Alluminati

I think you are projecting again. I looked up your VX3, apparently White's neutered a Spectra. ? "Whites VX3 Metal Detector combines the premier performance of the Spectra V3i with the turn-on-and-go simplicity of the Coinmaster line" Zing! The Equinox is pretty sweet now that you mention it.

Apparently not, at 41 minutes, she just said she don't want to talk about it, then continues to tell you how you don't need it lol, then says they want to go a different direction with multifrequncy, then moves on to naming the machine. You could do better reading between the lines.

Equinox 800 would be the best VLF on the market to look for gold in hot ground, IMO, due to it's Multi-IQ. Something like a XP Deus with a eliptical HF coil or the Gold Monster might be my second choice. If the ground is really difficult, then you may need one of the big Minelab pulse machines that is typically used in the land of upside down. These are better when needed, but don't have much in the way of discrimination.

I think I can sometimes notice the 40ms delay with the Minelab headphones, but they are usable. It's not something I notice constantly, just the odd time a deeper tricky target in the water might cause me to slow down my "X"ing a touch. It could just be placebo, I don't know. I guess if we were to compare apples to apples, theoretically speaking, the WM-08 module is going to report a hit twice as fast as the big headphones, regardless of swing speed. Or another way, the big headphones will let the coil travel twice as far as the WM-08 before it reports a hit, for a given swing speed. (20ms vs 40ms stated in the manual.) We do know that "regular" non AptX Bluetooth with their 100ms response is too slow, so I don't think we have reached diminishing returns with 40ms, 20ms sounds better, no pun intended. I understand why some North Americans want to use a 1/4" jack, but it doesn't make sense for the rest. I have never fallen for the headphone hype, it's not that I don't think that good headphones can be made, it's that just because lawnmower headphones can be fitted with a 1/4" phone jack doesn't make them better. Noise Isolation can be nice, but so is not sweating your face off. I don't believe anyone who says they can only find targets with certain headphones. That would require a very certain situation and non of the claimants would even know the db of the drivers in their cans. In other words BS. Noise doesn't bother me, or at least it doesn't effect my detecting that much. I would not like detecting next to a highway or around screaming kids, but I do quite often listen to Stern while detecting and the wind is often howling on the water. I don't think you are going to hear anything past your sensitivity and threshold setting anyway. I believe the "Special" headphones are best for the gold prospecting guys with analog machines were a slightly more efficient pair could be a tangible advantage, but not for a regular coin/jewellery/relic hunter. We have a volume control that works well enough. It's not worth clinging to that 1/4" jack. Headphones are almost semi-disposable IMO, some last longer then others, but they all develop issues if used with any regularity. A big plus for the module. Headphones are mostly fluff, price has little to do with how long headphones will last, or how they subjectively sound. Sure a $800 set of headphones should sound a little better then a $80 dollar pair, but not 10 times better. $80 headphones do not sound 10 times better then $8 headphones. You see where this is going? A metal detector does not produce extreme 20Hz bass, or any bass really, nor does it produce 20,000Hz of treble. The relaxes the need for any kind of a premium driver. Its really down to do you like how this particular headphones colours the sound over another pair. As we get older we lose some high frequency hearing, so some might prefer the leaner sound of say a Deus WS4 headphone vs the bigger, bassier over the ear WS5 headphones. These quite possibly use the same speaker, just one has an larger rear chamber while the other is almost an open air design. If I might make a suggestion, just have a 1/8" jack wired into your favorite pair of cans. You can just cut the wire off of a cheap donor pair and solder it direct to the headphones. If you still need 1/4" at times, a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter is quite small in comparison to the 1/4" to 1/8" adapter you are using now. I often modify headphones to make the wire shorter. (I use them a lot at work) I make the wire just long enough to reach the audio device, that way I don't have to roll up and excess wire. I just need enough wire to reach the bottom of my pocket with a bit of slack for head movement without tugging on the wire. Same thing with the WM-08 module. I just tuck the wire down my shirt, it's just long enough to reach the module and that is it. I feel just as wireless this was as I do with the big headphones, the compromise is I have to accommodate the WM-08 in a pocket or on a belt. Next year I will reconfigure my treasure pouch to have a spot to hole the WM-08 on the right side.

I don't get too worked up about the Bluetooth headphones so much because the 800 has the WM-08 module which address most concerns with the Bluetooth headphones, with the caveat of having to use a short length of wire between the headphones and the module. I like Bluetooth headphones enough, don't get me wrong, they are comfortable albeit obviously warm and are truly wireless. They are a very nice backup to have. Essentially from a performance point of view, any Bluetooth headphone including the Minelab Bluetooth headphones are the third choice behind the WM-08 module and the wired headphones. If you think about it the WM-08 module is very clever. Its faster then Bluetooth and in reality it's better for the user to select their actual headphones based on conditions and budget. Finding AptX headphones is hard enough, then you add in all the other subjective requirements that go along with headphones. The WM-08 is water resitant I think, you can put it in your pocket or a baggie easily. It has a big power button and no redundant volume controls. Right now I prefer the short length of wire to the module and a cheap set of lightweight behind the neck headphones for the warmer weather. That being said, I have been using the Bluetooth headphones in the water this fall because they are warm, comfortable and are what I consider a freebie. Since Minelab has their own faster tech with the WM-08 module, maybe one day we will see a new pair of headphones that are not Bluetooth? Perhaps there is a patent issue with Deus stopping them from making them at this time, hence splitting up the electronics separately from the speakers, I'm just speculating of course. I'm working on a design of full size headphones this winter that will accept the WM-08 module.

That is a tough one. If you are talking about modern hobby probes then maybe something like the Falcon, Sunray probe or the White's. That being said there are probably;y devices in the medical field or military that have been around longer.

That is the best guess yet I would say. Having another look at it, the holes are not perpendicular to the rim part that I would assume make contact with the bell. The mystery deepens.

Another note on the depth meter, it's probably like the discrimination in that it assumes a coin size target. It is understandable that properly working machine to misidentify a huge piece of metal, due to how the technology works. I often thought metal detectors should have a second discrimination range for checking big targets. If you think its deep iron, click a button to switch to "Large size disc" then check it again. This would have the effect of bringing the numbers back down and in line with the small targets, so that a can would have the same number as a tab when checked with the large size discrimination. This should also correct the depth meter to a degree on larger objects.

I agree, pinpoint and in particular one of the Gold modes you give you a decent indication to size and depth. Pinpoint may be quicker if it locks on first time, Gold mode always works even in heavy trash.| In pinpoint mode, a coin sized target will always be a small, tight pinpoint about 1" wide, while a can will generate a response across it's whole length. A small shallow target in gold mode is pretty obvious with it's quick sharp kinda of "whippit" sound, a small deep target will just be a quick somewhat quieter response without much inflection. A can should be obvious as well. ? Others have mentioned something about 50 tones making targets sound small, so it could be that one of the other tone modes offers more inflection, I don't know you'd have to experiment.

Sweet relics.

Yes it is a cool idea, good video. I've been meaning to do road tear-outs in the past, but always seemed to talk myself out of them. I guess I was always concerned they were reworked before and had fill brought in etc. There might be an opportunity to do one this fall, this makes it seem doable.

I suppose that could be. It could also represent 52 pull tabs to you lololol. ?

That is a really nice ring.

You better hope its from their nose.

Wow that is real interesting stuff, good going.

I bought the Equinox because it obsoleted all my other machines. I was already a Minelab fanboy, this is my 4th or 5th. This machine allowed me to consolidate into one platform, which is nice.

These statistics are nonsense, the deer didn't kill those drivers, the driver killed the deer and themselves with an automobile. The article says scientists are struggling with the deal with the problem. lol It's kinda like talking about the odds of getting hit by lightning. Your odds are much higher out on a lake or golf course in a storm then when its sunny out and you're sitting inside. If you look at the way people die by bears in North America, every instance involves have words describing the event that include, "cabin, "campground", "mountain biking" "feeding", "rural", "hunting", "staking claims", "slept". It also happens more often then once a year, some years have several fatalities when you look at the different species. 2 people were killed in Alaska last year by black bears. One was collecting soil samples and the other was running. A 3rd was killed by a brown bear less then a year later. Read the descriptions, tourists being dragged off after being warned of bears down the road but wanted to take pictures anyway. I will stay in the camp of "stay away from bears." I would say you have a 95% chance of surviving a bear encounter, which is too low IMO. If you look at the murder rate in Alaska it is 8 per 100,000. If you placed 100,000 people in real bear encounter scenarios, I betcha more then 8 people die. Not driving down the road and seeing a bear in a field, I mean a real encounter with food or cubs involved, maybe a bit of surprise factor. Remember those 8 people interact with a 100,000 people more or less, but the people killed by bears don't interact with 100,000 of bears on a daily basis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_bear_attacks_in_North_America#Maps

Also check this one out. This was found in a fairly well detected spot. Could we speculate that this coil had just enough extra depth, while maintaining sensitivity to find it? Would Steve have found it with the 11" coil? We will never know if it was the coil, the machine or just happenstance but it is a find worth noting. As long as it maintains reasonable sensitivity to the odd shapes, as demonstrated in this picture, it should make a great coil for offshore water hunting, just based on coverage alone, a slight depth increase being a bonus. Caveat emptor with regards to salt water, but it should be OK. I do have concerns about the increased drag in the water, though it looks reasonably thin. I do a lot of land hunting too, so even if I don't like it in the water it will get some use. The Equinox is priced well so there is a little room to buy a few accessories compared to the CTX and Etrac.

Today was miserable, the water and wind would burn my face. It's days like this that make me think that I may have an addiction rather then a hobby. ? I found a log I hadn't come across before. I usually try to move them to see if anything collected underneath. I got some negative numbers below it, but thought I would have a look anyway. Out comes a piece of a wood crate, there was more negatives in the hole, but it was too cold to care about them. I kept it because there was some writing on it. Since it was below a log, it could be a relic from over a hundred years ago when parts of this area was land. I find patches of rotting wood out there, incidentally these areas never give up any gold. I suspect the gold just sinks too deep into the rotting root structure. Two little terriers took interest in this thing too, so much so that they absconded from me when I was taking my shoes off, ran under the table and started chewing the letters off. lol now we'll never know what it said. I did find some promising erosion that was giving up lots of lead, but I had enough by that point.

I agree that it looks like it would gain you more coverage then depth compared to the 11" coil. The 15" is elliptical, which may not be as deep as if the coil was actually 15" wide. The stock coil is 11" round DD, almost as wide as this 15"x12". Making this particular coil egg shaped brings back some sensitivity to smaller items that may have been lost when up sizing the coil. Its a similar aspect ratio to the little 5"x10" prospecting coils etc.

Enter the Blender. I'm thrilled about the upcoming wind, but not so thrilled about actually being in the wind now that the weather is getting cooler. I may go out this morning, although tomorrow morning looks a little calmer. This time of year you can't really pass any days up, especially now that its is getting darker I'm limited to weekends. Basically the wind is going to going to be somewhat northerly from typical western wind today, then its going to flip around and start coming from the southeast on Sunday culminating in a big southern blast on Tuesday, (The red block with the 80 in it) then shifts back to the west to pound the shoreline relentlessly spanning a period of 48 hours. The sand wont know if it's coming or going. I suspect I may see sand piled high enough to breach the surface of the water when this is done. This should also strip the shoreline in a few particular spots, I'm just basing this off a similar storm and conditions last year. The water level is down well over a foot, so these violent storms tend to pull the sand right off the beach in spots, exposing the clay. The sand cant return until the water level comes back up in the spring and the wind stabilizes. If this happens again I want to use a magnet to try and pick up some of the iron that is masking the shoreline. I was able to spot wheat cents and a silver/14K ring with my eye, but could not detect them with the 11" coil I had on at the time, though I did wiggle out a few decent targets. (Wheats and a silver dime) There is so much iron in spots that even a 6" isn't any easier, (A small coil does not make recovery any easier) that's why I just want to magnet or rake a bunch of it up. I could have raked out a bucket full last year. Within this iron patch I found a shallow depression in the clay that had collected about 15-20 pennies spanning about 80 years. I guess this demonstrates that at least some targets are able to migrate along the clay/sand interface and head towards deeper water, assuming they don't actually get lodged in the clay from someone stepping on them.

It could be a name plate off of a trunk etc. from the railroad era.

Today's 3 hour tour yielded 2 silvers.

Somebody just got the day off. 2°C / 35.6°F and rain. Not too windy.

I agree, those slight variations in swing on fringe targets, as well as your attitude. Some days my coffee tastes better then others. It will be something to test this winter when everyone gets cabin fever (I think it's setting in already ? ), it will be interesting to see what the tangible differences between firmware variations. I'm all for them releasing updates as long as they keep the old ones available. For example, when they "fixed" that big silver on edge thing, did we loose something else? That's why lots want the old firmware available should they dumb the machine down for mass audiences. Success is more overall an overall aggregate, so I haven't spent enough time with either firmware to notice any tangible differences myself, but I'm sure there are differences. It could also just be the collective group of Equinox users sort of getting in sync with their machines around the same time, as most have less then one season on the machine. with a new FBS style machine this is when things usually get exciting, once you start to recognize those deep old targets and can run the machine a little hotter, noisier. Etrac users know what I mean, a 5" penny is 12-42 but a 10" silver dime is not 12-42. ?