palzynski

Actually I meant having a good signal when sweeping the coil first to the right, then to the left ( or left and right ) : sweep1 <--------- target <--------- = good signal sweep2 --------> target ---------> = good signal But beginners learn these things in the field , after a few hours it is easy to recognize good targets from big irons , so it is not a real issue as VLFs are very accurate on targets , and particular the ML multifreqs like the Vanquish 340 , 440 or 540. Would be easier to explain this in a video than in a post btw ....🙂

Hi , Good news , normally you should not be disappointed with the 440... Just one advice take your time to get used to the Vanquish audio, it is a little "chatty" particular on iron trashed areas . You may find it a little difficult at the beginning this is normal . Usually beginners need at least a dozen hours to get used to the ML multifreqs audio .... Avoid too iron trashed areas ( yards , parks , ... ) during these first hours and go rather on quieter areas. Only dig clean and repeatable signal on both directions . You may also test some targets ( coins , foils , buttons , etc ) at home ( outside the house because of the emi) before going in the field , this will also help. Good luck and send a post if any question/pb ...

Just one last thing , you can reduce the "noise" on the Equinox by increasing the Iron Bias level ( FE ) . Doing this you loose a little depth and reactivity but the machine will be more silent between targets , this because the filtering on the small irons is higher.

Sorry I did not see that the topic was dating from 2018 , I thought it was a recent one , a little too late to answer to this, perhaps that will help Hello ... 🙂

Hi Actually I agree with you the Equinox/Vanquish/Etrac etc are noisy as long as you are detecting in high iron trashed areas, probably like your yard . It is what I have always been saying since I am on this forum ( January of this year ) : the ML multifreqs are excellent on low to medium iron trashed areas , but they become noisy and unstable on high iron trashed compared to other machines like the Tesoros , XP , Whites etc ... It is for me the ML multifreqs weakness, they have not been designed for high iron trashed areas , at least those that we have in Europe , with 2000 years of intense human occupation . This is why I use a Deus on iron trashed areas , there a big difference between them ,the Deus is almost silent and just beeps on the good targets among the ferrous .. Just my opinion , but I have very experimented friends over here that fully agree with me on this "chatty ML multifreqs" topic ... To confirm this I can suggest you to try the Equinox in a other area than your yard , away from the town with little iron trash, you should see the difference , the Equinox should be more silent . Perhaps I am wrong and it comes from an EMI issue. You should quickly find the reason of this issue by testing your Equinox at different locations I think ...

No a bigger coil does not mean necessarily better , it depends from what you are looking for ... I use my Vanquish for coin hunting. I have tested the 3 coils V8 , V10 , V12 on my 540 and I prefer the V10 . The V8 is ultra light with a quite good ground coverage , but you loose depth with it on coin size targets vs the V10/V12, however it is the most sensible to tiny targets . The V12 is an excellent coil for big coins at depth but a little heavy for me , and quite big so you need a pinpointer with that coil . The V10 offers depth , lightness and low iron masking a great design from ML and a very polyvalent coil .. Yes I agree with you the 440 is probably the best choice , there are more functions than the 340 , a dedicated All Metal button that I use very often on the 540 , more volume tones ( 10 instead of 3 ) so that you can adjust the volume more accurately than on the 340 , a pinpoint mode , a rain cover , armrest strap etc .. All this with a still very interesting price .. I forgot to mention that if the vanquish coils are waterproof , the vanquish control box itself cannot be submerged ...

Hi , If you do not need wireless headphones , then even the Minelab Vanquish 340 at 240euros ( 200$? in the US ) or the 440 ( 300$ ?) are excellent machines.Probably quite close to the CTX with a little less expensive price ... 🙂The 540 has wireless , backlight and a big V12 coil. However I prefer the smaller 340/440 V10 stock coil . This V10 coil (10X8 inches/360grams ) is lighter than the V12 ( 12X10 inches/440grams ) , very accurate, easy to center , with excellent depth performances . Fun to use even by a beginner . Just my opinion ..

Yes the wireless is a desirable feature, I need it fo example when I detect with friends , in such conditions I need to have a silent machine so that I do not upset them with my detector sounds .. I just would have preferred to pay a little less for the wireless on my Vanquish ... On the other hand , it is always possible to add a wireless transmitter using the 1/8 jack connector of the 340, a Deteknics for example , probably for around 120 euros . A little more complex,so probably less reliable than the built in system however ... But yes you are right we are always demanding for more and more for the money , however I must admit that the 340 at 240euros is a real bargain considering its top level performances , this even without the wireless ..I like the 340 it and I have already recommended it to other persons who are very happy with it ...

Yes but the Vanquish 540 with the ML80 headphones ( total 540euros ) is a little expensive compared to its main competitor the Simplex+ at 400euros ...

Actually I think that the 340 can even be a 1st machine because of its very high level of performances... And ML could improve it , for example with a new Vanquish 340+ adding wireless headphones compatibility , the only thing missing on the 340 to my opinion ...

And as promised the pic of the German 1st WW buckle found by my friend Kevin ( 15 years old ) and his Vanquish 340 ... Btw in an area where they were US troops during 1918 , fighting with the French against the Germans ...

Actually I recommended a few weeks ago the Vanquish 340 to a beginner , 15 years old. He had just a little experience with a bounty hunter . In fact the pb for him when he started with the 340 was not the target poinpointing , he did very well without it , but rather the Vanquish audio which "talks" a lot compared to his bounty hunter, particularly on high iron trash areas . He was a little disappointed with the Vanquish I just told him to wait a dozen hours so that he gets used to its audio. Now he likes it, he uses it for 1st WW war relics hunting and he has already found a very nice german prussian buckle. Will add a pic in this post later .. He goes in woods , with moderate/medium iron trashed soils , in such areas the 340 is excellent ...

340 vs the Simplex , I prefer the 340 for its audio and sensitivity to tiny targets because of the MultiIQ ... Not sure that the Simplex 11 coil would have detected this tiny 0,5 grams roman coil ... Just my opinion ... I will try to borrow a Simplex+ and do a comparative test on this very little coin

Yes I forgot the pinpoint mode , I have never used this functionality on my detectors since the beginning , so difficult for me to talk about this ... Also I forgot to mention that I always have a pinpointer with me , a ML Profind 35 that I use quite often with the V10 or V12 coils. Concerning the modes , there are 3 modes on the 340 , coins , jewellery and all metal. Actually I used the jewellery mode during this outing , I had not the time to compare it with the coin mode . I forgot to mention that I used quite frequently the all metal mode when the signal were doubtful. Most of the time they were big irons that can be clearly identified with their very low tone.

I took the 340 V10 coil and mounted it on the 540. So I have the experience of the 540 V10 and 340 V10 and I can compare them together. Both 340 and 540 perform very well with the V10. I prefer the V10 vs the V12 coil because it is lighter , more accurate , less iron masking with almost the same depth perfos .

As I like the Vanquish serie ( I already have a 540 ) 🙂, I decided to buy a 340. Over here the 340 price is 240e , so quite cheap ,almost the price of a coil ... My plan was to do some tests with the 340 and resell it later .. A few days ago I did my usual static depth tests. See pics below. I could see that the 340 had the same depth than the 540 V10 , either on a big coin at 11inches or a small coin at 6inches, so very good news for the 340. I could also check that the 340 is as sensible as the 540 V10 on tiny targets lying on the surface like small hammered coins , good news again .. So today I went to an open field cultivated with wheat. Sandy low mineralized soil. Low to medium iron trash. Actually the conditions were not ideal because the field has not yet been ploughed and I had to sweep the coil 3 or 4 inches above the ground because of the cut wheat. I found many targets , mainly 1st WW rubbish... Among that stuff I could find 2 coins , a 16th century copper coin and a tiny roman bronze coin .. Very happy with these 2 coins 🙂, the copper coin displayed 15 id and the roman coin 11 id . The 340 is very accurate and deep, the same as the 540 V10 actually , I did not see any difference in the field, the only thing there are only 3 tones for the 340 instead of 5 for the 540. Iron separation is the same between the 340 and the 540. The V10 coil is excellent for coin shooting , and very light .. The only limitation I see for the 340 , the same as the 540 and other multifreqs MLs , are high iron trash areas , so the 340 is a little too chatty and slow on these areas . And unfortunately there is no dedicated "FA" ( fast ) mode like on the Teknetics T2 ... On such iron trashed areas I prefer to use my Deus . So if you dont need wireless and backlight and you detect on low/medium iron trashed areas , the Vanquisg 340 offers a great performance for a very limited budget. Even experienced users will be happy with it ... I was thinking of reselling it but eventually I will keep my 340 for the moment .. 🙂

Looks like Nokta listens their customers , either the 8,5i or the 9X5i will significantly improve the ergonomy of the Simplex with lighter coils because the 11i coil is a little heavy ( 480grams without coil cover ) . Well done Nokta for those 2 new coils ...

Wow 1,9kg for the v3i it is more than what I was estimating ... Even if the v3i is well balanced the weight is still there and in terms of "sweeping ergonomy" the Orx will for sure outperform the v3i . You should try an Orx or a Deus , just a little try , you will see , once you are used to it it is very difficult to come back to a 1,5kg or more machine 🙂 ... An other good example is the new Garrett Apex at 1,1kg , a significant improvement compared to their prev. detectors, I think they did a very good job, this will be appreciated by their future customers ... Actually I was less sensible to this weight aspect when I started detecting 20 years ago ... I had a ML Explorer which is not known as a light detector ( 1,9kg ), this without any pb. But now it is different I prefer light machines . On the other hand some people do not bother detecting with heavier machines ,this is just a personal choice ..

Hi , Actually it was my 1st detector , I bought it in 1998 in a shop in Paris. A nice machine , very easy to operate. Just 2 things , the ext. speaker too loud I had to mount a volume knob as albert did ( see post above ), and the knobs which tend to turn too easily. So I have maintained the disc knob with a rubber band to prevent it from rotating . A fast and ultra light detector very good in open fields ... HH

Hi captain, Actually I answered to your private mail but it looks like for some reasons you never received my answer , si I wil answer here : 1. first question is why I moved from the Eq 800 to the Vanquish 540 : - because of the excellent Vanquish coil set , particular the V10 coil - because of some control box buttons ergonomy that I will not detail here - because of the excellent Vanquish telescopic shaft In mild/moderate mineralized soil the Vanquish has almost the same perfos as the Equinox , and the same audio, so I did not have to relearn a new machine , the Vanquish just sounds like the Eq ... 2. About the war in my area , in fact it is not the 2nd but the 1st world that has left a lot of rubbish here , casings bullets schrappnells etc ... because of the 4 long years war duration. The 2nd WW war has been much faster over here so less targets left in the soil. It depends where you are , in Normandy of course they have plenty of 2nd WW targets. Yes older people told me stories on the 2nd WW , most of them have passed now but I still remember their stories ...

Hi Steve , thx for your all infos .. From your pic I have counted a total of 104 targets including ( 24 ferrous + 10 bottle caps) . So you only digged around 30% iron targets of the total. So this means 70% potential valuable targets ...I am not a beach specialist but this looks very interesting ... Looks like the AQ eliminates quite a lot of iron trash... Of course with a VLF there would have been close to 0% iron targets , but the VLF does not go as deep as the AQ ...

Hi , I have tested the Simplex+ last year and I made depth tests comparisons with it on my test boxes . Actually I am not confident with some youtube test videos I prefer to do my own tests , that I know very reliable ( test boxes, see my other threads in this forum , Vanquish for example ) .. : - On a big 10grams coin at 11inches deep the Simplex has exactly the same perfo as the Deus 11i coil , Eq 800 11i coil , Vanquish V12 - On a smaller 3grams coin at 6inches depth, the Eq , Deus, Vanquish are better than the Simplex. This is due to the Simplex 12khz relatively low freq which is not optimal for small /very small targets , compared to the 20 and even 40khz running on the 800 , Deus , etc Concerning the v3i , I do not know this machine , but from the single weight standpoint , I imagine that it must weight at least 1,5kg , whiile the Orx only weights 0,8kg. For info a teknetics T2 weights 1,6kg, the Simplex+ 1,4kg ... So the Orx/Deus outperform the others on this weight criteria , this is why people appreciate the XPs , in addition to excellent abilities on iron trashed areas...

Actually I find not normal that there is a great range of coils V8 V10 V12 for the "entry level" Vanquish and not even a 10inch coil for the Equinox. I know this has already been said many times but If ML does not improve their Equinox coil set , they will probably see customers moving to the Garrett Apex , as they have already seen many customers moving to XP … ML should read a little more the forums to get their customers feedbacks ...

From the few videos done with the Apex that I saw , the Apex could be better than the MLs ( Eq, Vanquish, Etrac , etc ) on high iron trashed areas. High iron trashed areas is the little weakness of the MLs to my opinion , and Garrett could take the lead on this with the Apex . The Apex looks more reactive and more silent than the MLs on these videos . Btw this iron trash ability has been stated by Garrett in their Apex marketing stuff if I remember well . Just a guess .. Need to go in the field with the Apex to confirm that..

Ok I understand , actually I know a lot of areas over here littered with modern junk ( small pieces of aluminium , etc .. ). For example along the roads. Actually I prefer to flee from such areas … Location is the key word when detecting … Detector settings comes after. Perhaps you should try to find a cleaner place outside the big town .. Sorry I missed your last post 50 trash/ 50 coin is quite a good ratio from my standpoint. In my area with the 1st WW war it is more: 90 ww trash / 10 other (( coin and artefacts ). So over here the pb is more the 1st WW trash than the modern trash …