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Manticore, Nox 900, Nox 800 and the Nokta Legend are really good gold prospecting detectors using their simultaneous multi frequency prospecting modes. I too have noticed that the Manticore with M8 coil, Nox 900 with the Coiltek 10x5 and the Legend with its LG24 coil will all detect their lower shafts with those detectors and coils laying flat on the ground when I am checking for targets in my plastic gold scoop or if I tap the heel of those coils against the CF lower shafts. That’s using their prospecting modes.

It’s just marketing. Car companies do it all the time. Silhouette of a vehicle, no details. Vehicle ploughing over the sand, lots of dust but no detail. A closeup of a fender, hint but no detail.

Start this out with thanking my friend Van for bringing the Versa and @JCR for fast tracking us on this unusual detector. We hunted it and tested hard for 4 days, using Beach "W" mode 11" coil. Our goals were wet sand, moving water, depth capability, and bi-metal coin rejection. Gold depth testing. We had some stability issues with the Black Sand that we ironed out by staying with factory pre-set Ground Balance. Anytime we tried to manual GB it was a disaster with the machine being very unstable on the wet sand. Bi-metal coins were rejected well enough with a bottle cap setting of 20. One could hunt the wet sand and moving water contact with the same sensitivity, only a little chirp was heard when the coil was struck by water. We generally ran between 22-24 sensitivity. TID of targets was good but does get jumpy at depth. We were alerted to be careful with reactivity, but in the long run we did not see much difference between 3-5. Reactivity of 5 really helped with black sand. I think the only major disappointment is we could not get the Versa to equal or beat the depth of the Equinox. All of our buried testing was with gold. Fringe field testing was done on wild targets and regardless of nonferrous material the Versa always fell short. We tried so many combinations. If you have specific questions about certain settings just ask. Positives: Light weight and solid rod , Good Bi-metal coin rejection, pigtail for good headphone use, easy to tell ferrous from nonferrous, excellent moving water detectability. Fair on control screen toggling. Good target separation. No EMI issues. Negatives: Ground Balance is a nightmare. No manual adjustability or tracking. You get one little peek at the GB number during the process or hunt in presets. Depth seems to be an issue [at least on these two beaches] In summary: The Versa seemed like a nice little machine. We have EMI on one of the beaches and it was not affected. Wave wash hunting was very good. Need to do more testing here, but it was clearly better than the D2 and may have equaled the Equinox. However, we had to be cautious it was rough.

I'm glad you and Van had a good time together & were able to give the Versa a good trial run. Hopefully you two can get together again soon when conditions are not so rough. It sounds like the Versa did well for it's initial trial. Did you ever try Park Mode Multi M on the black sand? The Versa does handle EMI very well & I think there is room to increase the Sensitivity range on the unit. I know Rutus is currently working on further improvements for the NC 3.7 software. We will see. Thanks for the report.

Hopefully, my dry spell on the beach is ending. Also a testament to the D2's capability on gold chains. This is a 10K found 1 scoop down in semi-wet sand. Rang up a soft 41 VDI. I am also using the XP bone conduction headphones. They take a little getting used to but they keep my head cool and you can even hear the soft signals on a windy day.

Today I got out for my first beach hunt with the AlgoForce 1500. I used a CoilTek Platypus Mono that I've had for many years. I recently repaired it because the wires at the top were frayed and we put new heat shrink on it. They are completely sealed so nothing can get inside the coil and if the leads break off the coil is toast. After the hunt I took off the coil cover and noticed some sand trapped inside. I need to put some silicon window seal inside the entire coil cover if I use it again. With all of that out of the way, I found trash ... lots of it and just 4 coins and a pin! All of the finds were a bit 'soft' compared to my other detectors. This is my first use other than with the Sadie in NZ. The target depths went up to 10 inches I'd say. Most was more shallow as I was digging everything in a well raked and groomed sand area. I tried a bit of wet sand but the conditions were not good for targets there. The threshold was stable but there were no targets. I was using Large Gold. The Algo will only let you choose a setting that is labeled gold but it will find other metals within those settings. I varied the sensitivity from 14-20. Most of the bottle caps came in as a 3 on the ID scale. The aluminum bits come in at 1. My 4Runner comes it at 99! haha I've got more to learn than I know just now about the target IDs and settings. (5/15 Edit: I was not in Pinpoint Mode. I could not get a target ID. The numbers I stated are ground numbers!)

I don't like to be a stickler for the situation, but if I have to consider spending €300 on another coil, I prefer to think things through. Yesterday morning, for the second time in a row I was in a spot with no particular signs of erosion.If it were not for the knowledge of the underlying layer I have of this place, there would have been no reason to go back there with the sand covering the bottom at this time. With the M8 I happened upon only two stable and indisputable signals on the 2D line. All this well over 10" considering sand, stones and seaweed that I dug hard. I wonder if I could have done as well with the 9", taking into account 20 maximum sensitivity points with the M8....Just to think...

That looks bad, sand all over.... I dont have anything to offer except for my condollences.. Time for the waterproof headphone man..

If you have one too sell can you let me know

My detecting mate and I have been working a dry gully for quite a while using our 6000’s with 10x5 Coiltek coils attached. We had been finding a bit of small gold but lately our returns diminished and we had almost decided to move to a new location. In a bid to squeeze out a few more pieces, we decided to detect the ground with our 7000’s and try to uncover a few deeper nuggets. We weren’t expecting much as we had spent a considerable amount of time working this area on the short gully and thought that if we could come home with a piece or two we would have achieved our goal. The Six with the small coil really suited this area as there were many potential gold traps and hiding spots for the tiny pieces that inhabited this location. The Zed’s were fitted with Nuggetfinder 12” Z search coils and after a ground balance and tune were running exceptionally well. The hot rocks and noisy ground that played havoc at times with the 6, were ignored by the 7’s so we knew that we had a bit of potential to find that really subtle signal. We moved slowly and tried to get into difficult areas and hopefully jag something for our effort. After about 20 minutes we added a couple of small pieces to the rattle jar from steep banks on the sides of the gully. It was agreed that the shallow pieces would have been picked up easily with the 6000 but were now happy that we hadn’t been “skunked” for the day. Joe was working a stretch of ground that had produced well for us in the past so I decided to move upstream about 50m to give him some space. I started at a rock bar that had given up some treasure about a month or so ago. We had pulled about 6 very small pieces on and around the outcrop and made a concerted effort to cover all the ground in that area very well. Every subsequent trip resulted in a repeat of that process just in case we missed something. The same region was detected today with the Zed and to my surprise, a very faint signal was heard. It was in an ideal location next to the rock bar on the inside section of a bend. You can see the hole in the photo. We had hoped to find a piece of gold at a depth that the Six couldn’t see and it finally happened. It must have been on edge as the signal was initially very soft and only increased during the dig. What popped out was a pleasant surprise. The 6000 has dominated our detecting for a couple of years now and the Zed barely gets pulled out of the cupboard. It was good to get its coil scraping on the ground again and put through its paces. We had forgotten how quiet it could be when the ground suited. We had also forgotten about digging deep holes until we were quickly reminded of its power. Rusty nails and bits of steel with soft enticing signals generally resulted in ugly growls and swimming pools being dug half way to China. We moved upstream and continued to detect some old ground looking for that deeper target. I was lucky enough to get a really faint signal behind a large rock. After digging a deep hole, a small, shiny nugget surfaced. I could see why the Six would not see a piece of gold at that depth. When the hole was inspected with the coil, another break in the threshold told the story of a surprise awaiting inspection. When a piece of gold ended up in the scoop, I called Joe over and we started moving rocks and detecting a small area thoroughly. A bunch of small pieces resulted. We had a lot of fun working that area together. Joe finally moved 20 metres upstream and found another patch of deep, small pieces of gold. The river worn gold was often visible in the scoop or in the ground like the piece shown in the picture. Joe pulled a couple of pieces on the walk back including one that was in a pool of water. Boots and socks came off and a slow and frustrating recovery followed. It’s great to see a prize for all the effort put in. The final picture shows the result of our day out. Quite a few of the pieces were so small that they wouldn’t move the scales but they all added up. It is pleasing that the Zed can still earn its keep on the tiny gold. Most of the pieces found would still be in the ground if we had used the 6000’s on this trip. Having a combination of machines has proved to be a winner in this area.

Good day to everybody Here goes nothing been reading this forum for years yet i never sought advice until now never 2 old right. I have been reading through most of the black sand post but still undecided what to do.I mainly do underwater searching and some land also . To cut the story short im looking for a machine that will work in the most terrible black sands and hot rocks. for salt I use an excal 2, sov gt, or garret m2 none work or sometimes maybe 2 inches. Out of the water burning hot sand and black mineralized beaches just ruin my day nothing works not even pulse pinpointers machines go crazy. I dont know if sand is as bad as in hawaii but this whole place came out of the ocean by volcanic activity. So i was reading about 2 detectors one the atx working well on black sand and the other fisher impulse detector. On one hand i think the atx is old but seems to do well in this medium the coils are expensive and id imagine repairs also. And then we have the fisher impulse that looks flimsy with the thin cables but also has good feedback and is a newer machine and lighter. I had a third option but did not find any used dual tdi just to test and see if it will function and who will repair. will upload pics of sand for ref all my pacific coast is loaded wit black sand and volcanic rocks, atlantic side is a breeze location panama. I am open to any suggestions!

So if you have read other posts of mine, you know I've had problems with some of my detectors. My new to me, but used garret atx (shipped off yesterday for repairs), my new to me, but used fisher goldbug 2 (just got it back from getting repaired yesterday), and now my nokta gold kruzer (bought new a few months ago). Here's the story on the nokta GK. When I first received it, I solely used the small DD coil. I probably had it out in the desert looking for tiny lead a half dozen times. It ran smooth as can be in max sensitivity almost everywhere I went. One day I hit a wash with tons of hot rocks and black sand. The Gk started overloading like crazy. I turned the sensitivity down till it would stop overloading and ran smooth. Ended up at level 60 . (99 is max..70 is default). When I got home, I rinsed off the coil, and turned it back on. It overloaded instantly at the default setting of 70. I'm thinking I must have some black sand in the coil cover. Removed the coil cover and rinsed clean again. Same issue, overloads in mid air at default settings. I put it away, and figured I'd look at it later. Long story short, it improved, but not fully recovered. No matter where I'm at, it overloads as soon as you set the sensitivity to 90 or above. The threshold has never been as smooth as it once was either. I swapped to the larger 10" concentric coil. Works perfect...smooth as can be at max sensitivity. I contacted nokta and explained my issue, filled out the form. Several days later I get an email saying a new coil is on the way. It arrived today. I grabbed the GK, went to pick up my new coil, and stopped in a nice open area to test it out. First I powered it up with the original coil..set sensitivity to 90..it overloads in the air like I expected. Next, I throw the new coil on. Power it up, and it instantly overloads at the default sensitivity level of 70. I turn it down to 69, and it stops. I ground balance it, and swing it over a bit of ground, then touch the coil to the ground, and it overloads. I shut it off In Disappointment and head home. After dinner I remember I need to bring it in for the night. I grab it out of the truck, and power it on, just to see how it acts in my yard. No sound...it's powered on, but no sound at all. I swing it over my truck and not a sound, and no reading on the display at all. It shows its powered up and that's it. I power it off...unplug the coil..plug the coil back in..power it on...still no sound or signal. Now I'm thinking my detector is broke. I put the original coil back on, and it was music to my ears...sound on, and gives signals as it should. I know what you are all thinking, because I'm thinking the same thing! The only common denominator is ME! tell me I'm wrong. I do want to close this off by saying, I love the gold kruzer, and its an amazing machine, and nokta's customer service has been top notch so far. Looks like I need to contact them again. I'd buy the GK again in a heartbeat.

I guess I'll cop to being the guy that has had one of these for several months and loaned it to Andy for a while. I'll be sending it to Gerry soon to give a spin for any comments he might have. I have used the E1500 in the desert, found a gold nugget with it, first in the U.S. I suppose. Also have some time on the Tahoe beaches. My main thing was to check the machine for EMI issues in the U.S. and I can say the machine has none. In that regard it's as good or better than most PI detectors and works fine in urban parks. As far as my general thoughts on the machine I already spilled the beans in an earlier thread. People should know by now I very rarely opinionate without something to back up those opinions. I really don't have much to add to what I already posted so you can check it out below. All in all the Algoforce E1500 is a great addition to the PI possibilities out there. I see it mainly as a first affordable step up for people used to what a good VLF costs and who do not think a good PI should cost much more. Hard core PI users will opt for the more powerful and more expensive options. But for the people out there who are mainly VLF users and who want a PI for a second detector without breaking the bank I can very much recommend the E1500 as a great place to start. The caveat being that for that to happen here it has to become available for sale in the U.S. and there is still zero word on if or when that might happen. That's my excuse for not posting sooner. It is all moot for most people in the U.S. until that day comes. I guess I can add this one thing on coils. I used both the Sadie and Coiltek Elite for nugget detecting and in general prefer the Elite. It's the smallest spiral wound coil you can get and is the one you see in Andy's video. The Sadie is lighter but like most mono coils is edge sensitive and therefore has an uneven response on tiny gold. The Coiltek Elite is hottest in the center so acts more like people expect and overall performs better than the Sadie. For beach use on heavy magnetite I have had good results with the older style Nugget Finder 14x9 Advantage and a Coiltek 11x8 Platypus mono I managed to track down. With these older bundle wound coils the E1500 handled heavy magnetite better than more powerful detectors that tend to suffer from blowback in extreme magnetite conditions. I prefer the lighter Advantage for dry sand use and the Platypus for wading since it is weight neutral underwater. My thanks to Andy for shooting some video and doing some things that I would never have got around to doing. I'm sure he will add further thoughts on this thread.

Sand sharks needing repair.

Just curious how many of you use pinpointers on the beach. I've been a beach hunter for over 40 years and have never used one on the beach. But nowadays I see a lot of hunters using them to pinpoint coins which I think is pretty silly. I can find any coin with my sand scoop no problem. I get it if you are hunting for micro gold on the dry but otherwise to me it's unnecessary. What do you folks think? Bill

Hard to describe the mixed feelings here. From initially seeing it come out of the sand and going.. "GOLD!"...then feeling the weight and being ehhhh, then getting to the car and not seeing hallmarks..but then saw no worn plating..but then it's very light...but also "well if it was brass, it's so cheap, why hollow it out?" "hmm looks pretty clean tho" . Ughh. Went straight to the scrap gold buyer with the XRF and was more than pleasantly surprised to hear that it was testing between 17 and 19ct gold!! Wow what a relief. I was hoping 9ct at best lol. Didn't sell, just holding it for now. The links are hollow and it's super worn, like hanging on by a thread of gold. Definitely for the scrap pile. I was soo thrown off by the weight. Being hollow links I thought maybe 13-12 grams, but not even close, 37.4 grams!! Although there has to be a little sand and water in the links so maybe closer to 35g. Still over 1oz and my heaviest gold to date. Up at 5:40am, left at 6am, got there 6:30am right at sunrise and left by 8am. Made roughly $2700AUD in scrap gold hehehe. Overall, terrible conditions in the water, super rough, 5m vis, very very strong current and big waves. I found a small patch and found a silver 2 shilling coin and a silver ring as well which was nice. Was hoping to snag a gold ring too in case the chain was fake but it was hard going after sunrise so I just left. Tides weren't ideal either. HH Edit: full video here: I added a gold ring in the clip as I found it at the same spot the next morning but didn't have enough footage to make a full video out of 😄

Love that gold in the scoop!!!

😆 I swing the M15 for 5 hours easy in the water. Sand hunting is a different story. I find myself taking short "pauses" after an hour or so resting the coil on the sand for a moment. Haven't tried the counter weight thing yet. My stork leg shaft being longer than the standard Manticore shaft further throws it out of balance. Another thing that helps in the water beyond buoyancy is that I tend to scrape the bottom a lot more than when I'm dry hunting since you don't have to worry about collecting sand on top of your coil. Really love covering the extra ground with it in the water. I feel like I'm covering twice the ground than the other hunters in the same amount of time. One step ahead of the competition!

Ok, so this charger is giving me fits. May be because my metal detector barely loses a charge it doesn't pick it up, unsure. So - I plug the charger onto the back of my MineLabs 800 Equinox, no green light blinking. I have to play with it forever. Changed chargers once, it worked for about a week, now it will not charge again. I fiddle with it trying to get the green light to light up, it lights up sometimes but doesn't look like it is making a good connection. Any ideas? What I have done - Tried another charger - Tried to air duster clean the ports of both charger and detector - Tried different ports When I changed the charger wire itself, it worked like a charm with a new wire. I do mainly beach detecting so making sure no sand is in it. It's a relatively new one.

Thanks TBB, I'm sure this is a hotbed of detecting later in the year, I'll find out soon. There aren't many fancy hotels along this strip so I picked the best. Even ran into a couple who bought a friend's boat, happens all the time here. Even at low tide there is just a steep slope to the surf, it would have been quite a beating to try and hunt the trough in the waves. I'm too old for that so I'll hunt the wet sand and the high and dry. There was nothing at all in the wet sand, but it was nice to see low mineralization, unlike Myrtle Beach. Switching to Tekkna really did the trick with its higher recovery speed and "magic number" discrimination. There is a version for the beach, but not having the salt and some other adjustments wouldn't make it a beach program for me, just a trashy spot program. 🤔

You'll find with some time with it, that in some places you'll just need for a smaller coil... Aniway the M8 isn't the all round coil, like it isn't every other one... Conditions dictates which one can suits better for the job... Eroded patches among rocks with multiple targets concentration and You need an M8... Thick new sand and large spaces to cover and You need the M15... Casually the M11 in the box can do almost the same thing being in the middle...As soon as You realise what You want, then will be the time to choose one.And one more, and one more again🤣... As an example, I'm beating my right hand to avoid buying the brand new M9... I don't even mentioned it among what's available for a reason....Still trying to understand when and where to obtain a payback for it.

Yesterday it was time to go for a gold hunt. I took the AlgoForce 1500 with the Commander/11/DD and the Nugget Finder/8x6 Sadie. I also took my GPZ 7000 and new to me 10" Xcoil. Thursday I only used the Algo. The first half of the day was with the DD because it was on from beach hunting and the second half I put on the Sadie as I had done in New Zealand with Simon. The location was in Southern California at a spot that has been well hunted and 2/3rds of the time I get skunked! I can't depend on the area to give me gold. Only one area out of many has produced for me. I didn't start in that area with the Algo. I tried a couple of new 'hills' with a friend. We both got trash but no gold. We started about 8 and at mid day we moved to a third location and I put on the Sadie. I continued to find trash. I would go for long stretches of no trash working locations where I was told others found nuggets. No trash sometimes means that it has been thoroughly worked. This is an example of the trash the Algo will see. My hearing is bad so I use headphones, but my hunting partner used the Algo a bit and could also hear these targets while I was on the headphones, and he could of course hear with them on and on the speaker. After the third stop he had found 5 pieces with his 6000 in a different location than where I was hunting. At the end of the day we took his smallest piece and buried it to test the Algo. I tested it much like the video that is posted using the 4 different gold settings. It let me learn more of the Algo's capabilities. I did not make a video of that 15-minute session as it was impromptu and would be incomplete. I'm still a bit jet lagged from my New Zealand trip so we called it a day and I went to go sleep in my 4Runner. I was out from sundown to 4 AM and didn't get out detecting until 6:30 or so. It was a little cool and no wind, but it was warm compared to New Zealand. I had slept near that area where I had found gold in the past. It was time to give the Big Dog a walk about. The 10" round Xcoil was ready to work. My partner of the day before said 'that is a good combination' and you'll find gold with that. This was my first use and I agree. I've found many pieces of gold with its cousin a 15" CC coil but it can't fit around many of these little plants and bushes. The 10" is very well suited for it. I wish I had one for the Algo. We discovered that the 11" Commander DD (only operating on half according to Simon) has touch sensitivity at the point the wire enters the coil. It was not a problem on the beach but it was a problem when hitting the low little bushes in the desert. I'm in search of a bigger coil than the Sadie to make it see a bit deeper and because my coils are damaged in some ways. The Algos DNA is in looking for small nuggets and to put on a small nugget coil makes it a double whammy when patch hunting I'd say. Well, the Xcoil doesn't have that problem and it senses things way off the coil. When the coil is over a target it is very definitive and much easier to pinpoint than the 15CC. Here is the trash I was finding with it. Note some of the same trash but also note the tiny bbs. The ground feedback is better. Both detectors were not bothered by hot rocks. I had more hot rocks in New Zealand. (Don't tell Simon.) This posting is not meant to be a comparison posting. I'm giving the details so that it gives context to the next part of the day. I wanted to find some gold and I could feel that it was going to warm up and I wasn't going to last and I wanted to use my new coil so I did. About an hour into the morning hunt I had collected a bit of trash (some is lost) when I came upon a target that sounded like more trash, but it wasn't. I looked in the scoop and it was a nice nugget. It was only down a couple of inches in dry sand in a place where nuggets are supposed to be. It was at the bottom of a little swail/previous water drainage. This area had been thoroughly detected. How was this missed? One of my first thoughts was I wished I was using the Algo. I just wanted to find a nugget with it. Maybe it would be the first in the states? I don't know. There are probable a few others here. My next thought was ... I could 'act' like the Algo found it. Nah, that is not what happened. So, I did the next best thing. I hiked back half a mile to the 4Runner, got the Algo and reburied the nugget. Could the algo see it now? You betcha. I took a picture of the setting first. After I took this picture I used my phone to create a "What if I had been using the Algo video!" After I redetected this nugget I used the Algo to search the area. I found one piece of trash that is in a video. I didn't make a YouTube of that yet. If someone wants to see it let me know. Other than the piece of trash, everything was gone. I went back over the Algo area with the Xcoil and did not find anything 'missed' by the Algo. Shortly after I decided to leave even tho it was only 10 AM. I didn't want to deal with Friday traffic. It's not possible to get all of the experience in but this is an idea. It is a nice, rough nugget! I see Goofy in it.

Based purely on my experience with the Manticore, even if I own it since April 11th only, there are a couple of key things missing trough some settings details. Talking about the "Nasa Tom" setup, an upper limit of 4 and a lower limit of 0 seems to create this "special power" on the machine and following the mentioned setup that You can find somewhere here in the forum, maybe even allows to raise the sensitivity some points more... But, there's an undeniable reality about the place and and time factor to give the answer time by time.... I mean, if you try to go over the 25 level, the noise/signal ratio will be increasingly noticeable and at that point, your resistance to falsing can make all the difference. I never used this setup with discrimination for a good reason. In spite of thinner or larger ferrous limits what you don't want It is to make mute the machine. An identical ferrous volume like the general volume, creates a strong audio filter which helps to clearly define a good non ferrous tone, by an "iron dirty" one. You don't even need to look at the 2D panel unless You want to know the ID or possibly the shape due to the related trace. At this point let's talk about the audio theme...I hardly found the prospecting theme to be effective with the coil submerged in the water, I'm sorry, especially cause I LOVE true treshold whispers instead of a threshold interruption in favour of a signal... Step by step We are now landed to the most similar setup which (maybe) will give You this magic without to get crazy... Beach LC General vol.25 Ferrous volume 25 Upper F.L. 4 Lower F.L. (Do like You want, cause depth will come in a second) A l l M e t a l Red ID activated Gb tracking or manual (I don't complain) Separation speed up to 7 if You want to listen for a signal among falsing over the 26 sensitivity level...(I hope with the M8 otherwise don't mind this and 5 should be ok till 22) Audio theme Depth Treshold 0 Min pitch 40 Max pitch 60 Ferrous pitch 1 U.w. boost only if You're under the surface That's it.... And this might be not the perfect potion due to y o u r environment, black sand thickness, old iron patches, hot rocks and Emi out of the water... Hope this helps 🏴‍☠️

This afternoon I finally put on the 11" Commander MONO. It performed better than the other beach coils. I searched in generally the same type of dry sand beach. There are few coins. I suspect it has been gone over many times with VLFs (I've done some of that myself) and what is left it trash. There was one earring (magnetic) and one ring (also magnetic) with the assortment of other beach trash. Conditions aren't right for wet sand hunting. Waves and tides are small.

At times of the year, I really struggle with Black Sand in my location. This year was no different. I have done more comprehensive testing on updated machines. On many days I hunted half days on each machine so I could tell differences in same conditions. [thanks to my wife delivering machines] I want to outline a few general recommendations: 1. Slow Down, 2. Use Tracking GB, 3. Sensitivity set so you hear just slight Black Sand interference. 4. Look at your fringe targets with a couple more points of sensitivity. 5. Don't trust your machine is working well with moving water, wave wash. [do checks]. D2> So much to unpack here. First, the D2 is a tale of two machines. One [the devil] in Black Sand, the other, [the angel] in non-Black Sand. The positives> Light to hunt. Fair separation of iron from non-ferrous. Good separation of targets. Good at noise canceling. The negatives. Noisy. The Menu. Clipped target sounds at depth for non-ferrous. Moving water takes D2 out at any depth. Must look at many targets from Mutiple directions[time consuming] . Equinox 800> Not much to unpack. The Positives> Better Black Sand handling. The Menu. Good separation but under the D2. GOOD sounding targets [not clipped]. MUCH better target sounds at depth. Better and faster deciding iron from non-ferrous. Works with moving water unless target is deep. The Negatives> Lousy noise cancel. Heavier to hunt with. Waterproof issues. Sometimes loss of targets in the hole. Hunting summary> For about a week I hunted the D2 exclusively, I really wanted to get a gold chain hunting in Beach Sensitive [which I think is better than Equinox Beach 2.] [no gold chain] Then had the Equinox out a few times. Then updated the D2, and started hunting both machines daily. Every day I started with the D2 and switched to the Equinox. There was not ONE DAY that I wanted the D2 to remain with me. I find the D2 ear exhausting, both in how it handles Black Sand and in deciphering targets. The clipped and bite-y sounding nonferrous targets at depth are a real PIA. The range of pull-tab numbers are ridiculous. Tough to make headway with the interrogation needed on some targets. Not much difference in hunting with a max frequency of 24 or 40. Maybe 1-point sensitivity lower with 40. ANY moving water would completely wipeout the detection field of the D2 in both Beach and Beach sensitive. At best I could only pull a 91-sensitivity setting, but most detecting was done at 87-89. The Equinox> So MUCH better on handling Black Sand. Most hunting was done at 21 even with water contact. Detection field works in moving water but not on targets of depth. With the Horseshoe mode on telling the difference between Ferrous and nonferrous is MUCH easier and quicker. The unmistakable double ring of iron is clear and smooth. Target investigation time is cut down. I don't think there is a winner in the small bit category. Both machines seem to find small bits well. While I did not do any head-to-head burying of targets. Both machines seem to have their moments of man that was shallower than I thought and also the holy crap, that was deep moment. NOT trying to make this a one is better than another, your conditions may provide different results. If you have compared other machines to the ones I have PLEASE post! I will answer all questions of settings or conditions or ??? In the picture: ALL of the larger jewelry was found with the Equinox yesterday. Only a few small bits with the D2. This has been a bit of a trend. I give the nod to the Equinox's ability to tell ferrous from non-ferrous at depth. Most of this jewelry was deep with negative numbers but had clean one beep hits. My D2 will be in the closet until the black sand subsides.