EQUINOX REPORT CARD THREAD - The Good OR Bad - Rate your experiences and finds.

[NaplesMark]

Looking forward to finding all those gold chains....picking up my Nox800 tomorrow morning from Reilly’s Treasured Gold in Pompano Beach FL, been waiting for ages, will advise while they “dry dock” and send back my ctx3030 back to Minelab for review of shaft lock bushings, etc., I.e. warranty work. Happy detecting y’all! Im sure gonna miss my CTX3030 as one of my last finds during Alberto was....gold and ice in da scoop ..love my “17 inch 3030 coil 😍, finding things and covering territory others have missed, and can’t wait until Waters calm and I can return to the water with my Excal II. Stay tuned for upcoming Nox800 report 👍🏻✨

 

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[Professor of Engineering]

Nice ring finds!

 

[ARC]

Sorry about the RT and the "likes"... been on hiatus.

Back in the New York Groove

 

[ARC]

Burp.

Err bump. :P

 

[smokeythecat]

Burp!

 

[vferrari]

My only complaint is that it could have used a little more ketchup.

 

[smokeythecat]

True

 

[One_more_hole]

Great thread… I was tempted to reply last week but held off in order to gather more data/ log more hours on this new machine.

I am in a love-hate relationship with my EQ 800. I love the light weight, big bright screen and wireless headphones. I love not having to use my Pro-Swing harness to save my arm. The problem stems from buying into all the hype and believing I was going to be digging lots of silver and deep ( missed ) oldies out of the hammered parks. So far, I have not found anything new in areas I’ve already gone over with my Explorer II. My expectations were very high due to the hype. I should have known ML would not market a new detector that would obsolete their cash cow CTX!

That being said, it is a great, modern detector. Minelab users spoiled by accurate target ID will be disappointed in the compact conductive numbers range resulting in lots of dug crown and screw caps.

The good:

Lightweight; big, bright screen; ease of use; wireless; fast recovery speed; tones; decent pinpointing

Note on depth: I find this has good depth ( dug a wheat at 7 inches measured and silver Rosie at 7 not including turf ). Maybe it goes deeper and perhaps I haven’t gotten the coil over a deep silver quarter/half but I haven’t found any silver dimes, wheats, etc. in the depths of 10-12 that others are reporting.

The bad:

Balance ( nose heavy as others have indicated ); cam locks loosening up; compact target ID without ferrous; likes crown caps and screw caps

The ugly:

ALERT! A piece of the plastic housing fell off my ML wireless headphones. I did not drop them…this just happened during normal use about the third or fourth time out. The plastic broke where the screws attach ( see pic ).

The images show the results of 3 separate hunts. I took these with the intention of showing potential buyers what they could expect. Granted, I still have lots to learn. Owners will no doubt have improved results over time as is the case with all machines.

As of now, I would grade it B+ overall.

 

[vferrari]

Send the headphones back for warranty replacement. There have been othe r reports of plastic cracking at screw stress points. This is a generic LL BT headphone design marketed under several Chinese brand names (e.g., Miccus). ML just slapped their Logo on them.

Agree the TIDs give you A LOT less information than the Ferrous/Conductive IDs of the CTX. But coming from Deus, I relied on the full tones audio information rather than the bouncy IDs to tell the story on the target. 50 Tones on Equinox does a pretty good job in that regard. Also the CTX (as well as most other non-gold VLFs) have nothing on the Equinox and MultiIQ when it comes to gold, nickel, brass and other mid-conductors. Equinox is not going to manufacture targets that are not in the ground to begin with regardless of hype or real world performance. I imagine a lot of people thinking they were buying Harry Potter's magic wand based on the hype machine, and yeah, they are going to be bitterly disappointed but no detectorist who really knows their salt and what it takes to find the good stuff should have fallen for it. That being said, sounds like a fair grade based on your personal experiences with it. It has nailed several bucket listers already for me, but that has more to do with site selection and knowing how to relic hunt than the machine itself. Though it has proven itself to be the best beach machine I've owned as far as deep coin and gold recoveries in wet sand and shallow surf, which is the main reason I got it in the first place.

 

[One_more_hole]

vferrari, I have been using 5 tone but will switch to the 50 tone and try it out. Coin shooting for oldies is my focus so I haven't used it on the beach or tried the gold mode. I was planning on getting the Deus because of the superior performance in iron and CTX for deep silver before this unit came out. My Explorers have been awesome... just looking for something to take me to the next level.

 

[rc2125]

Underwater volume. Why make a "waterproof" detector that doesn't have nearly enough volume capability when utilized underwater. The CTX got a great big giant F as far as underwater volume went (had two, gen 1 & 2). Figured Minelab would have learned from that, I guess not, Equinox is only slightly better. This is my main complaint at this time, which is a huge deal to me and my methods of use.

 

[ARC]

So... any updates or new opinions ?

Now that some more time has elapsed and the owners of these have had more time with their units are there any "in retrospect" reviews and opinions"...

Has your original opinion changed now that some time has passed ?

Is your opinion now better or worse ?

Are you happy with it or not ?

IS IT your new "favorite / go to" detector now ?

Any new gripes / advice to Minelab ?


Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[sprailroad]

All things considered, I like it. I use it. I like the versatility it offers. Only problem is now what can my wife get me for Christmas, use to be a big package of AA battery's.

 

[vferrari]

I like it. It is not perfect. Still hanging on to my Deus. I use them for different situations. Probably the best all around detector I have ever owned.

 

[cudamark]

It's my primary detector now. I still have, and occasionally use, my other detectors under certain conditions.

 

[CarsonChris]

I have very limited time using it. So far I give it an A. I’ve run it over some of the areas I ran the AT pro in. Where it outperformed the AT Pro was in trashy areas. I found some coins that I couldn’t separate from the garbage. I haven’t found anything deeper that I missed with the AT Pro.

 

[JoeVal]

I’ve used my 600 now on parks, fields, in the woods and on beaches both wet and dry, and have to say it hasn’t disappointed me at all. Whenever I think it’s not doing it’s job, it’s always because I didn’t noise cancel and ground balance, or because I changed a setting then forgot to reverse it.

I’ve added aptX low latency wireless headphones and wireless earbuds, and have zero issues with their performance. I’m expecting my new 6” coil to arrive today, as long as the wife is here to sign for them. I’ve done my due diligence on this coil, and it will compliment the 5x8 coil I bought for my AT Max. I enjoy both the Equinox 600 and the AT Max for different reasons, and sometimes I have them on a hunt at the same time, and play games of comparing target signals and sounds.

IMO, you can’t go wrong with either the 600 or the 800.

 

[CoinHunterAZ]

I'm not disappointed with my purchase of the 800. I haven't been to get a whole lot of hours on it yet due to lots and lots of snow and frozen ground. Before we got covered up in it, I was able to find several wheat cents and two barber dimes at the "hunted out park". If I had been cherry picking, I probably wouldn't have got them though. All were questionable signals at best, but I just committed to dig it everything in order to learn the machine. The barber dimes were just as flat as can be, and rang in lower, like 23-24. This is the same VDI range as the aluminum wine bottle screw caps that inhabit the spot by the millions. I'm just gonna have to clean them all out...but at least I know that there's still some good stuff hidden in there. The machine is fine. I give myself a C+ on the knowledge of it, and an A for effort at the park.

 

[HighVDI]

After logging some solid time with my 800 I feel like a grade is now something I could give.

Not so much one but a few for different areas.

A for trashy park hunting looking for silver.

A for menu and navigation plus ability to adjust settings.

C for ergonomics. Only got a C because of the overall weight of the EQ is light. Def. nose heavy with stock coil.

Quality is a D. Shaft wobble, crappy arm cuff and cheaply made headphones.

Audio is up there with my Tejon. I give an A. So much in the Equinox language once it's learned! Visual ID is going to get a B. It is actually a testament of the machines ID ability to be able to swing the condensed VDI range! Between the audio, visual numbers plus sequences and pinpoint+depth reading combined I usually have a pretty good idea of what could be under the coil.

Battery life and charge time for both I give an A as this has never been a problem for my duration of hunts.

Overall I love the machine. Got the 800 in the end of March last season and had 14 silver coins on the year. Finished up with 161. That shattered my previous year of 70 with the F75.

All the silvers found last season were all public lands and no door knocking. Everything had been hard hit spots except for 1. It's my go to now. I use my Tejon for when the urge for beep and dig come along and the F75 with big coil in 2F for farm field hunting.

 

[One_more_hole]

So... any updates or new opinions ?

Now that some more time has elapsed and the owners of these have had more time with their units are there any "in retrospect" reviews and opinions"...

Has your original opinion changed now that some time has passed ?

Is your opinion now better or worse ?

Are you happy with it or not ?

IS IT your new "favorite / go to" detector now ?

Any new gripes / advice to Minelab ?


Inquiring minds want to know.

Yes,

At first I was a little disappointed but now I love it and the Equinox is my "go to" detector. Only weakness is accuracy of target ID but if you are looking for bottom line results.. this detector is a beast! I have also found it to be as deep as the Explorer series.

PS: I sent the broken headphones back during the off season and Minelab replaced them... no hassle at all.