Jeff McClendon

It needs to separate substantially better than the Equinox both in modern aluminum trash and when detecting non-ferrous in ferrous trash. I agree with you on the rest of your prerequisites except for the count me in part. That will have to wait in my case until some really unbiased users who aren't fan people, hunt with it for 100+ hours and make some coherent reports. Those users also need to be very familiar and unbiased towards Deus 2 and the Equinox.

I would only add the word SOME between Do and Detectorist(s).

I am not about to tell you which detector or detectors to own. I will say you seem to be doing very well with the Equinox 800. That was an excellent find that you photographed. Also the Equinox did very well in the video provided on page 2 of this thread by Slavomir and its performance with those settings was very similar to what I see and the settings I use where I detect in high iron mineralization except that I like to hear the iron responses also if there are any. After owning, using and really liking Deus 2 Lite and the Legend, I believe they would also be able to detect the targets in Prymek7's video especially if Deus 2 was using its 11" coil and they were using their excellent SMF technology. As for do you need a high end detector versus an Equinox? I assume you mean would a Deus 2 or Manticore make a big difference and is it worth the extra expense. Again, as others have said, it totally depends on your hunting type=land vs submerged, soil conditions, amounts of natural and human made iron in the soil/sand and the type, possible depth and size of non-ferrous or ferrous targets you are most likely to be hunting. For many people, ergonomics really matter too as far as how long one can detect with or without fatigue. I often hear these statements......90% detector/10% operator and the opposite 10% detector/90% operator and many variations of those equations thrown about. Where I detect most often, the detector makes all the difference and I just operate it and interpret what it is telling me. These latest simultaneous multi frequency detectors like the Equinox, Deus 2 and the Legend give me extremely accurate information about almost every target and they get the conductivity and ferrous or non ferrous right almost all of the time on coin sized targets down to the edge of detection of 9 to 10 inches on small USA coinage and is similar to Prymek7's video. Single frequency detectors and the Equinox, Legend and Deus 2 using their available selectable single frequencies may or may not hit those same 9" to 10" deep targets with some kind of audio response but they will absolutely not identify the conductivity of those targets accurately deeper than 4" where I detect. You mentioned all of the frequencies available on Deus 2 using its selectable single frequency Mono program. There are 49 of them. The default frequencies are 4.4, 7.5, 13, 17.1, 25, 32 and 40.4 kHz. There are 3 higher and three lower selectable frequencies on either side of the default frequencies ranging from: 4.0 to 4.7 kHz, 6.9 to 8.0 kHz, 10.3 to 15.1 kHz, 15.6 to 20.7 kHz, 22.0 to 28.5 kHz, 29.4 to 35.3 kHz and 36.3 to 45.4 kHz. It is very nice and helpful to be able to see the exact manually selected frequencies. Thank you XP!!! You only get to pick the frequency using this Mono program. The frequency shifts available in the FMF programs when performing a frequency scan do not include a display of the actual frequencies being used. The Equinox 800 has 6 selectable single frequencies 4, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 40 kHz. There are 18 other manually selectable frequencies for each of those 6 frequencies which can be accessed during the noise cancel procedure. They can be individually selected from -9 to +9. What those actual frequencies are/how big the increments are between each shift is not displayed for the end user. Also, I don't know if say choosing 40 kHz for example means that 40 kHz is the value of 0 in the -9 to +9 frequency shift range. Maybe Slavomir knows the size of those frequencies shifts and where they lie on the -9 to +9 scale.

Replacement shafts are around $30 US.

I have to agree with dogodog. If you have serious interest in the Manticore and you have little to no experience using intermediate to high end metal detectors, the best preparation for the Manticore would be an Equinox 600 or 800 or even a Minelab Vanquish model if you want to save some money. They all use Multi IQ technology, have similar audio features and have easily understandable user interfaces. I also would not for one moment ignore the Nokta Legend since it is a very fine detector with similar performance to the Equinox where I detect. Naturally occurring iron (magnetite) mineralization is only a problem when the concentrations are high enough to seriously effect depth and target ID accuracy. This poor performance is mostly seen using single frequency VLF detectors and with detectors that have selectable single frequencies. Detectors with more recently developed simultaneous multi frequency technology that were designed to handle a wide range of soil conditions will work much better in high iron mineralization. Deus 2, the Equinox and the Legend all have very good to excellent iron mineralization ground handling capabilities.

Maybe you can speak with your dealer about the iron mineralization in your area. Areas with granite can (not always) also have higher soil concentrations of magnetite when the granite is eroded and becomes part of the soil.

Like F350Platinum said, your location/ground conditions and target choices/variety are the keys to picking the best detector for your situation. These are my opinions after hundreds to thousands of in the field hours with the three detectors mentioned next. Where I detect, the Equinox, Deus 2 and the Nokta Legend (why aren't you considering it) are so close in performance that the differences can be measured in fractions of an inch EXCEPT on small low conductive targets and in ground with higher iron mineralization. The Equinox and Legend pull substantially ahead of Deus 2 from my field experience and testing of these three models if small low conductor targets like small sub gram gold nuggets, micro sized gold jewelry and high iron content land or beach mineralization are a factor. Right now the only reasons I would pick Deus 2 over these other detectors and possibly Manticore is for hunting man-made iron trashed sites for mid to high conductor coin sized or bigger targets, for use mostly as a submerged or diving detector and for its exceptional ergonomics for users that need a really lightweight detector for whatever reasons they might have. Otherwise, the Equinox and Legend are both outstanding alternatives to Deus 2 for coin sized coin, jewelry and relic hunting from my experience. As far as the Manticore.......who knows.

This would be my "workout plan" if I had to swing an Etrac or CTX regularly for long hunts without a harness.....

Since I hunt almost exclusively in high iron mineralization, I have not and probably will not use 4 kHz, 5 kHz, 10 kHz or 15 kHz. I do sometimes use 20 and 40 kHz in bad EMI. Those lower frequencies get next to no depth where I detect and target IDs are heavily up averaged. Sorry I can’t help with your question.

I am going to call that electromagnetic interference. Unless you live in a house or cabin with no electricity and that house or cabin is far from a city…..you will have EMI especially on extremely high gain simultaneous multi frequency detectors like the Legend. Even at sensitivity 18 and several frequency scans, EMI is still noticeable if I try to use it in my house or in my backyard/neighborhood. Switch it to 20 or 40 kHz single frequency and see it it quiets down at 20 sensitivity.

It is not the first time I have offended you. For that I am sorry and I wish that hadn't happened. I just posted this video to help Equinox owners and potential Manticore owners. I also posted it because I really like Steve's videos since he always tries to keep things upbeat and positive even when he is demonstrating a detector issue like the one in the video that was posted here by me. I am sorry I posted it and sorry you are offended and sorry that Steve may be too. That certainly was not what I had in mind when I posted Steve's excellent video. BTW, I said in a previous post that I think Longbow62 is wrong about Steve. In fact, I know Longbow62 is wrong about Steve.....

Hi Carolina, Longbow may be going off my information which as you know is certainly fallible. I was under the impression that Steve has had multiple Equinox leaks and has even had replacements leak. He states in this video that he will not use any of his Equinox detectors for submerged detecting anymore because he does not trust them. Longbow is a good guy too. I think he is wrong about Steve however. But let's try to be as civil as possible here please. Maybe John Boy will chime in here too. I think he is a member.

I give up. I posted this video to let others know that if your Equinox has some cracks around the charging port area it very well may leak there if submerged. If you or I get a Manticore someday......keep an eye on that port. So, I don't watch all of Gigmaster's content....not into crab and shrimp....shellfish allergy and I don't like to watch a ton of Youtube videos anyway. I do love the Equinox.....still my favorite detector even though it has plenty of flaws. Gig loves his Equinoxes too or he wouldn't have stuck with them through all of their water ingress and coil ear failures....no matter what anybody says, the Equinox will definitely find the goods if one knows how to use it. Steve says in this video that he really hopes the Manticore won't leak. Why does he say that? Again, he really loves the Equinox and he also says he just wants to use one detector model and learn it really well instead of having to use three different ones (Nox, Deus 2 and Legend currently). All three have had and are having problems that are ongoing for him from major to minor. The type of hunting he does is not nice to detectors. After just a quick count of regularly posting members here who have experienced Nox leaks once or multiple times....11 members Longbow. You and I are luckily not among those 11. There are undoubtedly more that I could find on this forum if I wanted to spend hours looking. The Nox Leaking videos are not all produced by Gigmaster. A quick, 30 second long, YouTube search produced 5 more content creators. There are metal detector YouTube creators that only make a handful of videos in their lifetime like me who are just trying to make something I can post on a forum or send to a manufacturer. There are others like Gigmaster that may be making YouTube videos as part of their metal detecting hobby. They aren't out to prove anything or proclaim what metal detector is best. Most of Steve's videos are more like beach metal detecting journals and how too videos for mods and techniques. So, I don't get whatever animosity is pointed at Steve for whatever reason. He is one of the normal/good guys in my opinion that does this for fun and tries to make it fun and informative for his viewers too.

Was your control pod replacement due to water ingress or some other problem? I saw where you stated that it leaked. Did Mike confirm that and if so where did it leak?

Sadly, Reg passed away recently. There is lots of information on doing the Reg mods on this forum. Maybe someone a lot smarter than me will be able to link all of it and post it here.

I thought Steve's video was important enough to post it here since this is a very Equinox "friendly" forum while also being the USA forum with the most varied, "hands on", in the field information about the Equinox from beginner users to regular users like most of us to world-class experts. To actually see a control unit leaking from a specific spot on camera is good information to know. As long as the Equinox is being sold and used it would be a really good idea to keep an eye on the charging port and to keep it and the cable contacts clean just to be sure. Like some have said, it could be heat build up at the port during poor connections, it could be Steve's (and others) specific hunting conditions and it could be a bad batch of rear housing plastic........ Equinox could leak from other places too....... If I buy a used Manticore down the road, that port will be one of the first things I check......

The whole reason for Gig’s video was the similarity between the Equinox and Manticore charging port appearance and position on both control pods. All of his Nox control pods have leaked due to cracks in that area. That is all there is to Gig’s video. He is just asking a logical question about the Manticore based on his Equinox experience.

It is so amazing how detectors perform differently in different parts of the world. Everything you said in that quoted section.......for me and my experience with the 24k and the Nox..........it is completely the reverse. Just switch Nox for 24k..etc in that quote and that has been my experience.

What do you not buy about it........ I like the Equinox. It has found me more gold nuggets and gold jewelry than any other VLF times at least 20...... Mine hasn't leaked, others have. Why would I bash a detector that works well for most people and for me? Why would I post a video about the Equinox leaking on camera for any other reason than to show where it is leaking so owners can check their Equinox. If you want to go after Minelab.....and the Equinox, feel free under the appropriate forum topic. As far as accepting that Minelab will probably never release an official statement about the Equinox leaking issue or the coil ears breaking issue.....its been over 4 years and crickets. If I owned Minelab, I would have released an official statement. I don't. Instead of thinking negatively about it or complaining for the last 4 years, I have just enjoyed using my Equinox detectors and have especially enjoyed what they have found. I enjoy sunshine too....sometimes I wish the sun rose in the west but I have accepted the fact that it doesn't.

There have been no reports that I have seen of Deus 2 or the Nokta Legend control units leaking, especially in salt water. They are both excellent detectors for sure and are very similar to the Equinox in many ways as far as how they can be setup, how they sound and how they detect.

The XP branded waterproof bag shown in the photo on page 1 of this topic works just fine. It looks very similar to the ones I have from Deus 1. I have put the Deus 1 WS4 puck and the full Deus 1/ORX remote in those bags many times.....no problems with water ingress or connectivity as long as the antenna is close by. So, yeah, if you want to go near or in the water with the WS6 puck in that bag it should be fine and it's covered by the warranty that way. Put it in a zip-loc bag or don't use any kind of water protection, its probably not covered.

Right now, I would be happy with just version 0.8...............

Apart from Steve's work on the Equinox, the Equinox was not aimed at gold prospectors either from the way it was introduced, initially marketed and is still marketed today. This is why so many people still come to this forum just to ask or find out if the Gold Monster 1000 is the best VLF option of gold prospecting compared to other detectors. Most, don't even know about the Equinox unless they spend some time here.

Stating the obvious, Manticore using its Gold mode in Multi or single frequency vs Gold Monster 1000...... hard to tell since any gold prospector that has tested or used a Manticore isn't talking about it. There has been plenty of information about the Equinox 800 versus the Gold Monster 1000 on this site however and all I am going to say about that is do some research here on that subject before just going out a getting a GM 1000. The number one factor that should be considered in my opinion and from my experience is the level of iron mineralization, hot/cold rocks and variations in the ground at the sites being hunted. If the Manticore's Gold mode using the Multi frequency setting acts anything like the Equinox 800 using its 2 Gold modes set on Multi, it may have some advantages over the single frequency only Goldmonster 1000 as far as ease of ground balancing, ground handling and useable depth in more challenging ground conditions. At least the Equinox 800 can be used in ground tracking mode, ground grab or manual ground balance mode. Gold Monster 1000 is tracking ground balance only. I'm not saying that is good or bad. It is just not an option on the GM 1000. So, Manticore/Equinox 800 have a lot more possibilities for effective use at more sites (even submerged) than the Gold Monster 1000 and the overall sensitivity between the Equinox and GM 1000 especially with the Equinox in 40 kHz single frequency for air testing versus the GM 1000 is very close. As far as the features that Manticore's Gold mode may have that are the same or similar to the Equinox 800.....I just haven't looked into it much at all. For a gold prospector, the Manticore's 0 to -99 iron range has me intrigued a bit......... I will say that the Equinox 800 has many features in its Gold modes that can help a prospector which the GM 1000 does not have. That gulf may be even bigger with the Manticore. Gold Monster 1000 may be easier to make smaller in it's stock configuration, but in my opinion it is not any harder to do the same with the Equinox even in its stock configuration. Adding collapsible carbon fiber shafts to the Equinox 800 makes it super easy to backpack and very lightweight. In my opinion, you actually have more coil choices now with the Equinox than with the Gold Monster 1000 with the addition of the excellent Coiltek coils made for the Equinox. Coil choices for Manticore that are good for gold prospecting.........don't know when those will be available.

Other than EMI susceptibility which is a problem for SMFs and some single freqs, the more recently made higher quality SMFs...Equinox, Legend and Deus 2 simply outperform the older SMFs and any single frequency detector on a wider variety of targets and target sizes, trash levels, trash types and especially for target identification accuracy all the way to the extreme depth of detection....where I hunt. If EMI is overwhelming, all three detectors have plenty of selectable single frequencies to choose from. I have owned every type of earlier SMF tech except for the Fishers. These newer detectors for me are simply better.....especially when the ground has more mineralization. Hey, maybe I am just weird or have unique hunting scenarios. All I can say is that all three fit almost all of my needs as if they were tailor made for me. Finds have quadrupled in quantity and quality and these detectors have easily paid for themselves except for Deus 2 but its my most recent purchase and its getting there.