Jackpine

I have a standard test I perform on new machines to see the drop off in distance when a gold band is scanned perpendicular vs flat to the coil. Ideally the loss when scanned perpendicular would be in the range of 33% ( 8" on edge vs 12" flat being a very good result) some machines loose 50% or more in this test. It gives me an idea of what to expect when wading fresh water sand bars where rings may settle on an angle. Thanks Tom

Haven't seen a video yet that helps me in my buy no buy decision. I need to hear the responses the Kruzer makes while sweeping along in iron sites. Not just the responses while interrogating a found target.

I ran the Racer 2 strictly in DI2, but could not get past the effect the blendy bleedy tones had on my hearing after 15 or 20 minutes of use hunting around old homestead field sites due to the small iron and rusty nails. TMI that confused rather than helped only slowing me down due to constant resweeping. I will have to wait for more reports on the audio before I can make the Makro leap again. Tom

Steve do you have a variety of IH pennies to test? Wondering where the fall in relation to zincers. Tom

That 14 kHz version has my name written all over it for fresh water hunting. Just watched Shellton's video review and he mentions a couple things that piqued my interest. 1. The audio is not the blendy bleedy of the Racers 2. he claims 3 tone is faster than the Deus. One note to Makro, The adapter for using it with regular headphones needs to be much longer. From looking at the picture it would be totally useless for wading. Perhaps a choice between short and long cable versions would be appropriate depending on use. Tom

Nice list of coils, although I was hoping for something larger than ther7" concentric for fresh water hunting, Something like the Mars Tiger coil would make a good choice for fresh water too.

Steve Do you have a list of available coils? I'm especially interested in concentric coil sizes. Tom

That's one heck of a VCO response in Gold mode. Remember also the pitch can be changed to suit your hearing.

I guess no answer means that ML hasn't released testers to comment on it. Possibly because it was only recently updated into their test machines. The X-Terra 70 has some iron bias built into the auto ground tracking, acting as an iron filter of sorts. If similar in operation to the 70 naybe ML discovered that they can get better operating flexibility with it as a separate function. Tom

I get what ML says and what Steve H has also pointed out in many posts. In my case when hunting fresh water I dig iron foil bouncers which may be tiny gold items or deep rings. ID accuracy doesn't come into play. What I need is more depth than current single freakers. Currently I am using the 705 with the 7.5 kHz 9" concentric and a Coiltek cable extension for fresh water hunting. All metal disc mostly but also using the Prospecting mode at times. The true all metal prospecting mode makes it a tough act to follow.

Mitchel With the Equinox Minelab as you say has looked at and addressed many of the weaknesses of current technology . The fact that the various operating modes have presets for best operation in differing ground conditions is one of the reasons why ML is a leader in the industry. I have no doubt this if nothing else will make it a winner. Tom

Mitchel Your post got me to postulating in my brain several scenarios to compare modes. The main one is my local fresh water swimming holes. Will the Equinox in any of it various modes be able to hit the deeper hard pan where many targets lay that have been unreachable to me with any of my current detectors? In my mind, Park 1 and 5 kHz single freq may have the best chance, perhaps Field 1 as well. While giving up sensitivity to small gold perhaps one or the other will get just a bit deeper on old silver and large gold bands than what I have been able to reach in the past. I will be finding out. Tom

Welcome aboard Max.

Steve If you use one more superlative to describe the Equinox I'm heading out to Reno ASAP and steal your machine.

Thanks Steve and sorry for the diatribe above. LOL

Good points, I would look into BT headphones for sure. These have good ratings for comfort Over the ear APTX headphones

If Field mode proves effective for detecting small gold jewelry in fresh water then the 600 would suffice for me for that purpose. I might just go for the 600 and Waterproof headphones at first then upgrading to the 800 after field testing against my hunting buddy who will be getting the 800. I used the CZ5 for many years fresh water hunting and made some deep ring finds digging the iron foil bouncers. All it lacked was sensitivity to chains.

Absolutely hilarious.

I seldom use PP so can't talk to the 705's functionality vs other machines. I do try it with a new detector, but X'ing the target is so ingrained in me I never think of using the pinpoint function. It's a wasted feature for me. One thing that I have not seen pointed out by anyone is the difference between the original X-T 70's and the 705's audio. ML attempted to make the 70 a "better" coin machine by doing some tricks to the audio whereby if a target didn't fit neatly in a TID window (ie as round coins tend to do) then the audio was broken/distorted on jumpy TID targets when using the multi tones. It was a pain in the posterior for people that hunt by tones and necessitated using only 2 tones when hunting relic type targets that aren't necessarily round. I was glad to see the 705 did away with that "feature". For all I know it may have been a function of the slower reactivity. This was on an early final production X-T 70 that ML sent me for evaluation. There were several things about the 70 that were different from what a user would expect coming from other brands. People that didn't take the time to suss them out were disappointed with the machine and went back to their favorite brands. ML kept too many things close to the vest with it. In a way, the release of the 705 might have been partially due to ML seeing the error of their ways. Sorry for the digression, my original post wasn't clear as my question was how does the PP on the Equinox function vs the X-Terra. Tom

Steve Nice silver finds and a big congrats on the Walker and your 2nd Barber. Hopefully a seated coin is in your future. Tom

Exactly, I'm to the point (age) where 5-6 hours is about my limit for water hunting. Overall the Equinox design looks pretty good as far as drag goes. Of course a lot will depend on the stock coil design and how well it slices through the water.

Gerry Does PP ratchet down with each pass over the target or do you do it manually by hitting the PP button closer to the target? Also is there a separate sizing mode as on the X-Terra? Tom

(4-19 B) Could be the first prototype to go out in the wild to testers like Steve.

GB Amateur If you are considering a 5x10 coil for your X-Terra I highly recommend the Mars Sniper coil in the dual freq's of 7.5 and 18.75 kHz. They get amazing depths equal to the 10.5" ML coils. Using one in 18.75 kHz it is the best nickel hunter I have ever used. http://www.dankowskidetectors.com/discussions/read.php?2,137674 Tom

That's great news Steve. I'm sure many are anxiously awaiting further info on the gold Mode. Tom