Jeff McClendon

I much prefer the same. Let the detector do the "talking" and just show me its features and how to basically use it. He has also answered every question I have ever posed to him in the Comment section of his Youtube videos and usually within 24 hours. Gary can do those things without boring me and my dog likes his voice too.

that is probably true but.......those are not the Equinox settings I would have used in high EMI on a 12" deep gold target in sand. In that heavy of an EMI environment I may have given the Nox a pass and just tested the Deus 2 without the comparison.

New video by Iffy Signals with less Legend screen glare showing target ID stability on his iron polluted test bed target garden and a US nickel comparison depth test of 4", 6" and 8" showing Legend's non ferrous low conductor target ID stability. I really appreciate his calm, no nonsense delivery without any exaggerations or unintended possible bias.

If this has already been posted.....SORRY. This test shows a couple of things that I can see and hear. The Deus 2 handles EMI fairly well. The Equinox does not handle high EMI nearly as well and that is coming from someone who likes the Equinox way more than the original Deus 1. The Deus 2 Beach modes with factory default turn on and go settings are setup much better for the serious user than the Equinox Beach modes. Many Equinox Beach mode users that are after deeper targets use only 1 or 2 tones with every target accepted. I like two tones best too and am looking for any possible ferrous/non ferrous identification insights from the target responses. On deeper targets the responses may be half and half (or worse towards iron) ferrous/non ferrous. So rejecting the iron range by factory default kills many of the deep target responses on gold and even silver jewelry. However, opening up the full target ID range on the Equinox just makes EMI handling worse and actual in the ground target responses harder to hear. This has happened to me too often at beach sites. No choice but to turn the sensitivity down and there goes at least 3" of overall depth. Opening up the target ID range also brings all of the shallower beach iron targets into play. Can't have that if one is a beginner or casual detector user. This also shows how much more effective version 3 and later Deus 1 and now Deus 2's iron response handling capabilities really are and how much tweaking is needed to get the Equinox to handle iron responses more effectively. The Deus 2 default programs (and the Deus 1 programs that I often use) have been well thought out as far as settings chosen and perform extremely well even on tough targets just using turn on and go. As shown in Calabash's recent comparison videos the Equinox almost seems to be handicapped by many of its default settings as if Minelab was trying to satisfy hobby or more casual users and "keep them out of trouble' with the default settings. Those default settings are too safe and don't let the Equinox really "show off" in my opinion. The Deus 2 is one amazing detector and is geared towards the serious hobbyist, expert or professional for sure as was Deus 1.

Another great comparison from Calabash Digger. Deus 2 with 11" coil vs Equinox with 11" coil in default beach modes.

WS6 Module Menus explained by Gary Blackwell. Goes through all of the menus and settings for the turf discrimination modes. No information on the Beach, Dive, Gold Field or Relic modes.........???????

Sensitivity being too high is one thing to consider. So is swing speed. In real world, bed of nails situations there is absolutely no way that I would ever swing my coil in such a fast and haphazard way as the tester in the video you referenced. The same goes for many other testers that I have seen lately who think that swinging a coil really fast over nails and coins is a true representation of what these detectors can actually achieve in real world situations or that the one that can be swung fastest is the best for all ferrous/non-ferrous situations. I certainly will swing fairly quickly in tiny 1 to 3" swings when I have isolated a non-ferrous target in a high iron or high aluminum trashed site to zero in and center the target under the coil. I would never do that while walking a site to try and find a quality non-ferrous target in a densely trashed area which Monte's Nail Board test recreates.

Unfortunately for me and many turf hunters, dependence on numerical target IDs are not an obsession. Instead, their importance is imposed on me by the restrictions set by municipalities and land owners in the arid conditions (more like drought) that I often hunt in. Digging with a shovel or anything close to a shovel will leave turf damage here and is not allowed in most cities. Making sure that I at least know the conductivity of the potential target is super important along with knowing how to "dig" with a probe or long shafted screwdriver. Accurate numerical target IDs are really important to me. So are accurate tones that can tell me the target's conductivity and possibly its shape, surface (smooth or uneven) and its condition/orientation. The Deus 1 full tones and the Equinox full tones can do those things to some degree when I am able to ignore their "quality". Not being an engineer, do I have this next statement right? Are the tones produced by these detectors less "filtered" than the target ID numbers as in, are the tones generated first and then the target ID numbers? Being a professionally trained European/North American classical music musician means that I actually listen to the tones that a detector produces from the standpoint of a musician and not just a detector user. The Deus 1 PWM full "tones" actually sound more like static filled noise to me. There are discernible pitch changes but the amount of distortion of the pitches is just too much for me. The Deus 2 Square Wave tones sound quite a bit cleaner and more defined so far but the cleanliness may detract from actual target characteristic identification. The Equinox full tones are certainly much cleaner and defined than Deus PWM generated full tones. However, I too find it hard to exactly match the 50 individual pitches to clear numerical equivalents even on well known targets like US nickels. The full tones used on the Equinox have to fit into a frequency range and that has compressed the intervals between some of the tones so close together that a differentiation is hard to hear even for me. Very few of the tones are a full half step apart (like on a piano keyboard) and most are quarter tones or micro tone intervals. Very interesting topic. I for one, am delighted to see the Deus 2, Legend, Equinox and Vanquish having stable numerical target IDs.

Not trying to pour cold water on this topic but, Detect History is not a site that I depend on for, as they stated, "Unbiased" information. I am not doubting for one moment that the Vanquish pictured has suffered catastrophic damage. How/Why that happened would be nice to know since Detect History states that they do not know the circumstances or details or even the provenance of the photos. Detect History goes on to speculate about a possible chronic problem with no evidence to back that up. Detect History has often given wrong specification and feature information about detectors they have reviewed including the Vanquish. I rate their accuracy and journalistic/review quality as barely above MD Hunter due to their tendency to sensationalize and exaggerate the "facts" as they see them.

His first time out with the the detector and in a public area........maybe he did not want to be an audio nuisance to others. Otherwise, I totally agree with you. It would have been nice to hear the targets more clearly. My iPhone pods have a microphone built in which I just put inside my detector headphones.....its easy.

I prefer Aaron's videos usually so have a look at this too.

Agreed. The question for me using the Legend and the Deus 2 is, do these detectors have the hot ground capabilities of the Equinox 800 which will operate in just about any hot soil conditions. Where I often detect, most single frequency higher frequency VLF gold detectors will easily overload and are hard to ground balance. The Equinox 800 handles these areas easily even at sensitivity levels around 20 of 25 with no coil knock sensitivity and no obvious loss of target separation due to high iron mineralization masking using the 6" or Coiltek 10X5" coil. I did use the Gold Kruzer on these sites and it barfed badly even at low sensitivity levels and with ISAT cranked up using its smaller coils. Hopefully, Nokta Makro's Legend has the "secret sauce" to internally adjust for these hot ground conditions using its Gold Field mode. By the way, the only other VLF that runs smoothly at these sites is the Deus 1 and ORX in their Gold modes.......go figure.

Thanks Luis for posting this video by Iffy Signals who is a detectorist that I definitely trust. I have emailed and chatted online with him and he tells it like it is for his hunting conditions. His soil is moderately mineralized. That means it is mineralized enough to badly skew single frequency detector target IDs including other Nokta Makro models that Iffy Signals has tested. So, even though the Legend has a different numerical target ID scale (0 to 60) from Nokta Makro's previous 0 to 99 scale, it was easy to see that all of the deep high conductor US silver and copper coin targets had very accurate IDs and tones similar to the Equinox. He was using default tone settings so like the Equinox 800 it is possible to adjust the Legend's tone breaks so that all of those silver targets will produce just one tone not the two different tones that were sounding since the IDs were straddling the medium high/high tone break point on both detectors. For me, the most important target was the US V nickel which is a non-ferrous low conductor 5 gram, 75% copper, 25% nickel coin that normally reads 12/13 on the Equinox with a medium low tone. The Equinox hit that target well. So did the Legend with its 22 ID and medium low tone. That was very impressive. The Racers,Simplex, Kruzers and Anfibios that I have tested and used on in the ground US nickel targets deeper than 4" have always up averaged them into the silver range. The Legend in all of the modes used detected the 8" V nickel accurately. That was the type of testing I needed to see since I know where Iffy Signals detects and I have some experience with that dirt which is by no means mild.

Don't know about the Beach programs. The closest thing to a threshold based all metal mode on the Deus 1 and Deus 2 (like the Equinox 800 Gold modes) are the Gold Field and Relic modes, if that is what you are asking....... If you are asking if there is a factory preset mode with no targets rejected as the default setting......I have no clue. With Deus 1 and the ORX, I just set the iron discrimination level wherever I want. I am assuming you can do that with any of the default detecting modes including the Beach modes by setting discrimination anywhere from -6.4 to +99. Reading the manual like Steve linked above is a good idea along with watching Gary Blackwell's videos and waiting for Hugh to answer. Page 46 in the manual shows all of the programs and their factory default settings.

The Equinox has the horseshoe button that instantly with one push accepts all targets in the full -9 to +40 ID range. Press it again and you are instantly back to your preset discrimination pattern. So, the horseshoe button does not create another mode by pressing it like Park, Field, or Beach. It just accepts all targets in the mode you are using. The Deus 1 and it appears, the Deus 2 do not have a single button press that does this. You could have two saved custom programs side by side, one with all targets accepted like pressing the horseshoe button and one with the same program but with your chosen preset discrimination or notched pattern and toggle between them. The Equinox's single or multiple digit notching is pretty easy using the accept/reject setting. At least with Deus 1, I found notching to be a pain in the butt. Maybe it will be easier and more accurate on Deus 2. On Deus 2 you do have Iron Audio on or off along with volume levels, the Silencer with several levels and Bottle Cap reject.

Supposed to be waterproof to 60 feet with a battery in the shaft????

A battery and other technology would have to fit into a 5" coil..........I doubt it can be done.

I appreciate his work so far. I know he hasn’t got the coil over any two shovel targets yet but so far the IDs are stable. I wish he would at least bring his ORX with him to compare ID stability. I really like the Square tones. Thanks XP for listening to many of your customers who did not care for PWM audio.

I am not trying to confuse things but it is really easy for me to get confused. I have read through the Deus ll manual three times. No where do I see a reference to an adjustment that could be done on the Deus 1 which was ID normalization ON........every target ID no matter what frequency is being used will register a target ID that corresponds to target IDs for 18 kHz and ID normalization OFF......the higher the frequency the higher the target ID. There was this one slightly confusing paragraph in the manual (for me anyway) in the Display Target ID section.... One of the advantages and special features of Deus ll is its programs, as they use different combinations of simultaneous frequencies while adapting to multiple ground types (see Programs) However, a few ferromagnetic targets will generate specific displays on certain programs. These targets cannot be generalized due to their ferrous components, otherwise there will be a risk of falsifying the display of all the other targets. E.g. one or two euro coins (ferromagnetic ring + copper center) will display 75 in the Diving and Relic programs but 80 in all the other programs. Diving and Relic use fairly low detecting frequencies from about 4 to 13 kHz, whereas the others include higher frequencies such as 40 kHz. So people in countries with steel core currency may experience this issue. Otherwise, hopefully the real answer is yes all target IDs are normalized to some frequency (18kHz???) no matter what program or frequency whether simultaneous multi frequency or single frequency unless you are in the Diving or Relic program referenced above.;

Chase, you are definitely “The Man”. I just hope that Deus 2’s FMF technology can equal or better Multi IQ in the areas I hunt. Five years ago, after watching many online videos showing the Deus 1 finding deep targets in European conditions, I blindly figured I would get the same results here where I detect. Boy was I wrong and I seriously doubted my sanity, was there something wrong with my Deus 1 and had I totally wasted my hard-earned money. I could care less how ergonomic Deus 1 was or how high tech/wireless it was. It just didn’t work any better than my F19 besides having faster recovery speed and felt better on the arm. The Equinox changed everything for me and basically instead of being disappointed, I was shocked at how well it performed here and continues to impress with depth, target ID all the way down to near the depth of detection, surprisingly good performance in iron compared to most other detectors other than Deus and its versatility and ability to handle just about any soil conditions. I would like to at least buy a Deus 2 Lite. However, I don’t want another big disappointment like I had with Deus 1 aside from using it for relic hunting in thick iron trash and for prospecting.

I love this topic since I get to argue with just about everybody on this one especially Chase. First for Palzynski, in my personal and experienced opinion the only configuration using the Deus 1, ORX (haven't touched a Deus 2 yet but assume it is similar) that is truly and wonderfully ergonomic is with 9" round or elliptical coils. Using an 11" or larger coil..........I get arm and wrist pain fairly quickly due to most of the weight being in the bigger coil which makes the detector nose heavy. So weight is relative to the coil being used and how balance is distributed in the detector design. For Chase, where I detect most often, your conventional description of how single frequencies work are pointless. Depth is better achieved here by detectors running at frequencies over 14 kHz. Park 1 and Field 1 are not deeper than Park 2 and Field 2 or the Gold modes on any targets of any conductivity due to moderate to high mineralization. So, either I am stupid, I have a giant misconception of the laws of physics or there is something going on inside the Equinox in Multi and hopefully the Deus 2 using FMF that defies the laws of physics. VLF detectors running at frequencies lower than a combined roughly 14 kHz are blind to deeper 6"+ coin sized targets here no matter who made them or how much they cost. They just don't detect them well here if at all, with no target IDs or a jumbled mess of target IDs and tones. Most single frequency detectors including the Deus 1 are done with reliable target information on coin sized targets at 4" and users of these detectors rarely bother to dig targets that their hand held pinpointer won't hit unless they are in a relic area with very deep targets of various sizes. The Equinox best use here is to run Park 1 or iron range modified to -9 to 0 Field 1 (little or no coke/charcoal here ) for general detecting and to hit the same site with Park 2 or iron range modified -9 to 0 Field 2 for the deeper and harder to hit partially masked or poorly oriented coin sized targets. This goes for coin sized targets of any conductivity. I have dug the mythical 8 to 10" clad and silver dimes along with 8" to 10" Indian, wheat and memorial pennies in Park 2 and Field 2 along with some extremely deep Indian War relics over 10" deep. I have yet to dig any 10" coin sized or relic targets in Park 1 and Field 1.............??????? The Gold modes are by far the deepest modes here period, not even a contest on any sized targets of any conductivity.

I like it too. But, now I can't argue with you anymore...........

So Chase, in the scenario that you, JCR and I all see as how this "spare" battery works, it will power the Legend and simultaneously charge the internal battery.........? Plenty of information gets lost in translation from Turkish, French, and even Aussie and Brit English to American slang.

Nope, which is too bad, my favorite coils.

Just so I can understand if this is what you are saying....... the main battery and replaceable spare battery both mount underneath the arm cuff. Did I get that right? Why is only one battery and charger shown in what is included in the box and with the battery and charger pictured being labeled a "spare". No other battery is shown especially the non "spare" battery.