Anyone Have An Equinox 800 That Has Had An Explorer SE

[Ronzie]

Hi...Just wondering if anyone has swung an Explorer SE (Pro) that now uses the Equinox 800. I'd like to know how they compare since the Explorer is the only Minelab machine I have owned. I'm thinking of getting an Equinox and just want to hear what you like or dislike compared with the Explorer.
I've been out of commission for awhile but now my health is better than ever.

 

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[Iron Patch]

I'm a long time Explorer user... XS, EXII, and SE. Converted to the Deus last year, but just bought an Equinox 600. I have a friend in town from the 4th to the 15th and if I put a reasonable amount of time on it I'll post again with my results.

 

[Ronzie]

I'm a long time Explorer user... XS, EXII, and SE. Converted to the Deus last year, but just bought an Equinox 600. I have a friend in town from the 4th to the 15th and if I put a reasonable amount of time on it I'll post again with my results.

Much appreciated

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

Ronzie what type of detecting do you do? Relic, coins, beach? I'm an SE Pro expert, own a Deus and ordered a Equinox 800 the other day. The Equinox 800 has a few advantages over an SE Pro and a few disadvantages. Really depends on the type of hunting you do and your experience level with an SE Pro as to how much of an impact the difference will have. Also your sites, if you have hunted them to silence with an SE Pro then the Equinox may open them back up again.

 

[Ronzie]

Ronzie what type of detecting do you do? Relic, coins, beach? I'm an SE Pro expert, own a Deus and ordered a Equinox 800 the other day. The Equinox 800 has a few advantages over an SE Pro and a few disadvantages. Really depends on the type of hunting you do and your experience level with an SE Pro as to how much of an impact the difference will have. Also your sites, if you have hunted them to silence with an SE Pro then the Equinox may open them back up again.

I do old homesteads, properties so mostly coins, jewelry, relics for the most part. Sometimes beaches, creeks.
I've mastered all my machines and knew my Explorer inside out. I sold it though and now have only my Outlaw which is my favorite machine I've owned. I miss not having a second or third machine so after doing some research I like the Equinox 800 and also the AT Max. I just need to have a Minelab in my arsenal lol. I tried the E-Trac but didn't really like it.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

I do old homesteads, properties so mostly coins, jewelry, relics for the most part. Sometimes beaches, creeks.
I've mastered all my machines and knew my Explorer inside out. I sold it though and now have only my Outlaw which is my favorite machine I've owned. I miss not having a second or third machine so after doing some research I like the Equinox 800 and also the AT Max. I just need to have a Minelab in my arsenal lol. I tried the E-Trac but didn't really like it.

With the Equinox I have to give up my SE Pro silver half dollar/quarter technique, bummer. The SE Pro lets me hunt for those under rusty crown caps and since there's like a billion crown caps out there that's a lot of ground to give up. Also have to give up the SE Pro Smartfind screen which blows, bounce patterns, and all my gold ring tricks. So a step backwards for me vs SE Pro in those areas.

But people are saying it does really well on small gold which the SE Pro can't even detect and since I purchased the Equinox mostly for beach hunting that's a big plus for me. The three small gold high dollar targets I'm mostly interested in are gold chains, and diamond solitaire post earrings and wedding rings. A 30 year beach hunter once told me his theory on why so few thin band diamond solitaire wedding rings are dug in comparison to gold wedding bands, his theory is they settle in the sand diamond down so they are sitting on edge like a coin on edge and undetectable. The Deus can hit on those bands on edge so we'll see what the Equinox can do in testing.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

I found some xrays of the Equinox coils, there's a circuit board in them. Explorer coils do not have a board, Excal/Sovereign coils do though. On those a tech told me once it was an amplifier that boosted the receive signal at the coil to make it less susceptible to EMI as it traveled up the coil cord. The purpose of the Equinox coil circuit board, unknown. When mine gets here I may connect it to my oscilloscope and take some measurements. Really nice coil construction, I see ML are still using Litz magnet wire for the transmit winding.

 

[Iron Patch]

Just finished a multi day hunt, and yesterday I finally used the Equinox. Wasn't much of a learning curve having been a Minelab user for a long time -- certainly nothing like going from the Explorer to the Deus. Really have no complaints about the detector as it seems like a good all around machine, and considering I paid $650 Can. shipped for my used 600, I'd call it a heck of a deal. It does like iron more than the higher end Minelabs, which is both good and bad because it may help on the masking to find small non iron targets, but you're also chasing a bit more iron. If you're into iron relics maybe not so bad because most of what sounded good enough to dig was larger than a nail. There was signs in the tone some of these signals were going to be iron, but when you get a solid two way target in heavy iron you can't always rely on Xing it, so you do have to dig. What was different is that the iron could also fool you low tone, which doesn't really happen on the explorer... it's all high tone, and the low tones are almost always a non iron target. Not really sure what else to say other than if I had to go forward only having an Equinox 600, I'd be quite ok with that and would not feel like I'm lacking much. In a weird way it's almost like a cross between my Explorer and Deus, which may be why it made sense basically right from the moment I turned it on. Another reason is the settings are very basic, and I knew the slight tweaking I wanted to make even before hunting, and it turned out I was right, and the detector ran how I wanted to. For me it was worth saving the money over the 800. I would rather have my choice in headphones than use the wireless ones (I used my XP wired phones yesterday) ...high freq. for gold is useless to me. The response setting using either 1 or 2 or 3 which is the equivalent to 2 or 4 or 6 on the 800 seems fine. (I've yet to see more benefit to running the Deus or EQ super fast) and lastly, the only place I can make a little case is to be able to better tune the iron bias on the 800, but that being said I would not drop lower than I was yesterday as it would sound off too good on iron, so I'd rather learn it better how I was using it, than have the 800 and have what's basically a half setting to add more disc.. If more people understood how they compare, as they are the same detector, you'd see many more saving the money and not waiting forever for an 800.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

I have the Equinox 800 now, it feels and is heavier than the Deus. I'll be replacing the thick aluminum shaft with something lighter, there's a couple carbon fiber shafts out now. I would prefer an S shaft vs a straight shaft. First 30 minutes, I was unable to figure out how to navigate and adjust the machine, or even pick which mode I wanted to use. I had to go get the quick start guide from the box. And I'm a computer software engineer with 30 years exp. The good news was within just a few minutes it all made sense to me. Pretty easy to navigate the machine. Quick 1 click access to some most frequently used features. I think the design is pretty good.

My first tests on small gold last night were encouraging, by small I mean small gold that is invisible to a cranked Se Pro you can rub the gold on the Se Pro coil and its invisible. My tests on a small thin gold ring straight up on edge and a merc dime straight up on edge man oh man the EQ smacks them hard 6-7 inches. Both are invisible to my Explorer Se Pro. That was super exciting.

 

[Trezurehunter]

I have used the Explorer SE Pro for 8 or 9 years now. Just had my first outing with my 800 last week. It is much lighter than the SE, and way easier to learn. It can be used as a turn on and go machine after you choose your hunting mode, and ground balance it. I found 5 clad coins, and a (what I believe to be fake) Rolex watch head in and hour of hunting. I'm sure I will prefer it over the SE, after I have had the appropriate time to learn it. Since you are also a Minelab user, the learning curve will be small.

 

[Ronzie]

After watching countless videos I can see the learning curve won't be bad compared to going from my GTI 2500 to the Explorer a few years ago, then going from the Explorer to the Outlaw.
I'm looking forward to hearing the tones of the Nox. I'd love to eventually learn it without depending on the screen/numbers.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

After watching countless videos I can see the learning curve won't be bad compared to going from my GTI 2500 to the Explorer a few years ago, then going from the Explorer to the Outlaw.
I'm looking forward to hearing the tones of the Nox. I'd love to eventually learn it without depending on the screen/numbers.

Equinox Tones - One question I had was would the Equinox give me the full more musical tones I'm used to on an Explorer or some nasty piezo speaker type buzz tones. Happy to report 50 tones sound like the classic Explorer tones.

Equinox Wireless Headphones - (FACE PALM) Minelab...arrgh so the tone quality in the wireless headphones is actually pretty good. But they are so small the rest on your ears not over your ears. My ears hurt when headphones press on them for more than an hour or so. They also won't eliminate outside noise like an over the ear headphones will, important to me when beach hunting.

Equinox Modes - I tested 70 targets recently, its really important that you select the correct mode. For coins and rings Park 2 and Field 2 crushed the Park 1 and Field 1 modes. Park 1 and Field 1 seem configured more for hunting deeper larger relics. The TID bounces all over the place in Park 1 and Field 1 on coin sized targets, and the deeper the target the more they bounce around. Bouncing 3-5 TID points frequently, and bigger bounces on some swings. Park 2 and Field 2 on the other hand far more stable TID even at quite deep depths. Park 2 and Field 2 would be my modes of choice for coin hunting.

Park 2 on a silver dime, solid stable TID of 25 swing after swing. Increase the depth more and the TID drops to 24 but remains stable 24 swing after swing. Increase depth even further and it drops to 23 but again stable. All through this range 8-12 plus inches the tone also remains about the same, where in Park 1 the tone is all over the place as is the TID. Even deeper, approaching max depth the TID in Park 2 eventually just gives up and doesn't respond BUT the tone continues. The coin continues to sound off with a high tone even after TID no longer functions. For the deepest coins the Equinox is going to be a tone machine, that its still accurate in Park 2 at those depths, pretty impressive. We'll see how it does in soil but the raw potential in air tests is stunning.

So take care in choosing your mode, really big difference between Park 1 and Park 2.

 

[vferrari]

Equinox Tones - One question I had was would the Equinox give me the full more musical tones I'm used to on an Explorer or some nasty piezo speaker type buzz tones. Happy to report 50 tones sound like the classic Explorer tones.

Equinox Wireless Headphones - (FACE PALM) Minelab...arrgh so the tone quality in the wireless headphones is actually pretty good. But they are so small the rest on your ears not over your ears. My ears hurt when headphones press on them for more than an hour or so. They also won't eliminate outside noise like an over the ear headphones will, important to me when beach hunting.

Equinox Modes - I tested 70 targets recently, its really important that you select the correct mode. For coins and rings Park 2 and Field 2 crushed the Park 1 and Field 1 modes. Park 1 and Field 1 seem configured more for hunting deeper larger relics. The TID bounces all over the place in Park 1 and Field 1 on coin sized targets, and the deeper the target the more they bounce around. Bouncing 3-5 TID points frequently, and bigger bounces on some swings. Park 2 and Field 2 on the other hand far more stable TID even at quite deep depths. Park 2 and Field 2 would be my modes of choice for coin hunting.

Park 2 on a silver dime, solid stable TID of 25 swing after swing. Increase the depth more and the TID drops to 24 but remains stable 24 swing after swing. Increase depth even further and it drops to 23 but again stable. All through this range 8-12 plus inches the tone also remains about the same, where in Park 1 the tone is all over the place as is the TID. Even deeper, approaching max depth the TID in Park 2 eventually just gives up and doesn't respond BUT the tone continues. The coin continues to sound off with a high tone even after TID no longer functions. For the deepest coins the Equinox is going to be a tone machine, that its still accurate in Park 2 at those depths, pretty impressive. We'll see how it does in soil but the raw potential in air tests is stunning.

So take care in choosing your mode, really big difference between Park 1 and Park 2.

Wonder if the results would be different in ground than in the air tests you conducted and with all performance settings (even ones you think may make no difference) the same to make the comparison as apples-to-apples as possible. Not disputing your results at all, but it is inconsistent with Minelab's description of what Park 1 should be with regards to high conductive targets (low frequency weighting) vs. Park 2 (higher frequency weighting). Of course, manual descriptions and even metal detector designers can make mistakes. That is why you needed to prove it to yourself, by doing your own testing. My questions is WHY? Again, I know you were very dismissive of this the last time I brought it up, but I wonder if the Park 1 Iron Bias filter is messing with TID stability of the high conductive targets. Park 1 IB=6, Park 2 IB=0. I believe you kepth recovery speed constant between the Search Profiles, so that rules out any difference in recovery speed defaults. Can't wait for you to continue your testing of IB to see what effects it may have before declaring Park 1 dead. Lol.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

Wonder if the results would be different in ground than in the air tests you conducted and with all performance settings (even ones you think may make no difference) the same to make the comparison as apples-to-apples as possible. Not disputing your results at all, but it is inconsistent with Minelab's description of what Park 1 should be with regards to high conductive targets (low frequency weighting) vs. Park 2 (higher frequency weighting). Of course, manual descriptions and even metal detector designers can make mistakes. That is why you needed to prove it to yourself, by doing your own testing. My questions is WHY? Again, I know you were very dismissive of this the last time I brought it up, but I wonder if the Park 1 Iron Bias filter is messing with TID stability of the high conductive targets. Park 1 IB=6, Park 2 IB=0. I believe you kepth recovery speed constant between the Search Profiles, so that rules out any difference in recovery speed defaults. Can't wait for you to continue your testing of IB to see what effects it may have before declaring Park 1 dead. Lol.

Took the EQ800 into the dirt for the first time today. Scored a token and rusty nickel before the 88 degree heat sent me packing. About 90 solid minutes hunting. So far so good in our nasty soil the EQ ignored it dang. We'll see how it runs when the rains return and the soil gets wet, the soil is bone dry out there right now.

I'll have to make some settings tweaks for the iron, really low bass tone and pretty big in Recovery speed 3 as I sweep it but for the most part I let the machine null the iron and it wasn't an issue. Trying to center on the target definitely more trouble in Recovery speed 3, I switched to 5 for a while and it was a LOT easier. TID seemed spot on. I found the EQ no more difficult to use than my Explorer which I'm used to running hot and half unstable.

I parked in the lot next to the iron hell hole but it was open in the full blazing sun, I'll be heading back there after I figure out a setup for heavy iron. I went across the street and tried to stay in the shade.