Looking at a brand new 600

[ps249]

My income tax refund will be here in a few more days and I am looking at the Nox 600. My question is: Is the 11" coil sufficient for most of my hunting needs? I live in Michigan so I am surrounded by 3,000 miles of freshwater great lakes. There is no natural forming gold in Michigan. I will do 90% land detecting and 10% water detecting as of now. I plan on hitting parks, hiking and biking trails.

 

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[cudamark]

Yes.

 

[ps249]

lots of talkers here. OK

 

[vferrari]

It was a simple question and simple answer so no elaboration really needed. The stock 11" coil is a great general purpose coil that will cover most of the bases based on your description on how you want to use the Equinox.

If you are really getting at the 600 vs. 800 question (which you didn't ask about), that is a lot more complicated and has been discussed at length in several threads. If you have questions on 600 vs. 800 ask away but most folks will recommend that you get the 800 for a lot more reasons than it has gold mode (which by the way can be usefully used for hunting targets other than gold, especially in difficult site conditions such as high iron and/or mineralization.

Bottom line: the 600 is cheaper but the 800 is the better value (if you can afford it) because it includes the wireless hardware that Minelab sells separately at ridiculously high prices (though you can get good, inexpensive third party wireless headphones for the 600 per recommendations in this forum), enables you to customize non-ferrous tone breaks to your heart's content, includes the user profile button that enables you to have instant access to a favorite search mode rather than stepping through all the modes to switch between them, enables you to select two higher individual frequencies (20 and 40 khz) that are useful for jewelry and relic hunting and are more immune to EMI, allows greater adjustability on recovery speed, allows you to adjust the backlight settings (the single 600 backlight is set on "retinal burn" brightness), allows greater adjustability on the iron bias filter to prevent ferrous falsing, includes gold mode which uses a different VCO audio mode that can be useful for non-gold hunting as well.

HTH

 

[eman1000]

If you were asking about the coil specifically then I would say yes the 11" DD will meet 90% of your hunting needs. At a really trashy park or hiking area the smaller coil would help.

I have the 600 and I'm in indiana and was thinking the same thing about the gold option when I purchased mine, however if I had to do over I probably would have gotten either the 800 or the Makro. The 600 menu option is really lacking in my opinion. I know Minelab couldn't do an update to add the user profile feature but I really wish they would have an update to let you adjust the backlight.

FYI the backlight after the sun goes down is as vferrari mentioned set at 2000 lumens. You can see the outline of a metal detectorist on the moon. Seriously it looks like the bat signal in the sky!
Even an update that turned it down by half would have been great.

If there is one area that Makro does better I think you can look at the menu on the kruzer or racer series.

 

[woodknack]

I too just ordered the nox 600. Should be here today! As far as the back light issue im hearing, doesn't bother me as all my hunting I do is in daylight. We just do tot-lots parks, etc. I hear alot about the 800 having to two higher frequencies 20 and 40. But from what I've read the 600 also scans those frequencies while in multi mode. Correct me if i'm wrong but in multi mode the nox 600 scans 5,10,15,20 and 40 frequencies. So you should still be able to hit on the same things the 800 will in multi mode. The only difference is the 800 can lock in or be put at 20 or 40 were the the 600 can only be set at 5,10 or 15 UNLESS its in multi mode then it will do all of the frequencies. Im willing to bet 99% of my hunting will be in multi mode anyways.

 

[smokeythecat]

It should suffice nicely for general purpose detecting. They are quite popular.

 

[HighVDI]

You will do fine with the stock coil. I've beeped an iron pit with both the 6" and 11" and got as many keeper non ferrous targets with the 11. Ended up selling off the 6" shortly after.

 

[ZR2guy]

I have the 600 and I am completely satisfied with it. I am in southwest Ohio (no gold here except lost jewelry). It is an awesome detector and very easy to use, at least to me it is anyway.

 

[dirtlooter]

pretty decent machine for the money, I consider mine a step up from my AT GOLD

 

[vferrari]

I too just ordered the nox 600. Should be here today! As far as the back light issue im hearing, doesn't bother me as all my hunting I do is in daylight. We just do tot-lots parks, etc. I hear alot about the 800 having to two higher frequencies 20 and 40. But from what I've read the 600 also scans those frequencies while in multi mode. Correct me if i'm wrong but in multi mode the nox 600 scans 5,10,15,20 and 40 frequencies. So you should still be able to hit on the same things the 800 will in multi mode. The only difference is the 800 can lock in or be put at 20 or 40 were the the 600 can only be set at 5,10 or 15 UNLESS its in multi mode then it will do all of the frequencies. Im willing to bet 99% of my hunting will be in multi mode anyways.

For most casual detectorists that coin and jewelry shoot parks and beaches, the 600 will do just great. The extra single frequencies might be used less than 1% of the time.

There is some debate on how many frequencies are used simultaneously in Multi IQ because ML is not revealing exactly how Multi IQ works, but it really doesn't matter except to detector technology nerds because the technology just works. All you need to know is that Mult IQ, multifrequency is implemented identically in the 600 and 800 and the only differences are in features separate from multifrequency and user settings as I summarized above. If you don't need or want those bells and whistles, the 600 out performs just about any other detector in its price range.

 

[cudamark]

For most casual detectorists that coin and jewelry shoot parks and beaches, the 600 will do just great. The extra single frequencies might be used less than 1% of the time.

There is some debate on how many frequencies are used simultaneously in Multi IQ because ML is not revealing exactly how Multi IQ works, but it really doesn't matter except to detector technology nerds because the technology just works. All you need to know is that Mult IQ, multifrequency is implemented identically in the 600 and 800 and the only differences are in features separate from multifrequency and user settings as I summarized above. If you don't need or want those bells and whistles, the 600 out performs just about any other detector in its price range.

Agreed, and I would delete the "just about"!

 

[Fskafish]

I have both 600 and 800 and at least for me, the 600 finds any and everything the 800 does, it uses all frequencies that the 800 uses in multi mode, and i got the miccus sr71 wireless headphones for 50 bucks which are the exacf headphones that minelab uses for the equinoxs minus the minelab sticker lol, having used both for a year now the 600 seems to be the best bang for the buck, 649 plus 50 for the headphones, so 700 bucks and it finds anything my 800 finds... i guess if yer a gold hunter i can see the difference.

 

[cudamark]

I have both 600 and 800 and at least for me, the 600 finds any and everything the 800 does, it uses all frequencies that the 800 uses in multi mode, and i got the miccus sr71 wireless headphones for 50 bucks which are the exacf headphones that minelab uses for the equinoxs minus the minelab sticker lol, having used both for a year now the 600 seems to be the best bang for the buck, 649 plus 50 for the headphones, so 700 bucks and it finds anything my 800 finds... i guess if yer a gold hunter i can see the difference.

For most uses and conditions, you won't see a difference in performance between the 600 and 800. It's when you get into difficult conditions, or need more adjustment capability that you will see the difference........and need it.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

IMHO: I believe ML uses two frequencies in the multi IQ mode. Otherwise the original power would be distributed among the five frequencies. In each of the modes a different frequency configuration is used with the total power percentage different for each frequency. Just thinking of how it might be done to produce the best depth and target (use) selection.