Jeff McClendon

This is a Manticore and Deus 2 side by side park hunt video in a northeast USA park where plenty of silver coins have been found by the detector users in the past using Etracs and CTX. There are several targets that show the Manticore display clearly before digging along with lots of good information. The only thing I wish they had done is have the detectors using external speaker audio. But this was in a public park and they were concentrating on the deepest targets where headphones are essential. No BS, no editorials, no implied bashing and most of all.....no drama. Just two outstanding detectors and two very experienced detector users hunting together with live digs.

For those that wonder, this being a prospecting site..... Nox 900, Nox 800 and the Legend air testing their Gold Multi modes with almost identical settings on 0.05, 0.15, 0.25 and 0.85 gram nuggets.......we are talking in terms of sixteenths of an inch or a little over a millimeter in difference on each of those targets using their stock 6" coils. Nox 900 is still really hot for prospecting folks, just like its predecessor. What took some getting used to for me is the default really high pitch of the Gold modes VCO tone. Lowering the threshold pitch will lower the VCO (DP) tone some but wow it is set high. The same goes for using DP tones in the other modes. Doing the well documented YouTube video test with raised nail, coin and nail on the same plane as the coin.......DP's super high pitched squeaks and ticks on heavily iron masked coins......I don't know if I can get used to that sound. The volume of the iron tone can be adjusted in DP along with its tone break. The volume of the DP non-ferrous tone can also be adjusted but its actual pitch only seems to get adjusted very slightly if at all, by adjusting the pitch of the threshold tone unlike in the Gold modes. Someone who knows more about this DP tone option, please chime in here. I did quite a bit of separation/unmasking testing and the Nox 900 did a bit better than the Nox 800 using the same settings. Basically that means that during the same test the Nox 900 was able to give repeatable 2 way non ferrous responses while the 800 gave solid one way non ferrous responses but only sporadic 2 way. That was using the test described above with two 1800s square nails and various US coins with one inch spacing between the targets. I did not compare the DP tones to the 800 since that would not be fair. I did do some DP tone Field 1 and Field 2 testing with all the iron target IDs accepted and all rejected. I made sure to adjust the default tone break and accept/reject settings first back down to zero. I experimented with a low iron tone volume level and with turning up the threshold tone while rejecting iron target IDs with the horseshoe button. The threshold using DP tones is a live threshold so that is an alternative to getting constantly bombarded with iron audio at some sites. It may also be "live" in other tone and mode configurations too. The threshold is not "live" in the Gold modes........waaaaahhhh! I believe Strick mentioned that the Manticore (could have been Nox 900) VDIs seem to be more jumpy than the Nox 800. I noticed something similar in the hunt I did the day I got my Nox 900 but chalked that up to the ground being half frozen and really acting weird. I did some more testing today on USA modern coins buried at 4" in moderately iron mineralized dirt. The 3 to 4" depth mark is where IDs can really be impacted in the dirt I often hunt in. The Nox 800 and Nox 900 both did very well on those coins but instead of 2 or at most 3 solid target IDs for the Nox 800, that got expanded to 3 or 4 for the Nox 900 on the same coins. For instance a Jefferson nickel read 12/13 on the Nox 800 in Park 1 Multi. It responded with 26/27 and a frequent 28 on the Nox 900 in Park 1 Multi during 10 sequences of left/right full swings. So the numbers for that nickel could jump from 26 to 28 and back with a 27 alternating. At least all of the targets had repeatable, sequential numbers with no oddballs, all over the place numbers like I have seen with some other SMFs sometimes (Garrett APEX.......). I am definitely liking the extra IDs in general however. The stock Equinox 900 ML85 Bluetooth headphones once again are too bass heavy for my liking but they are not nearly as muffled sounding on higher pitches as the Nox 800 ML80s. The Equinox 700/900 shaft system, angled hand grip, and arm cuff are fantastic and a huge improvement over the Nox 600/800. The Equinox 900 has three levels of red backlight intensity so only the highest level looks really red. The mid and low level in daylight looks really nice in my opinion along with how the buttons light up as well. I haven't tried the vibration feature or the flashlight yet. Too early to comment on overall sensitivity aside from the max 28 on the 900/700 versus the max 25 on the 600/800. I also haven't done any EMI testing yet. Chase.....I still haven't found the back button and so far, only one user profile slot ☹️

Just a quick post about some weights for recently released detectors for those that want or need to pay attention to swing weight. I weighed all of these on the same scale. Your scale may give different results but the difference between different detectors should be close. All weights include coil covers. Deus 2 with 9" FMF coil, WS6 mounted on the shaft with the XP Neoprene shaft mount = 33.2 ounces Deus 2 with 9" FMF coil and full remote mounted on the shaft = 35 ounces Nox 900 with stock 6" coil and stock lower shaft = 37 ounces Nox 800 with stock 6" coil and Detector Innovations Tele-Knox shaft system 37.7 ounces Nox 900 with Coiltek 10X5" coil on the Detector Innovations 18mm Tele-Knox lower shaft which fits the Nox 900 shaft = 41.6 ounces Nox 900 with stock 11" coil and stock lower shaft = 44.1 ounces Legend with stock 6" coil = 45.5 ounces Legend with 10X5" LG24 coil is 46.1 ounces Nox 800 with stock 11" coil and Steve Goss one piece carbon fiber upper shaft (no counter weight) = 46.5 ounces Legend with stock 11" coil = 52.6 ounces

That is good news. Deus 2 may definitely be a better choice for you. It is by no means a perfect detector but compared to Deus 1 for coin/jewelry/relic hunting............it is a great upgrade. If you happen to hunt at saltwater beaches or submerged fresh water, Deus 2 handles that very well too. good luck, Jeff

Didn’t notice the street light going out but the “people,” actually one person, that generously gave CD a sub gram nugget is on this forum. CD just can’t pronounce his name right or NASA Tom’s either.

The Nox 800/600 coils fit. The 6” sent with the 900 is the same coil as the 800/600 version. It even comes with the same kind of coil nut and bolt.

The control pod housing for the 900 clearly is different than the 800. It looks much more like the Manticore control pod. Similar to the GPX 6000 board level upgrade, there may have been a control pod, board level design/component improvement that has improved some EMI handling for both detectors OR maybe not......So dont' be so negative please. Manticore looks like an awesome detector. Nox 900 is definitely an improvement over Nox 800.....

Read page 9 (page number for the English manual).

Two or three frequencies at once is plenty. If you want them all....get a pulse induction detector. Nokta gave some good information on page 9 of the manual. What JCR wrote above is correct too.

How many times did Steve H. say that the Manticore was basically an Equinox 1500 on this site during the initial roll-out???? Steve H. is not one to go out on a limb about stuff like that.

Same for me and that first 150 to 200 hours was with iron audio ON. If I had just hunted with iron audio OFF (using Nox 600/800 default discrimination patterns) I still wouldn't have a clue about what was iron or not.............

This is the same answer I gave you over on Friendly Forum.... If you are referring to saltwater beach hunting, there are many posts and YouTube videos about using Deus 2 on saltwater beaches. Otherwise, I hunt in inland iron mineralization almost exclusively that registers as half to completely full on the mineralization meters on Deus 1, ORX and Deus 2. For normal coin, jewelry and relic hunting in these ground conditions here, Deus 1 and the ORX using 9” coils would hit coin sized targets at 6” depth. Deeper than that they had very sporadic/iffy audio only performance with no IDs. ID accuracy became inaccurate on coin sized targets that were 3” deep. Deus 2 has accurate target ID and audio on coin sized targets at 8” here using the 9” coil and will hit deeper non-ferrous targets with non-ferrous audio and no IDs. For me, Deus 2 has greatly improved performance compared to Deus 1 and the ORX where I hunt. Whether that will be the same for you………who knows. __________________

Deus 2 is a fine metal detector but it is still in Beta version software basically so there are some quirks and a couple of glaring WTHs that may be fixed in the first official software version. It is on a different planet from Deus 1 and that is a really good thing. It is definitely faster than the Nox 600/800 and somewhat faster than the Legend. It is not as deep as those two in my dirt and tends to lose target ID accuracy more quickly also on deeper targets but compared to Deus 1, it is heavenly......... The Equinox 600/800 is also a fine detector but with many faults that Minelab did not fix. Instead they released the 700/900 which seems to have addressed them. Nokta's Legend detects very similarly to the Equinox 800 but without all of its flaws. It too is still using Beta version software basically. It has many additional features that make it a better choice for most people that can't or don't want to afford a Nox 800 that will likely leak or a Nox 900 that costs almost twice as much. On paper it has more features than the Nox 600 and 700 for equal or less money. New coils are about to be released for the Legend too. Those of us that have a Deus 2, Legend, Equinox 800 and are about to get a 900 will get a better picture in a few months about how these all really pan out. Why you aren't using the Legend you traded with Woody for is beyond me. In my opinion, if you have the latest 1.09 software installed, it is simply better than the Nox 800 for tone quality and tone options since it has Pitch tones, (added to the Nox 700/900 by Minelab) better discrimination patterns, larger target ID range, better SMF choices, it is slightly better at target separation and recovery speed using Pitch tones, is just as deep in my dirt, has better ergonomics and build quality.........use the damn thing and find out for yourself. As for what is flying off the shelf.....my local dealership is shuttered so I can only go by what the large club (80+ members) in the Denver area is using which by far is the Equinox 800/600 followed by a handful of Legends, a handful of Deus 2s, and the rest are still using single frequency detectors with Deus 1 being the most popular for folks that want the best target separation at iron trashed ghost town type relic sites and don't need raw depth.

Well, once again, some of us have tried to answer your questions. I think we answered them. I'm moving on......

Yet another example of why expecting anything good to happen near or in a structure full of metal and electricity (house, building, car) when trying to noise cancel a PI or hot SMF detector is asking for the impossible at this point.

Thanks OhioHunter for posting those remarks by Carl and some of your own too. I generally can take what Carl says "to the bank" and deposit it. I know this a forum where there is freedom to say what's on one's mind whether it is a topic related statement of possible fact or even opinions, conjecture or just a whim. I sometimes react to some of those opinions and whimsical thoughts when I let them rub me the wrong way. My strong reaction to the insinuation that the Goldfinder 2000 is a clone/copy/knock off of the Goldmonster 1000 is one of those moments where I not only let those comments by Simon and Walt rub me the wrong way, I also reacted to them too strongly even though I still think they were unsubstantiated, out of line and pilling on in regards to Nokta. Sorry for letting my sometimes grumpy nature take over. My apologies to Walt and Simon.

I have used an Equinox 800 for over 5,000 hours estimating the times from my hunt logs, over 700 on the Legend and approaching 500 for Deus 2. Most of that detecting was done in two different urban/suburban areas that both have a population of over 2 million humans. I have never had to pack up my toys and go home using these detectors due to impossible to mitigate EMI, not even close. Using several hot single frequency detectors that people still rave about......I absolutely had to put those back in the car at some on the exact same sites where the SMF detectors above could still detect very well in one of their SMF modes. I have had two instances dealing with cattle fences, one instance with an electric pet fence and one with overhead power lines where I had to switch to a single frequency on the Equinox. So, my experience is that EMI is reduced enough using these detector's noise cancel/reduction features to get the job done. Now, if I try to use one of these detectors in my house or in my backyard for testing......that is a whole different story which relates to some of your references to testing videos made by YouTubers on back porches, front porches, concrete slabs, backyard test gardens in urban/suburban areas, etc. There is no way to completely cancel out EMI from millions of wireless communication systems and all the power lines in these areas using pulse induction or hot SMF VLF detectors.

By EMI noise reduction in this case, I am assuming you mean shielding, filtering, software factors and factory chosen lower gain in general that can reduce overall EMI susceptibility BEFORE doing a noise cancel procedure if the detector being used has one. Sensitivity to smaller, hard to hit targets might be affected depending on what frequency/frequencies are being used. Just my opinion based on using a lot of different detectors in urban areas.

My apologies Digalicious and anybody else I have been snappy with today on this forum like Walt and Simon. I have a bad case of the grumps today that I am trying to choose not to feed. I am failing.... Anyway Digalicious, here is a portion of my answer to your question over on Friendly....... "Blocking EMI from being received by the coil is the function of physical EMI shielding. Some detectors have more, some have less. Some have plenty but they are also setup to detect sub tenth of a gram objects=SMFs like the Equinox, Deus 2 and Legend. Some are setup to ignore many of the smaller low conductors=SMFs like BBS/FBS/FBS2, V3i, DFX, Vanquish, Ace Apex, and may seem to handle EMI better even if they have the same level of shielding. EMI noise reduction is done by choosing either automatically or manually a frequency or frequencies that are least effected by any EMI that is present. Deus 1 users could manually pick 7 slightly different frequencies for 4 or 5 different primary frequencies. Some Tesoros I had could only pick two so if EMI was bad.....SOL. My former GPX 5000 would go through something like 250 different frequency increments automatically but if the EMI was strong enough it wouldn't help much. The only recourse was to put on an anti-interference DD coil with heavy duty shielding and lose a ton of sensitivity. Some detectors have no frequency shift/scan capabilities for mitigating multiple detector cross-talk or EMI. Using those detectors where EMI was a problem......hopefully a person had another detector in their vehicle that operated at a different frequency." So some pulse induction detectors go through a ton of frequencies to find the least offending ones. Some VLFs have only one frequency. The Equinox, Legend and Deus 2 have a limited preset number of very small incremental frequency choices on either side of the main frequencies in the SMF weighting. If those tiny shifts don't move far enough away from the offending EMI.......lower the sensitivity or shift to a different SMF program or a single frequency or don't detect in that spot that day. Loss of sensitivity to deeper, harder to hit or tiny targets will be possible. But, these newer detectors with SMF and multiple selectable single frequency choices do offer the possibility to keep detecting.

That is the answer and it was given to you on another forum. Minor frequency shifts are all that happens during a noise cancel procedure. Since you did ask five questions not one, I tried to deal with the reason why some SMFs are more prone to being heavily effected by EMI than others. Same with hot single frequency detectors that just happen to operate in a heavily EMI trafficked frequency. We can discuss filtering and algorithms all day along with shielding.........but ultimately high gain SMFs like the Equinox, Legend, Deus 2 and Manticore that are setup to easily hit a wide range of target sizes will be more susceptible to EMI.

You already got answers to this question on another forum. Many of the people who answered are members of this forum too. If you use a single frequency or SMF VLF detector that has been "dumbed down" with very low gain for use by beginners or for people who want to avoid smaller targets like for instance the Garrett ACE series, Vanquish models and the Garrett Ace Apex......EMI is not much of an issue. If you choose to use a single frequency VLF or SMF VLF detector that has not been dumbed down and instead has very high gain, EMI may be much more of an issue if any is present no matter what one does as an end user to try to mitigate some of it. The same goes for Pulse Induction detectors using mono coils.........turn up the sensitivity too high in a detecting environment with EMI..........it is unbearable and much more debilitating to the user than the EMI on VLFs.

A dealer saying this.......... I can accept that the Legend takes its cue from the Equinox 600/800....so does a lot about Deus 2 The 45 kHz with no manual ground balance and no threshold.........Goldmonster 1000 was released in 2017. The 56 kHz Makro Gold Racer with all sorts of great features like manual ground balance and an optional threshold tone came out in 2016 followed by the waterproof 61 kHz version called the Gold Kruzer followed by the simplified user interface 61 kHz turn on and go Gold Finder 2000 that lives in virtually the same housing as the Gold Kruzer...... The only similarities between the Gold Monster 1000 and the GoldFinder 2000 are their names, their simplicity and they are for gold prospecting. Whites GMT, Whites/Garrett GM24K and GMX, XP Deus and XP ORX to name a few, all have ferrous/non-ferrous probability meters of one kind or another that are similar to the GM 1000. At least all of those have manual ground balance options and a threshold tone option..... Give me a break......

You people that are waiting on Manticore orders to be fulfilled........that is not fun for sure. If I sound like I am anti Manticore.......definitely not. Manticore's 2D Target Trace is really something from what I have seen. However, iron mineralization is so bad here in places that I doubt Target Trace will give clean images on even medium depth targets. I experienced something similar with the CTX. I know Multi IQ makes a big difference in iron mineralization compared to FBS2, but like some others in the same situation, I am going to wait and see how Target Trace, Multi IQ+ and high iron mineralization pan out from users who know what they are doing. Longbow62, after your XP experience, I would be cautious too. Go right ahead and express your thoughts and doubts......that is part of what this forum is for.

To add to what Chase said earlier......we do have current, regularly posting members of this forum that are Minelab Dealers. They do a lot of work to make sure they know a detector very well before selling one to us unlike most dealers. They also post about their experiences with those prototype models to give us some valuable information to help inform a buy/don't buy decision. They are human beings like the rest of us......... So please be aware of this when you make insinuations about dealers in general.

Two other YouTube reviewers stated on recent videos that they did not have permission yet from Minelab to post in the field videos until now. These were likely YouTube field testers and received their Manticores earlier than you did strick. Somebody recently posted a "Hat's Off" thank you topic to some other YouTube testers........I am keeping my hat on since it is really cold here but you get my vote for a "Hat's Off" thank you for your posting about your field experience. Same for Gerry from Gerry's Detectors.