600 Vs. 800 Differences - More Than Just A Gold Prospecting Mode

[Cabo Chris]

As a shallow water hunter who travels to hunt, I'm finding the NOX 600 attractive.  First I travel with 2 machines and will need 2 sets of waterproof headphones... this as back-up.  Imagine arriving at your final destination only to discover your machine quit!  The price of 2 600s and 2 sets water phones is less than the price of 2 800s.  

ML says on a wet salt beach the prospecting mode will not work.  So do I need it or any of the other 800 extra bells?  Perhaps?  If the NOX meets my expectations, then for the first time that I can recall, will be able to travel with a great detector (600) where it will only take 1 or 2 gold ring finds to fully pay for the machine!  Which means most likely paid for on my first day in the water!  OK the 800 is not that much more, but with the 600 one can almost view it as disposable!  Before you all pounce on me by that I mean.... If my CTX 3030 gets broken, run over or stolen on a trip... there goes $2400!  If customs or some Island cop decides to confiscate it, there goes $2,400!    Were I to lose a 600, well that's far less hurt and won't cut as much into my trip profits... or add big to losses!  Losing an 800 there is just a bit more ouch factor than a 600.

From years experience, if something can go wrong on a trip it will.  Like everything being stolen out of your room, including your passport!  So I see the 600s as having less Ouch Factor for my style detecting.  Plus it's not that far fetched to sell the 600s after 2 or 3 trips and replace them with new ones- just for better reliability.   Now for those who need a Jack of all Trades machine, 800 all the way!  Or if it turns out the 800 for some reason is better in saltwater than a 600, again the 800 wins.      

[midalake]

2 hours ago, Cabo Chris said:

As a shallow water hunter who travels to hunt, I'm finding the NOX 600 attractive.  First I travel with 2 machines and will need 2 sets of waterproof headphones... this as back-up.  Imagine arriving at your final destination only to discover your machine quit!  The price of 2 600s and 2 sets water phones is less than the price of 2 800s.  

ML says on a wet salt beach the prospecting mode will not work.  So do I need it or any of the other 800 extra bells?  Perhaps?  If the NOX meets my expectations, then for the first time that I can recall, will be able to travel with a great detector (600) where it will only take 1 or 2 gold ring finds to fully pay for the machine!  Which means most likely paid for on my first day in the water!  OK the 800 is not that much more, but with the 600 one can almost view it as disposable!  Before you all pounce on me by that I mean.... If my CTX 3030 gets broken, run over or stolen on a trip... there goes $2400!  If customs or some Island cop decides to confiscate it, there goes $2,400!    Were I to lose a 600, well that's far less hurt and won't cut as much into my trip profits... or add big to losses!  Losing an 800 there is just a bit more ouch factor than a 600.

From years experience, if something can go wrong on a trip it will.  Like everything being stolen out of your room, including your passport!  So I see the 600s as having less Ouch Factor for my style detecting.  Plus it's not that far fetched to sell the 600s after 2 or 3 trips and replace them with new ones- just for better reliability.   Now for those who need a Jack of all Trades machine, 800 all the way!  Or if it turns out the 800 for some reason is better in saltwater than a 600, again the 800 wins.      

 

OK, Does Minelab not say you need all of the frequencies of the 800 to do beach mode?  Or do both machines have a beach mode?

 

Dave

[Chase Goldman]

Both have beach mode per the various basic feature lists and the quick start guides posted on the forum.

[Steve Herschbach]

Chase is correct - both models have identical Beach Modes. Beach Mode only works in multifrequency (MF) mode because multifrequency is superior for salt water use. What specific frequencies are employed by Minelab to create Beach Mode only they know. However, all saltwater detectors face the same issue. The detector must ignore saltwater, which is detectable, and so employing hot high frequencies is a non-starter in that respect.

Any modes will work in fresh water since fresh water is invisible to a detector.

[Cal_Cobra]

8 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

It is easy to get into this Minelab versus that Minelab, but all Minelab cares about is Minelab versus the competition. Compare the Equinox 600 at $649 to the Garrett AT Max at $722 and the real picture becomes clearer.

Clearly a no-brainer 

[Chase Goldman]

7 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I don’t know how Equinox works under the hood. I think we may have passed the point where all that stuff matters with Multi-IQ. What matters to me is what the detector can detect or not detect in various modes and determining which modes to use for which applications.

Park, Field, and Beach mode are discrimination modes, and “all metal” in those modes simply means everything is set to accept. Whether in multifrequency or single frequency this does not change. Your example of the X-Terra coin mode and the horseshoe “all metal” button is spot on.

Gold Mode does act differently than the other modes (patience please) but is not bereft of discrimination capability. The X-Terra 705 Prospect Mode is about the closest similar mode to Gold Mode but they are not the same. Gold Mode is better.

I am sorry to be so circumspect on the modes and differences between modes, but this is one area where Minelab is very specific that they do not want people (testers) who do not know exactly what Multi-IQ does and how it does it to be speculating about things they really don’t know about.

So what are the technicalities of Gold Mode under the hood? I could speculate but then I would have to be shot. I will leave it for a Minelab engineer to explain. I can tell you this. I can find gold nuggets weighing under a grain (480 grains per Troy Ounce) in Gold Mode running the stock 11” round DD coil in real world conditions. I know this because I have done it. That should tell most people what they need to know about Gold Mode.

The point also is other mode options are no slouch on small gold either...

https://www.minelab.com/go-minelabbing/treasure-talk/found-in-the-fields-equinox-gold

Field Mode will be the go to alternative for Equinox 600 owners going after small targets and frankly for a lot of nugget hunters who use the Equinox 800 also. Sometimes when hunting gold in trashy areas you want a good tones based disc mode and Equinox is as good as it gets in that regard.

Other than that - patience please 

Steve,

I know you really can't go into further details on the search mode Secret MultiIQ Sauce so I understand if you don't comment further on this, but Minelab's site does describe Gold Mode as follows: 

Good for gold nugget prospecting.  This mode operates high single frequencies of 20 or 40 kHz, optimum for gold nuggets.

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So single frequency operation vice Multi IQ is the default for this mode.  Seems obvious but I was genuinely confused because the term Multi IQ was thrown around a lot during the various discussions of Gold Mode.  This cleared up some misconceptions on my part and perhaps it will help others.

[FollowTheBeep]

I'm guessing that the headphones and the WM08 will almost make up the difference in cost between the two models.  

[Chase Goldman]

I was thinking the same thing.  Though I would personally have preferred inclusion of the waterproof headset as the 600/800 are compatible with any standard bluetooth stereo headset even without the WM08 module.  I find the up to 4 simultaneously connected wireless headsets to be intriguing to say the least.

[Cal_Cobra]

4 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Good for gold nugget prospecting.  This mode operates high single frequencies of 20 or 40 kHz, optimum for gold nuggets.

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This is the one feature on the 800 that seems a bit counter intuitive, because if it obsoletes VLF machines, why is it utilizing VLF single freq technology for the prospecting mode vs multi? 

I wonder if ML tried testing simultaneous multi-frequency for the prospecting mode, perhaps leveraging 20kHz & 40kHz and couldn't get it to work as expected?