Chase Goldman

Minelab does not sell direct to end users but the discount is Minelab's policy for detectors sales. Up to the dealers to invoke the policy. If they don't then there are choices and no harm pointing out that a business has made a conscious decision to not invoke the policy. Can vote with the wallet and many have.

That is consistent with Steve's quick and dirty rackout of hottest (most sensitve to mid conductors and small targets) to least hot (deepest on high conductors) that I referenced in the "Is Park 2 the Magic Mode???" thread. Or another way to look at it highest to lowest frequency bias.

I suspect there is actually some Multi IQ weighting differences between the similar modes (e.g., Park/Field 1) too in addition to the other parameter differences. But, the Multi IQ weighting, bias or whatever you want to call it is ML secret sauce stuff that they have avoided sharing details or clarity on. Spectrum analyzer results on the Equinox output signal shows no obvious difference at all in the the tranmitted signal in Multi IQ between all modes, so the difference may be in how equinox processes the return signal depending on the selected mode.

Yep, its one of those subtle but potentially very powerful feature differences between the two machines. Would also like to see a demo on how to set up the 50 tone ferrous/non-ferrous tone gap. Perhaps more straight forward, but it would be interesting to see if there were similar trcky setups that could be useful in 50 tones using the gap setting adjustments.

Awesome! Thanks Steve for posting this. This and the WP phones are the two accessories I would like to see available soon.

Sounds like a great starting point. You might want to run through all the non beach modes at a particular site or if you hit a diggable target to see how they compare. TNSS was even hitting targets in Beach 2 at a FW beach, so just about anything is in play until we collectively get a feel for this beast. Thoroughly read the detailed mode descriptions to see if you can glean any specific hints. Steve conveniently extracted them for us in the "Is Park 2 the Magic Mode?" Thread. HH. I am interested in what you find out.

No. Non- ferrous zone tone breaks and pitch cannot be adjusted on the 600, unfortunately. Would be helpful to see a visual 600 vs. 800 side-by-side video of the tone setting differences. Hope someone does that.

Believe me I was tempted. But couldn't do it that and live with myself. I already feel bad whining about not having my toy fast enough like a 10 year old and his X box when people are going without basic necessities. Seriously. BTW this a me thing. Not judging others. Don't know your situations and you all gotta do what's right for you.

Last week when Cabelas last went live with the Equinox they were shipped within the advertised 4 - 7 day time frame from a US Minelab distributor. I have first hand knowledge of this from a friend who ordered and received his unit in 5 working days. Cabelas goes dark with the Equinox page whenever the distributor does not have enough stock to meet the advertised delivery timeframe. So yeah they are making your day but they are also getting their Equinoxes. Do not understand how/why Cabelas is not honoring a Minelab discount that Minelab will cover. Loyalty to my dealer and short changing veterans and stabbing dedicated detector dealers in the back does not earn my business.

I make this argument a lot to the die-hard eTrac and CTX crowd that thinks this way and have come to the conclusion it is in my own best self-interest to let them continue to believe depth is everything.

Steveg, The hotter modes might not necessarily be deeper on high conductive targets, but you never know. What you might get is a hit on a missed shallower, edge-on, high conductive coin which looks like a small item to a hot, high frequency biased program (i.e., gold mode, and the two non-beach "2" modes). It is always good to throw as many different machines and modes you have at a hot spot like the one you described above. So yeah, hit it again with Park 2 and possibly even Gold and Field 2 to see what might pop up. That's one of the great things with the EQ, by switching up modes it is like hitting the site with 4 or 5 different detectors.

Great video, really helps translating the words into actions.

Regarding how "hot" the modes are relative to each other (a general indication of higher frequency bias and ability to hit harder on mid-conductors and small targets as well as sensitivity to hot rocks and salinity variations in salt water and wet sand), I always liked Steve's quick and dirty summary posted here: Of course gold mode is the hottest, followed by Park and Field 2, Park and Field 1 and finally the Beach modes.

That's great news Mark. Can't wait to see for myself in March when I punish it (or it punishes me, depending on your perspective) in Culpeper. And looking forward to your detailed observations once you feel you have really shaken it down.

Norm, I agree, especially re: the humor part, that's why I chose to quote your post to make my point regarding Minelab. Cynicism mixed with humor. Shaken but not stirred. I had a great laugh reading your what came out of your horse's mouth. Lol. And to be clear - the ML engineers and designers have appeared, so far, to have hit out of the park with Equinox (again with great help from the testers). Otherwise, in other areas of the business, there is always room for improvement.

Mitchel - thanks. That's what I am talking about with the myriad of audio options. Convenience for just about any situation, but it can get a little confusing with the Equinox seeking out the various wireless receivers, especially when those headphones can be used in either wired or wireless configuration. Ok. I got us down in the weeds now, so I'll save figuring out how all the audio combos work (and how well they work) for when I get my machine. I'll post back with a rundown that may help demystify some of the more arcane setups (e.g., how well the supplied BT phones work passively depending on whether they are wired to the detector or the WM08). If you do get around to hooking the headphones back up to the WM08, would like to know how it works out. LOL - BTW going Waaay back to the beginning, was that a gold ring you placed next to the gold nugget or some other ring metal? Thanks.

Mitchel, Your reply to Dave cleared it up for me. They work passively wired but much better audio when they are on and you have local amplified volume control, as I suspected. Good to know. Thanks and glad you're loving the machine. cg

Thanks. I'll figure out all those minor details out when EQ gets here. Like I've said previously, it's great to have a kajillion audio options available. I am working on a WM08-in-a-bag wired headphone solution as a WP headphone alternative until the official EQ waterproof headphones show up, so that's patially the basis for my question.

Thanks, Steve. I was just wondering why Mitchel was not getting good audio when he was using them in hard wired (passive) mode with the WM08 until he turned the phones on. Perhaps in wired mode the phones amplify the wired sound when they are turned on enhancing the sound quality vs. passive mode.

I think the jury may still be out regarding performance in highly mineralized soil (we'll soon find out), but from what I have seen so far, it should perform just about as well if not better than any other non-PI machine out there (I hesitate to refer to the Equinox as VLF machine because even though technically it is, I think there is a big difference between single frequency and multifrequency VLF machines) and under some circumstances (thick iron infested areas) it could be one of your few machines of choice as that situation usually takes the PI out of the equation [again, I am talking about a highly mineralized site]. But, yeah, First Texas...ouch. (and I love my F75)

Mitchel or Steve, Please bear with me. I know I ask a lot of annoying questions, but it comes with the territory as an engineer (precision and all that). I try to self-answer by looking up in the manual and still manage to miss key points and tricky phrases especially in regards to the numerous audio options which is great but also adds some complexity especially with not one but two wireless options. So I am a little confused (hey I said I was precise, not smart) by the scenario and just trying to sort out some details above. Not trying to dissect an embarrassing moment we have all encountered (be honest out there, folks) but trying to learn some details about how the audio works. Anyway, my question is this: Do the headphones NEED to be powered on when you have them hard wired to the WM08 module OR to the detector itself? I thought using the supplied wireless headphones in wired mode was an alternative you could use in the event the headphone batteries died in the field and you could use the headphones passively. Before I get the "why would you think that response", that is how my wireless deteknix headphones work and many BT headphones when used in hard-wired mode. If you need to turn them on to hear the audio properly, then does the passive thing not work well or is this just an issue when you are using them wired with the WM08 module because it doesn't have a volume control that allows you to boost the audio (does detector audio volume work adjustment work through the WM08?). Just trying to figure out if the supplied BT headphones have a usable passive wired mode when connected to the WM08 or directly to the Equinox. If not, then I will keep a spare set of wired headphones with me as a backup. I'm sure this is all very obvious when you have the unit in your hands, but I never miss the chance to let everyone know, I'm still waiting...lol. Thanks.

The spare LiIon battery pack in the vehicle is a habit I formed several years ago with the Deus. I even have one the size of a paperback book that can jump start my car. Yeah, it was a non-issue from the get go, but many folks just need to see it to believe it and I can't fault them for that. Even the "but I can always puck up a spare set of AA's from the local 7-11" holds for the Equinox because these power packs are so ubiquitous I have actually seen them on sale in 7-11's and for not much more than a couple of AA four-packs. Glad we're getting the confirmation from the users.

These things happen, that's why Minelab didn't go way out there on a limb and say "Our commitment is to fulfill all backorders by the end of March." I am certain they will 100% strive to meet their goal until April comes along. Despite my cynicism, I would rather have this scenario for the Equinox than the other disappointing alternative...Minelab delivering an unimpressive machine that everyone could get their hands on from day one (or worse, no one could get their hands on). Steve and the rest of the testers made sure ML didn't deliver a clunker by the vast majority of first reports.

I'll probably never have to worry about it because I'll have the drone-assisted Equinox 1800/personal assistant by the time the battery finally gives out.

I placed a ring near a .1g nugget. It separates the signal in multi and single frequency. Oh my. My appraisal just went up higher. What was the ring material btw? (I have a good idea, but just wanted to be certain). Thanks.