Jeff McClendon

I remember Carter Pennington making that video and a really good depth test video where he or someone dug a huge trench. Thanks for posting it.

I don't know if PI machines really cost that much more to manufacture. Throw in the full design and software engineering........maybe. That price you quoted is near the price I paid for my dealer demo Axiom. At this point I would easily say Yes, the Axiom is twice the detector compared to a Manticore or Deus ll. My only complaints with it are the wireless audio system, it’s not waterproof and the available coils are too buoyant for water use. Otherwise, it’s one of the finest detectors whether VLF or PI that I have ever used. If the overall audio quality and comfort level of the proprietary MS3 headphones was better suited for long hours of whisper signal gold prospecting, I would rate the Axiom even higher. It’s not a jumble of parts/ideas from other detectors that sort of go together aside from Z-Lynk and it looks, feels, operates and hunts like a premium level detector. The Minelab SDC 2300 has a similar unique build quality and so does the Whites V3i. Deus/Deus 2 have a premium build quality look about them but that shaft system although it is way cool, is seriously lacking and needs a complete carbon fiber redesign similar to the ones made by Steve Goss. And then there are the XP back of head headphones........... So a lot of thought went into the overall exterior design of the Axiom. Compare that to the GPX 6000 which to me, after owning 2 of them is definitely not a design/build type detector with complete vision in mind. Instead it and so many current mid to upper tier Minelabs are full of tech but are also full of a cut as many corners on the exterior build quality and ergonomics as possible attitude. Then there is the reality from my experience that the Axiom really can detect at a dedicated gold prospecting VLF small target level and is also very capable of GPX 4000 to 5000 level larger target detecting including relics and beach detecting while actually weighing just a little over 4 lbs and that is a very well distributed 4 lbs. Super nice detector that is well worth $3200 US.

I was able to do a nice 3 hour relic hunt with the replacement 11x7”DD Axiom coil today in an area with very crazy mineralization from salt to iron and mixed together too along with some EMI. The new coil worked fantastic, ground balanced easily and it was much easier for me to interpret what this focused core coil was telling me. I was detecting in Fine because that is what I am used to. I will detect in Large next time and just go for the bigger stuff. I recovered lots of nail fragments, .22 short and 32 Smith and Wesson short shell casings, very old shotgun head stamps, shotgun pellets and fired bullets along with small fishing weights. I did also get a USA 40% silver 1943P War nickel so the Axiom once again seems to like me. It’s mutual.

I started to wonder how all of the Legend's available frequency choices would do in a depth test on the dime under both of those sample pans. By "do" I mean actually hit the target, not give an accurate ID. I know this from experience but I still after all this time wonder what the relative depth of detection difference is between simultaneous multi frequency and single frequency in a situation like I setup. So I did a quick dirt plus air gap depth test using the same dirt samples in the same pans with the same dime and with the same Legend and LG24 coil setup the same way as it was in the video. I did not do that with the Equinox 800......no need for that. The dime measured 5.5 inches (140mm) under the rim of the top sample pan. Using the Legend/LG24, Field mode at sensitivity 20, I recorded the height of the bottom edge of the coil over the dime with the two sample pans on top of it. I subjectively listened with headphones for the coil height where I could still hear an "I'm stopping for that" repeatable target response. These numbers record the distance from the bottom of the coil to the dime. 40 kHz 5.75"/146mm 10 and 15 kHz 6"/152mm 4 and 20 kHz 6.25"/158mm M3 7.25"/184mm M2 8"/204mm M1 8.25"/210mm

Bill, I always chuckle when I see target separation tests and air “depth” tests done on inert surfaces that claim to show definitive detection results that can be counted on and used in the field. Imagine doing some of the popular on YouTube 3D multi level ferrous/non ferrous separation tests but with the targets imbedded in that dirt………I don’t have to imagine that. I’ve done them all and it’s not pretty even using Deus 2.

I don’t have a problem with the time it took since I mailed the coil late on a Wednesday afternoon using snail mail from Georgia to Texas, and I received it in Colorado 16 days later. Packages take 3 days minimum to travel that far even using a premium service like FedEx. So, at least seven days of travel time plus four weekend days, Garrett Repair had my coil for 5 business days tops. I purchased the Axiom with 11X7” DD coil and 13X11” Mono coil on purpose since I don’t care for Garrett’s Z-Lynk system. It was a dealer demo unit probably because of that coil configuration without the wireless system and I got it for a great price that saved me enough money to buy a new 11X7” Mono to complete the coils that I wanted. I have used a Bluetooth system with my Axiom that works great and allows me to use over the ear wireless headphones, earbuds or neckband type hearing devices. I don’’t fault Garrett for using its proprietary wireless product in the Axiom.

Do you still have a Deus? If so, it has a really good iron mineralization meter. I wouldn’t assume anything by the Equinox ground balance numbers. Just some other possible settings changes for the 900 Gold modes to consider…….turn off ground balance tracking, lower iron bias to 1 or 0 and adjust recovery speed to quiet ground noise if default 5 is not the best setting. I would keep recovery between 3 and 6 however if there is any magnetite/maghemite in the area. The 900 is an excellent gold prospecting detector and very powerful. Like I showed in the video, turning down sensitivity to get it stable if you have too much EMI will not neuter the 900 similar to how it doesn’t hurt the 800. Also, the testing in this video with disturbed moderately iron mineralized dirt and fresh targets is probably a worse case scenario for that level of mineralization and in real world conditions both the Legend and Nox 800 might have performed better on established targets in undisturbed dirt.

I really like my Axiom. However I was having an issue with my 11X7" DD coil. It would not ground balance using the Fine timing and would usually ground balance in the Normal timing. My 11X7" Mono had no problems ground balancing in Fine or Normal on the same ground. Kind of odd. I called Garrett and they immediately gave me an RMA number. Since I had owned my Axiom for more than 30 days, they asked me to pay for shipping to them and they paid for shipping back to me. I made a video and sent it to them. I also asked for an extra coil bolt. I only sent the coil, not the entire detector. I got my new 11X7" DD coil today via FedEx and they remembered my request for an extra coil bolt, so a 2.5 week turnaround which is really good in my opinion. So far this new DD coil seems to be working much better than my original one. Thanks Garrett and thanks to Steve H for encouraging me to send it in for a checkup and replacement if needed.

With the Nokta Score, Double Score and Legend all sharing the same housing and shaft systems, I think it would be cool to be able to buy just the system control unit. There is only one Phillips head screw to remove and everything including the battery is inside the system control unit. Then again, those detectors are so inexpensive maybe it's not worth it. Nokta have already seen the need for and provided the option to purchase their own updated shaft systems and arm cuffs for the Legend which are plug and play. Why didn't Minelab do that with the Equinox 600/800 when so many complained about having to buy decent shafts for those detectors soon after releasing them????????

Batteries.

Both detectors ground balanced between 1 and 4 on the Central Arizona dirt I was testing with. A YouTube link will be provided later today.

I tried the Facebook link right after reading your post. It is working fine for me. Loading it to YouTube takes forever but I might have time to do it later today.

I made this 12 minute video because several people on another forum asked for it. I wish I could have made it outside but weather conditions made that impossible. There has also been a lot of discussion about the Equinox 900 vs 800 vs Nokta Legend as the way to upgrade from Equinox 600s, Vanquish models, X-Terra Pros and versions of the Nokta Simplex or other older single frequency VLFs. There have been issues with performing online software updates for the Nokta Legend. I had them early on also. I have had issues with Deus 1, Deus 2 and Garrett APEX online software updates too. As far as the Legend, there have been some valid issues. There have also been some less experienced detectorists and total newbie Legend owners that for obvious reasons, don't know if their Legend is working correctly or not. We are seeing the same thing here on this forum with the Manticore and the Equinox 900. For me anyway, I am also really just getting familiarized with some of these newer detectors too but I feel pretty confident using the Equinox 800 and the Legend even though I am still learning. Add iron mineralization into that mix along with using default settings which often include total iron target ID response rejection and it can really look like ones detector simply doesn't work. Plus, all of these newer, very versatile simultaneous multi frequency detectors are great but their versatility is also part of the confusion. There are lots of settings and getting them out of whack for the target and ground conditions presented is easy to do. So that is why I made this video. I wish I had seen one like this about 10 years ago when I started branching out into coin and jewelry detecting. I'm running similar settings on these two detectors with sensitivity between 18 and 20, recovery speed 5, iron bias/iron filter 1 and the tone breaks for the two tone Field M2 and Field 2 are at 10 and 0. Both detectors were ground balanced off camera. I had the Equinox Gold 1 threshold a bit too high.......my bad! Thanks for reading and for watching. https://www.facebook.com/100017775675679/videos/2195298124009796/

That has been my experience too with the Legend. It has good depth, good sensitivity to small, partially masked targets, good separation and just about the right amount of target IDs especially in that low to mid conductor area where so many US trash targets can crowd out nickels and gold jewelry. Why Minelab thought the X-Terra Pro, Equinox 700/900 and Manticore needed 50 target IDs between just below US nickels (25) to just below US copper pennies and clad dimes (75) is beyond me. That same target area range on the Legend is about 20 target IDs and its 24 on Deus 2.

I have no clue. Minelab does read this forum and most of the posters and posts about the 700/900 on here are thoughtful, respectful and are by serious detector users who love detecting with the Multi IQ detectors. But for me anyway, the 700/900 came out of nowhere, with no warning. Minelab barely even hyped it. They had been quietly working on a redesign of the exterior components that were failing while replacing control pods and broken 11” coils. They never said anything about this situation even on a super Minelab friendly forum like this one. Maybe a software update is coming soon or maybe a redesign of the target ID system is already being planned for the next Equinox model. The 800 would certainly be an upgrade for your 600. So would a Nokta Legend or Deus 2.

The 700/900 are better than the 600/800 in every possible way except for the way they actually detect targets. So Minelab got what was wrong on the 600/800 fixed up very nicely on the 700/900 as far as the external deficiencies. I wish they had left the actual internals alone. If you want to do some water hunting but are afraid to use your grandfathers 800......get a Legend or better yet, the new Score or Double Score. They don't look the same as the 800 and the user interface is very different but they actually detect very similarly and they cost less than half of what an 800 costs and you can use the ML80 headphones with the Legend, Score and Double Score (I think, could be wrong on that).

Like many have said, why didn’t Minelab slightly expand the target ID range of the Equinox 600/800 to give the low to mid conductor range a few more IDs to prevent so many common targets from piling up on target IDs 11, 12, 13 and 14 (at least that’s what happens in the USA). Fixing the shaft quality, redesigning the hand grip and control box and improving the lower shaft to 11” coil connection were fantastic. How could Minelab be so far off the mark with what I was told (by a Minelab Equinox design engineer) was a conscious decision to take the Equinox in a “new” direction. What a screw up direction is all I can say as far as the original Equinox’s vaunted target ID stability and versatility. The only big improvement for me has been my recovering a ton of US nickels and a few gold rings that I had walked over using the 800 because I just missed them due to target ID 11, 12, 13, 14 fatigue burnout at some really aluminum trash filled park sites.

Yeah, I used to be a big time Minelab treasure and gold prospecting detector lover. I am still a huge fan of the 800, but the Legend and Deus 2 have surpassed it. Hopefully, so has the Manticore. However, for me anyway, Equinox 700/900 are a step in the wrong direction as far as versatility in some of the more difficult soil conditions that the Equinox 600/800 handles with ease. I started reporting on my struggles with the 900 almost a year ago. So did Chase and Abenson. This forum is especially for getting the word out about potential issues with as much careful and unbiased information as possible that is provided by experienced users. Sorry you are struggling with yours.

Here is a post from an experienced detectorist that was having extreme chatter issues with his Legend after doing the latest V1.11 software update. He seems to have solved his issue after getting some good advice. He recently posted a beach video of his Legends at the same location, at the same time showing two different Legends running the same settings with the V1.09 Legend running very quietly and the V 1.11 Legend chattering away with no possibility of detecting with it. Here is what he did: Andy Williams said: "I've had issues trying to update my legend with windows 11 from 1.09 upto 1.11 and 1.13, and back to 1.09 it's very chatty and unstable. In the end, I opened up the update tool, plugged in the legend, found which USB port the legend was plugged into, then unplugged the legend and deleted the silicone lab driver from that USB port Went onto silicone lab website and down loaded the latest USB driver and installed it to the selected USB port. Rebooted laptop, ran update tool and reinstalled 1.09. Factory reset done, went out for a test hunt at my local beach and it was not chatty anymore, I could run it at max sensitivity etc, managed to pull out 2 rings and a handful of coins in just an hour. So, it could well be an end user issue after all. Going to update to 1.13 and give it a go. Wish me luck." I hope this helps someone with a very chatty Legend. Here is a link to a video posted by Nokta showing three different Legends including a customer's unit that was sent in for testing due to depth and excessive chatter issues that the customer was having with it. All three Legends are using factory default Park M1 and are being tested on a 22 cm (9") deep US quarter and 22 cm deep US nickel. The customer's Legend has not had its software updated by Nokta. It is just like it was when it was submitted for testing aside from its User 1 profile being factory reset for this test video. https://www.facebook.com/759208030/videos/328070796685736/ Nokta have also released a video chat from Dilek today that addressed this video, a roughly 10% Legend price increase upcoming and the Score/Double Score are in many US and other countries dealer stock. That was basically a cut the crap unless you really have an issue video.

I am still in the beginner learning stage using the Manticore. For coin and jewelry hunting in moderately iron mineralized ground, I have stuck to using All Terrain General with iron audio ON and with very conservative/tame settings. I have not done anything experimental or extravagant with the Manticore. Maybe that is why it is behaving a little better than the two 900s I had even though I didn't do anything radical with them either.

After seeing numerous reports of Equinox 900 detectors acting "erratically" I thought I would update this topic. After selling my 900 that was sent to me by Minelab USA as a replacement for my original 900, I have not looked back. I won't buy another Equinox 700/900 unless those models get a major software update. Maybe the 700/900 do really well for coin, jewelry and relic hunting in low EMI and milder soil conditions. I did not get to try that experience and I don't live and hunt in an area with those conditions. The 700/900 even when being operated at sensitivity levels between 18 and 23 is just too "hot" for the ground conditions where I would use it most often for coin, jewelry and relic hunting. Even using conservative sensitivity levels around 20, I consistently experienced unstable coil responses on targets that were 3 to 5" deep that should have only happened when those targets were on or very near the surface. Those type of target responses like triple beeping on passes, fairly wide target ID spreads and overdriven audio are not necessarily bad if the target really is on the surface. However, when they aren't and there are also plenty of other adjacent target responses from bits of trash and ground mineralization, calling this Equinox 900 behavior erratic is pretty close to being accurate. I trusted the Equinox 600/800 model detectors for solid performance even in tough ground conditions for four years and I just assumed the 700/900 would carry on with that trend. Much of the erratic behavior being described by others, especially those transitioning from an Equinox 600/800 seems to be EMI and expanded target ID related with a few reports of bad coils. I thoroughly enjoyed using the 900 for gold prospecting on moderately mineralized ground. It behaved very similar to the Equinox 800 using the Gold modes. After a few weeks using a Manticore that has the latest update, a similar expanded target ID system and Multi IQ+ technology, all I can say is that the Manticore that I have, coin and jewerly hunting on the same locations, simply does not exhibit anywhere near the level of "erratic" EMI and coil response behavior that I saw on two different Equinox 900s.

Chuck (GB_Amateur) is a great guy and friend. I hope he sees this. Amazing. Such a small world in so many ways. Thanks for the recovery of his wallet and the great post Gerry.

I'm 5'11". Top of my shoulder to top of pants is 23".

Deus 2 currently has single frequency operation up to 45 kHz using any of the available coils. It comes with two single frequency programs that are just as good or better than the discrimination programs on Deus 1. I just can’t see any advantages for buying a Deus 1 over a Deus 2 unless gold nugget prospecting is part of your detecting life. I also don’t see any big reason to buy a Deus 1 or ORX over a Legend aside from ergonomics.

Sounds like the threshold tone is ON in all modes or you have a very strong EMI source.