bigtim1973

I no longer have the eq 600. However still have my XP Deus. Will be keeping that one. I am leaning toward the legend here in a couple of weeks I hope if all goes well.

Have had the equinox 600. Liked the screen and it performed pretty good. Now getting the itch for another unit. Still have my xp deus. I am familiar with the equinox 600 but never had an 800. That being said and for those who have used both the 800 and the legend now, which would you pick? I have had several nokta makro units from the fors core, racer, racer 2, anfibio and the Kruzer......they were all very well built and had a great layout. That being said, since the legend is a totally different machine than their previous line up, I am kind of curious and they are on my radar. Any and all feedback is welcome. Thanks Tim

Everything's great until they go kaput though. I am looking for some Tesoro stuff right now and it is almost impossible to find just a coil cover for mine. But still, that is a lot of money for a little machine.

Watch out....one has popped up here for 425.00!! Maybe I will be able to retire if I hold on to mine for a few more years.

Too bad there are no dealers for those things here. I have always been interested in them

I too really enjoyed the Xterra. I had the 50, 505 and an older 70 that wasn't quiet right. I have been looking for another set up here and there. And the coils that switch frequencies with a 9 volt battery it very neat. I did not like the 10.5 inch DD coil as it made the machine completely off balance. But if I do get another one I am going to try to find the small 18" DD HF coil for it. Maybe even try one of the ones that switch frequencies. Anyways, I am almost sure the vanquish is a better machine but I like the set up of the Xterra. I wish they would have made the vanquish on the Xterra platform. It would have been a homerun of they did that. It runs on the same amount of aa batteries.

It is quite surprising that every damn thing is made over there now. A bit disappointing that the cost is still very expensive for the machine made elsewhere as well. I do not understand it unless they are just taking in more equity per cost of unit compared to profit. So I guess they just win even better now. I wonder how long they have been doing this? The Xterra was much better built imo. I remember looking at the coil package for the Xterra and it was made in Ireland. I wonder if that place is still open and producing components for them.

Surfing ebay and saw. So does Minelab make their products in Ireland and Australia still or have they went to outsourcing their products to the orient now? this.https://www.ebay.com/itm/Metal-Detector-For-MINELAB-ExplorerSE-Keypad-Membrane-Protection-Film-/304142101125?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m2548.l6249&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

To me, although I may be thinking old fashion here but, we do not have a magazine in print any longer. I think when lost treasure and w&et were still on the news stand, it intrigued new users to seek out the hobby more than just guys posting stuff they find in youtube. I know there are digital subscriptions for w&et to subscribe to but if the new comer doest know about that what good is it? Those magazines reviewed lots of machines a lot and at times would tell the reader what the controls do for the machine they reviewed in most cases. So with the new one who comes along now, they really have no way of getting into grasp on the technical side of the machine before they purchase one. That was one good thing about the magazines and it helped me choose different machines through the years. At least get a general idea of the ability of different model machines. Now days the new comer says stuff like, I want a detector, which one is best. And when they see when everybody recommends one to them cost 1000 bucks it scares the hell out of them. Even the ace 250 is a complicated machine for someone who doesn't understand what the controls do. And companies like Minelab have symbols instead of words for their settings and controls to make it more user friendly across many languages and countries. So the new user who doesn't take the time to look into the manual and starts to push buttons and change things could and will make their first experience a nightmare.

You are probably right

Tesoro was in my opinion one of the best beginner unit manufacturer ever. Their compadre or before that the amigo was great for no nonsense fun. Even their silver umax was simple enough for anyone to use. The advent that we all need an awesome screen is a little misleading but we all got spoiled with it. Some of my best finds were with machines without meters. So as far as I see it, the cell phone people use for searching the internet with are way more complicated than the new machines these days. If anyone can read their manual and take the time to research what terms like gain and notching mean then, there should not be any problems with that same person using an equinox or deus.

Don't feel too bad. When I got my fors core several years ago when it hit the scene, I let a friend try it out. He sent them a little review of it with what he found and they gave him a 500 dollar certificate for the purchase of a metal detector. He put another 50 with it and bought the Fors relic. I tell him half of that machine belongs to me!!

Curious if anyone has done this comparison yet. I once had a few Xterra but they are long gone. Thinking of the little vanquish again. So has anyone compared these by chance?

So this is a real advertisement?

This is a fun topic. I cannot point to just one brand or specific model. But I will say my finds increased a bunch when the Minelab Xterra units hit the scene. Maybe it was me seeking out newer places to detect but who knows as I took it too a place I used a few different machines on and came home with silver dimes and Indian head pennies that my other units missed. I believe I had the most fun with the xterra not due to the fact that they were the deepest machine by any means but when I placed the 6 inch DD HF coil on it, it became a coin sniffer. I never tried that with other machines previously. It found more old coins at old home sites than I did with other machines. I kind of still look at them from time to time just for the fun I had with mine. I am almost tempted to get another one with the same 6" DD coil 18khz. That was also the machine in which I began to look at the benefits of higher khz vs lower khz. It was also light as a feather to swing with that 6 inch coil. The previous one I had a load of fun with before that was the Tesoro silver sabre 2. I actually bought a newer(this was in the 90's) Whites spectrum eagle. I thought I was in tall cotton when I got the spectrum. Only I did not have the patience to make good use of the features it offered. So I sat it aside and started off again coming from a 1980s D-Tex model with a lot of knobs and purchased the used silver sabre 2. It was just a breeze to use and I actually took and sold the spectrum eagle because I did not have the patience to try and learn it. Anyway, this is fun talking about them.