midalake

My dad taught me early on: SON, don't be penny wise and dollar foolish. One ring can pay for a detector. Try to find out what works in your area! Do you have Black Sand salt beaches? I have never tried the Legend, and have not seen one on the beach where I hunt. Nothing wrong with used either to save some money. In the last 20 year I have NEVER purchased a new detector. Knowing your price range and detectors I have used, could only recommend the Equinox 600,700,800. If I ever see someone here with a Legend, I am going to try to grab it for a test run. Good Luck!

When I fly, my Equinox 800 pod is ALWAYS in my carry-on!

I would vote for neither. Save more money and make a better purchase.

Interesting.......More opinions????

Congrats!!! That ring is awesome. It has been in the water a long time!!

AMEN!!! 100%

Like others here. I have one remote and two custom shafts with the 9" and 13" coils. Very easy to switch the remote. 😎

I am in water contact with Black Sand. Beach 1 cannot handle those conditions.

Tested the 2.0 update today with my trusty "ring on a string" on Magnetic Accept/reject. Ring placed Deep in wet sand with intermittent water contact. D2 in 91 senstivity, which is what I could comfortably hunt. In Beach Sensitive, 40Hz the D2 struggled where I placed it, could barely hear it. First was Magnetic Accept! Lousy sounding target, clipped and short in sound. Numbers were all over. Second Magnetic Reject. Ditto> Lousy sounding target, clipped and short in sound. Numbers were all over. There was just no way to confirm this target. Went back and forth numerous times. I give a slight nod to Magnetic Accept. Target a littler cleaner and numbers were a smidge tighter. However, I would have just walked by this target. The sounds were not much more than Black Sand interference. Important to note: Magnetic Reject did not have ANY value in adding sensitivity. Black Sand mineral response was only muted slightly, but still present. So, turned the D2 off and fired-up the Equinox. It has been a very long time since I have done any head to head. Beach2, noise cancelled then hunted around and settled at 21 sensitivity where it was huntable. Went back to the ring location and was surprised at the great response. Clearly would have stopped me for further inspection. At 21 there were mostly negative numbers, with a clean single beep response. An increase to 22, and the response was louder and single positive numbers started showing every third sweep. Would have no doubt dug this target. Pic of today's take.

Horseshoe mode on........A big YES. Correct! I am unable to use settings on my beach that other people use elsewhere!

I did not like how magnetic reject worked in the original .71. I have not tried it in the update. Will swing the D2 on one day this week to verify any differences with 2.0 and fringe targets.

Are these your tests? I am not familiar with any of the land programs. To me both tests seem similar. It would be nice to see this test done in Beach2. I can tell you my Black Sand is not that bad. In my real-life conditions here running Beach2, I NEVER see discrimination mode coming close to what Horseshoe mode can do. In fact, I would never be able to run a land program here with the salt and black sand.

So in the picture is six targets from yesterday I did a reverse discrimination on. All nonferrous and were found in the Horseshoe mode on. All of the targets were giving negative numbers with a mixed positive number every once in a while. Due to their smooth single beep hits, I suspected these were nonferrous. When switching back to discrimination, all of the target responses were muted and broken with choppy sounds. Out of all of these it was my opinion that the small silver ring would have been the only target I may have dug if working only in Discrimination mode. The signals on the other targets were not repeatable and sounded like mineralization response. I have experienced this many times in the past. The Horseshoe Mode ALWAYS makes targets stand out more with better depth. At least on a mineralized beach running Beach2.

The only saving grace on the D2 in magnetic ground is the ability to still throw a correct number. The target may sound like crap but that D2 is giving you a number that you have to dig. Target sound wise, the D2 struggles with mineralization. This has been my exact issue. Do not own a Manticore.

Awesome find and ring count!!! Keep it going!!

Running all two-tone Square programs with the Iron tone lowered to 350Hz and the second tone raised to 640Hz. No Audio filter, 22 discrimination, Salt Sense 7, Reactivity 0.5, I have tried many disc settings from full negative -6.4 to now 22. I do want to experiment with notching. Beach Pitch program [program 13?] is 100% out for me. Do not like that program. Serious Iron wrap-around problems. I am willing to try anything to help deep non-ferrous targets sound rounder and more whole. Not Bite-y and clipped. When working in heavy black sand I notice a general up-scaling of Ferrous targets and down scaling of non-ferrous targets. Seems like I get many more ferrous targets that want to break into the second tone and throw good ID numbers in black sand.

The D2 really does work well without the Black Sand. My beach really undergoes changes during the year. I am sure that D2 will be back out by the end of Feb. We have had the Manticore here with good results but in less black sand conditions. In the coming months we will have both the Equinox 900 and Manticore back here.

Yup!!! Been there!

I have not switched back out of Horseshoe for years. I find the response in Horseshoe to be crisp and rounded. I will experiment on some deep nonferrous targets next time out. I doubt it will produce a better TID number....but who knows? Will report back. 😎

No, I agree with you....as compared to others. I find the D2 ear exhausting, both in how it handles Black Sand and in deciphering targets. The clipped and bite-y sounding nonferrous targets at depth are a real PIA. Comparison here: https://www.detectorprospector.com/topic/25058-mf-machines-on-mineralized-black-sand-salt-beach-d2-and-equinox-long/#comment-264086

Picture: In center is a cracked face of a very small gold ring [square]. Rang in a 3 on the Equinox! Pretty impressive.

At times of the year, I really struggle with Black Sand in my location. This year was no different. I have done more comprehensive testing on updated machines. On many days I hunted half days on each machine so I could tell differences in same conditions. [thanks to my wife delivering machines] I want to outline a few general recommendations: 1. Slow Down, 2. Use Tracking GB, 3. Sensitivity set so you hear just slight Black Sand interference. 4. Look at your fringe targets with a couple more points of sensitivity. 5. Don't trust your machine is working well with moving water, wave wash. [do checks]. D2> So much to unpack here. First, the D2 is a tale of two machines. One [the devil] in Black Sand, the other, [the angel] in non-Black Sand. The positives> Light to hunt. Fair separation of iron from non-ferrous. Good separation of targets. Good at noise canceling. The negatives. Noisy. The Menu. Clipped target sounds at depth for non-ferrous. Moving water takes D2 out at any depth. Must look at many targets from Mutiple directions[time consuming] . Equinox 800> Not much to unpack. The Positives> Better Black Sand handling. The Menu. Good separation but under the D2. GOOD sounding targets [not clipped]. MUCH better target sounds at depth. Better and faster deciding iron from non-ferrous. Works with moving water unless target is deep. The Negatives> Lousy noise cancel. Heavier to hunt with. Waterproof issues. Sometimes loss of targets in the hole. Hunting summary> For about a week I hunted the D2 exclusively, I really wanted to get a gold chain hunting in Beach Sensitive [which I think is better than Equinox Beach 2.] [no gold chain] Then had the Equinox out a few times. Then updated the D2, and started hunting both machines daily. Every day I started with the D2 and switched to the Equinox. There was not ONE DAY that I wanted the D2 to remain with me. I find the D2 ear exhausting, both in how it handles Black Sand and in deciphering targets. The clipped and bite-y sounding nonferrous targets at depth are a real PIA. The range of pull-tab numbers are ridiculous. Tough to make headway with the interrogation needed on some targets. Not much difference in hunting with a max frequency of 24 or 40. Maybe 1-point sensitivity lower with 40. ANY moving water would completely wipeout the detection field of the D2 in both Beach and Beach sensitive. At best I could only pull a 91-sensitivity setting, but most detecting was done at 87-89. The Equinox> So MUCH better on handling Black Sand. Most hunting was done at 21 even with water contact. Detection field works in moving water but not on targets of depth. With the Horseshoe mode on telling the difference between Ferrous and nonferrous is MUCH easier and quicker. The unmistakable double ring of iron is clear and smooth. Target investigation time is cut down. I don't think there is a winner in the small bit category. Both machines seem to find small bits well. While I did not do any head-to-head burying of targets. Both machines seem to have their moments of man that was shallower than I thought and also the holy crap, that was deep moment. NOT trying to make this a one is better than another, your conditions may provide different results. If you have compared other machines to the ones I have PLEASE post! I will answer all questions of settings or conditions or ??? In the picture: ALL of the larger jewelry was found with the Equinox yesterday. Only a few small bits with the D2. This has been a bit of a trend. I give the nod to the Equinox's ability to tell ferrous from non-ferrous at depth. Most of this jewelry was deep with negative numbers but had clean one beep hits. My D2 will be in the closet until the black sand subsides.

Thanks for the tip!!! I will definitely try that when I think there is a nail. I was so focused trying the different programs. I set two programs each in Beach and Beach Sensitive with Max frequencies of 24 and 40. Checking fringe targets between 4 programs can be a beast.

Ya, YouTube taught me that when I got back to the condo. 🙄 The D2 is not very button user friendly. Especially with sausage fingers in gloves.

Outstanding!!!! Great hunt!!!