Jeff McClendon

Looks like I might have ruffled some feathers. Oh well. I was just trying to answer Joe’s questions, not stir up trouble. I am really impressed with the features and potential capabilities of the Deus 2. If it’s SMF technology works really well in more than just salt beach scenarios, XP will truly have a full featured, versatile, general purpose SMF detector that similar to the Equinox will be able to detect very well in a multitude of soil conditions and for a wide variety of target conductivity including small gold nugget prospecting.

Deus is not a French word. In French it would be Dieu. Deus (Classical Latin: [ˈd̪e.ʊs], Ecclesiastical Latin: [ˈd̪ɛː.us]) is the Latin word for "god" or "deity". Latin deus and dīvus("divine") are in turn descended from Proto-Indo-European *deiwos, "celestial" or "shining", from the same root as *Dyēus, the reconstructed chief god of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon. In Classical Latin, deus (feminine dea) was a general noun[1] referring to a deity, while in technical usage a divus or divawas a figure who had become divine, such as a divinized emperor. In Late Latin, Deus came to be used mostly for the Christian God. It was inherited by the Romance languages in Galician and Portuguese Deus, Catalan and Sardinian Déu, French and Occitan Dieu, Friulian and Sicilian Diu, Italian Dio, Spanish Dios and (for the Jewish God) Ladino דייו/דיו Dio/Dyo, etc., and by the Celtic languages in Welsh Duw and Irish Dia.

No clue as far as adding frequencies via an after release update. I also don’t see any reason to add higher frequencies since the Deus 2 is more of an all around multi purpose detector. The Deus 1 HF coils were originally designed for XP’s gold prospecting detector the Depar 600 which was later modified and became the ORX. The HF coils lowest frequency is 13.1 kHz and the highest is 81 kHz so those coils encompass the medium to very small sized gold nugget range and use the highest frequency of any gold prospecting VLF on the market today. So obviously the HF coils were gold prospecting specific coils that also are great for relics and for target separation. They actually were never fully supported on the Deus 1. Looking at the specs for the Deus 2, it is not specifically geared for gold prospecting (only one Gold Field mode whereas the ORX and even the Nox have two) and its 40+ kHz high end frequency is on the low side for really small gold nugget prospecting especially if its SMF tech struggles with high iron mineralization. Using the really high single frequencies available on the Deus 1/ORX HF coils of 50 to 81 kHz actually helps in high iron mineralization.

The Legend has a Bluetooth transmitter not a 2.4 gHz transmitter so green headphones won’t work. Don’t know about pinpointers.

Having owned several Equinox and Deus detectors along with most of Nokta Makro's detectors since the Racer 2, I have zero problem recommending all of them. I have had a minor issue with each manufacturer......Nox Bluetooth transmitter issues, Deus butterfly coil charging clips constantly breaking, Gold Racer coil knock sensitivity. Minelab warranty service was outstanding. XP service was too. Nokta Makro......not good but there was no USA repair facility at the time. I have dunked my Noxes, beat the crap out of them, dropped them (all five) and treated them like I would treat a good pair of hiking boots. So anyone that thinks the control pod can't taking a beating is mistaken. Sure, some of them leak. Same for all of the Nox coils which I have treated like a tool instead of a classic car that I want to keep in mint condition. The exact same goes for the XP Deus components and the Nokta Makros too. Outstanding design, build quality, durability and function aside from the two components already mentioned. The Deus 2 costs almost twice as much as the Legend. Maybe there will be some major performance differences in addition to the underwater ratings and uses of the Deus 2 vs the Legend. I really like the looks of both detectors. I already have a Deus 1 with both HF coils which can do something that the Deus 2 can't which is run at frequencies above 50 kHz. So, the Deus 2 even though it has much better audio choices than Deus 1 just doesn't fit my needs as well as the Legend, which has no nonsense underwater capabilities (no antenna) and has grip vibration along with plenty of outstanding features which on the surface rival the Equinox. Having been a Simplex user and admirer, I look forward to owning a Legend.

For you folks in England with milder soil conditions than what many of us in the Western USA have.......the Legend may be just fine compared to the Equinox. For me, the Equinox was a very fulfilling answer to a long standing prayer for a VLF detector that can operate efficiently in really bad soil conditions. If the Legend can do that too......fantastic. I have my doubts about that. It will do what I need it to do which is replace the Equinox 800, Equinox 600, AT Series, Gold Kruzer and Simplex for submerged water coin, jewelry, relic and gold nugget detecting. If it ends up being capable of more compared to the Equinox in bad dirt/beach conditions......thank you Nokta Makro!!!

The QED for people outside Australia is definitely a risk. Mine worked fine for what it could do which is relic hunting and larger 1 gram and up gold prospecting in moderate soil. Ground balancing the QED in really bad dirt is iffy and everything depends on getting it properly balanced of course, just like a TDI, in bad dirt. I think Nokta Makro can do better than the QED........ just take a GP3500 and clone it with all of the after market mods included and put it into a FORS or Impact form factor housing.

A GPX 4000/4500/5000 in the GPX 6000/CTX3030 type form factor that still used all of the current 5 pin coils...........that would cost over $2000 US for sure. I would pay $3999 US for that detector in a heart beat, however.

I already sold my AT Gold, Simplex, and Equinox 600 to make room for the Legend. I need an easy to use (no extra antenna wires) IP68 waterproof trusted, SMF with good coil selections, handle vibration for indication of submerged targets (who needs headphones and bone phones), great up to date features, decent ergonomics and high enough frequencies for micro gold jewelry and backup gold prospecting. I will keep my Equinoxes (2 800s), Garrett 24k, Deus 1 Lite with both HF coils for the tiny gold that every other VLF misses since it runs at up to 81 kHz and be happy until the next Equinox comes out.

Yep, you and Nenad usually gets my feeble mind into some kind of forward gear.

I would like it even better if it was a GPX 5000 in the same configuration. I managed to get my GPX 5000 down to 6 lbs with Doc's amp/small battery/carbon fiber shaft combination along with lighter coils that weigh 800 grams or less and wireless headphones. I can almost manage it without a bungee for most of the day. 5 lbs (ditch the metal housing and heavy arm cuff)........add a grip mounted small display with control buttons (not steel toggles).........4 lbs would really be great.

Multi IQ SMF Minelab Vanquish 340 ($199) and 440 are already under $300 US.

Doc‘s Gold Screamer amp, two 7.4v batteries, charger, short power cable and nice GPX control box cover cost the same as one Minelab GPX 7.4v battery and are 1/3 the weight. Replacement batteries are $45.

Agreed, that would currently mean buying a used one however. Nothing wrong with that but I would definitely include the AT Gold in #8. The AT Gold has been obsoleted for gold prospecting by many other gold prospecting specific VLF detectors and some general purpose detectors like the Equinox, Deus, and hopefully the N/M Legend. The AT Gold is still a very fine all purpose, all terrain detector for the right circumstances. I really regret selling mine to make room for the Ace APEX. Just my mostly very subjective opinions.

Like all single frequency detectors and some SMFs (including the Equinox using some of its selectable single frequencies which proves that Multi IQ is no joke) the low and mid conductive targets are up averaged quickly in high iron mineralization as per depth. The high conductive targets also inch up towards wrap around. On some saltwater beaches with high iron sand content, just about everything wraps around into the iron range when the targets are deeper. The same happens in high iron mineralized gold prospecting areas.

I have just the opposite experience. Most single frequency and SMF detector target IDs are useless for 3” or deeper non-ferrous targets where I detect. So are my favorite detectors which happen to be Tesoro’s…..Cibola, Vaquero and Silver Micro Max. I can literally turn up the discrimination to Max and still dig beautiful sounding 3” and deeper US nickels, pull tabs, can slaw, .22 and bigger lead bullets and other low to mid conductor targets that in normal soil would be completely discriminated out by the discrimination set on Max or even on Tab……… The Equinox and Vanquish simply do not behave that way where I detect. I can trust the 5 tones or 50 full tones to be very accurate on non-ferrous targets. Sure, due to the way Multi IQ works, there will be some iron that gives non-ferrous responses if the iron bias is set low on 0 or 1. However, on non-ferrous targets even deep ones, I go by the tones first and use the numbers as a backup. So no, I don’t chase numbers all day when I’m using the Equinox or Vanquish. Hopefully, the Legend and Deus 2 SMF system will work as well as Multi IQ.

Maybe for you ML has been proven wrong. Depending on where you live and the level of iron mineralization in your dirt, a good quality single frequency detector is still very useful especially one that has selectable frequencies. Interestingly, almost all of Nokta Makro’s current line of detectors before the SMF Legend have had frequencies above 10 kHz. Where I often detect, any detector whether single or selectable frequency operating below 10 to 12 kHz was already unusable (obsolete) for any type of detecting except for extremely shallow targets. Iron mineralization levels here cause all single frequency detectors, especially if operating below 10 kHz, to have loss of depth with very poor target ID accuracy. Even some simultaneous multi frequency detectors have failed to perform very well here. I still own a Deus 1 which I use solely for gold prospecting and very rarely for thick bed of nails relic hunting. The original Deus of course will be replaced by the soon to be released SMF Deus 2. I also recently sold my 12 kHz single frequency Nokta Makro Simplex in preparation for possibly owning the new SMF Nokta Makro Legend. The Equinox 600, 800 and the Vanquish series of Multi IQ detectors detect very well here and other than my two gold prospecting specific detectors (Deus 1 and Garrett Gold Master 24K), Multi IQ has obsoleted and easily outperformed all of my previous single frequency and SMF detectors which I no longer own=Minelab X-Terra 50, 70, 705, GoFind 60, CTX 3030, Fisher F75, F44, F19, Teknetics T2, Patriot, Eurotek Pro, Garrett AT Gold, AT Max, ACE Apex, Whites MXT, MX5, MX7, M6, DFX, V3i, Quest Q40, Tesoro Lobo Super Traq, Vaquero, Cibola, Cutlass Micro Max, Mojave, Nokta Makro Racer 2, Kruzer, Multi Kruzer, Simplex. Hopefully, the new Legend will also make it unnecessary to own a single frequency multi purpose detector. So for me anyway, the opposite of your statement “ML has been proven wrong” has instead been proven true.

In 50 tones you can’t quiet them down since there are only two tone regions=ferrous/ nonferrous so you would quiet down the entire nonferrous tone region as a result. It is easier to quiet those numbers down in 5 tones since the 4 tone breaks are movable in 5 tones. Another way to deal with 39 and 40 would be to reject them entirely with the accept/reject button. You could always double check with the horseshoe button engaged

Hi Dave, in 50 tones, you can lower the volume level of the iron range tones to a background low volume level so they are not so overwhelming. Higher recovery speeds will result in shorter length tone responses and slightly less depth in “normal” dirt. In high iron mineralization slightly higher recovery speed may be necessary to “see” into the ground better Rusted/ bent square nails, especially deeper ones can have nonferrous responses throughout the target ID range. Really high tones and 38,39,40 numbers are almost always deep iron responses

Perfect balance.......definitely not. I can accept the balance of the Deus 1 with a 9" round or 9.5 x 5" elliptical coil. I can swing that setup all day. Change to the 11" or 13X11" coil........been there and not doing that again. Very bad nose heavy feeling and wrist/forearm strain. Which manufacturer makes the lightest coil in the 9 to 11" size is fairly worthless information. How they feel on the detector is what matters. Sure, the Nox is no better. I can swing the 11" Minelab coil with its slight nose heaviness and with Steve G's carbon fiber shaft for 4 to 6 hours, no problem. Using the Coiltek elliptical or the Minelab 6" coil, the Nox is fairly effortless to swing, much like the Deus 1. That doesn't mean either is perfectly balanced. Similar to Steve H., I am very interested in the SMF XP Deus 2, especially if it can handle bad iron mineralization with reliable target IDs on deeper targets.

When I am detector gold prospecting and sometimes at fresh and saltwater beaches, I use a plastic scoop or my bare hand to pass dirt/sand and target over the coil when I have isolated the target. If I’m wearing a watch it will easily create a response from the detector like the high gain Equinox or a pulse induction detector. My watch is stuffed in a pocket or my backpack and my phone is turned off in my backpack or pocket. So, having a clock is great. So is the time used since I hunt daily during most of the year. I like what I have seen so far. I owned a Simplex twice just to get used to it in case Nokta Makro was able to produce an SMF. I am not a skeptic, but I have not been impressed with the previous Nokta Makro detectors I have used in moderate to high iron mineralization. Just like every other SMF and single frequency detector, they overloaded easily on hot ground and got very little depth with inconsistent target IDs. If N/M have been able to solve this single frequency and SMF weakness they will get my business. So far in my time detecting, only a PI, and the Multi IQ SMF tech in the Equinox and the Vanquish have been able to ignore enough moderate to high iron mineralization to detect deep targets and in the case of the Equinox and Vanquish, to detect them with fairly accurate target IDs where I often detect.

I registered also but never got an email either. No big deal. The detector looks good but no mention of SMF in its gold prospecting mode or much of anything about its gold prospecting capabilities..............which is again proof that we gold prospectors are kind of like an afterthought. This link works. Just fast forward to the presentation in English.

I have used the Equinox with its onboard speaker, wired headphones plugged directly into the control pod, wired headphones plugged into the WM08, with the ML80 stock APTX low latency Bluetooth headphones, aftermarket APTX LL headphones and earbuds and with Bluetooth headphones that are not low latency. I have not heard or experienced a latency difference between the onboard speaker, ML80s wired up and plugged into the control pod and the ML80s wired up and plugged into the WM08 module. I do get occasional audio dropouts using the WM08 when connection is momentarily lost. I can experience (hearing it, not sure) the lag using the ML 80s and other aftermarket BT APTX LL headphones wirelessly paired when I use the onboard pin point function. A fairly shallow coin sized target will sound and appear using the pinpoint “speedometer” screen to be directly under the coil nut but when I check with a handheld pinpointer before recovery, the actual target is an inch or so away from the spot indicated by the Equinox onboard pinpoint function. I have recovered thousands of targets every year and have repeatedly experienced this using Bluetooth APTX LL devices. Using non APTX LL headphones, I have experienced even more of a discrepancy in the pinpointed targets actual location along with hearing some intermittent audio distortion/static especially on larger aluminum targets. For normal coin and jewelry hunting I just use BT APTX Low Latency gear. When I am after deep coins, deep relics and very small gold nuggets I use the WM08 module.

Hopefully some of your critique was colored by translation issues….. I have always thought that the Deus 1 was overpriced by about $300 US. XP (much like Minelab in their gold prospecting detectors) charges a big premium for their software development and implementation. I agree with you that it is very good that Minelab and Garrett have given people with less money the opportunity to have entry level priced detectors with simultaneous multi frequency technology and Minelab still offers the Equinox 600 with plenty of features that make it a great detector at a great price. XP gave us the ORX but after using it for awhile, its very feature limited coin modes were just too much of a hurdle for me to deal with. There are five areas from my experience that XP needed to really improve on the original Deus. Waterproof, better audio choices besides multi toned hybrid VCO, an updated remote control with larger display characters and much easier button operation, better salt beach and added saltwater operation and most of all much more accurate target ID on medium to deep targets especially in more mineralized ground/beaches. The first three appear to have been addressed well, the last two will depend on the quality of the simultaneous multi frequency technology they have developed for Deus ll. If all 5 of the weaknesses I mentioned are successfully addressed, XP has the right to charge $1200 to $1500 US for Deus ll. I am certain that many current Deus l owners and plenty of others in North America will buy one in that price range especially if there are Deus ll Lite options.

If you have the N/M audio adapter, you can plug in any wired headphones including the ML-80s with a double ended male 1/8” cable. I have no clue why Cipher mentioned the ML-80s…….maybe he likes them. I don’t.