Equinox 600 or 800?

[reaper8496]

I know I have asked the question about whether o should get the at max or the equinox, now I can't decide on the 6 or the 800.... I know I'm worse than a woman! I just want to make the best decision in my new detector choice. I usually hunt in farm fields or home owners front yards, but I get to those trashy areas every once in a while that doesn't make me want to pull anything out of that area. That's where the additional levels of detector speed would come in handy. Plus, those farm fields usually have an intermittent electrical fence running, so I ALWAYS got interference from it with my AT Pro even after the frequency adjustment. Again, that's where manual EMI override on noise cancellation would be nice on the 800 vs the 600. What do you guys think? Does the automatic noise cancellation do the job as good as the manual adjustment? Other than the additional accessories, frequencies, (ill never use the higher frequencies as I live up north and in a non gold nugget area) and levels of backlight, what other advantages do you guys see in the 800 vs the 600?

 

[mh9162013]

Resale value.

And as an FYI, the 600, when in mutli-frequency mode, uses the same spectrum of frequencies as the 800 (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

 

[SnohomishDigger]

Resale value.

And as an FYI, the 600, when in mutli-frequency mode, uses the same spectrum of frequencies as the 800 (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

You are correct. Multi-frequency mode is the same on both machines. The 600 can be set to run as a single-frequency machine using 5KhZ, 10 KHZ, or 15 KHz. The 800 adds 20 KHZ and 40 KHZ single frequency selections.

I have a 600. I chose it because the Gold modes and additional fine tuning of the settings aren’t important to me. I was willing to put the ~$200 difference into other detecting accessories and equipment. I have everything I need/want with the 600. Others will want those additional features. There’s really no wrong answer, in my opinion.

The 800 does come with Bluetooth wireless headphones. The headphones that come with the 600 are wired. I picked up a pair of Miccus SR-71 headphones - which are the exact same model as the ones included with the 800. I paid $60 for them, getting them from Minelab is double that. Only difference is the Miccus headphones don’t have a Minelab sticker on them.

 

[McKinney_5900]

I know I have asked the question about whether o should get the at max or the equinox, now I can't decide on the 6 or the 800.... I know I'm worse than a woman! I just want to make the best decision in my new detector choice. I usually hunt in farm fields or home owners front yards, but I get to those trashy areas every once in a while that doesn't make me want to pull anything out of that area. That's where the additional levels of detector speed would come in handy. Plus, those farm fields usually have an intermittent electrical fence running, so I ALWAYS got interference from it with my AT Pro even after the frequency adjustment. Again, that's where manual EMI override on noise cancellation would be nice on the 800 vs the 600. What do you guys think? Does the automatic noise cancellation do the job as good as the manual adjustment? Other than the additional accessories, frequencies, (ill never use the higher frequencies as I live up north and in a non gold nugget area) and levels of backlight, what other advantages do you guys see in the 800 vs the 600?

"I usually hunt in farm fields or home owners front yards, but I get to those trashy areas every once in a while that doesn't make me want to pull anything out of that area. That's where the additional levels of detector speed would come in handy."

The additional higher levels are way overkill for high trash, coin-jewelry-relic. I'd get the 600, save the bucks for a smaller coil.

 

[SnohomishDigger]

"
The additional higher levels are way overkill for high trash, coin-jewelry-relic. I'd get the 600, save the bucks for a smaller coil.

Love my 6-inch coil for the Nox. Works great in trashy areas.

One note on the difference between 800 and 600 settings. The 600 has fewer, but not necessarily lesser setting choices. For example, a recovery setting of 3 on the 600 is equal to a setting of 6 on the 800, so even though you can’t go quite as high (or low) on the 600 you still get really good performance. In the conditions I hunt in, I’m not convinced that I’m missing out on much by not having the additional choices offered on the 800.

 

[cudamark]

If you can afford it, get the 800. If that $250 difference in price is an issue, go with the 600. You may never need the extra adjustment features, but, it's nice to have them for those rare times when you do. If you hunt at night, you'll want that backlight adjustment, believe me!

 

[CoinHunterAZ]

Agreed, get the 800 if you can. The additional features make it worthwhile in my opinion. Wireless headphones and backlight is nice to have. I do a little gold nugget shooting too, so the gold modes were a plus as well.

 

[Tom Slick]

For the money, the 800 is the way to go. Not only for the wireless headphones but you also get the wireless module so you can use any wired headphone as wireless. then there's all the added features wich make the 800 an even better all around detector. Resale value on the 800 will always be better than the 600 and the 800 is way more desireable to anyone looking to buy used.

 

[smokeythecat]

If you're going to hunt iron or trash the smaller coil is a must.

 

[CoinHunterAZ]

I agree that the 6" coil will certainly help in iron or trash, but it's not a must IMHO. I don't hunt in heavy iron, but the stock 11" coil has done a very good job for me of sniffing out deep silvers in very heavy trash. Going real slow and listening to the machine, rather than looking at VDI numbers is what works best for me. I'm very impressed with the machine thus far, still new to it too.

 

[ZR2guy]

I live in southwest Ohio so gold nugget hunting is out of the question. I went with the 600 and saved that $200 difference between the 600 and 800 to get the 6" coil since I hunt a lot of parks and schools in my area (and there are a lot of them). Anyway, first time out with the 6" coil; that earring is silver and has small diamonds on it. I am sold on the 6" coil.