Is There A " Good " Upgrade From Equinox 800 Without Paying Thousands Of Dollars?

[Johnny Crunch]

CmonNow, you mention you like bells and whistles and tweaking things: White's V3i. It's old, heavy, complicated, eats batteries— long overdue for an update (which will apparently never happen) — it's like Nox800's grumpy old grampa! A miracle worker in the right hands... a red hot mess to us mere mortals... you will need A LOT more than 150 hours to sort it all out!  Go Packers! Apple Pie with Cheese! Eff 'em, Bucky!

[CmonNow]

9 hours ago, Johnny Crunch said:

CmonNow, you mention you like bells and whistles and tweaking things: White's V3i. It's old, heavy, complicated, eats batteries— long overdue for an update (which will apparently never happen) — it's like Nox800's grumpy old grampa! A miracle worker in the right hands... a red hot mess to us mere mortals... you will need A LOT more than 150 hours to sort it all out!  Go Packers! Apple Pie with Cheese! Eff 'em, Bucky!

Lol!  When my dear departed mother first told me apple pie was good with cheese I thought she may need to go to a padded cell for a while until I tried it.  It's awesome, especially melted on warm pie.  Go Pack go!  Don't care much about the Badgers, but if they win the national championship I'll pretend I was a fan all along.

I've looked at the V3i and seen some videos of people having a good time and a good day with it.  Your post leads me to a rookie question though.  A lot of detectors, like the V3i, the GPX series, the CTX3030, and many others, have a box that hangs below your swinging arm, varying in size from model to model.

If that box is necessary on some detectors, why can machines like the Equinox and so many others do just fine as far as depth, etc, with a smaller-than-a-cellphone control above the shaft?

[kac]

Grab a blisstool, has enough knobs and switches to keep you busy for quite a while. Good analog machines have a learning curve when it comes to audio only. Your approach to an area is treated a bit different as you discriminate from bottom up and don't have numbers or notching to fall back on. Forces you to really listen to your targets.

I find it more gratifying calling out a target to myself before I dig and having it be that target based off just sound.

[UtahRich]

If you want to branch out, try some shallow water / beach detecting. 

I hear that Fisher is coming out with a new detector soon; the Manta.  Tentative $$ is expected to be between $2-3k.   

 

Rich - 

[Jeff McClendon]

Some contributors here are just having some good natured fun. That is what is really nice about this forum. We can make a suggestion without taking it too seriously. 

If you seriously want an upgrade for the Nox 800, you probably should follow Steve's advice and wait and see if one of those 5 new products from Minelab is a Nox 800 upgrade. 

Personally, I do not know of any detector that is a real upgrade. Currently the Equinox 800 is the absolute only detector with its feature set, period. An Etrac or CTX 3030 would be an upgrade for target ID on higher conductors. On low to mid conductors they are not any better than the Equinox, they weigh much more and do not have the recovery speed or target separation that the Equinox 800 has and they are not even close for all around versatility. They would probably satisfy your technical orientation and like the Equinox 800 would give you a chance to advance your theoretical knowledge. In my purely subjective opinion, the only weakness that the Equinox has is it's poor ergonomics. Without upgrading to custom shafts, the Equinox is poorly designed weight wise.

Another detector that might satisfy your technology cravings is the XP Deus. There are plenty of adjustments to make on the Deus and you would certainly learn a lot of concepts and theoretical stuff if you decide to master it. Otherwise, other than its blazing speed, world class target separation, ability to detect in thick iron and light weight, it will not do that much better as a detector than the Equinox 800.

A Tarsacci  MDT 8000 might be an option.

Most of the other detectors mentioned here were at some point in the past top of the line, great detectors. They are mostly old or based on old, somewhat tired tech that would be barely a lateral move if at all.

Wait if you can.

Jeff

[maxxkatt]

Robnc, "i'm perfectly happy with the Equinox 800, so much that I even use the WM08 module and gray ghost headphones instead of the included wireless headphones. To me they just sound better."

to me the wireless headphones with the 800 were dull and muffled sounding. I went with the Trond TD-BH01 wireless headphones which to my ears sound much better.  They ARE Bluetooth 4.2 and pair fine with the 800 and the Vanquish 540. I am a happy camper with them.

 

[scoopjohnb]

I like my Minelabs. Had a bit of everything and currently enjoy using the Excalibur, Equinox and CTX.

Is the CTX an upgrade from a Nox. Not if you’re after gold nuggets!

However if relics is your thing, then I would beg to differ. FBS2 has awesome ground handling, ground balance and a 15 step ferrous discrimination feature. Add to that it has the ability to disc out iron wrap around.

Add target trace and it can show you signal spikes you simply can’t hear without hundreds of hours on a Nox.

However the CTX is a bit too complex, just like the V3i. A bit too much options, so when Minelab launched the Equinox that has some of that Minelab Secret Sauce in it with an easier and less complex user interface. It was an instant hit,... it hit the ground running.

If you’ve got a NOX and try a CTX, you’ll love it. Other way around, just the same own a CTX, try a NOX, great detector.

Me I’m perfectly content using what I have at the moment. Untll Minelab release a new CTX that is.

Same thing with my fishing rods. Just love my 20 year old rods but those new iterations really take it to the next level ?

 

 

[EL NINO77]

Equinox is one of the top 5  modelf of brands of detectors .. in terms of sensitivity, depth, separation and accuracy of ID ....

you can use a Top detector of another brand and thus supplement your detection capabilities ... as far as the detector and coils are concerned ..

if you want to go more .... wait for the next generation of detectors..some of them will be added soon ...

[GB_Amateur]

3 hours ago, EL NINO77 said:

Equinox is one of the top 5  modelf of brands of detectors .. in terms of sensitivity, depth, separation and accuracy of ID ....

I assume you have five specific detectors in mind.  Could you list, and also say which you feel are best for the individual categories you mention (sensitivity, depth, separation and TID accuracy)?  We could probably make a pretty good guess by looking at your sidebar but I'd prefer to "hear it from the horse's mouth".