Prelim Equinox 800 review

[MassSaltH2O]

I have owned most of the high end machines by major manufacturers. So I feel qualified to comment on my initial impressions of the Equinox 800.
I have only used the Equinox a few times, so I am by no means an expert with the 800. Actually, I was hoping to get sort of a turn on and go machine. The 800 is anything but! It has dozens of settings for anything you can imagine.
The Equinox 800 is almost TOO good. You might be thinking, how can a metal detector be TOO good?
What if you had a machine that was so powerful and sensitive, that even if you discriminate out, notch out, and block out certainl targets or TID ranges, you still get a clear signal on them?
For example, I am a gold jewelry hunter. (At the beach). I am only interested in finding gold and platinum jewelry. Period. No interest in coins, silver, curios, etc. Just gold jewelry.
So I set my machine up to discriminate out all coin TIDs, basically 21 and higher for the US (except nickles, which are in the gold range, so I don't mind digging a few nickles.)
I don't pay any attn to the TID number when I get a clear signal. My logic is that, theoretically, if I get a clear signal, the target should be in the range that I have not blocked out. Makes sense, right? Not with this machine.
What do I find? Coins and bottle caps.
For example, I was running the machine with all coins blocked out. (Theoretically). I was still finding coins, including a 1911 Wheatie. At the beach! If I were hunting in a corn field, or an old farmstead, finding a 1911 Wheatie would to be expected. But at a heavily hunted beach? This is almost unheard of.
Just shows you how powerful and sensitive this machine is. Imagine what I would of found if I accepted coins in my discrimination?
This machine is a coin hunters heaven. This machine LOVES coins.
I have decided that I need to start paying attn to the signal tones. And there are all kinds of tones that you can set up in discrimation mode. In All Metal mode, you can't change the signal tones. But the All Metal mode has a gold probability setting. I can't wait to go gold prospecting with this machine.
This machine is the best metal detector that I have ever had. Super light weight, super powerful and sensitive, with a gold probability setting, TWO salt water modes, a larger coil option, and if that ones not big enough for you, they even have a very large coil option available. Plan on digging down like two feet with the very large coil!
Lots of other nice features as well, such as no cable earphones, which comes with it. Personally, I don't care for no cable earphones, but a very inexpensive adaptor allows you to use you old, favorite cabled earphones.
In summary, altho the discrimation isn't all that good on this machine, all the other great features make this machine fun to use. You will even find things that you weren't planning on finding.

 

[jmaclen]

Hi MassSaltH20,

thanks for the preliminary review. I have hundreds of hours on the Nox 800 and 600 and even have over 50 prospecting. Unlike you I have zero salt water beach time (someday soon I hope!) The Nox is truly an incredible detector and much more complicated than a turn on and go detector. That had to be a dealer selling point just to get people interested. Most people that have used one for more than a quick spin have begun to realize how complex it can be depending on the user's abilities and purposes.. I have found the discrimination to be outstanding on this detector. I know exactly when I am over a non ferrous target when prospecting just by the audio and by using the target ID numbers. Any very broken sounding audio and any numbers showing up below -3 is definitely ferrous. Iron targets can jump around a lot since they are usually oxidizing and the simultaneous multi frequencies read all of those variations. Some people have complained about this but it is what sets this detector apart once you get used to the telltale aspects of different target responses. You can charge up your WM08 module, pair it with your Nox and use your favorite wired headphones plugged into it and still go wire free as long as you leave it in a front pocket as close to the control box as possible. According to the specs it only has a 17 milli-second delay which is about as low as it gets. The supplied wireless headphones are not as fast. Neither are most aftermarket wireless low latency headphones. Enjoy.
Jeff

 

[bklein]

The discrimination might be great but gold is 1-17 or higher IDs.
On other detectors the range is tighter so disc is valid to do. On the EQ I find all metal is necessary to see iron is causing falsing.
So I was just not pleased although I totally agree it can be very sensitive I just didn’t dig anything deep like I did with my CTX and I was overwhelmed with the unstable target noise and vanishing targets that were just another scoop. I’m hoping there is another fw update that will make me buy another one. Really interesting how reviews are polarizing for this detector. It was designed to be easier than the CTX so it is not due to user unfamiliarity....

 

[jmaclen]

Hi bklein,
I watched all of your Equinox Youtube videos. I have read your statements about the Equinox from your perspective. Honestly, from what I watched and have read I believe most of your problems with the Equinox were due to operator error.

The Equinox was never meant to be a stripped down, easy to use CTX. It was meant to be a more powerful, lighter, fully featured mixture of Vflex technology and FBS technology combined into one detector like an X-terra 705 and a Eureka mixed together along with a little Etrac. The Equinox by its very nature is a low to mid conductor detector. The CTX is an incredible deep, mid to high conductor silver beast. I would never compare the two or even expect one to act like the other. They could not be more different in their strengths, weaknesses (CTX in heavy trash-I don't think so....), weight, price, you name it.

The only times I have ever experienced any falsing using the Equinox was when I had the gain turned up too high for the conditions I was hunting in. The only times I have not been able to find a target (vanishing) is when they have been too deep for me to get to. I know they are still there by my handheld pinpointer and by the pinpointer on the Nox. Otherwise, any detectable target that I have dug for I have recovered no matter how small and some of them have been incredibly small when prospecting in the Gold modes.

By the way, there is no "All Metal" on the Equinox. Everything from Park1 to Gold 2 is filtered to some degree whether the horseshoe button is pushed or not. All the horseshoe button does is remove any rejected target notches that might have been applied either by default or by customizing.

Jeff

 

[midalake]

Hi bklein,
I watched all of your Equinox Youtube videos. I have read your statements about the Equinox from your perspective. Honestly, from what I watched and have read I believe most of your problems with the Equinox were due to operator error.

The Equinox was never meant to be a stripped down, easy to use CTX. It was meant to be a more powerful, lighter, fully featured mixture of Vflex technology and FBS technology combined into one detector like an X-terra 705 and a Eureka mixed together along with a little Etrac. The Equinox by its very nature is a low to mid conductor detector. The CTX is an incredible deep, mid to high conductor silver beast. I would never compare the two or even expect one to act like the other. They could not be more different in their strengths, weaknesses (CTX in heavy trash-I don't think so....), weight, price, you name it.

The only times I have ever experienced any falsing using the Equinox was when I had the gain turned up too high for the conditions I was hunting in. The only times I have not been able to find a target (vanishing) is when they have been too deep for me to get to. I know they are still there by my handheld pinpointer and by the pinpointer on the Nox. Otherwise, any detectable target that I have dug for I have recovered no matter how small and some of them have been incredibly small when prospecting in the Gold modes.

By the way, there is no "All Metal" on the Equinox. Everything from Park1 to Gold 2 is filtered to some degree whether the horseshoe button is pushed or not. All the horseshoe button does is remove any rejected target notches that might have been applied either by default or by customizing.

Jeff

I do not agree. Can you name some metal targets that are NOT detected in "all metal".

Dave

 

[jmaclen]

Hi Dave
I guess it is just a less accurate choice of words on my part or Minelab’s. There really is no unfiltered true All Metal Mode on the Equinox like you would have on the Deus in Goldfield or on the Fisher Gold Bug or Gold Bug 2 and many other prospecting detectors. The return signal is being filtered in every mode. Minelab even states that the All Metal button is for turning on and off any discrimination patterns that are being used. They don’t say it puts the detector in all metal mode. If it really had an all metal mode the depth with multi frequencies would be even more impressive. They should have labeled that button something else in their literature. Your question got me thinking. I have heard that manganese and the heavy metals like plutonium and uranium are not detectable by metal detectors. There could be others and I could definitely be mistaken too.
Jeff

 

[bklein]

Hi Jeff,
Yes I made some operator errors in some of the early vids. Not sure they caused the issues I complained about though.
I’ve been thinking of deleting several of them because I now think my detector had faulty programming originally. The move to 1.75 resulted in improvements but I had to do factory resets in both 1.5 and 1.75 in use.
I thought it reasonable to increase sensitivity to where random noise occurs and back off until it drops out - but I see that guys that don’t have the noise issue are running at much lower levels - like 16-20 range. In that range mine was a simple beep and dig detector with ~8” depth. I suspect either they are in a better target rich environment or their detector was somehow different than mine.
In regards to modes and filtering, be aware that the tx signal frequency content varies with mode as well. I did some spectrum analysis but didn’t try the all metal button unfortunately.
Weird that you haven’t experienced vanishing targets. It is always one more scoop down. I suspect the coin goes vertical to cause it.

 

[midalake]

Hi Dave
I guess it is just a less accurate choice of words on my part or Minelab’s. There really is no unfiltered true All Metal Mode on the Equinox like you would have on the Deus in Goldfield or on the Fisher Gold Bug or Gold Bug 2 and many other prospecting detectors. The return signal is being filtered in every mode. Minelab even states that the All Metal button is for turning on and off any discrimination patterns that are being used. They don’t say it puts the detector in all metal mode. If it really had an all metal mode the depth with multi frequencies would be even more impressive. They should have labeled that button something else in their literature. Your question got me thinking. I have heard that manganese and the heavy metals like plutonium and uranium are not detectable by metal detectors. There could be others and I could definitely be mistaken too.
Jeff

The Equinox ABSOLUTELY has an all metal mode that is being processed in multi-freq. If not you would NEVER be able to use that mode on a salt water beach.

Dave

 

[jmaclen]

Hi Dave,

I was pretty upset when I first learned about the lack of a true all metal mode on the Equinox. I was like - that button says all metal so each time I press it I am getting the full depth potential of the Nox. I felt cheated by Minelab for misleading me. Now I'm more like - this detector can go just about as deep as an F75 and it still has one arm tied behind its back and it handles mineralization with the "all metal" (I wish they had called it all targets) button engaged better than my GPX.

Do some research and see what you find.

Jeff

 

[midalake]

Hi Dave,

I was pretty upset when I first learned about the lack of a true all metal mode on the Equinox. I was like - that button says all metal so each time I press it I am getting the full depth potential of the Nox. I felt cheated by Minelab for misleading me. Now I'm more like - this detector can go just about as deep as an F75 and it still has one arm tied behind its back and it handles mineralization with the "all metal" (I wish they had called it all targets) button engaged better than my GPX.

Do some research and see what you find.

Jeff

I am not going to claim to be an expert [swinging for 40 years], but in your 16 posts on this site there has been plenty of miss-information, if you never hunted salt water why did you reply to a salt hunter? There are plenty of things to complain about with this machine, the pinpoint mode [useless], the machines stability in moving salt water [sucks], lost signals after starting to scoop [way too many], the machines in ability to ID in black sand conditions and in saltwater in general [all over the map]. I am still trying to decide if my GT is better than the equinox and it should not be taking me over two months to decide. I am actually taking my GT out today over the Nox. I am not a land hunter, only salt water. I will keep watching for manganese and the heavy metals like plutonium and uranium to show-up in all metal mode

Dave

 

[bklein]

I don’t understand what you are suggesting in regards to the all metal mode. Just what is the detector filtering out in your view?
You get different results in each mode because the tx signal frequency mix is different for each. I’m not understanding what you think is missing or filtered away.

 

[5900_XL-1]

I don’t understand what you are suggesting in regards to the all metal mode. Just what is the detector filtering out in your view?
You get different results in each mode because the tx signal frequency mix is different for each. I’m not understanding what you think is missing or filtered away.

I don't understand either.

 

[jmaclen]

Wow, I sure stepped in it. Sorry to have upset some of you. If you type Minelab Equinox All Metal Mode in your search engine you will definitely have a good, eye crossing read especially with the great responses from Steve H. on his forum and from some of the guys on this forum too. Any definitive comments made before March 1st or so of 2018 might be a bit different if made today.

Again, sorry folks. We (and especially me!!!!) all started from square 1 with Minelab's new Multi-IQ technology and unfortunately there was a lot of speculation prior to its release along with people who sort of knew what was under the hood not being contractually able to talk about it.
Some of this is still going on especially with the Equinox audio characteristics, the weird pinpointer and what the different modes really are especially Gold 1 and Gold 2.

Dave, I want to learn how to salt beach detect with the Equinox. That is why I responded to this thread. I'm here to learn and to share opinions and experiences right or wrong or iffy, whatever. I agree with you, for me personally, the pinpointer has been my biggest issue. After a year of using it I still don't like it. I'm starting to wonder if maybe me not being able to almost always center the target when pinpointing could be caused by audio signal lag in the wireless system. I don't think I've ever used wired headphones when coin hunting. I just used the Minelab stock wireless headphones. I've got to try that or at least use the WM08 module more. Then there is the no tone, too soft tone, screaming tone a mile wide when pinpointing over a coin sized or less target issue mess. That definitely sucks and has to change! I hate to say it but it could be related to the lack of a threshold based All Metal Mode on this detector issue...oh boy! More than likely it is operator error on my part though. Some guys I know just refuse to use it.

bklein, I guess I'm one of the lucky ones with the Equinox. I noticed the same faults as you guys but turning down the sensitivity actually got me MORE usable depth than running it over 20. It cleaned the signals up, made separation better and reduced a lot of the jumpy target IDs.
I must have the perfect storm nasty soil that Minelab had in mind when they were trying to make a VLF detector that could detect successfully in virtually any environment they could think of. I have tried and returned or sold so many great detectors in the past 5 years (that work fine in most places!) trying to find one that would detect here in central Colorado with any dependable target ID and depth while being quiet enough for me to survive the audio noise from hot rocks and magnetite for more than an hour or two without going crazy. Also, I needed something that didn't weigh over 4 pounds! All I wanted was 5" of good depth for coin hunting and about the same for prospecting. If I could get more, great! The Equinox was able to do that after turning down the default sensitivity to a comfortable level of background noise almost right out of the box. It just clicked with me like it was tailored made for my ground conditions............

Jeff

 

[Terra1959]

One thing it likes even better than coins....is rings - and any circular objects with a hole in the middle.

 

[Mark kus]

I’m a beach hunter also live in Ct along the coast it is a great machine I hunt with no discrimination at all I find lots of silver coins that are covered in a crusty covering and it throws off the signal I would never notch because I want to. Hear every signal you will miss good targets if you notch out I believe...
I just started beach hunting this winter with my nox after seeing a friends gold finds and he runs his as I do and his gold finds are incredible!
I just found two gold rings a 14k sapphire and diamond and a gold band .

 

[jmaclen]

Hi Mkus,

I've got family living on both east and west coasts. Where you are in CT do you use Beach 1 or 2 and do you have to make adjustments when moving from dry sand to wet sand to surf and do you use tracking ground balance?

thanks
Jeff

 

[MassSaltH2O]

Hi Mkus. So you run in all metal, I take it? WOW! Are you serious? Congratulations, my friend! Any photos? Luv to see those beauties!

 

[MassSaltH2O]

Hi Dave,

I was pretty upset when I first learned about the lack of a true all metal mode on the Equinox. I was like - that button says all metal so each time I press it I am getting the full depth potential of the Nox. I felt cheated by Minelab for misleading me. Now I'm more like - this detector can go just about as deep as an F75 and it still has one arm tied behind its back and it handles mineralization with the "all metal" (I wish they had called it all targets) button engaged better than my GPX.

Do some research and see what you find.

Hi Jeff. Sounds like you know your stuff. Sorry you are bummed out about the All metal mode. When you say that the Nox still has one hand tied behind it's back, I assume that you are referring to the lack of a true All metal mode. You say that it should be called the "All target mode". Such as plastic spoons? You mean ALL targets?
Exactly what is the difference between an "All Metal" mode, and an "All targets" mode? Just asking.
Seems to have something to do with how the mode handles the mineralization. But I will confess, I'm not a whiz at this stuff.
Anyways, personally, I never liked the All metal modes on any detector. Im not one of those "dig all signals" types. You can get a real cheap Radio Shack detector if all you care about is an All metal mode.
Sounds like the F75 is a really great machine, according to you. Good to know, but feature for feature, the Nox probably wins out. Unless you don't care about any of the other features, of course. We all have our favorite detector. The MMK is getting great reviews. I don't know how the All metal mode on it is, tho. I wouldn't even know how to make a comparison. I'm not an electrical engineer.

Jeff

 

[MassSaltH2O]

Hi bklein,
I watched all of your Equinox Youtube videos. I have read your statements about the Equinox from your perspective. Honestly, from what I watched and have read I believe most of your problems with the Equinox were due to operator error.

The Equinox was never meant to be a stripped down, easy to use CTX. It was meant to be a more powerful, lighter, fully featured mixture of Vflex technology and FBS technology combined into one detector like an X-terra 705 and a Eureka mixed together along with a little Etrac. The Equinox by its very nature is a low to mid conductor detector. The CTX is an incredible deep, mid to high conductor silver beast. I would never compare the two or even expect one to act like the other. They could not be more different in their strengths, weaknesses (CTX in heavy trash-I don't think so....), weight, price, you name it.

The only times I have ever experienced any falsing using the Equinox was when I had the gain turned up too high for the conditions I was hunting in. The only times I have not been able to find a target (vanishing) is when they have been too deep for me to get to. I know they are still there by my handheld pinpointer and by the pinpointer on the Nox. Otherwise, any detectable target that I have dug for I have recovered no matter how small and some of them have been incredibly small when prospecting in the Gold modes.

By the way, there is no "All Metal" on the Equinox. Everything from Park1 to Gold 2 is filtered to some degree whether the horseshoe button is pushed or not. All the horseshoe button does is remove any rejected target notches that might have been applied either by default or by customizing.

Jeff

So maybe not due to operators error, as you suggest. May be due to buyers error. Let's admit it, we never REALLY know what we are getting until we get our hands on a machine. Reviews help, of course, but they don't tell the whole story. Some reviewers don't care that much about All Metal. Other reviewers don't care about silver that much. Etc. You can't please all the people, all the time. This way, we get to buy a new detector every couple of years. Yay!

 

[MassSaltH2O]

Very impressive Jeff. What are your settings for gold prospecting? Stock coil? PS: I know that the Nox sets a new standard in affordable detectors. It is pretty complex, tho, as you mention. Btw, did the update/upgrade help with pinpointing? I have the original software build, and pinpointing is poor to nonexistent.