Jeff McClendon

SMFs need some kind of extra iron filtering especially when they are as fast at recovery speed as the Legend. Nokta Makro will add adjustable iron bias settings. That is a good thing for people like me who almost always hunt either in man-made iron infested areas or mother nature made iron infested areas. I want my setting as low as possible most of the time so good targets will not be heavily iron masked. Having it at a setting that equaled the Equinox F2=6 level was just dumbing down this excellent detector way too much. If you don't want to have iron bias effect your detecting adversely, just leave it on the lowest setting and enjoy digging a little more iron and some occasional falsing. That works for me too.

I pre-ordered and fully paid for a Deus ll with 9" coil back in December. My dealer told me today it could be mid April. I cancelled my order and got a full refund. No big deal. I actually want just the Deus ll Lite with 9" coil. I can wait.

The Hunter GT's Deus 2 11" coil field testing in moderate mineralization (mineralization graph 1/2 full, air testing, nail board, small gold nuggets, and separation testing.

I posted this over on Iffy's Youtube site in response to his latest nail board test. ------------------------------------------------------------------- I paid very close attention to Mike's testing both yesterday and today. I believe that he has proven in these tests that Nokta Makro has set its fixed iron bias setting a bit too high. Let's go back to the roll out of the Equinox. Many people complained a ton about iron falsing, too many steel crown bottle caps sounding too good..........it was justified. Minelab had not set the original Fe iron bias range aggressive enough. They later released the alternate F2 iron bias range which was much more aggressive and as Iffy showed in this video, a setting of F2=6 made the nails almost stop falsing. It also masked the non-ferrous targets more and made the results be very similar to the Legend. Counting every left to right sweep as 2, with the coins in both positions, I counted 12 to 13 out of 16 for the Equinox F2=6 and 12 to 13 with the Legend with fixed Iron Bias. The Equinox with F2=0 was 14 to 15 using the same settings. Now think about the Vanquish roll out......great IDs in clean ground. Lots of masking of targets however especially iron masking. However......virtually no reports of lots of steel crown bottle caps being dug. Dilek posted a response to Mike's testing on Nokta Makro's Facebook page and for lack of a better choice or words, she nailed it. The problem for those of us that hunt in more iron than your casual hunter: the fixed iron bias setting that Nokta Makro chose was chosen to keep the detector from falsing too much on iron in the hands of less experienced detector users. Dilek also said since there is already an Iron Bias setting which is currently fixed and not adjustable, it can be made adjustable in the future with a software update. Dilek also praised Mike for his testing and for being honest in his testing. So relax people. Mike is a great tester. By great, I mean, not once has he criticized any detector, dismissed it as junk, or told you which one to buy. He is just showing as best he can what these detectors can do. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Also, check out Hunter GT's Part 2 Review with Deus 2 11" coil testing results posted on this forum in the Deus 2 section. Summarizing.........8" max on a US dime in moderately mineralized dirt, the coil has to basically touch a sub .1 gram nugget with the coil in an air test with no mineralization involved, and the 11" coil struggled with Monte's nail board test and with similar scoring system as above, to my ears scored at best 13/14 out of 16...... Hunter GT is an XP dealer by the way and yet he posted these results..........amazing. Many on this forum and some others are struggling with EMI using Deus 2......... If you are a beach hunter/diver or have to regularly hunt in iron trashed sites away from EMI, Deus 2 looks really good. If you need the outstanding ergonomics and minimal weight for physical reasons.....again Deus 2 or Deus 1 or the ORX looks good. For rock solid build quality/waterproofing, the handle vibration feature as an adjunct to needing audio responses when submerged or for the hearing impaired and for a great price, when Nokta Makro straighten out the iron bias setting the Legend looks fantastic. For those of us that know the Equinox like the backs of our hands, I don't see an upgrade with these other detectors for urban coin and jewelry hunting or open field relic hunting without too much iron, for gold prospecting, hunting anything in moderate to high iron mineralized ground or for hunting more iron mineralized beaches where one cannot run Deus 2 Beach Sensitive. Totally just my opinions

Soil in some places near the Rocky Mountains and where they are eroding can be a real challenge for mineralization. EMI can be really bad in urban areas too. My dirt is very similar to Jeremy’s in Portland. I know about a year ago you were wondering why I didn’t care for the ORX discrimination modes since they were working really well for you. Watching this video might give you some clues. Those modes on the ORX using just three tones didn’t give me any information on deeper targets or targets that were close together due to the high mineralization. The same is true of the Deus 1 on deeper targets….everything ended up being a high tone with high numbers or an iron response with no target ID after about 3”……crazy but true. The Gold modes worked great at least for overall depth

Another quirky but very informative video from Paystreak in Oregon. Anyone who lives in the Western US/Canada should pay close attention Paystreak praises Deus 2 and calls it amazing several times but just like Steve and Chase posted in the Advice and Comparison section the actual improvement over Deus 1 is less than 1", slightly better non-ferrous tone hits and more accurate target IDs. Forget about a massive depth gain just because its called Deus 2 and others are hitting 14" US coin targets.

Paystreak is a little quirky but he knows his stuff and usually gives a detector a fair assessment. Sometimes he goes a bit overboard and just like anybody he makes a setting mistake and he draws the wrong conclusion. He usually acknowledges that and appreciates feedback from viewers. Anyone who lives near the Rocky Mountains of North America can learn from videos like his.

For me, that test is dominated by the four iron nail responses which partially mask the small coin. Running reactivity at 5 might in theory make more sense in order to unmask the dime but it is also possible to have the reactivity so fast that it attenuates the dimes partially masked signal too much. You can hear this by just testing all of the reactivity settings while swinging over the dime. From 0 to 5 the dime audio response will get smaller and quicker with more space in between. Also, coil control, uniformity of coil height and swing length and speed are really important when doing Monte's NB. Swinging too short, too fast or just the opposite can really change the results.

One of my favorite detectorists Dirt Fish Mish tries out Deus 2. She is an Aussie and is not one of my favorites because of the way she looks. She is one of my favorites because she knows her stuff, is an excellent content creator and has a no BS, no opinions, unbiased, lets just get metal detecting approach to her videos. She is a very experienced Equinox and Excal user for coins, relics, beach and diving and has never operated an XP detector before until this video. Enjoy, I certainly will.

Welcome to the forum!!!! The Viper coil's quality control were hit and miss. A lot of hype was associated with the release of that coil. For many, it has underperformed. The Raider coil is a tried and true design that has been on many of the AT series detectors. You won't miss much with that coil depending on your beach's salt and iron sand levels and the amount of trash targets present. It is definitely heavier than Viper, but both get heavy with sand all over them and inside their coil covers. Enjoy and HH

The more difficult dirt out here will give very good target IDs on detectors that are capable of that like the Equinox, Vanquish, Deus 2 and hopefully the Legend down to about 6" if the ground has not been disturbed. This has been reported by many people here on this forum, not just me. Some places it is a little less and some places can go a little deeper with identifiable target IDs. Moisture conditions certainly play a part. The Simplex has some of the better IDs for a single frequency detector in the dirt that I used it on. So, Paystreak knew what he was doing when he put those coins in the ground at 6" which is right on the borderline for good IDs for a dime in undisturbed ground. In disturbed ground there are many VLF detectors that would not even hit that dime and if they did, the responses would either be iron grunts, highest target IDs on the detector or no target ID displayed. The fact that both detectors gave some occasional correct IDs was impressive. That tells me that if those were wild undisturbed targets at 6", both detectors (especially Deus 2) would have had even better numbers and tones

He lives in Portland Oregon I think. His backyard dirt and the dirt in his area has plenty of magnetite and volcanic ash. Since he is in his backyard, there probably is some man-made iron too. He did a good job of keeping the plugs together. Most of what you are seeing as far as good and bad numbers corresponding to direction of swing over the target is from high iron mineralization not just from man-made iron. He is not getting multiple target indications in each hole. My backyard sounds exactly the same. Some of the iron targets are man-made and some are patches of magnetite. The ground was moist, certainly not muddy and not frozen. So, almost ideal digging conditions and ground conditions.

Simon, I can't speak for anyone but myself. First, the T2 and F75 were so handcuffed with EMI in my urban area that it is hard to know exactly. However, as much as I really like both detectors, their target ID accuracy was 3". Deeper targets sounded awful and IDs were absolutely all over the place. The Simplex outperformed them here and had no EMI issues.

Iffy Signals has his Nokta Makro Legend Production Unit and made this introductory video of the new changes to the menu. Great looking detector.

The fact that both detectors actually hit the 6” dime is pretty amazing. I have some 6” well established dime and penny targets in my backyard test garden that most detectors cannot hit much less indentify.

I have no issues with either detector in this comparison. I still look forward to owning a Deus 2. However, potential buyers should know what to expect especially if they will be detecting in really bad dirt. For me personally, if Deus 2 with a 9" coil can give me 6 or 7" of good target IDs and tones in this dirt, I will be ecstatic. Equinox does about the same but like Palzynski reminds us on this forum, the Deus and Deus 2 are a lot more comfortable to pack and to swing. At my age that definitely matters. So does Deus trashy iron handling.

If you still just have the Goldmonster.....you don't need to worry about the threshold part. Just ground balance often and until the Goldmonster quiets down. If you are using the X 705 in prospect mode, then you should listen for a slight threshold volume increase as the coil approaches the ground. Otherwise ground balancing the X 705 in its disc. mode is easy.

Alright, no snickering. This is a serious comparison. For those that have never used a Simplex, it is pretty impressive. Deus 2.....I have never used one. Paystreak Superfreak sometimes makes some weird videos. I do weird stuff too like metal detecting at 30 degrees F in 4 inches of snow.... This video is no nonsense and very accurate from my experience. This is a test on three US coins at 6" in disturbed freshly dug high magnetite and volcanic particulate dirt. For those of you who are fortunate to hunt in mild soil....now you are getting a good idea of how bad it can get just in someones back yard. My backyard dirt looks almost exactly like Paystreak's. Detects about as bad too. By the way, the Equinox does not like highly iron mineralized freshly disturbed ground either.

Who on here besides Cal_Cobra has actually seen and used a Legend?????? I don’t think Cal Cobra has a Deus or Deus 2.

I am not good at French but google translation confirms Sandheron's translation. En reduisant is similar to English reducing. My German is better than my French. I am pretty sure the German manual is also wrong since it uses the word hoehere instead of words like senken, absenken or tiefere in the same sentence.

Cobill, this is not a rebuttal or anything. I just wanted to show that other detectors can do what Paystreak demonstrated even though his comments in his video would lead one to believe otherwise and that Deus 2 has achieved the impossible. So, just giving credit where credit is due and keeping folks honest. All it takes is a little adjustment and some careful coil control. Overload just means raise the coil a little........... Paystreak's video is about 18 minutes. Mine is 1 minute 47 seconds............ I really like the magnetic ground accept/reject feature that XP has incorporated into Deus 2's Beach modes. I look forward to receiving my Deus 2 soon too.

Saltwater beach hunting with the Equinox in the surf, wash, or wet sand I rarely use the pinpoint function or pay much attention to the depth meter. The audio tells me enough to dig or not. Gold prospecting....again, I rarely use the depth meter or pinpoint function. Freshwater beach hunting or any kind of turf hunting for coins and jewelry and even relics, I am constantly using the pinpoint feature and the depth meter and any other form of target locator and target diagnostic feature available.

That is a tough decision. If you send it back unopened the dealer may turn right around a charge a restocking fee...... Anyway, the video linked above is another example of what learning a new detector is like (similar to Gigmaster's videos) and of someone having either: a lot of audacity/guts/lack of self-awareness , could care less what one thinks of them while they learn, or an example of someone that welcomes any help they can get during the process. I have a test garden that can quickly tell me if a detector will work in my area. That is the first place I will test Deus 2 and I will know if it is an improvement over Deus 1/ORX and can get the job done on the soil around here in about 5 minutes. Saltwater beach hunting is a hole different story with Deus 2......brand new programs and settings and no body is an expert yet. I would need several hours on several different location before I could make a definitive decision. Savannah Harps hunts a couple of hundred miles south of Calabash. There isn't much black iron sand on his beaches either. There is some gray mud and sedimentary rocks from marsh lands that discolors the sand.

Steve described the difficulty of detecting broken jewelry and open hoops earrings very well Savannah Harps is an experienced Deus 1, Orx and Equinox user/beach hunter and YouTube videographer with a good reputation (Comments ON) and 3.7K subscribers. That being said, he is still learning Deus 2 and its brand new beach programs. Looking at his settings that he described and one could easily see on the Equinox when he showed the actual video segments depicting his finding of those two targets, he was hunting in 2 tone Beach 2 with nothing rejected and sensitivity above 20. Both targets were found in wet sand/shallow surf. The broken ring responded with solid audio and target ID of 3 and the open hoop responded with solid audio and target ID of 1. Depth was approximately 1/2 of a full scoop so less than 4". Target IDs of 1 to 3 on the Equinox corresponds to a target ID in the upper 20s to upper 30s on a Deus. Like the Equinox, those are borderline ferrous/non-ferrous targets on a good day and well within the window where any kind of ground/salt/iron filtering can have an effect on target response. He was keeping his iron volume level on Deus 2 at 1 which is the minimum volume level and set iron tone pitch at a very low 100 Hz (for a noisy beach) with tone break at 9.5, I think he also stated that his second tone bin tone was also set at 100 Hz with low volume and with tone break at 10, bottle cap rejection on 4, salt sensitivity from 7 to 9. Basically he was running Deus 2 Beach Sensitive which is default 3 tones with the 2 lowest tones set at 100 Hz with very low volume levels for a noisy beach and discrimination set at 10. 3rd tone should have sounded high on anything above 10 in theory. Anyway, I don't think some of his settings for his custom program built on Deus 2 Beach Sensitive were helping him with those two very borderline targets very much.

That was a very good video. I like that way of using undisturbed ground. I doubt I would like digging a hole that big in semi-frozen ground however. He did a very good job of being unbiased during the testing and of letting the detectors be the center of attention. The smallest target was around 1 gram with the heaviest 16 grams (I think). Deep HC was very effective and impressive on all of those targets. The settings posted were very incomplete and were not default settings. Also, Iron volume seemed to be off during depth testing and on during separation testing. Audio Response seemed to be cranked up above 5 which is default on Deep HC....maybe I am wrong on that. Also seemed to be using Square audio. Whatever mode the Equinox was in..........the list only said All Metal so it could have been Park 1, Park 2, Field 1, Field 2 Beach 1 or Beach 2........definitely not Gold modes so who knows. Recovery speed 3 is fine for depth testing if the tester slowed down their swing a lot. Recovery speed 3 is lousy for separation testing. So is auto tracking ground balance which I assume is what ground balance=auto meant in their settings list. Not for one moment suggesting that the Equinox even with manual ground balance and recovery speed 8 would match the Deus 2 in iron target vs silver coin separation testing......not going to happen EVER. So, note to self if I ever video a test like this........clearly state what all the settings are, actually show them on the screen along with target IDs and also if one detector is in tracking, they both should be in tracking. If one detector has iron volume on at 20 of 25 they both should have at least iron volume on at an easily audible level, if one detector is running a program with a maximum of 24 to 40 kHz and one is running a program with a maximum of 14 kHz on 1 gram to 16 gram weighted targets, which would you expect to do much better on that sized targets in mild ground? This is another deficiency that Minelab needs to address with the Equinox.....a lower weighted deep mid to high conductor coin/relic mode like Deep HC for milder ground conditions. The tester seemed to be very unfamiliar with the Equinox (using borrowed settings and swinging way too fast). Probably hasn't had much time on Deus 2 for obvious reasons. Not saying this test was not valid. I am saying that Deus 2 in Deep HC is very, very good in those ground conditions with whatever settings the tester was using that were not listed.