Chase Goldman

In the other APT X headphone thread are some links to $30 US sports style (i.e., moisture resistant) APT X earbuds. They are not bank breakers, but you should definitely look for APT X vs. run of the mill bluetooth earphones to avoid lag.

That is actually a GOOD idea based on anecdotal stories of corrosion causing battery drain and damage on Deus coils where the charging terminals are exposed to salt water. Some folks have used simple electrical tape solutions, but the magnetic protector would be cool (perhaps with a lanyard if it gets accidentally bumped in use or in the surf).

Ditto. You have received several "Trophies" from me. I feel almost like I've already been swinging the Equinox based on the info you have provided here.

Folks if you are spending 12 straight hours in the water, might need to take a break for lunch (and you can recharge then) but don't go back in too soon so you don't get a cramp. Lol. Seriously, if you charge up your battery pack fully b4 your hunt, it should basically last you ALL DAY unless ML botched it. Should not have to rig up an in water charging solution. If you are not in the water you can also charge on the fly, but that should be a rare necessity. This is based on my experience with the Deus where I have to worry about FOUR LiIon batteries (coil, control box, headphones, and pinpointer) and it has NEVER hindered an ALL DAY relic hunting session like a DIV for me.

Steve - thanks for the tip on the user profile button. That is a great feature. When I am using a Deus I like to "interrogate" the target using both tone and pitch modes at different frequencies and this can easily be accomplished using the +/- buttons on the Deus remote. Though not as flexible, having the user profile button will enable a similar approach with different "modes" of Multi IQ. Regarding Gold Mode VCO, similar to but not as responsive as Gold Field on the Deus but I see it can be a useful tool for more than just nugget hunting. I take it that VCO cannot be selected as an "audio tone" choice for any of the other search modes - only Gold Field? Finally, after viewing your video, and listening to Lunk's discussion of how the detector was set up when he had the chance to swing it at the conference, it really sounds to me that he was NOT in gold mode. He seems to be describing the Park or Field tone. But you would know best having actually swung the Equinox. I guess the only way to know for sure is to have Lunk weigh in on which of the tones most closely matched what he was hearing when he got to swing the Equinox.

Sounds about right. And I guess soneone else has $600 to spend towards a new Equinox. Win-Win!

Those are the ones I have. Just waiting for an APT X comoatble metal detector to testvthem out on. Anyone know where I can get one?

That sounds more likely than the oddball configuration I was postulating. What's cool is, if that was the case, that you were hitting on such small targets and could pick up the gold test target just fine even when you were not in gold mode! It's intimidating to be handed a machine cold and then swing it when you are not intimately familiar with the user interface. It's almost a little like flying blind (or when you swung a metal detector the first time out without out knowing what all the adjustments actually do) because its hard to pick up the visual clues of your selected mode off an unfamiliar screen. Until you are used to the icons and layout, it just looks cluttered plus you are mainly focusing on the audio and target id when you have such limited time to play around with it.

Sounds like what Steve was describing in his Gold Mode write-up is the audio you desire. Perhaps Mark's machine didn't have this latest audio tweak that Steve was describing for some reason. Thanks for the info.

Are you saying that the audio did not respond as a VCO (variable volume/pitch) as described in Steve's post here: Also, you mentioned multifrequency was an option in your original post. Did you get to swing it in multifrequency (the default) AND single frequency during your test? If so, was there any difference in responsiveness that you could observe?

I know they are not the minelabs, but should be similar with respect to battery life. Specifically, I have never had the Deus detector outlast the Deus wireless headphones on a charge. I would suspect that would be case with both the supplied Minelab APT X headphones AND the supplied WM 08 wireless module that you can plug your existing wired headphones into. Believe me, wireless really frees you up during target recovery in farm field relic recovery where, as you know, you typically have to maneuver around to dig larger, deep holes often with the detector lying on the ground. And remember, you can stay wireless longer by using the APT X phones, and then if they somehow do not last the entire session, you can, in a pinch, whip out a set of wired phones WITH the WM 08 wireless module and still stay untethered from the detector. HTH

I think the 600 will serve you well as a starter unit you can grow with. That being said, the value of the 800 may be greater than the 600 because of the included wireless hardware. But are the bells and whistles of the 800 needed for the beginning detectorist? No. If you can afford 800 (i.e., price is not an obstacle) can the 800 be a good machine for a beginner? Yes. The additional bells and whistles are not going to get in the way of learning the machine and the provided wireless audio components are very convenient accessories to have. Note the 600 also supports wireless BT headsets and proprietary ML wireless modules but you will have to bring or buy your own. HTH

The flip side to my discussion is that there is no point in relearning something 2 or 3 times because it is in a state of flux, so it makes sense to not lean forward too much. It’s always good to occasionally tell yourself “don’t forget to breath.” Lol

Sorry, guess I’m splitting hairs but just trying to get a handle on the Gold Mode SW version Lunk was using. I latched on to his statement that Multi was an option (vs. stating it was the default) which could have meant it was earlier than when ML recently made Multi the default setting. Guess I was mistaken that there was an interim iteration. Thanks for correcting my misinformation. It’s hard being on the outside and trying to piece the bits of info together to get the big picture or to correlate operational reviews especially when the target is moving (e.g., the “recent” change to Gold Mode) and as ML trickles the info out in multi part bog posts. So bear with us not in the know folks just trying to differentiate between fact and fiction as we piece the puzzle together. Why bother now when all will be revealed once it is released? Because I am aiming to get a running start on understanding this beast so I can minimize the learning curve in the field once it finally delivers. Plus as an engineer, I tend to go a little overboard on precision in communicating technical information. My apologies.

Thanks, Steve. So Gold Mode has gone through at least 3 “visible” iterations, then (single frequency only, single frequency default with multi option, and finally multi freq default with single freq option), correct? I say visible meaning an obvious user interface tweak vs. whatever else ML is tweaking under the hood with the Multi IQ implementation algorithm for Gold Mode.

Great report. Just getting the machine to run stable under those conditions is an accomplishment, not to mention being able to recover legitimate targets (desirable or not). I believe that if the default frequency mode under gold mode was multi IQ, then you were likely running the latest sw version. Steve can correct me, but I don't think gold mode was ever precluded from running in multi IQ, but the default was single frequency (20 or 40 khz) originally. I believe the only mode that is limited in that regard is beach mode which is limited to multi IQ only. Thanks for the report.

Agree AT series is toast with Equinox and Deus will take a hit too, but mainly because of what you have to pay for it. In some respects (e.g., HF) it may still outperform the Equinox because its frequencies are much higher than the Equinox max frequency. No one (even Minelab Go detectors), touch Deus on lightweight, low profile detecting. But will users be willing to pay the Deus price for these fringe benefits? I would say very few once Equinox comes out.

Gerry, Thanks for giving the dealer's perspective. Believe me, I know that dealers need to protect themselves from unscrupulous buyers just as buyers need to shop around and of course business is business.. My only point was glad I was in a situation where I did not have to worry about what list I needed to get on based on money exchanging hands. I am lucky to be in a situation where the dealer and I have mutual trust that does not need to be confirmed with a credit card number, if I say I am going to buy it, I buy it and doesn't have to tell me to "step aside". I do not know what volume my dealer moves so I cannot compare with your situation but I know that the playbook changes when you have a larger customer base. So perhaps, I will have to wait longer than your prepaying customers, but my sense of loyalty to my dealer because of the good product recommendations, personal service and instruction he has provided will keep me coming back despite wait times and despite knowing that his prices are not necessarily rock bottom. Some nationally known dealers will not give you a choice, its either prepay or no detector, so I appreciate those dealers that give the customers that choice (just as I'm sure some of my dealer's customers would prefer that he run a long and short list). The mindset of buyers and what they are willing to tolerate in that regard varies across a wide spectrum, that is why it is a good thing (and yes good business) to have competition and for the buyers to have choices with respect to being able to have some influence over when they get product even if it involves a prepay. It's all good and I dare say, since I am sure you know that the product Minelab is producing is not going to be an AT Max situation (even if someone comes up with a new product announcement, I cannot see it even touching what Minelab is offering in the Equinox), this thing is going to sell like hotcakes and dealers will not be taking any baths with unsold inventory, I'm sure of that. They are just going to be dealing with whining buyers (like me) who are wondering when their 'Nox is going to show up and having to deal with people who say "'Nox." lol. Thanks again for responding. PS, anything you can share with us from the dealer's meeting?

I think you are mixing up frequency and conductivity terms in some parts of the discussion above (e.g., “high freq like silver”). Large and High conductive targets (e.g., silver) are typically better detected at depth with low frequency and small and mid-conductive targets (e.g., gold) typically better detected with higher frequencies. There are no absolutes and other factors such as soil and salt conductivity, iron proximity, and target size come into play. Hence the advantages of Multi IQ AND high recovery speed become apparent. Overcoming the instability that results from the varying salt concentration/ conductivity in surf/wet sand is the overriding consideration in beach mode which tends to favor low frequency weighting and may limit small gold detection capability in wet sand surf. But having a stable detector at least gives you a fighting chance and should also slightly favor higher conductive targets like silver. Gold mode should excel on dry beach and with Mult IQ should make a decent general purpose dry beach mode. Was this the statement you were referring to: “Multi-IQ uses a different group of fundamental frequencies than BBS/FBS to generate a wide-band multi-frequency transmission signal that is more sensitive to high frequency targets and slightly less sensitive to low frequency targets. Multi-IQ uses the latest high-speed processors and advanced digital filtering techniques for a much faster recovery speed than BBS/FBS technologies. Multi-IQ copes with saltwater and beach conditions almost as well as BBS/FBS, however BBS/FBS still have an advantage for finding high conductive silver coins in all conditions.”

Now its a guessing game for us. Would be better if you could enable or disable this feature (so the unit worked as before or you could turn it on an tweak and play with it). I think I am going to stay away from 4.1 for awhile until you and others get a handle on how to set it. I'll be watching your posts to see what you come up with in the comparison, in the mean time its 4.0 for me.

The Iron Bias icon is a variation on the recovery speed icon - recovery speed becomes iron bias when you add the underline just as the Reject/Accept icon becomes tone break with the underline. So the underline makes it a new icon. Correct as explained above.

This change really bugs me. Seems like now we have a setting that can really screw up performance if it is not set properly and really have not been provided with the tools to properly determine the optimal setting. Its kind of like saying manually set ground balance based on the height of a bargraph without any units shown. Any scientific method at setting this parameter consistently and optimally?

Thanks, Steve. This info is as valuable as the gold the Equinox will find. The way this is laid out, I conclude the 600 will be slower than 800 at its fastest setting and cannot be the throttled back as much as the 800 to trade recovery speed for depth. Where 90% of users will typically set the machines, however, the recovery speed performance will be the same. On the Deus I have never used either extreme recovery speed (0 or 5). That being said, like having the additional options “just in case”, therefore, yet another reason I will be getting the 800 and one of the more significant performance differentiators that further justify the price delta.

Or ML pushed back the ship date even further and Cabelas couldn’t take the grief from their customers. Interesting though that you can still supposedly order by phone.

At least as far as recovery speed adjustment is concerned, I am hoping all you are getting is fewer settings (less fine control) and not a compressed range because this would potentially mean that the 600 couldn’t achieve the recovery speed of the 800, which to me seems like unnecessary artificial crippling of 600 performance, though I suppose you could say the same about lack of Gold Mode and 20/40 kHz indivusl frequency selection, as well.