Comparison data/test Minelab Equinox 800, Xp Deus, and Nokta Impact

[tnsharpshooter]

Take a look at this pic.
Notice the clad dime, and the 4 pull tabs and rings.

Deus wearing 11" coil will not when swing left to right, right to left as you view pic. And let me know a high conductor exist.
Equinox gives me clues. Speed 7 park 2.

Sweeping both with some coil height above tabs and rings.

Deus hears the dime alright, just don't give me valuable info like Equinox does.

Deus IDs dime as 64-66 with lower coil height seeps, higher goes into 90s region.
Btw airtest. 12khz non normalized 87 in the meter on clad dime.

Deus wearing 9" LF coil will id dime but reactivity cannot be any higher than level 2.

Equinox gives flashes of high tone with 23-25 in the meter.

 

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[tnsharpshooter]

Alright checked my 800 model on clad dime.
Depth at least 9" deep, may be as deep as. 9.25" deep.

Park 2 sens 24. Iron bias 0 speed 5 or 6 gives best signal. Speed 4 dodgy sounding, iron tone with blip when coil comes off dime when swept.
I get ID too with faster sweeps.23 and 25 coming in meter.
Slower sweep gets signal but ID is low like 13-14.
Now, I have talked about deep nickel likes speed 4 for best signal. But nickel is bigger and low conductor.

This soil where this dime is, is barely 4 bars Fisher F75. I am basing this on how many coil pumps it takes to get to 4 bars.

For gee whiz, I grabbed my Deus with 9" LF coil on it.
This clad dime 9"-9.25" deep.
Deus won't touch.
Hot program and deep program freqs 8, 12 and 18khz tx power 2. Txpower 3 has never ever helped me with depth with Deus around here. Maybe on a half dollar or bigger target.
Can hit in pinpoint,, gold field reactivity 2,, if I dial threshold up I might be able to hear this dime in gold field using reactivity 2.5.
Dead on GB.
Did not try GB manipulation.

I'd it will quit raining for a few minutes I'll take 11" coil and Deus and check.

Alright checked dime above with Deus wearing 11" DD coil.
Hot program no cigar.
The only signal,Imget is in deep program.
A signal I rate as , the only reason I say I'm getting a signal is because I know the dime is down there. Would have to be real,lucky to find in the wild using disc mode.

Went back and checked Equnox again. I get just about equivalent signals using field,2 and park 2. Speed at 5. Good tone, go to flush pretty good though sweeping. If after detection I speed sweep a bit get pretty good ID running at 23-25.
Checked beach 2 mode again with iron bias at 0, but tried different speed settings. Seemed 6 was the best but signal not quite as good as field 2 and park 2.
I used a 23 sens setting last time out with Nox.

Btw, another gee whiz
Guess how many 9" deep dimes around here I have found with Deus (Using LF coils)? Two
But there is a catch, I detected 2 in the same hole once. That's it and I've been running Deus for a while now around here.
Have dug some deep nickels though like 10" deep. Multiple times.

Imo the way Equinox behave with sweep on deep coins, etc, this is a key I think to being successful,with the detector, at recovering deeper whatever. Watch that meter and see if it tries to go into the 20s region on sweeps. Then dig. How coil position sensitive Equinox is too to get meter to jump. Think of meter jump like cursor on Etrac. Now the reason I say this, I have not seen Equinox meter jump on a mid/lower conductor when sweeping into the 20s region.
A deeper lower conductor likely not take as much sweep speed to get max reading on meter for target's conductivity. If say you get a real deep nickel like 11" deep, meter might read 2.3 or 4. But remember you'll likely know it's deep due to coil position sensitive as far as detection. Remember, what are the odds of a target with ID or 2,3 or 4 being able to be detected at 9-12" deep? Usually a target that low conductive real small.
Equinox detects nickels deeper than Etrac/CTX does in my area.

Another nice thing about Equinox, the small things it strikes that reads say 3,4 and 5 on the meter, it will give pretty loud tone...deep nickel will have less robust tone
Folks looking for the deepest fringe detectable with Equinox, better watch using notch or too much disc.

Back to my 9-9.25" dime I talked about above.
I have had substantial rain over night. So I went back and checked Dime again with Equinox and Deus 11" LF coil.
Deus- no signal period all disc modes loads of settings tried.
And swept from every conceivable angle too.

Equinox again giving tone park 2 and field 2. This morning park 2 is doing slightly better the field 2.
Gold mode 1 hits but is dodgy.
Gold mode 2 hits good.

I will be trying and will be watching.
In old hunted out sites like deep turf, especially in medium mineralized soil and higher, gold mode 2 might just get you over a deeper coin, etc. Then user can check using other detect modes (settings). Even say a dime out of fbs territory depth wise. If I had a target stronger in gold mode 2 but weaker tone sounding using park 2 and or field 2-- with positive ID, I would dig. Gold mode 2 on deeper target small seems to give stronger hit tone wise but shorter overall vs park 2 and field 2.
Seems gold mode 2 a little less swing speed sensitive and not as finicky with speed setting either.
Now I can't speak here for milder ground. Could the same thing be happening but with even deeper targets?

If anything different between yesterday evening vs this morning after all the rainfall---ID not quite as good with a faster sweep.

Btw, I listened to dime in AM too using park 2, field 2 and gold mode. Didn't like what I heard. Seems to me better to run with AM off. Tone sounds funny, not as alerting when trying to find the deeper stuff (nonferrous).

Also food for thought here. In my soil I can tell about depth by adjusting speed setting. Another way to try and discern depth of target. If I go to 7 speed wise and lose target- expect coin size deeper safely than 8.5" higher conductor.

If I can dial speed up,or down a couple numbers and still get good hit-- tells me likely lower conductor. (Assuming I am not seeing an ID in meter for higher conductor).

I can go form park 2 to park 1 and get depth Intel on target.

What I am saying here, the menu and modes and settings give a user ways to get info. Person just needs to know strengths and weaknesses of what changes in fact generally do/affect.

Minelab deserves great credit for the menu layout on Equinox.

Just think cherry picking like a park.
Wonder if I get a signal using speed 7, but check target using speed 5 and target gets crippled badly or disappears. What does that tell me. That is an odds on favorite nonferrous whatever that likely has never been heard before by folks using other detectors, especially fbs types.

 

[WaterScoop]

Take a look at this pic.
Notice the clad dime, and the 4 pull tabs and rings.

Deus wearing 11" coil will not when swing left to right, right to left as you view pic. And let me know a high conductor exist.
Equinox gives me clues. Speed 7 park 2.

Sweeping both with some coil height above tabs and rings.

Deus hears the dime alright, just don't give me valuable info like Equinox does.

Deus IDs dime as 64-66 with lower coil height seeps, higher goes into 90s region.
Btw airtest. 12khz non normalized 87 in the meter on clad dime.

Deus wearing 9" LF coil will id dime but reactivity cannot be any higher than level 2.

Equinox gives flashes of high tone with 23-25 in the meter.

What do you get when you move the perpendicular 2x4’s within 1” from one another and the dime in the deep crevice?

Does it I’d the dime or only the pull rings?

It would be very interesting. I know what the Deus will do what I want to know is what the Equinox will “see”

Cheers

 

[tnsharpshooter]

Here is a pic of test.

Clad dime beneath plane of 2 nails.

Swing down the barrel of both nails to try and get signal.
No trickery, coin was removed for check of falsing all detectors.

Equinox in park 2 speed levels 7 and 8 iron bias 0 gives me some thing tonally to investigate (like turn on suspect area and sweep). Speed 6 setting dodgy.
Mulit freq used . Also can hear dime using 20khz and 40 kHz single freq ops. Using 15khz dodgy.
Can also hear dime in all metal. With freqs ops noted above.
Can use some good coil height too and get signal.
What about Deus and 11" coil.
Full tones, the only way to hear dime is to practically scrape nails with coil. Tried reactivity levels, 2, 2.5, 3 and 4 and txpower 1 and 2.
Going to disc 6 and sweeping you will get a signal.

Deus and 9" LF coil.
Good luck, no signal,period using any settings I can find, disc 6, 0 disc notta
Tried 12kh and 18khz.

Deus and 9" HF coil.
Using. 28.8khz I just might investigate, using 54 kHz a tad better signal than 28.8khz.

What about Impact stock coil ?
Good luck with trying to get an investigate signal.
Just like Deus and 9" LF coil. No settings to give me anything to investigate.

Disclaimer: I set this test up using Equinox.
Then compared the others.

Btw, using speed setting 7 and comparing a few other detect modes.
Park 2 does better than field 1, but field 2 does better than both park 2 and field 1.

More data.
Comparing park 2. Field 2 and Beach 2- all pass test above - no falsing with coin removed factory disc used in each detect mode.
Here is something interesting though.

Park 2 and field 2 both pass, will yield no negative meter numbers with disc on, turn off disc AM negative numbers are displayed with meter going to 16-17 with dime detection.
Beach 2, different. With disc on the only thing meter reads is a number 1 with dime detection.
Turn on AM and negative numbers displayed with numbers shooing to 1 with dime detection,

Field 2 is overall better performer though in this one test. .(slightly)

 

[tnsharpshooter]

New pic, new test.
Notice now US nickel is three 2x4 thickness below nails.
I actually set this test up using Deus wearing 11" LF coil. What you see is as close as I can move the nails inwards and still get a dig me/incestigate signal. Again reactivity levels 3 and 4 will hear this nickel, but do behave differently.

So what about Equinox?
Using park 2 multi freq, iron bias 0, speed setting 6, using factory disc setting, Equinox underperforms Deus, but if I push horse button going to AM, Equinox here picks up, and give a very good signal sweeping. As far as picking up nickel signal wise I rate a tie here as long as Equinox in AM. For actual signal quality,,Equinox the winner as long as in AM. Deus does better than Equinox here with coil closer to nails when sweeping.

 

[tnsharpshooter]

Time for another pic and test here. US nickel in pic.
The test I did here a little different. All previous test above Equinox was at factory park 2 disc setting, except for when I talked above about going to AM.

On this test what I did was reduced disc setting on both Deus and Equinox just to the point where no audio was given on the nails when swept in configuration in pic.
This meant going to 5.6 on Deus and accepting 0 disc setting on Equinox.
Used multi freq with Equinox.
Using these disc settings how did the 2 detectors compare when swept?
Remember Deus is wearing 11" LF coil.

User of Deus needs to be in 4 reactivity to get a hit on nickel. Tone is very short sounding, sporadic giving tone when swept.

Equinox gives fuller tone and although it is somewhat inconsistent giving tone. When sweeping what's in the pic. Equinox by a cat whisker. Speed 8 setting worked too detecting the nickel. But again when Equinox reports a user won't be so confused trying to figure out what they heard.

 

[tnsharpshooter]

Here is a pic.

The pic obviously nails above us nickel (non war nickel). Nickel is two 2x4s thick distance wise beneath the 2 nails.

So what about Equinox here?

I want folks to read this and use at own risk.
Why?

There are 2 outcomes really using Mulit frequency depending on ground balance.
If I do manual GB and turn tracking off, test results not near as good vs if I leave tracking on.

When I bob coil detector balances at 1 or 2 in air.
But using tracking, detector seems to go to 55 in the meter.
Notice this test conducted around 16" off the ground. The detector may be still see ground effect and tradking.
If I bob coil over cut of clean wood 16" off the ground, meter goes to 0,1 or 2.
Turn on tracking, start sweeping test scenario, not good result but if I keep sweeping the detector performs better and when I go to GB and look in meter it is reading approximately 54/55.
Anyway.
Using Mulit freq, tracking GB, park 2 sens 20, iron bias 0. Best signal achieved (good signal too) speed setting 7, good 2 way hit, and can achieve signal what looks to be 7" approximately above nails. Speed 6 setting, when sweeping from the right ( where bigger nail is) to left, signal can be hit and miss.

Btw I should say, if you hit the horse shoe button, imo Equinox reporting smoothed up some. (Extremely small)

Nest logical question here for some folks.
What about the mighty Deus wearing 11" LF coil here?
Alright I checked with Deus wearing 11" LF coil.
Hot program GB manual 88. Disc levels of 0 and 6 full tones reactivity levels 3 and 4.
Deus reporting when swept real close to nails, a user might think big iron the way it sounds. O disc.
Biggest difference I see though, coil height reporting.
Deus tone is getting fuzzy as height grows. Reactivity 4 clears it up some, still there though. Beginner detectorist imo if they swept this situation like I did at coil height, they could be fooled moreso using Deus vs Equinox (assuming they have each detector set up with primo settings to strike the nickel and nail situation. And I did try reactivity 2.5. Sounded bad like iron.

 

[tnsharpshooter]

Different pic/test..

This time a clad US dime sitting just one 2x4 thickness below nails. Tight scenario here.

So what does Equinox do?
Park 2 Mulit freq, iron bias 0, tracking GB (54) in window, speed setting7, good signal. Can get good signal even with what looks like at least 6" coil height if not more above nails. Speed setting 6 is again hit and miss when coil is swept from the left side.

Deus here wearing 11" LF coil, again coil height, as it increases tone sounds compromised, user better be on their game. Tried some very reasonable/realistic setting too.

I even check this setup using the mighty Nokta Impact. Stock coil, remember it is 7x11". I like Impact's performance on this 'one' test better than Deus wearing 11" LF coil, especially at increased coil height(the way tone reports).

I even did above test using Deus 9" round HF coil. Did not like what I witnessed. Person could get fooled real easy on not knowing dime is down there. Tried all freqs. Lowest 14.4khz had best clues with coil closer to nails being swept 28.8khz allowed for more coil height. But this coil use here didn't top Equinox performance.'one test' remember.

 

[WaterScoop]

Tnsharpshooter, thank you for your awesome experiment. I would have not guess the Nokta kicked rear over the Deus. I was also curious on what the new Minelab wonder would deliver.

Cheers

‘Scoop

 

[vferrari]

Tnsharpshooter, thank you for your awesome experiment. I would have not guess the Nokta kicked rear over the Deus. I was also curious on what the new Minelab wonder would deliver.

Cheers

‘Scoop

You meant Equinox not Nokta, right? The Impact looks like it left the building pretty early in these tests.

Wonder how the Makro Multi Kruzer would do, though. It looks pretty capable and SUPER fast in 3-tone mode from what I have seen. Starting to think it might be the dark horse candidate now for the new detectors.

Would have like to have seen more Deus Elliptical coil action in these tests but glad you did HF coil data nevertheless.

 

[tnsharpshooter]

I understand that you are doing these test on a " decide to dig or not " basis. Every test you have shown, the Equinox as the winner. You are familiar with the other machines. If you wanted to, could you set up tests where the other machines are the winners ?

I am very familiar with Impact (I tested it during prerelease). Deus I know well.
Here's the deal.
I am wanting to know what the Equinox is doing better vs the others.
I had tested Equinox and could see it looks to be a performer.
So I took Equinox and set up test.
If Imrig a test up and all pass, what does this do for me?
If I thought Deus would win, I would have used it to set up test.
And the Equinox would have failed test.

Sorta like trains if for Olympics.
If you are a track star, do you train to beat second place time of first place time?

 

[tnsharpshooter]

Doesn't really answer my question - " You are familiar with the other machines. If you wanted to, could you set up tests where the other machines are the winners ? "

I guess I could. Would have to work at it. Actually I comment above in a few places Deus wins with coil being closer to nails vs Equinox.
I also comment Impact nears Deus in another test.

I like them all.
And before these tests, Impact and Deus I compared them too.

Before Equinox, it was pretty common knowledge Deus coil size for coils size was the undisputed champ in and around iron. I am not so sure this is true anymore. Why Deus is being used as test rat here.
Wouldn't want to use a detector that is on average mediocre in and around iron.
Wouldn't tell me anything really.

These tests I've done are not a hot Jon on any detector model mentioned. Imsure disn't engineer or design any of them.
I just use them.
I need to know what each is good at or worse at.
And yes actual field results count too.

 

[vferrari]

Do you think Multi Kruzer or Gold Kruzer can compete in fast 3-tone mode?

 

[tnsharpshooter]

Do you think Multi Kruzer or Gold Kruzer can compete in fast 3-tone mode?

Don't have either. Don't know.

I can say though using a round 11" coil does have some advantages with unmasking vs elliptical coil.
Deus if it had a 7x11" dd coil it would come upshort when comparing to both the round 9" LF and 11" LF coil-on some tests.

Yes the elliptical would trump round coils too I some tests.

 

[vferrari]

Don't have either. Don't know.

I can say though using a round 11" coil does have some advantages with unmasking vs elliptical coil.
Deus if it had a 7x11" dd coil it would come upshort when comparing to both the round 9" LF and 11" LF coil-on some tests.

Yes the elliptical would trump round coils too I some tests.

Thanks, TNSS.

Two more questions.

1. Do you plan on testing any of the Kruzer models? Are you concerned at all they may actually outperform Equinox as some folks out there are saying (based on your experience as a Nokta Impact pre-tester)? For example, one of the selling points of Equinox is that multifrequency is great on the beach from a stability standpoint, yet Racers are also known for their beach stability even though they are single frequency. Also, Gold Kruzer has a higher frequency than the highest Equinox frequency, making it a worthy challenger on gold, or other mid-conductive targets and Makro/Nokta has seemed to up their game further on recovery speed. Thoughts?

2. Based on your testing and experience with the Equinox so far, do you think the Deus is ready to have a fork stuck in it (i.e., is it done)? You are leaving them home now in favor of the Equinox. Has the Equinox obsoleted the Deus in your opinion?

 

[tnsharpshooter]

Thanks, TNSS.

Two more questions.

1. Do you plan on testing any of the Kruzer models? Are you concerned at all they may actually outperform Equinox as some folks out there are saying (based on your experience as a Nokta Impact pre-tester)? For example, one of the selling points of Equinox is that multifrequency is great on the beach from a stability standpoint, yet Racers are also known for their beach stability even though they are single frequency. Also, Gold Kruzer has a higher frequency than the highest Equinox frequency, making it a worthy challenger on gold, or other mid-conductive targets and Makro/Nokta has seemed to up their game further on recovery speed. Thoughts?

2. Based on your testing and experience with the Equinox so far, do you think the Deus is ready to have a fork stuck in it (i.e., is it done)? You are leaving them home now in favor of the Equinox. Has the Equinox obsoleted the Deus in your opinion?

Rather than answer each question separately.

Here I think is the deal.

Equinox, just being one detector.
I can take into a site with both iron and modern trash and get very good performance,,with each sweep of coil, granted there is a chance more rehunts with a few different settings may net more finds.

Deus, for it to hunt in modern trash a user has to use 4 or 8khz detecting.
For a user to use Deus in and around iron user has to use 12khz or 18khz.

Add to this. Equinox is one smoking hot general purpose detector on smaller lower conductors, and don't think the 11" DD coil won't strike!

So again for Deus to compete here = buying a HF coil, so more money spent.

Not to mention waterproofing for Equinox, right out of the box. No buying additional things like you do with Deus.

I will bet the farm, Deus is one major reason/ cause for Equinox.

I wish this word obsolete wouldn't have been used. Better word (phrase) would have been more versatile.
So Minelab captured a lot of wide range performance with engineering Equinox.
Is Equinox without faults? Is any detector really?

Minelab did a lot of homework when designing/engineering Equinox. I am very sure of this. Silently they were monitoring forums and other manufacturers too, watching the feedback from folks on various platforms- including their OWN.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Hello tnsharpshooter,

Thank you so much for the detailed testing of the Minelab Equinox, I enjoyed each post in this thread.

Regards,

Doc