash is actually zinc pennies!!!! So, most of the beach hunt was for comparing Nox 800 and 900 depth and EMI mitigation. I was able to run the 800 even in Gold 1 at 22 sensitivity with just some minor chatter. I was able to run the 900 at sensitivity 25 with similar amounts of chatter. Stating the obvious, the 900 at 25 is more sensitive than the 800 at 22. I did a buried 0.1 gram nugget test in Gold 1 with those sensitivity settings and everything else the same using the 6" coil in moderate mineralization. Nox 800 got clean hits with correct ID at 2.5" depth and had clean 2 way hits with iron ID at 3". The Nox 900 got clean hits with correct ID at 3" depth and had clean 2 way hits with iron ID at 4". Manticore and Nox 900 and their iron handling (or lack of it) is all over YouTube and the internet....... I dug 3 iron targets and 45 non-ferrous targets including a crinkly sounding .925 silver bracelet/necklace with with tiny stars on a microscopic chain that had upper range iron tones mixed in around the edges of that target. Anyone that has some time on the Equinox learns that many solitary iron targets will have iron tones toward the center of the target and can have progressively higher non-ferrous tones on the edges of the target almost like a high tone halo. This silver bracelet/necklace was exactly the opposite. I also got a mens tungsten ring........a ring is a ring for me anyway. So, yesterdays freshwater beach hunt demonstrated that the Nox 900 is every bit as good as the Nox 800 with no drop off in performance, with more sensitivity and with good EMI mitigation. Today I went to a park that is full of zincolns. I searched an area that was about 20X50 feet and I dug every shallow target (ground is still half frozen) that gave a two way signal for about half of that area. I had to change my strategy from exhaustion and from my pinpointer batteries and my spares all being basically dead or dying. Anyway, I wanted to see how well target ID accuracy was on co-located non-ferrous targets and on co-located ferrous/non-ferrous targets. Most of the iron targets are deeper at this site so I didn't get to try that out on the 900 very much. I did not dig any steel crown bottle caps for some reason.....I had iron bias on 1 with -10 to +99 accepted using Park 1 with recovery speed on 6 and sensitivity on a quiet 25 using the Coiltek 10X5" coil. I was getting a lot of ground feedback from being semi frozen and moderately iron mineralized so I rejected -19 to -11 which took care of most of it. I dug 99 zinc pennies, 29 copper Memorial pennies, 1 1926 wheat penny, 8 Jefferson nickels, 11 clad dimes, 4 clad quarters, a Sacajawea $1 coin, a 1947 5 Franc coin from France, a nice brass cross, and a nice .925 silver braided ring along with 30 or so pull tabs, some other non-ferrous junk and 3 iron targets. So basically, I got some really good, dig a lot of targets time behind the 900. Zinc pennies near the surface have very wide target IDs from 58 to the low 80s. Nothing new there, Nox 800 does something similar on near surface corroded zincs. I just lifted the coil a bit and the IDs stabilized between 60 and 65. The other US coins recovered could all be easily "called" before digging even with very little Nox 900 experience. The only real surprises were the brass cross and the holed 5 francs coin. The silver ring was about 5" deep and had a rock solid ID of 81. This target sounded different and very beautiful. I was not surprised with it being a ring......since I have had that experience many times with the Nox 800. So, similar to the Nox 800, when I get a single digit ID on a non-ferrous target and the target appears to be coin sized using the onboard pinpointer for sizing...........I am digging that target. The ring had pull-tabs and two zinc pennies within 3" from it but I heard it clearly and like I said it had a super solid ID. So, target separation on the Nox 900 is excellent.

You haven’t used a Legend. I have. You’re spending too much time over on “Friendly”

You can buy a new Legend with a 3 year warranty for less than an out of warranty Equinox 800.

After comparing the Equinox 800 and Equinox 900 for about a week for performance, build quality and for ergonomics, I see absolutely no reason to purchase a brand new Equinox 800 and then upgrade the shaft system a week later to a carbon fiber collapsible shaft. The 900 is a better detector in every aspect since it currently includes a collapsible carbon fiber shaft and the excellent 6” coil for small gold nugget prospecting. I am seeing slight performance improvements over the 800 also along with substantial feature improvements. So, for the money, the 900 is the smart choice. The Nokta Legend is a better choice over the Equinox 800 also after months of comparing the two personally. Deus 2 is a fine detector also, but if you plan to do some gold prospecting with it, I currently can’t recommend it. The Equinox 800, 900 and the Nokta Legend are far superior to Deus 2 for that type of hunting. That may change a bit when XP release the next software update.

I am not a drama monger. I am also not a potential Manticore buyer at this point. Like Carolina and Chase and others…..I am going to wait. Part of the reason for waiting has not changed from the moment I learned of this detector. Personally, the way I hunt right now and what I hunt…..I don’t need Target Trace. That not needing it is now being reinforced by the field testing after purchasing that has been reported online as videos or forum posts concerning the Manticore, Target Trace, Iron Limits and iron targets clearly reporting as non-ferrous enough to dig them. I too have learned the Equinox audio iron “tells” and tricks that go way beyond what the display may say in terms of target ID. As Abenson said earlier and I will support……previous iterations of the Equinox can have non-ferrous responses from iron and steel targets occurring absolutely anywhere on the target ID scale.

The setup that Carolina referenced that is made by XP has worked for me with the WS4.....I probably won't be using it with my WS6 since I bought a Legend for that kind of hunting. Hang it anywhere you want. The end of the antenna just needs to be within a few inches of the WS4 or WS6 out of the water off course. I just taped the end of the antenna on the outside of the bag right on top of my WS4 and even under water it worked.