Equinox 600 Vs Fisher F44 & F70

[Steve Herschbach]

Well Michael, since you are a first time poster making a statement I will just say I disagree with your conclusions and leave it at that. No point in any discussion really since you are as comfortable in your certainty as I am in mine.

[Jeff McClendon]

Hi Michael,

thanks for the reply including the settings for your F44 vs the Equinox 600. 

Comparing any two VLF detectors no matter what they cost or how they have been hyped with one in all metal and one in a discrimination mode is like racing a V8 engine car against a non-turbo 4 banger on a one mile straight away. The winner is predictable.

As most people here have said your testing would be more valid if it had been done with an Equinox 800 in all metal or if all your testing with your Fisher detectors had been done in a discrimination mode against the Equinox 600.

I actually agree with you about the lack of an all metal mode on the Equinox 600. For the price one pays for it I would happily have given up one of the Field or Beach modes for an all metal mode. But that is how Minelab has usually done things when it comes to their VLF detector families like the X-Terra series and the Go Finds too. They always leave off features in their less priced models which makes me think there really might be an Equinox 1000 someday.

Jeff

[Chase Goldman]

On 12/4/2018 at 11:46 AM, Jeff McClendon said:

I actually agree with you about the lack of an all metal mode on the Equinox 600. For the price one pays for it I would happily have given up one of the Field or Beach modes for an all metal mode. But that is how Minelab has usually done things when it comes to their VLF detector families like the X-Terra series and the Go Finds too. They always leave off features in their less priced models which makes me think there really might be an Equinox 1000 someday.

Actually this is not about an economy model cost savings measure on ML's part but is sort of the way the detector design community is headed as they move heavier into digital signal processing.  It is not even clear to me that the CTX 3030 flagship detector has true all metal mode (as opposed to simply a zero discrimination pattern).  I do not own a CTX, just went through the manual in detail, so I am sure a CTX expert will set me straight.  But  I can tell you with certainty, the Deus @ $1500 does not have a true all metal mode (Gold Field mode being the closest approximation).  Point is, this is not about saving cost.  It is about the the detector designers favoring digital signal processing over transmitting the raw unfiltered signal.  All metal mode is not something you will automatically find on many high end detectors.  So the OP's statements like, "When I pay $650.00 for a machine I expect it to have that option on it -period. Their is no excuse why it does not" that imply the lack of a true all metal mode is an Equinox oversight or that all high end detectors have this feature, is not consistent with many high end detector designs of recent years (though true metal is still a feature on a number of recently released detectors).  Though I do understand why you like it, Maltfoto, my point was there are ways you can use the Equinox zero disc mode to your advantage without losing a lot of capability vs. true all metal and, as I discuss below, the 800 would have been more suited to your feature preferences and detecting style.

The move in the detector community away from including All Metal Mode or at least the marketeer's imprecise use of technical terms that have kind of blurred the line between Zero Disc mode and (true) All Metal Mode is addressed in Steve's excellent Detector Mixed Modes Guide.  This will better illustrate whey you will not find all metal mode on all detectors, even high end detectors, and also how it can be mitigated through mixed modes or intelligent application of available features on detectors which do not incorporate the feature.

Regarding Equinox.  Gold Mode available only on the 800 is probably the closest thing to a mixed mode.  It invokes most features of true all metal mode through its use of VCO pitch like audio and true audio threshold for target acquisition and target ID at depth using the discrimination circuit.  Though still not precisely true all metal, this weak signal mode is also the mode that is the ideal mode to test small gold target performance versus the Fishers.  Again, it seems for the type of detecting Maltfoto prefers, the 800 would have been the better choice.  Regardless, I think the 600 is a great complimentary detector that, despite its shortcomings, does still have advantages over the Fishers in some, if not most, scenarios.   So hanging on to it and learning more about how to get more out of it with experience would be a great move by Maltfoto, if getting an 800 is out of the question.  Thanks again to Maltfoto for kicking off a great discussion.

 

[Optix]

On 12/2/2018 at 7:48 PM, Maltfoto said:

I don't used f70 on the beach. I use the f70 along with Whites Tdl for nugget hunting and gold prospecting.  

If I may ask, what coil do you use on the F70 for nugget hunting? Thanks.

[Mike Hillis]

This has been an interesting thread.   At a high level it says if your existing detectors are better than your Nox, its because you bought the wrong NOX.

HAHAHAHA.   

Sorry....just really funny reading when you don't have a horse in the race.

I'm not surprised about the F70 results.   If you put the little 3x6 concentric on it you have a pretty decent micro jewelry detector that is about as sensitive as the GoldBug Pro.     

I liked the concept of the F44 but I didn't really care for it, mostly because I couldn't hear it very well.      

HH
Mike

  

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[Steve Herschbach]

11 hours ago, Optix said:

If I may ask, what coil do you use on the F70 for nugget hunting? Thanks.

Like Mike said, small concentrics are great unless the ground is really nasty, then small DD. Small is the key in either case. The F70 is an excellent little nugget sniper.

Mike, the thread originated on the Minelab forum as a “hi, I’m here on the Minelab forum to tell you your Minelab sucks” type of post. So yeah, that gets some pushback, and is why I moved it to this forum instead. Long term result looks like the guy was trolling the Minelab forum, and long gone now.

Buying an 800 versus a 600 as relevant as regards nugget detecting is more than just groupie talk, as you laugh seems to imply. Gold Mode is more than just a pretty name.

Personally I think the Patriot/F70 is one of the best deals going in detectors these days.

Fisher F70 metal detector

Fisher F70 control panel

[Optix]

14 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Like Mike said, small concentrics are great unless the ground is really nasty, then small DD. Small is the key in either case.

Fisher F70 control panel

Is there any real difference between an original Fisher 5" DD and an aftermarket 5" DD (e.g. NEL) for the same detector?

[Steve Herschbach]

2 hours ago, Optix said:

Is there any real difference between an original Fisher 5" DD and an aftermarket 5" DD (e.g. NEL) for the same detector?

Good question. 

But personally I own and like the NEL Snake DD due to the 3.5” x 6.5” size, which I prefer over 5” round.

 

 

[Optix]

That is some great info there! So there is a lot of variation from coil to coil within a lineup. But does a statistically average coil of one brand outperform an average coil of the same size from another brand? Maybe one brand uses a different technique to make their loops better in general?