☠ Cipher

I found my first silver with the AT Pro. If I were told it’s the only machine I could ever use I wouldn’t be too sad about it. My only comment on obsolescence would be that the price should reflect that competition has now entered the marketplace. But as single frequency metal detectors go, it’s as good as it gets really.

When it comes to the V series, they tend to be fine in mild ground. With the right coil, even great. But as conditions worsen, moderate to harsh, or rapidly changing, they just don’t perform as well as other multifrequency designs. One of the Engineers, Geotech, explains that it’s the result of poor filtering of the frequencies, leading to frequency crosstalk, making a good ground balance especially difficult. If it were a better performer in such conditions I believe the complexity would’ve been forgiven. I have one and I love it, but I also have 0-2 bar soil, and rarely have opportunity to get to a saltwater beach. As they are, complex with compromised performance in difficult ground, the V series lends to too much chasing one’s tail for many people. For them, more time is spent looking for the holy grail setup than detecting.

I just happened to notice that both Equinox models went up another $50, from $949 to $999 for the 800. That makes a $100 price increase since it was launched at $899. I saw the first price hike as possibly a little opportunism, taking advantage of the popularity of the model, and lack of competition. This one I assume is related to the price increase and super high demand for chips. Garrett also raised their prices. Still, this would seem an inopportune time to raise prices. The Legend at $635 so far seems to be running neck and neck with the Equinox 800 performance wise, but with a higher build integrity. There are an awful lot of people talking about selling the Equinox they already have to buy a Legend. Prospective buyers now also have to consider a $364 price difference on top of it. The Equinox 600 now sits at $699, still $64 more than a Legend with less features and the same build quality concerns. Gas prices are up, inflation is soaring, and the competition has caught up. Seems like it would’ve been a better decision to give up a little profit margin, not raise prices, particularly where the volume of future sales is now in doubt. Garrett’s decision is also puzzling in light of the Simplex. They have to be feeling it right in the AT. It would seem that if the Simplex wasn’t the final nail in that series, the Legend might be. The Equinox now also has competition from XP with the Deus II. Contact the right dealer and you could have a Deus II for as low as $1450-$1500. Buy an Equinox 800 at $1000 and you may have to invest another couple hundred to address build issues. The actual difference between the two may be less than it first appears, for a machine with 6 times the underwater depth rating, also so far running neck and neck performance wise, and at times with a notable advantage. That’s my take anyway. It just seems like bad business to make a key product less attractive by raising the price with no change or improvement to known issues.

If you buy an extra hip mount case you can cut it down to fit perfectly as a mountable case. The hip mount case is only around $16.

Yes, speaking of the devil lol. BTW, full gain and no noise cancel. It’s no wonder is it…

Minelab’s ads are just ok. The worst ads have been Nokta Makros. Not only bad, but cringeworthy. Simplex and Legend take the cake for worst ads for a metal detector I’ve ever seen. Of course, when they are especially bad and corny they stick in your head nonetheless.

Gary seems to have everyone’s attention, and for good reason. He ought to write a book.

I’m going to be very cautious about updates to this detector. There’s no shortage of Deus 1 users who say that 3. Something was the best and things went backward from there in some respects. I did the same thing with Simplex and glad that I didn’t update from 2.77 to 2.78. It helps on resale down the road too to be running a more desirable software version. The latest isn’t always the greatest I’m learning.

I agree. It would be very nice if the coils were interchangeable in single frequency. The rumor mill says we are unlikely to see HF coils for the D2 because they aren’t compatible with diving etc. I hope that’s not true and we can get more of a variety of coils than just 9”, 11”, and 13” round. I think there’d be plenty of demand for limited use coils that work with a particular range of single frequencies or particular environments. If not, the technically inclined can always gut a Deus 2 coil and transfer the internals to smaller shooter coils just as they did with Deus 1.

The last update that I’m aware of was the big number update which is still for some odd reason called 0.6. Just a word of caution, some people are reporting a loss of depth and other undesirable operating characteristics with the big number update. Others emphatically deny that to be the case. I chose to forgo it for now to be on the safe side.

YouTube is like anything else. You learn who to pay attention to and who not to based on their track record of accuracy and the similarity of their conditions to our own. The problem I see with the old school types is they take everyone too seriously and swing at every pitch. Some people on YouTube matter more than others and that’s a reality. One guy or girl can say the product is crap and have a huge influence over their subscriber’s purchase decision. Those are the ones you have to pay attention to as a seller. There are unfortunately many who are both popular and misguided and that can spell disaster for a product as well. One guy growing in popularity seems to be just repeating lingo he’s learned online like “hot soil” (0-2 bar soil is “hot?”) and creating rather strange test scenarios that don’t seem to be showing what he thinks he’s showing. It’s an interesting test in psychology to see all the head nodding he gets nonetheless. That being said, a fairly intelligent person will learn who to pay attention to and who not to. I’ve learned a lot from some of the people on YouTube, and some of them consistently conduct testing that is always confirmed by the product I choose to buy. The best products I have tend to do the best in properly conducted tests.

They certainly aren’t optimal. I was expecting this though. I posted a question about whether the WS4 audio adapter would work on the WS6 in another topic for this reason. I do like the concept of the “puck” and that it can be used to make another D2 lite or audio out to another pair of headphones. I was caught off guard by the flexing lower rod though. Yet more that will have to be invested to make it whole.

I have just the 9” coil and notice flex coming from the lower shaft. The compound seems to present the same kind of flex I experience with the Simplex lower shaft. That so far is my only disappointment. It’s a disappointment nonetheless, and not something I’d expect from a $1,600 piece of equipment. Quality control should’ve caught that. I agree with what you’re seeing on high conductors. My own personal lawn was done giving up signals in the 80s and 90s. Now it’s alive again.

Does anyone see or know any reason this WS4 adapter would not also work for the WS6?

AMD elicited a rare eye roll from me when having fallen miserably short of their promise to meet or exceed the performance of machines like the Garrett Ace 400 and Minelab X-Terra, they nonetheless now say their next run will compete at the highest levels of the industry, XP and so on. Anything is possible I suppose, but if all we have to go on is their track record it seems like they’ve forgotten about even trying to hit the ball, dropped the bat and started running the bases straight to home plate.

It seems like the way Geotech describes what the CTX and other FBS machines are doing is closer to a hybrid pulse induction/vlf signal than the other multifrequency machines, firing it’s frequencies in sequential ratios and measuring half life etc.

I agree. I bought the CTX as an isolated target and field machine, and the first thing I did was replace the 11” coil with the 13”x17”. It hasn’t come off since and probably never will. It is admittedly cumbersome to swing, but I also have a well made harness that works very well if I need it. I’m very happy with my CTX and see no replacement for it, as Steve said. I’m over the moon with the selection of detectors I have now. Deus II with 9” coil just arrived yesterday and with that I feel now like I have all my VLF and multifrequency bases covered.

I’d pay a small fortune for it if it were a top performer, and the UI and graphics potential for a cell phone app based platform seem endless, but unfortunately AMD dropped the ball, so right now machines like the Simplex and Vanquish are far better deals and far better performers. I think Chase was right when he said it will end up a Sky Mall novelty for those who know nothing about metal detecting. Once their machine got into real users hands their claims and demos quickly fell apart and they couldn’t manage the damage control even as the units were dripped out to people who really wanted things to work out and invested early. How they got serious detecting to take it on is a real mystery. They literally won’t sell Bounty Hunters and there are Bounty Hunters that will wallop this product.

Yes, that sounds like their first run prototype. I could also be mistaken. By the time the discussion got to Bluetooth I’d heard enough to put me off until it could be discerned if an update could turn the unit around. It now seems that at least some limitations are hardware based though.

I don’t remember seeing any issues with lag. I believe the whole setup runs on just Bluetooth 5.0 from coil to phone.

Last App update on the App Store was 7 months ago when backers began receiving them. I’m told the app is completely gone from Google Play.

According to Daniel, whose been testing it for a while for his magazine in the UK, there have been no updates to the machine, nor to any the backers hold, nor have they fulfilled their obligations to the remainder of backers. I agree that this could hurt the reputation of Serious Detecting once they reach users hands. From what I gather they lack any serious depth, yet chatter away, and can’t be properly ground balanced. The GB function seems not to work at all. The depth people are getting is not what was promised, but more akin to a bounty Hunter Gold Digger. Since this happened after a necessary hardware change, it’s even more concerning that a complete overhaul is needed. Also concerning is that the phone grip has been dropping peoples phones and the bad ergonomic design can be felt straight away.

Look here https://www.facebook.com/groups/airmetaldetectors/?ref=share Based on what I’ve read, I would steer clear of these machines. I trust people like Daniel Spencer, Sid Perry, and others who have said this machine is far from ready for prime time, stands somewhere between a toy and a scam. I’ve followed it from concept right up to now.

I’m glad to hear this as I’m committed to purchasing one out of the next shipment. I don’t want to have a nagging feeling I should’ve bought the Deus 1 or ORX instead. I think the Deus 2 will really round out my collection nicely by the looks and sounds of things.

While we’re on the topic, here’s another pinpointer that has an Iron Tone. https://www.ebay.com/itm/GER-Detect-UIG-Pointer-Pinpointer-Metal-Detector-for-Gold-and-Precious-Metals-/184539502063?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0