Chase Goldman

Good info Wolf. What is the tommy gun program program you are referring to? High recovery speed, primarily?

Dan, thanks. You told me what I wanted to know regarding whether the underlying mode makes a significant difference. Really excited about trying it out at multiple relic hunts next week.

Yeah. This thing is deep at the beach/wet sand. I was amazed. Very nice ring, and nice photo BTW. You definitely know when it is going to be a legit find. Even the deep nickels you know are not likely to be pull tabs that deep in the wet stuff.

Great report Norm. Glad you have finally gotten a chance to go Noxing. Boy, looks like I need a new eyeglass prescription though, having trouble reading the dates on your coin recoveries.

Yep. I get it. The taller folks get hammered by the long moment arm for sure, so balance does make a bigger difference compared to us shorties (one of the few advantages of my stature I suppose. Lol). Deus is (used to be?) my primary machine and even coming from that I am not having too much issue with the EQX, but then again can tighten up on the shaft. Thanks for sharing your back story. Here’s to hoping you are swinging your Equinox soon. You will find a lot of similarities a differences to Deus but overall I am pleased with the EQX so far. HH.

What Norm said. There will be plenty of time to trick out your machine with counterweights, flashlights, batteries, etc. If your weather supports it and you have sites you can access I, really encourage you to get out there and learn the machine first and foremost, balanced or not. It is a light weight machine and is balanced about as well out of the box as anything I have swung save for the F75/T2 which I personally consider the gold standard for balance and user ergonomics. That might be because I am short and have the EQX shortened up. If you are snowed in or the ground is frozen, then, yeah, it is fun to tweak for lack of being able to do much else with your toy than learn the settings and menu structure. But you don’t have to wait to have it perfectly balanced before you get out there and swing.

Dan, Great tips! Mode information would be really useful too. Also, did you recover any mid conductors (buttons, knapsack parts)? Thanks.

Use the AM button and the nails will become more obvious.

Steve, hopefully can chime in to set the record straight. But I was similarly "conditioned" to be very mindful of GB on the Deus. Whether or not you are in tracking GB, the "actual" ground phase reading is always there staring you in the face and if not in tracking I tend to "freak out" if the numbers get out of whack by more than 5 points even if I am not hearing anything adverse in the headphones as far as noise is concerned and am still hitting targets. It was like I thought I was losing significant depth if the GB readings were not close (i.e., dead silence was not necessarily a good thing even if there were no targets to ping). I think I am starting to realize that, at least with the Equinox, ML is taking an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach to GB. In that, ML emphasizes the signal-to-noise ratio aspect of a proper ground balance and if you are not hearing ground noise then no need to bother doing a GB, even if the AUTO GB would have generated a much higher number than "0". i.e., If you are not hearing anything adverse, don't mess with the default.

Thanks, Steve. That was exactly my point. Splitting hairs and inviting defensive blowback when bringing other detectors into the mix (well stated). I too can easily and effectively argue both sides of the Equinox vs. Deus charging doo-dads story and no one will learn anything useful about either detector or why either might be worth their while. The whole Deus wireless thing is definitely love (great when you are just out detecting and scarfing up targets with the flexibility of multiple configurations) AND hate (dealing with the fragile charging clip/coil expense/water antennas) . LoL. Thanks for clarifying the CTX point, wish Brandon had done that and his argument would have been more effective. I was equating the CTX gasket with the Equinox O-rings (both seals have to be handled properly if you do end up disturbing them). But I do get that you introduce more risk of human error in the CTX battery seal design because every CTX owner has to deal with them frequently and the Equinox owner never does if they choose not to... Bottom Line: The Equinox sells itself on its features and performance alone without having to compare it to anything else out there (Minelab or otherwise) because it is truly not like anything else out there. In fact, as I posted in a separate thread, I am refraining from comparing the 600 to the 800 from a performance standpoint, because I believe that, too, is splitting hairs. I liked his other points (and, again, who can argue with point 7) and thought he did a great job discussing the centerpiece feature of the Equinox, Multi IQ. Still think he should check his charging/battery connection though because his detector is generating too much smoke. LOL.

Totally agree with you, Tim. In fact, I predict that after the "early adoption" phase which favors experienced detectorist "power users", the tide will turn and we will see a reversal where the 600 will likely vastly outsell the 800. We'll see.

Oh, yeah! I was wondering when we were going to start seeing this. Chains not far behind. Nice! Here is an "iffy" I found too. It was landlocked and not deep but an iffy signal nonetheless and my first legitimate find with the Equinox (brass earring and stem). I think the stem was making it iffy (fluctuate) even though it wasn't that deep.

I was thinking of putting up a "for sake of argument" type post regarding your statement that the 600 has "100% of the detecting power" of the 800, and it wasn't about whether one considers 800's "Gold Mode" a feature or a performance (i.e., detecting power) enhancer vs. the 600. No, my argument was going to be about recovery speed and the slower maximum recovery speed associated with the 600. But after rereading your entire post including your excellent discussion of the numerous examples of how you used the 600 to pluck potentially masked or obscured keeper targets from the trash, I have to conclude that for the vast majority of users, the recovery speed of the 600 is good enough and have to agree in practice (if not in principle) with your "100% of the performance" statement regarding the 600. In other words, I have come to the conclusion that it is not really productive or useful to split hairs when it comes to debating performance differences between the 600 and 800. Feature differences, sure, those should be highlighted because they matter and should be considered as part of the informed buyer's personal decision making process. But the performance delta between the two machines on the modes common between the two detectors is hardly worth mentioning. IMO.

Good rundown by Brandon...especially the multi use and multi frequency aspects. Agree with Steve's quibbles and have a few other very minor ones. Brandon says he can't imagine why anybody would [still] want to plug directly into the detector with the available wireless options. Well, ahem, I can think of one reason, submerged control head hunting and is one of the reasons why there is continued frustration amongst Equinox water hunters that the WP accessory phones are not yet available (BT and proprietary RF wireless H/P tech doesn't work under water). The battery discussion is a tad disingenuous: (1) you only have to charge two batteries (with the Deus) coil and remote control unit if you plug phones into the Deus control head which is the same as the Equinox (control head and phones), so why even go there? (2) Brandon talks about the disadvantage of the gaskets associated with the CTX removable battery vs. the Equinox which is charged in place but apparently has not received the ML memo regarding minding the gaskets associated with the Equinox battery should the end user choose to service the battery themselves. In other words, you are relying on gasketed battery seals for either detector. Finally, besides the missing in action "reason 7" that was pointed out earlier, Brandon's Equinox seems to have a bit of a smoking problem and he really should have that looked into by the ML service center. Lol. That is all.

"I" can't argue with that statement.

Steve may be referring to my Equinox beach hunt post linked below where I noted the issue as one of the examples. I am sure there have been other similar reports that Steve has read about or has been informed of to demonstrate a likely link to cell phones as being an issue. Unfortunately, I use a tracking program on my phone to document my hunts and finds so airplane mode hinders that functionality. Simply slipping it in my pocket opposite from the control head completely solved the issue for me. Frankly, the issue was a minor distraction when it was happening and did not really hinder my ability to recover targets, but it was nice to be able to easily resolve the issue just by switching pockets.

However, if what you really want is a chronological running commentary of late term Equinox development and testing, you might want to look at the earlier posts in this forum that date back to late last year. It was created by Steve in response to the unprecedented demand for the Equinox due to ML's marketing blitz and Steve, as one of the pre-release tester's posted as much as his NDA allowed. When he realized he was on to a potential game changer, he provided as much information as he could. In the process, this forum had posts that linked to a number of pre-release videos from testers leading up to product launch. As a result, this forum gave people as much information as possible so folks could have a running start when the Equinox finally arrived. Take a look for yourself and dial back a few months to see what all the early fuss was about.

Good question Dubious. I think Steve covered it above, but regarding the differences between the 600 and 800 a lot of folks latch on to the obvious missing Gold mode and dismiss that mode as a prospecting mode that is not something they need or want (I personally disagree with this logic because I think Gold Mode can be used in relic hunting due to its ability to perform in highly mineralized soil conditions, but that is not the point of this thread) and completely overlook what I think are two key features one is performance based and the other is user interface based that are different between the 600 and 800. The key performance-based feature is the recovery speed adjustment and the lack of the two high-end recovery speed settings on the 600. (The user interface feature I think is the second most important "missing" feature from the 600 is the ability to adjust non-ferrous tone breaks, volumes, and pitch). Are you missing much without those two highest setting? Perhaps only in highly trash laden or iron infested sites so depending on how frequently you encounter those sites, you may want to consider the 800. Also, if you can possibly afford it, I would recommend hanging on to the 600 as a capable backup if you indeed decide to ultimately purchase the 800. I also want to re-emphasize that although I talk in terms of features "missing" from the 600, this does not mean that the 600 is not a good detector. What it means is that while the 600 lacks some features compared to the 800, that is the wrong comparison. The 600 represents a great value when its performance is compared to other detectors in its price range. Pretty much unbeatable. ML has given detectorists a value-based choice or a performance-based choice. Steve covered this in detail in his 600 vs. 800 blog post. I liked and agreed with your conveyor belt analogy especially with regards to "depth" (more on that below). But I am really glad you wrote the above because I have been struggling with determining when I would ever invoke the lowest recovery speeds. In fact, I was a little confused by the following statement in the manual (p. 26) regarding the default recovery speed setting for Gold 2 which is supposed to be geared towards maximizing performance under highly mineralized soil conditions but also happens to have the lowest default recovery speed that ML attempted to explain below (bold text added by me): "Gold 2: Difficult Ground Gold 2 is best for searching for deeper gold nuggets in ‘difficult’ ground conditions. Gold 2 has a lower Recovery Speed, which will increase detection depth. However, more ground noise in more heavily mineralised grounds may result. Tracking Ground Balance is the default setting. Target Tone is set to 1 and the audio is optimised for hunting for gold nuggets. Gold 2 Multi-IQ processes a high frequency weighted multifrequency signal, while ground balancing for mineralised soil." I guess ML hedges their bets by saying that there is essentially no free lunch because although the lower recovery speed setting will "increase detection depth" more ground noise may be present in more heavily mineralized grounds obviating the advantage which is somewhat consistent with what you were saying above about "losing" depth. On a separate note, for the Equinox, I think of recovery speed less in the context of trading "target depth" for "target separation" but instead, trading "the most accurate target ID at depth" for "target separation". In other words just knowing a non-ferrous target is there amongst the iron (even if you don't have a stable ID) is often an advantage vs. slower machines that will not register an ID at all. So I guess I don't really have a question other than wondering whether ML hit the mark with their Gold 2 explanation on recovery speed. Thanks.

Thanks. Figured you were one of "those guys" swinging a GPZ. You could probably mount a rocket launcher on the Equinox and not feel a thing. LOL. I swing a Deus but also a GPX out here in Virginia so the Equinox kind of ends up in between and is feeling just fine to swing so I will not trick it up with any attachments for now, but nice emg power setup you have there when you need it. HH

You bet Wolf. I am itchin' to get out there in the red dirt with it. Thanks! Cal, Another approach I thought of for telltale iron beside AM mode is to up the threshold and listen for the drop outs. Whichever method you choose probably depends on your tolerance for noise "fatigue" with the continuous threshold or the countless iron buzzes. Pick your poison, lol. I think AM might be the way to go for me because you can easily turn it off and on at will, whereas you pretty much have to keep the threshold active and it takes a few button presses to enter the menus to turn it down or off. I might try both as part of my learning curve.

It wiggles well and I usually just eyeball it if the target is shallow. But the built-in PP is working well for me in general. Sometimes it's a little finicky but that is usually because I started the pinpoint too far away from the target line.

Nice Finds. Congrats on the big silver.

I must have it balanced pretty well, feeling no ill effects from yesterday's marathon and swung it again today for another hour and it just seemed to glide like it was swinging on a harness.

Cabin Fever - Nice finds. I know what you are driving at re: Equinox growing on you. Amazing how just a few additional swing hours improves my already bright outlook on this machine. Learning more about it every day. Learning as much from the trash as from the keepers.

Cool setup. My only concern is having it mounted just forward of the hand grip from a balance perspective. I think that would make it feel like an AT Pro and put some stress on your wrist. Short moment arm though, so may not be an issue if you have strong forearms from swinging a monster rig like an ATX, GPZ or...AT Gold (Lol). If you haven't swung it with the mod yet, let us know how it swings after a several hour hunt. I am feeling no ill effects from a 4-hour swing session on an unmodified shaft so pretty pleased with Equinox weight and balance as-is and am coming from a Deus saying that.