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Some may find something useful in this video, what I got out of it is seeing just how badly VLF's work in those hot Aussie soils, as soon as he turned on all metal mode on the Nox it was going crazy so he had to keep disc on, when he ground balances it never does balance. Such a contrast to here in the gold areas where I don't even need to ground balance as I don't get any feedback from the soil in defaults. I can see why Aussies think VLF's are pretty pointless, they actually work pretty well in my ground though so I do quite like VLF's for gold prospecting in milder soils, in Australia especially where this guy is testing these detectors I wouldn't even bother using one at all.

Minelab, What the bleep did you do to my Equinox? This is going to be a rant. Hopefully I will be able to keep it clean and factual. Today, April 25, 2023 I completed the first 100 hours of moderate to high iron mineralization turf hunting for coins and jewelry with the Equinox 900. I also have 30 hours of gold prospecting and 10 hours of saltwater beach hunting so far with the Equinox 900. I thoroughly enjoyed gold prospecting with the Equinox 900 using the 6” and Coiltek 10X5” coils. It performed like I am used to with the Equinox 800 using its two Gold modes set for multi frequency operation. My saltwater beach hunts at Los Angeles and San Diego area beaches were inconclusive, mostly because of bad weather (very few people out) and sanded in conditions. So I am going to try to give a review of the Equinox 900 from my experiences with it on land for coin and jewelry detecting in moderate to high iron mineralization at local parks with varying degrees of steel alloy and aluminum trash where even modern coins can be down to 8” deep. I really like the upgraded shaft system, new hand grip angle design, new arm cuff, thicker 11” coil ears and hopefully the new waterproofed control housing of my Equinox 900. I also really like the vibrating hand grip feature along with its customization provided on the 900. Plus, I really like the seemingly improved iron handling and the definitely improved target separation and recovery speed. Depth seems to be a bit better. Sensitivity has been increased from 25 to 28. EMI mitigation is similar to the 800. The ML85 headphones are a slight improvement to me as far as being less muffled and bass heavy compared to the ML80s. They do not offer the best ambient noise prevention compared to some other manufacturer provided wireless headphones or the most balanced sound quality. They do pair easily. I do notice some wireless signal drop outs if I turn me head quickly, etc. The display, backlight (red) and user interface are mostly unchanged from the 800. I still wish the 900 had more than one User Profile. The onboard pinpoint function is much more stable than the wonky pinpoint activity built into the 600 and 800. It does have a form of real-time target ID also while in pinpoint mode. The addition of Depth Tones or ferrous/non-ferrous 2 tone VCO audio for the Park, Field and Beach modes seemed like a nice addition. I have no problem with the VCO ferrous tone. The VCO non-ferrous tone sounds really bad through my ML85s with lots of incongruous drop outs and strangled, inconsistent, ridiculously high tones. Alright, anybody that knows me personally or knows me from these forums knows how much I like to outright rabidly love the Equinox 800 even with its questionable waterproofing, stock shaft build quality, pinpoint function/non function and its compressed low to mid conductor target IDs. I hunt in many public areas that are drought prone so these municipalities only allow coin popping/screwdriver target recovery. Big fines and possible confiscation of equipment if a person is caught digging with a shovel of any kind in these public areas. Accurate target IDs are essential for me in these areas along with accurate tones and accurate tone quality. So, I spent another 3 hours of my life today, using the Equinox 900 at a very modern trashed park that I have repeatedly hunted over the last four years. I will give the Equinox 900 credit. I did find 11 clad dimes and 13 pre 1982 copper Memorial pennies which were in the 4” to 8” deep range. These could have easily been silver dimes and earlier pennies. I have pulled many silver Roosevelt dimes out of this park along with some Mercury dimes, wheat pennies and Indian head pennies. I also found 6 modern nickels that I had missed. I will chalk those finds up to the improved Equinox 900 target separation and recovery speed. Did I have a good time using the Equinox 900. Absolutely not. If I had been blindfolded and someone handed me a detector that I could only use 5 tone audio for target ID, I would have guessed the detector I was using was a Garrett Apex or the new X-Terra Pro in 5 kHz. Target audio was all over the place even on shallow targets. The actual numerical target IDs were too of course, even on shallow targets. I had my 900 setup for 5 tone operation with tone breaks set at -19 to 0 for iron, 1 to 23 for low conductor aluminum foil, small can slaw and small gold jewelry, a small US nickel bin from 24 to 27, all sorts of pull-tabs and aluminum trash and zinc pennies from 28 to 69, and the rest of the US high conductor coins and silver jewelry bin from 70 to 99. I also double checked many of the clad dimes and copper pennies before digging using the AT full tones audio setting. I was using Park 1 Multi, sensitivity 25 of 28, ground balance and EMI noise reduction performed, accepted -9 to +99 target IDs, 5 tones, threshold tone OFF, iron audio volume level set high enough to clearly hear it through headphones, recovery speed 5, iron bias 1 which was enough to make most steel crown bottle caps have some iron tone audio and tonal breakup. This is what I experienced…….. - 4”+ deep flat laying clad dimes and copper pennies were triple beeping during left/right DD coil passes as if they were on the surface. - Target IDs for those 24 high conductor coins were ranging from 68 to 98 during normal sweeps circling those coin targets whether they were 4” deep or 8” deep with very little possibility of telling the difference between a clad dime and copper Memorial penny. - Those target audio responses were crossing over a user set audio tone break. - The wide target ID range was not caused by co-located targets…..it happened on every one of the 11 clad dimes and 13 95% copper pennies. - Soil conditions were slightly moist but nothing unusual. - Surface to 4” deep US nickels had target IDs from 23 to 28 during sweeps around the targets so tone audio encompassed three user set tone bins. - Switching to full tones had zero effect on tone accuracy or target ID accuracy. - Similar audio and tone behavior happened on various types of pull-tabs, can slaw, aluminum bottle caps and of course steel alloy bottle caps. Basically, I could have had similar results using the Equinox 900 set on 10 kHz. Target ID and tone stability were non-existent compared to the Equinox 800 in Park 1 with similar settings. The kaleidoscope of sounds produced on beginner level basic targets in 5 tones or all tones was a joke. Single digit notching might as well have been 5 digit notching since basic targets had at least 5 or more different but repeatable target IDs instead of the 1 to 3 standard target IDs seen detecting the same targets using the Equinox 800. Sure, I wanted a slightly expanded target ID range update on the Equinox 600/800. Nokta got it just about right by adding an extra 10 target IDs between the ferrous/non ferrous tone break (ID +11) and the mid to high conductor tone break around +40 on the Legend. Minelab, why did you instead go from 50 total target IDs to 120? Whose bright idea was that? Who field tested these detectors for overall target ID accuracy and stability? This hunt today WAS NOT AN ISOLATED INCIDENT or one off. It has been this way for me since hour number 1 of coin and jewelry detecting in my area. I still have an Equinox 800. I have used the new, improved coil ear 11" coil that came with my 900 on my 800 with no issues. Using the 10X5" Coiltek on my 900 does little to improve target ID accuracy and multi tone stability. There have been rumors and some indications that a software update may be in the works for the Manticore. For heaven sakes Minelab, offer one on the Equinox 700/900 too for target ID stability! I am not looking for answers or advice from anyone on this forum about what I wrote and experienced. If you want to agree or disagree with what I have experienced, that is totally fine. Just don't try to theorize, pontificate or otherwise tell me I don't know what I'm doing. Even though I only have 100+ hours on the Equinox 900, I know how to use this detector. Minelab, you are welcome to write a response explaining this detector behavior. thanks for reading if you made it this far. Sorry for the long post and the rant.

Had to pick my dog up from the vet at 4:00pm today, So I thought detecting was down the tubes. Thats when my wife called and said we had to pick up Bleu at 7:00. Poor pup, But that gave me about 45 minutes to hit a colonial house I detected a 1000 times. This place is the gift that keeps on giving. I decided to dig all strange tones and Id's. I'll make this as short as my hunt. First target was a flat button, Second was a shotshell base, Third was a 45 wheatie, fourth was a 22mag case, Fifth was a flashlight bulb and Last but not least was a fabulous sleeve button. This button is pretty rare and I doubt I will find another. It is a Tallio and dates back to around the 1770's. PS this was a 10 - 11 on the 800.

Got home from work today and had the urge to hit a park I've been hunting for four years. Only having an hour and a half to get it done I grabbed my 800 with my new Steve's 3 piece shaft and six inch coil and headed out. I parked the truck turned on the 800 and realized I needed to pair my headphones due to my factory reset. I got it done and walked across the driveway took one swing and got a really nice tone (32) ID. It sounded like a silver dollar but I get fooled sometimes. Shovel in and a little pinpointer action and a finger scrape and the goodness showed itself. It was a 1950 Franklin half dollar with a giant nail next to it. I figured it couldn't get any better so I continued to make my way around the big old cherry tree to see what else was there. A hand full of clad and my time closing in, I made it back within 15 feet of where I found the Franklin. I got another really great tone with the same 32 ID. I was wondering what the chances of finding two silver half's in the same day. Well I would say 100% when out came the second Franklin a 1962. It was an amazing feeling knowing I have not dug one of those let alone two in very very long time. Oddly I dig a lot of silver half's but rarely these. Today was apparently a day when the detecting gods pointed me in the right direction.

I hunted a park that I have hunted many times in the past for a couple of cold, windy hours today. I wanted to try out Depth Tones VCO on the Nox 900 in an area that I have gridded with the Equinox 800, Deus 1, Deus 2 and some other detectors. There is tons of ferrous and non-ferrous trash at every depth along with some older coins. Iron mineralization is 7 to 10 bars on Deus 2 at this park. I deliberately setup my Nox 900, 11" coil, with a Field 1 Multi, trashy park pattern that accepted -7 to 0 for some iron audio, 24 to 27 for US nickels, 55 to 62 for US Indian head, early wheat and zinc pennies, and 70 to 99 for anything else in the high conductor US coin range. The nickel target IDs worked out well for US nickels and also snared a few broken pull tabs and beaver tails with no ring pull attached. I did not hit any Indians or early wheats but I did get some deeper zinc pennies. The high conductor IDs accepted range did great with only two very rusty nails recovered that were standing almost straight up in their holes with the nail head facing up. They were 8" deep and were giving mid to high 90s target IDs along with constant iron grunts as I circled the targets. I was fairly certain they were nails before I dug them but digging them was the only way to know for sure. All of the coins in the photo were in the 6" to 8" range and were very close to iron or aluminum targets and had somewhat iffy target IDs but they were accurate enough to get my attention. I did some back and forth between Park 1 Multi, 5 tones, no notches, -7 to 99 accepted and Field 1 Multi DP tones as described above. The DP tones definitely gave stronger VCO audio responses on the deeper coins than the non VCO 5 tones. I could hear the responses using both types of audio but DP was more obvious. Personally, I have not gotten very used to the audio quality of DP tones through the ML 85s. It just sounds weird to me, but it works very well, seems to separate a bit better and is another tool in the tool box. Another 1919 mercury dime, along with some other silver era coins: 1951, 1959 and 1960 US pennies, 1960 US nickel, and some clad dimes and quarters from the 1970s and 1980s.

When Ground balancing the Equinox 600 should I place the detector in (All-Metal) mode to make sure for a clean/clear patch of ground, the instruction only says to place the detector in FP mode and then ground balance so if I ground balance and the detector has -9 to 2 canceled and I'm pumping my coil over trash will that affect the ground balance.

No, not my retirement -- that happened three years ago. I'm talking about the Minelab Equinox 800, and it's not going on mothballs since it will at least be my IB/VLF backup and probably take the lead when I need a small(er) coil -- Western ghost towning and nugget hunting. My 2022 year was good, relative to previous years, in terms of normalized finds (finds per hour of detecting) but I didn't get out park, school, and permission detecting nearly as much as previously -- only 106.5 hours compared to over 200 hours in each of the previous five (288 hours and 311 hours being my best years for sheer hours in the local 'fields'). I don't count my Western ghost town and nugget hunting in these totals. I've done a bit better this year and expect the rate to pick up considerably.... Since early January I've been preparing for the Manticore arrival by checking out some of my previously detected sites and in some cases varying coils and settings to start "thinking outside the box". My last two hunts are good examples of that. For both I dropped the recovery speed to 3 (based upon some things abenson posted regarding his Manticore). Yesterday I switched from my stock 11" coil (what I use 90% of the time) to the Coiltek Nox 5"x10" and chose a particularly aluminum trashy site to work on my separation skills. Other search settings are Park 1, 5 tones, Iron Bias F2=0, all VDI channels open ("all metal" in Minelab parlance). I use two other modes for target investigation. For possible USA 5 cent 'nickel' coins that aren't too weak signalwise I use Field 2, full tones, recovery speed = 6. For iffy possible deep coins (which might be falsing iron) I investigate with Gold 1, recovery speed = 5. A mental change I decided to make for both of these hunts was to investigate VDI 19 partial tones -- i.e. if the target hits 19 at all, even if that's not the centroid, I'm digging. As you'll see that made a huge difference. Typically I require 20 or above for most coins and 12-13 for specifically nickels. During the first hunt I thought I was detecting an area I had previously hunted, but afterwards was unsure of that. In the first 5 minutes I dug a clad quarter and a 95% copper Memorial cent, neither a recent drop so I should have found these earlier IF I had gotten my coil over them. Moving forward in the direction I should have hunted before I got an odd signal with VDI varrying between 16 and 19, mostly in those lower VDI channels. I checked with Field 2 out of curiosity and saw consistent 16-17 (in only one direction; the Park 1 signals were from multiple directions). The strength indicator in Park 1 was 3 bars -- that's typically about 5 inches deep for a small coin in my local sites. My expectation was a badly deteriorated Zinc Memorial (aka 'Stinkin Zincoln') since although those start out fresh at 21, as the galvanic action takes its course it will drop without limit, given enough years in the ground. At the expected 4-5 inch depth I recovered what looked like a cent, but it was a full disk and I could see some green coloring. Could it be? A few squirts from the water bottle revealed not what I had expected but what I had hoped -- an Indian Head Cent. But why such a low VDI? I set it on the plug before replacing that and ran the coil over it, getting a consistent 20. Hmmm. After replacing the plug I swung over that and got a soft but noticeable iron tone. Likely a small nail was quite close to the IHC and pulled down the VDI in the process. If the coin was on edge, or nearly so, that also might have contributed to the low VDI. Now for a report on yesterday's session. As mentioned I decided to give the Coiltek Nox 5"x10" a workout in a picnic area with lots of aluminum trash. As you'll see I didn't restrict all of my hunting to the trashiest spots, but I figured the 5x10 would be better at separation, and it did seem to be quite good at that. Even with my restriction to 12-13 VDI's for nickel hunting I still dug a lot of pulltabs, especially the (broken off) beavertails. Some larger pulltabs were dug in the corroded Zincoln zone. When I was making my way between picnic tables I got a strong 12-13 in Park 1 and verified a solid 12 in Field 2. Park 1 showed 2 bars so I was thinking a fairly modern, shallow nickel. Well, I was partly right -- it was a shallow nickel -- about 3" depth. But in trying to ID it with careful water bathing I couldn't get any indication of Thomas Jefferson, his monument, nor even an Indian nor Buffalo. It was well worn and finally I saw Lady Liberty's head. Now that's a good find and a good sign. Not more than 1 meter away I heard a mostly 19 VDI with only about 2 bar strength, indicating likely a ~2-3 inch deep Zincoln. Note I was again in an area I thought I had deteted previously. I didn't notice any extremely nearby trash targets, either, but out came the nicest IHC I've ever found! And this one kept its VDI of 19 even out of the ground. I recalled finding an IHC about 10-15 meters from here in late 2020, also about 3 inches deep, with the Tesoro Vaquero and its 5"x9" DD coil (stock on the Super Trac). I now realize this is a hot spot I need to return to. It's become typical here for people to show their trash, and although I'm not promising to do that in the future, here is yesterday's collection: Everything on the right is aluminum; the Stinkin Zincolns are in the middle and to the left of that are the other metals. (OK, one recent drop clad dime and three 95% copper Memorial cents aren't really trash.) Next are the good finds from these two hunts, all but the lower left hand Indian is from yesterday: Centered is the Liberty Head ('V-') nickel with date 1908. Lower left is a 1900 IHC in not very good shape. Lower right is my best ever IHC, conditionwise -- an 1899. Upper left is a toasty 1917 with mintmark, but I can't tell if it's -D or -S. And upper right is a seriously acid degraded 1931 plain (so Philadelphia mint) Lincoln. Coincidentally I mentioned in a thread of CPT_Ghostlight's (when he showed a 1932-D Lincoln in nice condition) that those three early great depression years of 1931-33 show low mintages or no mintages in all denomination USA coins. This 1931 plain is the highest mintage of any USA coin in that three year time period -- 19.4 million. Starting in 1934 and forward to today, only two Lincoln Cents date+mm minted for circulation have lower mintages than this 1931 -- 1938-S (15.2 million) and 1939-D (also 15.2 million). The 1938-D is close at 20.0 million. Even in nice condition this 1931 would not be worth more than about $1. None of the other four coins in the photo are low mintage dates (relative to their peers). So what led to me finding these coins in previously detected sites. 1) You've got to get the coil over 'em. In most cases above I doubt I did. 2) Sometimes my mental discrimination of VDI's is too strict. I may have been over either or both of these IHC's but blew them off from the combination of low VDI and strong signal (implying shallow depth). I hate digging Zincolns and they are usually shallow and can easily fall into the high teen VDI's. Glad I didn't avoid digging these two faux Zincolns. Oh, bonus image 👍 :

Minelab Manticore vs Equinox 800 vs Equinox 900 for Gold Nugget Prospecting. I’ve been keeping my lips tight on this subject long enough. It’s to the point now I have to ask you the general public for input. After all, we have members on DP from other countries and maybe you can chime in as well? But for everyone reading, what do you think is the better detector for chasing Au nuggets and also do you feel is the best overall vale? Yes this is a 2 part question and it’s just your opinions so nobody is wrong. PROVEN - We all know (well at least my Field Staff Experts and I…as well as most of my customers who’s taken our Field Training at Rye Patch NV, the last 3 yrs) how well the Equinox 800 performs and the 10X of features why it’s a better performing VLF gold detector than the Monster and most other class detectors. Don’t get me wrong, the Monster is a great detector for many and those who like to hand a simple Turn on and Go detector to a friend or family who wants to give it a try on occasion. But there’s many shortcoming on the Monster I wish it had. Brain flash…Oh my…the next detector “The Monster 2000”. Heck maybe that’s why I’m feeling shorted with the Manticore? Again EQ-800 is proven and golden. Proven: Lets back up a few years just before Equinox being released to General Public. Jan. 2018 Dealers were invited to an Equinox Introduction. Minelab had a big meeting in AZ to educate dealers (at least the ones who took the time to show up), how the Equinox series (EQ-600/800) was going to be the flag ship sub $1000 detector. Minelab was on their A game and even brought the big guns from Australia in to share this exciting new technology. Thanks to all of Minelab who helped put that event together. I know most everyone I spoke with was extremely excited for the future. A few of folks were even lucky enough to stay an extra day and go out into the desert and feel, swing, test the NOX to see for ourselves, very impressed. My Staff was all over it and learned a lot. Afterwards the big brass from Minelab USA came to Boise and visited me just to make sure I was totally on board and ready to sell the $hit out of them, which I did. Sadly, we didn’t get such dog/pony show for the Manticore, well not us in the US anyway as of yet? Did any other countries get a red carpet treatment on it and how well it will do for Gold Prospecting? We still have time though, but you’d expect a detector that was shown way back in August of 2022 and now it’s March of 2023, well it’s never to late and I’ll give them a pass as they are releasing a detectors left and right, (EQ-700, EQ-900, Manticore, X-Terra Pro) so their time is limited. Here is why I am a little skeptical. Now folks, I’m no genius and no I’m no more special than anyone else, but I’ve reached out more than once to (I won’t say their names) and have yet to hear back. Realize, I’m just 1 guy and they probably get asked by many. Plus all those other new detectors coming out…back to me being a little skeptic. A simple quick view of the Manticore and what I see missing? EQ-800 and EQ-900 both have 2 Gold Prospecting Modes and the Manticore Only has 1. EQ800/900 both have option of the small 6” sniper coil. Heck the EQ-900 comes with 2 coils including the 6” sniper coil in the box for only $1100 in the US. Manticore does not even give us the option for that small coil. We get a bigger 8” coil option instead for some unknown price yet to be seen? Heck, anyone who knows anything about VLF class gold detectors realizes the importance of the smallest coil possible and there are 10+ proven gold detectors out there proving the small 5 and 6” coils are KILLER on small gold. But not even an option for the Manticore? When I view all the upgrades of the EQ-900 and see the additional $180 sniper 6” coil comes with it in the box, I see value. In fact since the EQ-900 has the same 2 Gold Modes as the EQ-800, I lean again to the “Proven” as well. Not so with the Manticore, or at least yet. Maybe I’m just very cautious of the last 6 months (half a year) of hearing all the great about the Manticore? Maybe in 6 months (or next year) all this will be proven? Or maybe the Manticore is mainly geared toward the masses? I did see and wondered???? The Manti is missing the 4 kHz Setting the EQ-800 and EQ-900 have. Not sure why it’s not on the Manticore? We know the masses are General Purpose Coin/Relic hunters and then Beach/Water swingers. Prospectors, we’re less than 10%, maybe even less than 5% of the general public who detects. Here’s a quick overview I observed without going into each individual feature. Yes all 3 units come with wireless headphones, cables, chargers and screen protectors. Equinox 800 is $900, comes with an 11” DD coil (price dropped a few months ago) and it’s a proven gold detector. After becoming the #1 seller for me and many others under $1000, many folks encounters a few flaws (arm cuffs, shaft wobble, ear cracks, leaks, wireless headphones). The good thing is Minelab provides a 3 year transferable warranty and they take care of their customers. I honestly feel if you take any product and it becomes so popular, most everyone’s uses it, then there will be more people complaining as well, it’s simple math. Minelab has done a pretty good job trying to keep most of us happy with our EQ-600/800s, including me. Equinox 900 is $1100, comes with an 11” DD coil and a 6” DD Sniper coil. Has the upgraded collapsible carbon fiber shaft (like the Manti), has a new improved arm cuff (so does the Manti), better quality Waterproofing to 16” (so does the Manti), better improved wireless headphones (so does the Manti), Vibrating Arm Grip (just like Manti), Night Hunting light (yes the Manti does), twice the Digital ID #’s (yes to the Manti), Iron Bias 0 to 9, like the Manti, Recovery Speed 1 to 8, just like Manti, more segments of DISC = 119, Manti only has 0 to 99. Lighter than the Manti…all this for $500 less. Manticore is $1600 and comes with a single 11” DD coil. Again, no option for the small 6” Sniper coil. One less Gold Mode than EQ-800/900? But we do get the colored LCD screen with 2D readout. Yes there are a couple other small things and one big thing, MORE POWER. Yes, I’m most certain the Manti will get a little extra depth vs the EQ-800/900 and for those who are Coin/Relic/Beach hunters, the Manticore just might be that perfect $1600 detector. For us Prospector Hunters, maybe we might look at the new improved Equinox-900 as our go to VLF class? I don’t know on the Manticore yet, but I do know how well the EQ-800 has done for my guys and many customers for the last 4 yrs. Again, I’m not saying the Manticore is no good, quite the opposite actually as I did find all the gold jewelry in Cancun with it on my vacation in Dec. (update to the bigger diamond ring, appraisal came back at $5400). I've also witnessed there is at least 1 inch more in depth for coin hunting with the Manticore. I seen this myself on a side by side comparison with a staff member who has the EQ-900 (which he loves). I just wonder if the Manticore is geared more towards the masses and us Prospectors need to stay Equinox for the near future? I’m all ears to hear anyone's thoughts and comments and especially from those who have used the Manticore for gold nugget hunting. Maybe us Prospectors should be sticking with the proven Equinox 800 or upgrading to the improved Equinox 900?

I’m up visiting my old shop in Alaska. We are doing a massive expansion of the mining department into its own building. The idea is to create a mining and metal detecting superstore. Anyway, they have the 900 and Manticore in stock. Some might find it funny but getting one just to get the new handgrip instead of the round post my Equinox 800 offers almost seemed reason enough to take one home. Kind of doubt I will though as I’m a bit over it all at the moment, but I’m here a couple more days so have time to think about it. The new shop is shaping up nice, tons of new toys including mini excavators. I’ll take some photos of the new store today and post later.

Given the improvements in target separation in the 900 and the already proven Equinox ability on small gold, what are the reasons to own a 24k over a 900 for purely nugget hunting? The 24k has an edge on price, but when you include an extra coil and wireless headset that gap is pretty much closed. There are the obvious differences such as frequency, ability to configure the machine, waterproofing, etc, but when the machines are out in the field with all this thrown in a blender is there still a reason to go with the less featured 24k? Is the 24k performing better in more soil types? Do people see more depth given similar coil sizes? Thanks in advance for all your thoughts.

I really like both of these detectors. The ground thawed out enough to get in some head to head testing on surface to 7" deep wild targets today (it will freeze over again in two days with 3 to 6" of new snow so boo hoo.) I literally have not been able to wild target test the Legend's new Park M3 mode for both target separation in modern trash and effective depth since downloading the Version 1.10 Beta software a few weeks ago. I have been able to do quite a bit of staged test target comparisons but nothing else. Today was also the first day I have been able to do the same with my new Equinox 900 as far as wild targets at medium depth and wild target separation. So I just randomly picked the Legend to go first on a 40 X 15 yard patch of heavily used and modern trashed West Denver park that has yielded several silver dimes and quarters along with many junk rings and a few silver and gold rings too. This park has given up over 50 wheat pennies and two war nickels for me too. I carefully gridded the 40X15 yard area I chose in the park with overlapping sweeps. This is a park that ate the F75 for lunch due to EMI and 5 to 7 bar dirt (no accurate target IDs unless the targets were within 2" of the surface) along with any other decent single or selectable single frequency VLF detector. Same for the Garrett APEX. The Vanquish models can hunt this park but every non-surface target has an iron halo and it was impossible for them to ground balance. I have hunted this park and the test area recently with Deus 2 and the Equinox 800 with no EMI issues and very stable target IDs even near the edge of detection. It is a west facing sloped park with only a few trees that thaws out before most flat parks here in the Denver area. It is trashed big time with multiple targets under every swing so masking of good targets by foil, canslaw, pull tabs, aluminum screw caps and steel crown bottle caps is a real problem at this park. That trash goes deep in this park too so its not just on the surface. There are bent rusty nails too starting at about the 4" deep level and going way deeper. I had the Legend with its LG24 coil (the coil cover measures 9.75X6") in Park M3, 23 sensitivity, ground balanced at 6, G discrimination pattern, recovery speed was 5, iron filter was 1, iron stability 1, bottle cap reject 1, ground stability 0, 6 tones. Iron mineralization meter showed 5 to 8 bars out of 10 consistently. I was mostly concentrating on coin and jewelry targets in the 15 to 26 ID area and anything above 40 that seemed to be coin sized and had enough 4 way consistent responses to warrant digging. I ended up digging lots of small can slaw, a couple of pull tabs and 41 USA modern coins from surface to 7" deep. There were three targets that I did not dig that were very iffy but potentially were deeper silver. Basically, at the time I thought I had covered the test area really well and that the Legend had also done very well with slightly jumpy but solid enough target IDs and tones. I fired up the Equinox 900 with its Coiltek 9.5X5.5" coil, Park 1 Multi, sensitivity 20, ground balanced at 5, -9 to +99 accepted, recovery speed 5, Fe 1, 5 tones and hunted the exact same area with the same speed and length of swings. I don't swing fast unless I am trying to isolate a target so swing speed was 1 second to the left and 1 second to the right with a flat, close to the ground, three to four foot arc. I was concentrating on targets in the 15 to 27 and above 60 target ID ranges. I immediately noticed the ground come alive with way more targets than I had heard with the Legend. I had the volume levels about the same for both detectors. There were just a ton of targets going off. Most were tiny foil, tiny aluminum or iron falsing with stuttering, incomplete blips which I am very used to hearing on this ground with the Equinox 800. However, I also pulled out 16 more USA modern coins that were in the 4 to 6" depth range from the testing area. Most of these were standing straight up on edge............. There were also a couple of coins near the surface that I somehow just missed. It happens. I also dug several more good sounding pieces of small can slaw that could have been smaller gold rings along with a couple of pull tabs that were screaming at me. The three targets that I had marked with the Legend were also easily hit by the Equinox 900. One turned out to be a 7" deep US clad dime, one was a 6" deep 1957 Wheat penny on edge and one was a 7" deep bent rusty nail (only one of the day). I also only dug one steel crown bottle cap and that was detected with a ton of high tones by the Equinox 900. I was pretty sure it was a steel crown bottle cap but it also sounded a lot like a coin spill. Gotta check those. No jewelry. Very impressed with the Equinox 900s target separation even in Park 1 Multi. The 900 was an absolute live wire even with the settings I was using. Most of those sixteen extra coin targets it found were no doubters even with most being on edge and with the more unstable 900 target IDs. I am still not much of a fan of the Legend's Park M3 recent add on, especially after this hunt. I don't know if this was a separation issue, a depth issue or both. However, just to be clear, I have hunted this exact spot with both the Equinox 800 and Deus 2 and pulled out many coins. Somehow, the 61 coins I dug today were missed by me using those detectors. Or, more realistically, every time I remove a target from a trashed park like this one, a different undug target becomes slightly more unmasked nearby. That could somewhat explain the Equinox 900 finding quite a few targets behind the Legend. However, most of those coins found by the 900 were not near previous disturbed dirt from Legend recoveries.

Why controls on the side of the pod? The serve no purpose I can see from a manufacturing perspective, and only serve to complicate the design. Extra holes in the case, rubber chicklets that wear out. The main issue though is that from a user standpoint they really suck. How many people put the User Definable button on the Equinox to real use? It's a fabulous control, and we all should be flipping back and forth between settings to verify targets. At a minimum it's a great way to decide which mode works best, but it's the ability to quickly compare targets in two modes that is a real boon if used properly. Very few people use it at all however, and the reason is simple. The location is so inconvenient as to make us ignore it. Those who do use it have to jump through hoops to do so. The real crime here is there is no need for this. There is plenty of room on the front to put all controls front and center where they should be. It is too bad that Minelab did not take this opportunity to get it right with the Equinox 700, 900, and Manticore, perpetuating a poor design choice with Equinox into the future. Which would you rather have?........

There was a thread on Equinox vs Manticore for Gold Nuggets but when I just took a look I have seen about every comparison made but this one. One or the other, for just general all around metal detecting, parks, beach, fields, relics, coins, jewelry - what's the pick? Any thought yet on which is just the better rounded do everything for most people detector? And just to keep it clean, let's just assume stock coils only. This model with stock coil or that model with stock coil, which one is it going to be? And no other options please, just Equinox 900 or Manticore?

If you had to choose between these two units, the Deus II and Equinox 900, for coin/jewelry hunting in local parks with a medium mineralization, which would it be? I know there are various conditions to consider, but in general, I'm just talking about your typical U.S. park coin and jewelry hunting, while also looking for missed deep targets. Yes, there are several other units that could be considered, but only interested in opinions on these two. Thanks for your input...

It's snowing again here three days after the previous snow from mid December finally melted. However, me being crazy.....I have gotten in about thirty hunts since I received my Equinox 900 from Gerry's Detectors back in mid December. Fifteen or so of those hunts have been with the 900 either by itself or against the Legend, Deus 2 or the Nox 800 on wild targets. Since it has been pretty frozen here, most of the comparisons I have been able to do on actual hunts have been for shallower target separation, unmasking and target ID accuracy. No depth testing. All I can say at the moment is that I sold one of my Equinox 800s and the other one has been relegated to small gold prospecting and loaner status. I would not have imagined that even one year ago. The Legend, Deus 2 and Equinox 900 although flawed in various ways, really are that much better than the Equinox 800 for shallow target separation and unmasking from hunting ferrous and non ferrous trashed parks and fresh water beaches in my area. Target ID stability or more precisely, the wider repeatable target ID range of common targets of the Nox 900 is my least favorite thing about it but most of that is me getting used to the 900 and not cranking up the sensitivity too high. Thousands of targets and five years ago, I was trying my damndest to figure out what the Equinox 600 was trying to tell me on all of the blips and beeps that were coming from ground that was basically silent using some other very famous single and selectable single frequency detectors. After that experience, moving to the Legend was just about seamless. Same for Deus 2 (I had many years and hours on Deus 1 and the ORX). Adjusting to the kaleidoscope of sounds coming from the 900 is very reminiscent of my Nox 600 experience. Patience and time behind the 900 will make things better I'm sure.

So, been a good while since I posted anything I've found! The beaches here have been pretty lean, since our back to back hurricanes washed everything out, and redeposited virgin sand! Only an odd Spanish coin or two, by a lucky few! And "mostly" very few recent drops for the rest of us! But there's always somewhere to hunt, even if it's not your preferred areas! Today was one such day! I've been slowly following up on some historical research, as many of you do, since I moved here about a year ago! And decided to work some old sidewalk strips! I had the 5x10 Coiltek on the 800, as I knew that there is always tons of trash in these spots! And while I didn't turn up any "vintage" coins🤯, just the regular clad and such, I did get a nice repeatable 33-34, that turned out to be a nice silver ring! While it won't win any value awards, it actually fit me perfectly! So it's a keeper! I'd be very happy with at least one silver (or gold) "something" a month, and so far, I'm on track this year! Last month was a nice Mercury dime at a WW2 Barracks area! But I can't wait for the beaches to pick up, with some Spanish, or Jewelry, etc... I'm not picky!!😁 And while I wouldn't wish for any more devastating hurricanes like we just had, a few well placed, "out-to-sea beach strippers" would be ok by me!👍👍

Early November last year the ears on my 15x12'' Equinox coil finally broke off.. Seeing all the complaints about broken coil ears, I was surprised they lasted 3 years.. This is my main coil so I send an email to Gold Diggers (the dealer) explaining what had happened and if they could find a copy of the invoice as I'd lost mine.. All I had was a shipping order with the invoice date.. They responded a day later and said they'd sold the shop to Gold Rat Highbankers, so I send them an email with my tales of woe.. Dustin responded straight away and told me how to go about replacing it directly through Minelab.. He also offered to ship it for me and fill out a warranty repair request on my behalf.. I told him I'd try the Minelab direct route first and send them an email saying I didn't have an invoice, but instead I'd attached a copy of the shipping order and a picture of the broken coil ears.. A week went by before I got a response.. Obviously they hadn't read my email because they wanted to see an invoice.. Once more I explained that I didn't have an invoice but I did have a shipping order showing who I'd bought the coil from and the date it was invoiced (there were 3 weeks of warranty left). A week later I got a response from Minelab saying they now needed the coil serial number.. I explained to them that the little white sticker with the serial number had washed off years ago in the sea somewhere.. This time they responded within a few days telling me not to worry because my invoice should have the number on it.. Now it wasn't that I was talking to a different person with each email, it was same dude the whole time.. I think this shows the difference between small companies and global corporations, the Minelab dude is probably run off his feet dealing with hundreds of cranky customers.. So a few slip between the cracks when responding to warranty claims.. Anyway, I explained for the third time that I didn't have an invoice (not for a lack of trying to get a hold of one) but I did have a shipping order with the invoice date, and that the serial number had been claimed by the sea.. I also told him that I'd explained all this before and I'd run out of ways to explain it any different.. A few days later the Minelab dude contacted me again.. He said he'd talked it over with his manager and even though I didn't have an invoice or serial number, they'd decided to replace the coil.. The reason they decided to go ahead? You guessed it, they replaced the coil "due to the nature of the fault".. I guess Minelab could've given me a further run around or told me they wouldn't replace it without an invoice or serial number, but this is a way of taking ownership of a design fault (sort of).. So, this morning I've send the old coil to the Minelab service centre with a little note asking if they could possibly replace it with a 15x12'' coil for an Equinox 700 or 900 because they've got stronger coil ears.. I thought I might as well ask.. 'No' I've got, 'yes' I can get.. 😁

I finally got a 6” coil for my 800. I hope to find the crumbs that I left behind in my old GPZ 7000 patches. 😎

If there's one man you can trust for expert advice on metal detecting, it's PJ.. He's even got his own Youtube channel.. PJ knows his stuff.. Years of fence jumping and making a nuisance of himself at kiddie playgrounds have made PJ the spiritual leader of the world's metal detecting community.. After watching PJ's knowledgeable critique and extensive field testing, I've decided to buy an Equinox 900..

On another thread UtahRich and I had posted about a recent beach hunt we did with the Garrett Axiom and Equinox 900. I'll try and add some pictures of the finds a little later. Here is a video of the hunt.

I’ve been searching my soul and endured sleepless nights trying to decide whether to buy an Equinox 900.. My gut is telling me not to, it’s still feeling queasy after it jumped the gun on the Deus II.. I realize that buying an Equinox 900 will involve another learning curve but that is not what’s putting me off.. I’m just wondering how useful the thing will be.. I have all the detectors and coils I could ever possibly need.. The Deus II and PulseDive cover my every scuba detecting desire, and an Equinox 900 will not be any more useful (even with its 5-meter waterproof rating it's got nothing on the PulseDive’s 60-meters).. In my mind if its ‘Beach 2’ setting is anything like its Equinox cousins, then the Deus II with its dedicated “Dive’ and ‘Salt’ settings has nothing to worry about.. On my beaches I rarely stress about target separation, they’re usually already separated by a few giant leaps.. I’m yet to find a bottle top next to a gold ring.. If this ever becomes a problem, I’m pretty sure a new Equinox 900 wouldn’t be any more useful than my old Equinox 800 at separating iffy targets.. Even if it was, I can’t justify spending $1700 on negligible differences between Equinox models.. Same goes for its 119 TID.. Is it of any use? Will it clearly identify a bottle top, a 20 cent coin and a pull tab, which all ring in around 16 on the Equinox 800 and 600.. Do each of these now ring in at separate TIDs? Or is it still the guessing game it’s always been? Where after a while you realize that a 20 cent coin is more likely to ring in where it’s supposed to, and the others tend to jump about a bit more.. If that’s the case then an Equinox 900 won’t be of any use, here it doesn’t fill the gap between the Manticore with its 2D TID.. Likewise, is the Equinox of any use for finding deep targets? Does it have that extra bit of oomph under the hood that’ll make it punch much deeper than its rivals? Maybe an extra 50% more spark? So far there’s been no indication that it outshines all that came before on deep targets.. If finding them was the job for the day, then my other detectors would be just as useful.. For all my whining, I can see some useful things about the Equinox 900.. Firstly, the vibrating handle idea that Minelab nicked from Nokta is a winner.. This will be handy for wading and surf as well as windy beaches.. But it’s a dumb move by Minelab to ditch the WM08 on their new Equinoxes, no amount of shaking will make up for it.. Still, the red display and lit up keypad together with the flashlight will be useful for hunting low tide at night.. The all carbon-fibre collapsible shaft might make it a bit more useable as a scuba detector than its Equinox stable mates.. As always, it’s turning out to be a battle between ‘usefulness’ and ‘needfulness’.. Where the question of how useful the thing will be gives way to a need to own the latest model, even if it has no real edge in performance.. Thank you for any guidance you can offer..

I haven't seen many reviews on the Equinox 700 but many on the 900. From what I see and hear most would recommend the 900 over the Legend but what about the 700, would you recommend that over the Legend as well. I'm wanting to upgrade from my Vanquish 540 and I'm leaning towards the 700, does it get the same depth/seperation as the 900.

Hello everyone, equinox 800 vs 700 which one would you choose and why?

I took the 900 to a freshwater beach I enjoy hunting. In 2019 I found 18 rings there. I didn't get to hunt it in 2020 or 2021 but drove up there today to give it a spin. Usually they will let the water down a little bit in the winter. To my surprise, there wasn't any water at all. I'm 40 years old and I can never remember them draining the entire lake. For years now, I have been the only person I know of that has been detecting there. Today as I pulled in, I could see 4 other people already detecting it. I have no idea how long it has been drained but there was evidence of non fresh dig holes so I am guessing it has been down a month or so. By the time I left, there were 6 people swinging metal detectors. For this place I opted for the CoilTek 5x10 coil instead of the stock 11 inch. Had I known the water was drained I would have probably kept the 11 on but I was thinking of getting a coil in tight, to the things the swimmers Usually congregate around. I played with Park 1 and 2 and also Beach mode. I had to drop the sensitivity to 16 to keep it from falsing on the hot dirt. I ended up with 2 rings and the trash things on the plate. One of the rings was a 10k promise ring with a little diamond. I did talk to the other detectorists but they said they hadn't found anything. I have no way of knowing for sure...that's usually what I tell people even if I have a pouch full of goodies. They could have found a dozen rings for all I know. I am happy with mine and glad to get 2023 started with gold.

Just a quick post about some weights for recently released detectors for those that want or need to pay attention to swing weight. I weighed all of these on the same scale. Your scale may give different results but the difference between different detectors should be close. All weights include coil covers. Deus 2 with 9" FMF coil, WS6 mounted on the shaft with the XP Neoprene shaft mount = 33.2 ounces Deus 2 with 9" FMF coil and full remote mounted on the shaft = 35 ounces Nox 900 with stock 6" coil and stock lower shaft = 37 ounces Nox 800 with stock 6" coil and Detector Innovations Tele-Knox shaft system 37.7 ounces Nox 900 with Coiltek 10X5" coil on the Detector Innovations 18mm Tele-Knox lower shaft which fits the Nox 900 shaft = 41.6 ounces Nox 900 with stock 11" coil and stock lower shaft = 44.1 ounces Legend with stock 6" coil = 45.5 ounces Legend with 10X5" LG24 coil is 46.1 ounces Nox 800 with stock 11" coil and Steve Goss one piece carbon fiber upper shaft (no counter weight) = 46.5 ounces Legend with stock 11" coil = 52.6 ounces