Deus 2, Deus 1, Equinox 800 & GPX 5000 Compared On Various Size Gold Nuggets

[abenson]

Here is the video I did comparing various metal detectors on the buried gold nuggets. You can see in this video which ones do better on various size nuggets. Take this test with a grain of salt. Mineralization, nugget shape, target depth and site conditions will all effect detector performance. This is just a test I did in Arizona so your area could be much different and the nuggets were freshly buried.

 

[Jeff McClendon]

Once again Andy, your testing mirrors what I have experienced using three of the four detectors in this comparison. Deus 1, Nox 800, GPX 5000.

Several people questioned me and Andy when we said that Deus 2 Gold Field really needs those higher frequencies and that a maximum of 40 kHz might not be enough. Why did we say that......because of the way Deus 1 really gets hot on smaller gold at 50 kHz and higher. Since we had never used a Deus 1 at 40 kHz (not an available frequency) all we had to go on was the difference between 31 and 48 kHz. At least on the Deus 1 it just gets a real jump in performance using the 9" HF coil starting at 48 kHz. Using an 11" coil on Deus 2 with a maximum high frequency of 40 kHz was just an unknown. Now we know. Hopefully the 9" paired with Deus 2 in Gold Field will be better on all of those targets. Also, the volume level of Deus 2 seemed to be really quiet. Was it on its highest setting. Plus, I already said in another post that Deus 2 gold prospecting for smaller gold in its discrimination modes needs to have a very low disc setting even below zero. Deus 2 gave some occasional accurate target IDs interspersed with 00s. Deus 1 never gave any accurate target IDs on any of the targets at any frequency. Deus 1 hit those targets hard at 74kHz for sure.

The real winner of this comparison as I and I am fairly certain Andy could have predicted was the Equinox 800 using an 11" coil in Gold 1 Multi. Gold 2 Multi would have been just the same. I know Steve H. has said that the Equinox 800 Gold modes were mostly an accident and kind of an afterthought. Somehow Steve and Minelab really nailed it however. I see this kind of raw power and finesse using the Equinox 800 gold prospecting and even relic hunting every time I use it. 

Apart from the occasional iron range number, the Equinox 800 even with an 11" coil was dead on the target IDs for those nuggets. Put the 10X5" Coiltek or 6" round coil on the Equinox on those targets.............

Relic hunters that have not used the Equinox Gold modes for really deep relic hunting in fairly clean ground that has some mineralization......you are missing out. You get the same extremely accurate target IDs along with VCO audio. For shallow non-ferrous targets in thick nails, just turn up the iron bias and the recovery speed to alleviate some of the iron falsing and to shorten the audio responses. You can also use the threshold tone as a reference that will null on iron..........

The ground Andy is testing in is not extreme mineralization wise. The gulf between the Deus 2 and the Equinox may be even greater in really bad ground from a prospecting/relic standpoint using Deus 2's Gold Field and Relic modes versus the Equinox Gold modes.

[abenson]

36 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

Also, the volume level of Deus 2 seemed to be really quiet. Was it on its highest setting

Jeff volume was on 7 or 8 I don't recall which. It will go to 9 so I could have probably gotten a little more out of it. Audio response up to 6 may have helped as well I had it at 4. All stuff you don't think about at the time.

39 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

The real winner of this comparison as I and I am fairly certain Andy could have predicted was the Equinox 800 using an 11" coil in Gold 1 Multi. Gold 2 Multi would have been just the same. I know Steve H. has said that the Equinox 800 Gold modes were mostly an accident and kind of an afterthought. Somehow Steve and Minelab really nailed it however. I see this kind of raw power and finesse using the Equinox 800 gold prospecting and even relic hunting every time I use it.

On small gold the Equinox is the clear winner IMO and I kind of thought it was going to be just knowing how it has done in the past. You have to remember Minelab pretty much has gold prospecting detectors market wrapped up and this is just further proof of that.

[mn90403]

Well ... I don't normally watch comparison videos but that one was WELL WORTH THE WATCH!  It hit my sweet spot for sure.

I've said many times that I was probably the first one other than Steve to find some gold nuggets with the 11" 800.  It is on a thread here some place.  They were small nuggets.

We got to see different technology used on nuggets in the field.  Invaluable information and sounds for all of us.  Thank you.

I've been considering a small coil purchase for my 5000 and it shows that I either don't need one or it will ignore the tiny gold (and maybe the tiny bird shot) and be a form of discrimination.

What we didn't see in the video is a reaction to hot rocks.  This would be like many 'played out' gold patches where much of the trash and many of the hot rocks have been removed.  In those patches most of the surface gold and shallow gold has been removed too so those of us watching this 'test garden' we don't know how many detectors have been used on a spot before we get there.

[phrunt]

Well, that about clears the air for me, the Nox wasn't just the clear winner it blew the others away, it's target ID's remained accurate for the size of the nuggets and slammed on all of them.  The two bigger deeper targets were still simple targets for the GPX and it would find both deeper than the Nox.

I guess I can rule out the Deus 2 being suitable for me now, the only thing I'm left to see with it is how it handles finding very deep silver coins but I guess its limited again by it's coil size and I'd be surprised if it can match the Nox there with its limitations.    I'm confident by this video even if the Deus 2 had the 9" coil the Equinox will easily beat it even while using the 11" coil on the Nox, I'd not be surprised at all if the 15x12" coil beats the Deus 2 with the 9" coil.  All the Equinox coils are pretty hot on gold, even the tiny stuff.  I've found absolute little specs with the 11" coil, I use it often for prospecting for ground coverage, why mess around with a tiny coil looking for gold if you can put on a decent size coil to cover ground and find the first bit, then put on the little guy to further check the area as the 6" will find the smallest bits deeper than the 11" but the 11" will find the bigger bits deeper than the 6".  An experiment I did was find the smallest bit the 6" coil could hit on, the 11" coil also hit on it just with less depth.   Remarkable really how well the Equinox coils handle tiny targets. I was previously used to detectors that changing up coil sizes loses smallest target sensitivity. 

The 5000 results were entirely predictable, I've also found the spiral coils even of a larger size (they have to be to fit the windings in) give better small gold results than the bundle wound coils like that Coiltek, a 12x8", 9" or 10" Spiral coil would probably have performed a little better than the 6" on the second target, but the GPX 5000 isn't going to hit that little first spec with any coil. 

Thanks for the video, it's the one I've been waiting for.  The Deus 2 sure isn't the worlds best VLF metal detector for my needs.  I  was hoping it's magic bullet might be handling of hot rocks, but that's not the case either with the Nox having better handling via notching.

[Jeff McClendon]

Everyone that has responded to this thread is a gold prospector. Three of the people that have responded or reacted to this thread actually own, use and like the original Deus, the Equinox 800 and the GPX 5000. We have hundreds to thousands of hours on these detectors, using them in dirt that people back east have no concept of. I often spend the first half hour of a hunt trying to figure out if I want to notch out the various hot rocks or not when using the Equinox in its Gold modes since it is capable of doing that with a simple button push or two. Sometimes I do. Can’t do that presently on the Deus 2 in Gold Field. Nor can I adjust a Deus 2 the way that Andy had his Nox setup with -9 to -6 rejected to take care of any ground noise………

We know our detectors well and as you and many other who have a Deus 2 already have said, if you have experience on Deus 1 or the ORX the transition to Deus 2 is not too bad.

I will take that one step further…….for those of us that have hundreds to thousands of hours using the Deus 1 and ORX Gold Field modes………the settings are virtually identical on Deus 2 so Andy screwing up the video he made and posted today is next to impossible in a head to head, same sized coils, Gold Modes to Gold Field comparison.

[Jeff McClendon]

Deus 2 ID the smallest nugget once out of half a dozen 00s or no IDs. That tells me and anyone with experience using the Gold Field mode that it was having a really tough time with that target. Basically, the target was responding lower than -6.4 on most of those swings. I don’t care how loud the volume was or if headphones would have helped. That 11” coil was really struggling on that target, period.

[GnshpCSO]

15 hours ago, abenson said:

Here is the video I did comparing various metal detectors on the buried gold nuggets. You can see in this video which ones do better on various size nuggets. Take this test with a grain of salt. Mineralization, nugget shape, target depth and site conditions will all effect detector performance. This is just a test I did in Arizona so your area could be much different and the nuggets were freshly buried.

 

Thanks for the comparison video abenson. I’m not an avid gold prospector like many of you here, but it is good to know that my Nox 800’s will be effective when I can eventually branch out a bit and do some gold specific hunting. It seems from other videos that the Deus II does well on the beach, surf, and diving. Other videos show that the EQX is great on silver and gold. As you stated, each detector has pros and cons, and that is the reason many of us own several detectors.

I still love my old Etrac on deep silver and my Nox 800’s as all around versatile machines. I use my gear pretty heavily, but I don’t abuse it so I haven’t had any issues with the Etrac or Nox (yet). I will most likely pick up a Deus II after the dust settles a bit and they are more readily available here in the states, primarily to use on the beach when I visit. I also suspect that we will start seeing quite a few Deus II’s on the used market as people receive them and either get frustrated with the learning curve (especially for non-Deus users) or because it doesn’t deliver what they expected. There are many newcomers to the hobby that don’t fully understand (yet) that detecting takes work- learning the machine modes, learning vdi’s and sounds of specific targets in different soils and situations, etc. 

Before anybody flames me, I’m in no way shape or form saying the Deus II is overhyped, just saying that everybody is different and what may seem the “silver bullet” machine for some might seem average to others. I will try any brand or model machine to find the good stuff. Again, thanks for the unbiased reviews of three great machines and your acknowledgement that no one machine is perfect- each can serve a unique purpose and performance in different situations. 

[Jeff McClendon]

Gold prospecting on tiny gold is all about getting a detector to respond to a small target usually in high mineralization. Sometimes it is just a blip, sometimes a break in the threshold. It depends on the detector and what kind of iron handling it has. 

In the video, the Deus 2 in wide open Gold Field with disc IAR on zero could not detect that smallest nugget well at all. If I had on headphones, just like Andy said, and was going by sound only, I might have walked right over it because the audio was so inconsistent and fractured. It tried to give an ID and mostly gave responses that mimic ground noise from passing over a really small hot rock or a slight change in ground phase. All of that, in spite of your insistence on volume levels not being equal, tells me how poorly Deus 2 in Gold Field with an 11” coil detected that target. No one is complaining about Deus 1s audio or especially the GPX 5000 volume levels which were also low, even though the GPX hit that second target with very faint BUT very consistent audio responses that would have pulled me up immediately.

[phrunt]

An absolute beginner at prospecting would have found the first tiny nugget with the Equinox, it could have been their first time detecting and you tell them that any Target with a 1 or 2 ID is possibly a small bit of gold, they would have found that nugget, no skill required.  A nice audio response and a very stable ID of 1, the number often associated with a tiny gold nugget, there was no contest, it performed much better.