Minelab Equinox 900, Is It Worth The Upgrade Over The Equinox 800? Long Read

[abenson]

With all the attention on the Manticore I'm not seeing much about the Equinox 900. I received mine about 2 weeks ago, got it out played with it a bit and then had my wife wrap it up for Christmas. After opening it on Christmas day I haven't put it down. I've done multi tests and taken it on quite a few hunts, probably have spent about 50 or so hours with it in the field. So the big question, is the Equinox 900 $1099 worth upgrading to even if you already have the 800 $899? Or if you have never owned the Equinox 800 is the 900 worth the extra money if you got one?

Lets start with the obvious improvements (we hope) the 900 has that the 800 either lacks or was fixed. Balance and weight, Red backlight and keypad backlight, 11" coil ears have been strengthened, flashlight added, vibration feature added, waterproof 10 ft Equinox 800 16 ft Equinox 900, leakage issues fixed, hand grip more comfortable on the 900, arm cuff improved, carbon fiber telescopic shaft, headphone upgrade, 3 more units of sensitivity added, VDI scale expanded, depth tone added.

Now for the implied (or maybe not) improvements. Better EMI handling, better target separation and better depth.

Some of these added features or performance upgrades may not matter to everyone. But I wanted to discuss a few in greater detail. Minor things like vibration, flashlight or backlight display may never be used by some. Others may use those features a lot. In either case it's nice to have options.

Balance, weight & hand grip-The Equinox 900 is a bit lighter than the 800 but the real advantage is the improved balance the 900 has over the 800. I've noticed the improved balance of the 900 the minute I picked it up. One can easily swing the 900 all day long and it doesn't feel nose heavy with the 11" coil like the 800 did. The new handle also keeps your hand from riding up and rubbing the control box which was very annoying. 

Red backlight, backlight display & flashlight-All improvements made for night hunters. Some have already voiced their opinions on the red backlight, I for one like it. I don't hunt at night much but when I do it will be nice to have the red backlight so my eyes can adjust better. It will also be nice to be able to see the keypad in the dark when adjustments have to be made. The flashlight can be used to see finds in the dark or help you stay on the trail.

11" coil ears strengthened-I personally never had any problems with any of the coil ears on any of my Equinox coils breaking. But know others have. The coil ears on the 11" that comes with the 900 have been beefed up considerably, the 6" coil ears have remained the same.

Vibration feature-This is something I have never used and probably won't. But for those that are hard of hearing or water hunt I can certainly see the benefits.

Waterproof to 16'-This will be a great improvement for the water hunters, an extra 6' over the Equinox 800. I'm also sure they fixed the water leakage issues of the 800 in the process.

Carbon Fiber Telescopic shaft & arm cuff-One of my favorite improvements over the 800. Light weight and compact, folding down small enough to fit in a backpack. Also really like the new arm cuff and how easy it is to adjust. I will admit I have had a few issues with the shaft twisting while I hunt. However, I think this issue can be solved with the proper adjustments to the cam locks and screws. I haven't gone to any great lengths to fix the issue yet so it may not be an issue at all with the proper adjustments.

Headphones upgraded-Big improvement here IMO. I never liked the sound quality of the 800 headphones. I also had lots of issues with the audio be sluggish and choppy with the 800 headphones. So I bought my own and used the WM08 module instead. The headphones supplied with the 900 don't have the greatest sound quality, but they are way better than what the 800 came with. So far they have pared right up with the 900 when I turn them on and I don't notice any lagging or choppy audio for them.

3 more units of sensitivity-(28 vs 25)They added it but can you use it? So far I haven't been able to go past 25 on the 900. I will expand a bit more on this later.

VDI scale expanded-negative -19 to 99, going to take me some time to learn. Is there really any benefit? I guess that depends on your thought process. I won't go into much about it other than to say it's different and will take me and others some time to relearn all the VDI's for different objects.

Depth tone added-I have yet to try this feature in the field. Looks like it could have some great results depending on the application. I think it will help in determining both depth and target size.

One thing I didn't mention was pinpoint function. It seems to me Minelab has fixed it. I didn't notice the pinpoint being excessively loud one time I used it and the next time very quiet. Something else I noticed which I don't believe the 800 had (could be wrong) is the pinpoint function progressively narrows down the target response with each pass to help you pinpoint more accurately.

So now let me talk about the implied improvements. What I mean by this is that Minelab has either said it was improved or we assume based on the features added that improvement should be better. Example-Minelab states the Equinox 900 has better separation than the Equinox 800 or we assume since the sensitivity level was increased we will get better depth.

EMI-I personally haven't seen any improvement in EMI with the 900 vs the 800. I've tested this at my house where EMI is pretty bad and at a park that gives all my machines fits. EMI handling seems to be about the same for both of those areas. Other people may be seeing something different but I personally see no improvements.

Depth-You would think with greater sensitivity levels that greater depth could be achieved on the 900 vs the 800. However, I think this going to be determined by a few things. One is EMI the other is ground mineralization/salt. At the beach I feel like the 900 is a bit deeper on coin and ring sized targets over the 800. I have a video that some of you may have watched comparing the 2. On most of the targets the 900 appears to be a bit more sure of itself on those edge of detection targets over the 800. I was not able to run the sensitivity any higher on the 900 than the 800, so there may be something else at work internally. On small gold I have not seen any difference in depth between the 2 at the area I was hunting, mineralization bar on the Dues 2 is 60% full. With 6" coils on both I tested 2 sizes of gold nuggets .11 gram and .32 gram. I buried the .32 at different depth down to 3.5 inches which both detectors ID'd as iron. At 3" both detectors saw the target and had ID's I would dig. I did not try the nugget at 3.25 inches and that may have been what was needed to determine a winner. The .11 gram nuggets was ID'd as iron at 1.5" by both and at 1" both gave an ID I would dig. I know Jeff McClendon got better results with his testing, but you have to remember we are hunting 2 different area where mineralization is going to vary.

Target separation-Testing this in a controlled environment, I would give a slight edge to the Equinox 900. In the wild I haven't found any targets that either would not see. So this is up for debate and I would imagine the margin is so small that a person wouldn't even know the difference.

Since getting the Equinox 900 I have taken it to the beach, a park and gold nugget hunting in AZ. I have really enjoyed using the new machine. Now the big question. Is the Equinox 900 worth upgrading to over the Equinox 800? IMO yes it is. Even if there are no improvements in performance over the 800 you still get all of the added features I listed above and you can use all the Equinox coils you already have. Below are some pictures of things I have found with the Equinox 900 so far. I have a few videos up and will be doing more on my YouTube channel Relics & Rings if you are interested in watching them. Anyone else that has the Equinox 900 I would like to hear your comments as well. Thanks

[strick]

Nice write up abenson....so I understand the lower shaft is different the the nox 800. I got in the habit finally of mating my coils with their own shaft on the 800 as it makes switching coils easier.  Are there lower shafts available yet for the 900? Sounds like the physical changes alone are enough to switch out the 800 for the 900 eventually. 

strick 

[Chesroy]

Thx for the detailed write up. I too like many others I would think have been wondering if there is any benefit to upgrading from the 800. Hopefully as time goes by more people will add their findings and opinions to your post. Interesting times.

[unox]

Great write up Abenson, thanks for your thoughts and detailed tests on the 900 v 800.

[Mark Gillespie]

Very enjoyable read.  Thanks 

[jim tn]

Good detailed report. I believe you pushed me to the 900. I was still on the fence. Thanks and Happy New Year. Jim Tn

[abenson]

2 hours ago, strick said:

Nice write up abenson....so I understand the lower shaft is different the the nox 800. I got in the habit finally of mating my coils with their own shaft on the 800 as it makes switching coils easier.  Are there lower shafts available yet for the 900? Sounds like the physical changes alone are enough to switch out the 800 for the 900 eventually. 

strick 

Yes the lower shaft is different. I haven't heard about lower shafts being available yet.

[F350Platinum]

Nice write up! 👍 I was thinking of grabbing one for myself, and was kind of sad that Chase had a problem with his, I was looking forward to seeing it. 😓 

Certainly if I feel a need for a new machine I'll be looking at this one, you make some very convincing points. 

[Daniel Tn]

I agree with your points.  Especially the EMI part.  I wasn't aware that there was supposed to be better EMI resistance from the 800 to the 900.  The highest I have been able to set mine was 20.  Most of the time I am having to drop to the 16 to 18 range.  I love the red light and lighted key pad.  Right at dark the other evening, I was working my way to my truck and ended up finding a broken CS frame buckle.  I stayed quite a bit after dark trying to locate the rest of it...I didn't, but I did get to use the red light and I found it to be great.  You are correct again...relearning ID numbers is throwing me for a loop.  I'm still up in the air about whether I like the D2 or 900 better.  Right now I am at totally opposite ends with them because the only coil I have for the D2 is the 11" and I have several coils for the 900, with the 5x10 CoilTek being my favorite.  

[abenson]

22 minutes ago, Daniel Tn said:

I agree with your points.  Especially the EMI part.  I wasn't aware that there was supposed to be better EMI resistance from the 800 to the 900.  The highest I have been able to set mine was 20.  Most of the time I am having to drop to the 16 to 18 range.  I love the red light and lighted key pad.  Right at dark the other evening, I was working my way to my truck and ended up finding a broken CS frame buckle.  I stayed quite a bit after dark trying to locate the rest of it...I didn't, but I did get to use the red light and I found it to be great.  You are correct again...relearning ID numbers is throwing me for a loop.  I'm still up in the air about whether I like the D2 or 900 better.  Right now I am at totally opposite ends with them because the only coil I have for the D2 is the 11" and I have several coils for the 900, with the 5x10 CoilTek being my favorite.  

I don't know that Minelab has said anything about the 900 being able to handle EMI better. But quite a few have assumed that it would. I don't see any difference. Congratulations on the frame buckle, hopefully you'll find the rest later. I think the D2 and 900 compliment each other very well. I like them both for different reasons.