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equinox or ctx
- Thread starter emubob
- Start date
dewcon4414
Well-known member
Well........ lets start with price. Now im going to assume you are mostly looking for gold..... nothing else worth much IMO. The CTX has the most information with its smart screen and has a very accurate TID. You WONT dig nearly as many bottle caps unless you choose to. Its a very heavy machine and with the larger coil after a couple of hours you are done. Right now you have NO other choice than the standard coil...... and we dont know what the large coil will cost........ but we do the CTX and they are pricy. The CTX can be a bit more complicated to set up but once it is its set and for the most part you wont have to change much. The Nox gives you single freq options...... but you have to use beach mode in damp or wet sand. The Nox maybe a bit better/more sensitive to the lower digit gold......... but those digit are pretty tight and you find yourself digging more trash than with the CTX. The Nox is faster...... but the CTX can make up for that with target tracing where you can see more than one target. The Nox took us out of the equation as a cause for flooding as well....... just one bad day and the CTX needs repair if you mess up putting the battery in right and want to hunt deeper water. Everyone talks about depth..... but lets be honest...... for the most part we are chasing recent drops in the dry sand. In the wet sand..... you can run beach 2 to smooth the machine, but beach 1 is closer to the depth of the CTX...... yet gets chatty near/in the water. If you are into making your own programs the CTX has the advantage there of storing them in the machine and on line. The Nox has a little EMI issue and you tend to hear a lot more minerals. I think most will tell you the Nox takes a little more work with targets........ but considering you can buy almost 4 Nox 600s and 3 800s its a cheaper, lighter, faster, go anywhere do anything machine.
brother steve
Member
I’ll stay with the ctx. It’s the Clydesdale on the beach . If it’s set up right you are not digging junk all day long. One gold ring and all the weight issues are gone. The shaft is solid in the chop and you don’t have to buy another shaft . I have them both and the ctx is the Lexus , hands down.
Jason in Enid
Active member
Mkus said:
Exactly! Anyone complaining of digging aluminum "junk" on a beach, doesnt really know what they are doing.
Not sure what you're saying Jason. Laguna main beach: Good low tide day, 5 rings CTX. A week later, EQ800, same area, aluminum but a quarter mile up erosion and bunch of coins, no rings found though. Week later aluminum and seaweed all over but some good stuff in the wet/dry sand. Any day you pick you can find stuff or you can stay home and wait for the best conditions. I'd rather go and discover the conditions, adjust, and enjoy the day. If you can tell the difference between the aluminum and various jewelry targets with the EQ800 please advise. I still dig everything that sounds solid. If a lot of aluminum in an area I move, but I could be missing some recent drops given all the people that hit this beach each day. I must have dug 10 bottlecaps in the surf that 2nd week - I never really found bottlecaps in the surf before. That was crazy.
I have yet to have a great day with the Equinox at the beach like I have with the CTX. I keep telling myself it is the condtions and dumb luck but its getting really weird. I do find thin gold chains that the CTX probably wouldn't detect. New firmware loaded, anxious to try again this Sunday. Funny, the CTX died after the 5 ring day due to a corroded USB port AND internal dead battery AND external bad battery! Just got it back from repair - got a lot of fixes: new lower shaft (old design, new improvements), new internal display to pod cable, new display panel (was curved), and new battery gasket. I had already rebuilt the battery pack with 3A cells, and replaced the internal battery, so its all ready to go.
Garias, check your internal coin cell battery on the CTX. A dead one will cause all the issues you state. I even saw a display unit at a GPAA Gold show do this. The repair center says they don't see this problem but I've gone through 2 batteries now.
I have yet to have a great day with the Equinox at the beach like I have with the CTX. I keep telling myself it is the condtions and dumb luck but its getting really weird. I do find thin gold chains that the CTX probably wouldn't detect. New firmware loaded, anxious to try again this Sunday. Funny, the CTX died after the 5 ring day due to a corroded USB port AND internal dead battery AND external bad battery! Just got it back from repair - got a lot of fixes: new lower shaft (old design, new improvements), new internal display to pod cable, new display panel (was curved), and new battery gasket. I had already rebuilt the battery pack with 3A cells, and replaced the internal battery, so its all ready to go.
Garias, check your internal coin cell battery on the CTX. A dead one will cause all the issues you state. I even saw a display unit at a GPAA Gold show do this. The repair center says they don't see this problem but I've gone through 2 batteries now.
How deep are they - how many beyond 8” or so?
I think my 5 ring day was just perfect conditions - but the CTX is for me an easier to detect with detector. It detects things that get louder and cleaner as the coil gets over them. The Equinox seems to be abruptly on tone then off. You have to be more alert while swinging or you’ll miss the target. Especially if recovery speed is set high like some do. But maybe it is better with the new firmware.
I think my 5 ring day was just perfect conditions - but the CTX is for me an easier to detect with detector. It detects things that get louder and cleaner as the coil gets over them. The Equinox seems to be abruptly on tone then off. You have to be more alert while swinging or you’ll miss the target. Especially if recovery speed is set high like some do. But maybe it is better with the new firmware.
I don't know equinox , but i can say ctx is a wonder on gold and on Silver if you know how to use ctx 100% you Will love it , i don't know why they say it's heavy , it's not heavy at all. Yes you dig trash like other machines but it's the best in ID and you will dig a lot less trash , been told equinox is a dig it all, if you want to you can do the same with ctx i mean dig all and your findings will increase a lot
Jason in Enid
Active member
MEV said:
The CTX hits fine on large gold items like rings, but that has its limits. The EQX is incredibly more sensitive to small, low conductors. Its gets good hits on things the CTX simply can not respond too regardless of mode or how open your screen pattern is. That translates to seeing that same ring much deeper than the CTX is capable of.
As for weight, you are deluding yourself if to claim the CTX is not heavy. It's a frickin tank. The good aspect of it is that it's a well balanced tank so it's easy to swing without fatiguing your arm like the E-Trac does. Swing an EQX for a few days and then go back and tell me the CTX isn't heavy.
If you are after gold, you have to digg everything but iron, the difference is that the EQX sees gold much better than the CTX. You have no idea what the EQX handles, you are just parroting what other people have said because its fits what you want to believe. I used the CTX since it was released. I still own it but now its a backup. There is nothing the CTX has hit on that the EQX fails to give diggable response to. The EQX does it faster, it does it lighter, it does it cheaper. PLUS it hits nickels like Mike Tyson. I find more buffalo and V-nickels per week now than I dug in a year with the CTX, and I still slay deep silver.
Jason, It has been just the opposite for me regarding nickels and the two detectors at the beach. With the CTX there is a sweetness for nickels but I haven't noticed this with the equinox. In fact I don't hear anything special in equinox targets. Maybe it is due to me using the wireless headphones?
Jason in Enid
Active member
bklein said:
If your EQX isn't spanking the CTX on low conductors, something is wrong with it.
I’ve always since day one suspected this but need a way to prove it by some kind of validation test. I’ve made videos and Minelab viewed them and said things were normal. A detecting friend may be getting one so we can compare machines. Also the firmware upgrade is encouraging.
The CTX has found deeper targets, small targets amazingly deep that were worth the digging. The EQ has only found chains and random stuff but I’m chalking it up to conditions. I’m refusing to believe my brain has an issue....
The CTX has found deeper targets, small targets amazingly deep that were worth the digging. The EQ has only found chains and random stuff but I’m chalking it up to conditions. I’m refusing to believe my brain has an issue....
Tried the new firmware today at Laguna. Several guys before me gridded the beach so very few targets - actually one of my worst days in a while, but at least not a lot of trash. I found the machine much easier to use. Way less random noise - I could run beach1 and it was a pain before. Still, not many targets, I will post a new thread on a question I have with saltwater depth though...
Jason in Enid said:
You are right. If you are starting to dig aluminum on the wet beach you are in the wrong spot. go find areas where you are digging lead weights. the current, tide and wave action sort the stuff by weight. If a beach is sanded in find one that is eroding.
I estimate that about 70-80% of guys you see detecting on the beach are on vacation and know little about beach hunting. they guys that live near the beach learn to read the beaches. If a beach is not producing, they move on to another of their favorite beaches. The guys that do real well on the beach know how to read the beaches and they know which hotels/condos to hunt in front of. THE MOST EXPENSIVE ONES where the women show off their very expensive diamond rings.