mn90403

Thanks for the followup. Most of the first half I didn't have the audio on so ... I missed what you picked up. Apologies to the film stars and I am glad they made it the best they could. It shows someone without beach experience can use it. Experienced beach users will use it better. Who are the beach testers for Minelab? Have they posted any videos? Mitchel

Thanks for the posting. I was able to see it without using my Facebook. I have some 'non-Equinox' observations about the video. One observation that I noticed for sure was you can tell a lot about someone from the tools they use. They are using a gold scoop at the beach! I've never done that. I have a proper beach scoop but maybe they could not put one on the plane? This makes it look like to me that the beach is not their great comfort area. Another observation was it looked like they picked an 'isolated' beach? That tree canopy which made it look so romantic might be a long distance from a decent parking lot or any shops. I'll take a beach that has had some living done on it over an isolated beach most of the time. JP's video said they detected around some gum trees for coins because people shaded there and left things under the trees when swimming. Those are some clues we can all use. I liked the audio of the 800. I use my 3030 in smooth mode because I can't stand the normal sound. I was afraid the 800 was going to be difficult on my ears but I'm ready for it. Mitchel

You make it look easy! WTG ... we are impatiently waiting. Mitchel

I don't like the coil ears on Minelab coils. They have broken on my coils on more than detector and coil. Mitchel

Hawkeye, You just described the way to deal with it! The 7000 gives you the clues and you scrape. You hope it doesn't move but if it does then the chances of it being surface gold is based upon your other finds in the area. Your human algorithms kick in. I think of this as one of the strengths of the 7000 rather than an annoying problem. You can listen more closely and see if it has a gold sound. Most of us with a 7000 'know' the gold sound but the facts are that we are often times fooled by targets. Some gold does not sound like gold and some gold sounds turn out not to be gold. Dig it all is our mantra. When I'm at the beach with my 3030 I KNOW what a ring sounds like. I can also see it on my screen. The truth is there are only a few objects I see and hear that I won't dig. The 3030 is killer at showing a bottle cap. It is also killer at showing a bobby pin. There are some all iron/steel objects I don't need to dig. That helps a lot so I can dig better objects. I can go broader and only see and hear 'the good stuff' but that is like patch hunting. We are all hoping the Equinox will be more of a what you see (on the screen) is what you get type of detector. I think people who have the Monster says it works that way for them. I don't have one. Annoying problem ... pinpointing. Maybe it should be dealt with your way also. If it moves with a scrape it is too small to want it anyway. Move on ... Mitchel

That is near the smallest it will go. I think it hears smaller but you can't pinpoint it. Mitchel

I have heard Dr. Erik Melchiorre give a talk on finding nuggets in Quartzsite that came from bacteria. He said he had been to Australia talking with someone there about it so this might be the group. It is an interesting discovery. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-22/how-your-old-phone-is-a-tiny-gold-mine/9330994 Mitchel

You should be getting beauty sleep now.

That is impressive Norvic. I had not seen that picture. Did you keep her?

Gerry, Thanks for the posting. I found a sunbaker while I was searching for meteorites in Franconia in April of 2012. As I recall it this was just my 3rd gold nugget. I was using my GPX 5000 with the 8" coil and I was 'beach detecting' a wash. When I say 'beach detecting' I mean I was swinging much faster than most people. I didn't know it at the time. I had gotten my 5000 in 2010 and been on a few nugget hunting trips but it took me a year to find my first nugget in The Dale. I can remember very clearly my walking through this wash (in an area less than a mile from the main camp for the meteorite hunters) and hearing a signal. There are still bullets around and other trash of course but when I looked down I said, "I think I know what this is!" I did not have a camera with me and I didn't know exactly where the car was so I carefully pulled the nugget out and carried it with me to get my camera. When I returned (with some difficulty) I replaced the nugget and took the picture. I took several more but they are all blurry. This is the best in situ picture I have. The other picture was taken near where I parked. The specimen weighs 3.5 ounces and there is 1.5 ounces of gold in it. This is both from my calculation and that of a gold expert at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in 2013. Mitchel

Just 4 ... if I could get out then I'd have the 7 you said.

I added this 22k, 3.9g ring today!

It did say first Gold so ... 3.9g/22k ring found today! Mitchel

A local coin dealer is very good at shooting anything I bring into the store. They enjoy my stories and I buy some things from them now and then.

Nuke em This is one of the lightest wedding bands I have ever found. It is less than half the weight a gold ring should be but it is also thinner so the only thing left to me is a scratch test and my kit is in storage. I can get it shot with a gun if I want ... Mitchel

It has certainly been a while since I've had a ring and yesterday I got 3! As it turns out they are not that great but it means that the energy is back in the waves. The pan has water moving in it again. Get back out there fellas and gals if you are on the West Coast. The first ring was the titanium. It was just a low, low piece of aluminum sound in the sand where 3 hours before it was high tide with some larger waves of long interval. This set me to a grid pattern where I found some tarnished clad and eventually about 30 feet away another ring. It was so clean I thought it was gold. I was in one of those places with people around you put it in the pouch quickly. Same sound but in the gold range. (I think now it is not gold because it is so light and there is no mark but it feels like white gold.) It was getting late and I needed to walk a mile to get to my car so I swung on the 'line in the sand' that was holding targets and just before I got done back at my starting spot I hit the silver. It is about 7 grams so it give that great high sound on the CTX. I was doing a bit of 'don't dig the pennies' sort of hunt to save my back but I still ended up with $5 in change and a funky little brass/string bracelet. Three hours well spent. Mitchel

The beaches continue to be interesting again. I had a 3 ring day for 3 hours along with $5! One silver, one titanium and one junk ...

Too hot for gold ... somehow you did it. Thanks for the pics.

Now we know ... Equinox gold!

Steve, I wish you were at the meeting! Mitchel

Tom, From everything that I read from the engineers we are being given a new set of tools to work on the same old problem. We have to find good targets in noisy ground and trash. The algorithms they allude to in multi-IQ have to stand on the shoulders of previous models from ML and others. They know their market pretty well I'd say. The newer, faster chips allow for many target ID advances. I would think that one of them would be to take the fainter signal and enhance it for lack of better understanding. Their signal transmit has obviously undergone changes. Will this combination 'learn' as it goes? Probably. The second part of the problem of ignoring everything but good targets (ground balance/noise cancel) is receiving good attention also. Notching rather than all metal mode may be the choice because of still more algorithms and its speed. (My 3030 is always all metal. That doesn't mean I dig everything!) All of this is 'assumed' based upon the tester information provided so far. Some is from Steve, JP and Brandon and some is from others with their videos. They probably had the hardware for this detector about a year ago. Since that time they have been giving it lessons. The testers they have now will take the engineered parts and pieces and make it sing more clearly before we get our hands on it. Will the end result be just another VLF with a different shirt on? It doesn't seem so. Mitchel

I would say there are so many 'shoppers' on a release like this that someone would have multiple 'soft' orders in with several dealers and then cancel or ignore the other dealers when it comes time to take theirs. That being said I'm out of the speculation business. I've made an order. A few months later Bill said I could put a deposit down if I want to and I did. I really don't know what his policy is. I'll be getting this detector from him sooner or later. Mitchel

Just think if they had already printed the manual. They couldn't make these changes! The contents of the box would not conform to the manual and this would set themselves up for 'bait and switch' returns and replacements. Will we be able to use Park 1 instead of Gold 2? Beach 2 instead of Gold 1?? I'll let you know when I get mine. Mitchel

Quality for some of us with hearing problems is a luxury. I will use the headphones supplied with the detector and then look for some of the Apt X's with an amplifier or separate volume control. The next thing I will be looking to do will be to use JP's booster that I own with the WM8 on my cap just as I use it with the 7000. I find I don't need the booster with the 3030. Mitchel

Dealers are trying to help Minelab 'gear up' for the orders. If they can get some of their customers to put up a deposit on their order then they have a better idea of the pipeline necessary. As a customer of Bill's he would or would not take a deposit from me on my order. I've done business with him before. I don't mind putting a deposit on this one because how much interest am I going to make on $500 for 3 months? I'm very fortunate right now with the problem of 'making time' to use it when I get it. I'm glad there is not a waiting list based upon who will use it right away and the most. Mitchel