Safari and Equinox

[BrettCo124]

I own the equinox. I still love the safari. I refuse to ever sell it. That’s all I wanted to say about that!

 

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[Happa54]

I own the equinox. I still love the safari. I refuse to ever sell it. That’s all I wanted to say about that!

Same here Brett....

 

[Ogre1190]

I doubt I'd ever part with my Safari. [emoji16]

 

[Red Snapper]

Do you still use the safari? I own one as well and just wondering if the equinox is worth the upgrade.

 

[BrettCo124]

If you can do it, I would keep the safari and absolutely get the equinox. If you aren’t looking for gold nuggets, then you’ll be fine with just the equinox 600. INSANELY WORTH THE PRICE TAG, which is somehow in my opinion priced way too low for such a powerful machine. I wouldn’t ever part with my safari though. The equinox will be used when I go on vacations and on beaches/in the water, and the safari is for everything else. I haven’t figured out exactly when I’d use the safari over the equinox, but I know for now, if something were to happen to one machine, I will have another monster waiting to be charged up and used. I bring both wherever I go because it’s just such a powerful duo to be honest, and if I’m driving hours to get to a location, i want two good machines on me.

The safari will always be a machine in my fleet. Lots of people don’t realize just how powerful of a machine it really is. Having both is really just a means of feeling comfortable if one machine were to break down.

 

[BrettCo124]

I doubt I'd ever part with my Safari. [emoji16]

Impossible to let it go. I have found too much with it, and it’s just built like a tank.

 

[mh9162013]

Two questions:

1. If the primary purpose was to do some coin shooting in parks and yards, would the Safari do better or worse than the Equinox?

2. It sounds like if you already have the Safari, it's worth keeping. But if you're in the market for a new detector, is it still worth considering against the Equinox, Garrett AT Pro/Max and XP Deus?

 

[Tommybuckets]

This weekend I had the Safari with the 15 inch coil and my gf swung the equinox 600. When I found a target she would swing on it and see how it rang up and vice versa. We did quite poorly, only getting one large copper and one Indian head cent. We worked two sites where 18th and 19th century houses once stood. The Safari in the nail beds was tough to isolate signals but other than that both machines were very similar. Often large iron items the Safari rejected would come in as a 12-18 on the Equinox surrounded by the iron grunt and negative numbers. We only dug a few of these targets but all were in fact dense old iron. The equinox latched onto smaller items such as colonial buckshot more steadily with better less fluttery audio TID than the Safari but either machine I would have dug the same targets. Both were great on the few decent targets we hit upon. I was hoping to run into a situation where the larger WOT coil would pick out something deeper the Equinox missed as some of the turf was where I got several British coppers and Spanish Reales with the equinox but we didn't have the opportunity to encounter that situation. The more interesting test may have been Equinox with a small coil... I don't own one or I would have gone that route. There is a chance that any decent targets were masked by iron but I feel like we just didn't get the coils over many decent non-ferrous items. Even though I've been swinging the equinox for the past year the Safari came right back to me and the two are so similar I think the only spot where they differ is on square nails with targets in between. The equinox can be tricked into giving a 16-18 response off those old nails and the Safari was less confused but with more chance you'd over-run any good targets in the nail matrix. I've had success pulling coppers out from nails at colonial sites before with the safari with both the 15 and 11 inch but have not had the chance to do such with the equinox. I don't think I'll part with my Safari either. It is built like a tank, its simple and very powerful.

 

[halfstep]

I have a safari, ctx 3030 and the equinox 800. The safari doesn't get used anymore. The ctx 3030 and equinox 800 are just better machines. The safari is a good detector but lacks adjustability and it is slow. The target tone response is quick enough but the display lags behind making it useless. I found some good things with it and it is easy to learn and use. But I moved on to better detectors and haven't looked back.

 

[Willee]

The Equinox 600 is a better detector in every aspect when compared to the Safari.
The Safari is a great detector but the Equinox has it bested!

 

[Swaveab]

I'd be interested in knowing what you guys would get with a side by side depth testing of each with silver coinage. Silver in my area needs to almost be at the surface for me to detect it. I think it's too noisy of an environment here.

 

[halfstep]

I'd be interested in knowing what you guys would get with a side by side depth testing of each with silver coinage. Silver in my area needs to almost be at the surface for me to detect it. I think it's too noisy of an environment here.

The ground here in southeast Missouri is fairly harsh. With my ctx 3030 with a 17" coil, I can get a digable signal on a clad quarter at 7". Some places a little deeper. Dig a hole and loosen up the dirt, then run a strong magnet around in the loose dirt and see how much stuff sticks to it. This will let you know mineralized your soil is. I get quite a bit of stuff stuck to the magnet. Most coinage I find around here is 6" or less. Sometimes I get a deeper hit on a coin but not often. My safari would hit deep targets as well. The equinox 800 with the 11" coil hits as deep as the ctx and the safari hits nearly as deep but not as consistently deep as the equinox or ctx. Using the bigger 17" coil on the ctx doesn't increase depth much in mineralized ground but it will find deep coins more constantly plus the big coil cover more ground. The ctx and equinox handle the mineralized ground better than the safari. This allows for more sensitivity for deeper targets. The safari can get pretty chatty when running the sensitivity up. I don't get near the falsing with the ctx and equinox. The ctx has really good target separation settings that the safari doesn't have. The equinox does very well in the mineralized ground and the iron bias setting and recovery speed setting help to negotiate the ground difficulties. The safari just lack adjustability especially for the price. Those who have a safari and hunt in low mineralized ground will not have any issues. But harsh ground, you will miss not having some extra settings to help with the ground.

 

[Pick_axe]

I own a Safari and I'm considering an Equinox. My only misgiving is the Equinox built-in battery with a 1 year warranty. I'd hate to have to send it to a repair/service facility to replace what takes 30 seconds on the Safari. Granted, everything I read about the Nox says its a better machine but I'm still learning to use the Safari.
Still haven't made up my mind.

 

[HighVDI]

I own a Safari and I'm considering an Equinox. My only misgiving is the Equinox built-in battery with a 1 year warranty. I'd hate to have to send it to a repair/service facility to replace what takes 30 seconds on the Safari. Granted, everything I read about the Nox says its a better machine but I'm still learning to use the Safari.
Still haven't made up my mind.

I think the Equinox has been out long enough to prove the battery setup is reliable. I'b be more worried about dunking it or breaking an arm cuff before the battery going bad.

 

[Pick_axe]

I think the Equinox has been out long enough to prove the battery setup is reliable. I'b be more worried about dunking it or breaking an arm cuff before the battery going bad.

Yep, I read about some leaks. I'm still mulling it over.

 

[Mudslayer]

If you can do it, I would keep the safari and absolutely get the equinox. If you aren’t looking for gold nuggets, then you’ll be fine with just the equinox 600. INSANELY WORTH THE PRICE TAG, which is somehow in my opinion priced way too low for such a powerful machine. I wouldn’t ever part with my safari though. The equinox will be used when I go on vacations and on beaches/in the water, and the safari is for everything else. I haven’t figured out exactly when I’d use the safari over the equinox, but I know for now, if something were to happen to one machine, I will have another monster waiting to be charged up and used. I bring both wherever I go because it’s just such a powerful duo to be honest, and if I’m driving hours to get to a location, i want two good machines on me.

The safari will always be a machine in my fleet. Lots of people don’t realize just how powerful of a machine it really is. Having both is really just a means of feeling comfortable if one machine were to break down.

thanks i was just wondering what if... i will upgrade soon and keep the Safari nothing wrong with two Machine one the Wife can Use and ill use the other

 

[cairnterrier]

I have a question for the Safari user/owners past and present. I gave some thought about buying a Safari. Why the Safari? As a beginner, I think the various modes and the simplicity to use them would work well for me. It also appears that they are reliable. So, I contacted a dealer who has some in stock to ask about this detector. His reply, why would you buy a Safari when you can buy an Equinox 600 or 800. Further, he stated that it is way too slow and I would not like it.

His answers bothered me. Not that I was completely sold on purchasing one but it was on my list of top 3. I was going to primarily hunt for coins in fields, playgrounds etc. I read forums about people who have the Safari and they seem to really like them. Any input that you have negative or positive about the Safari would be helpful. I currently to not have a detector and was trying to do my due diligence before purchasing one. Thanks!

 

[Swaveab]

I have a question for the Safari user/owners past and present. I gave some thought about buying a Safari. Why the Safari? As a beginner, I think the various modes and the simplicity to use them would work well for me. It also appears that they are reliable. So, I contacted a dealer who has some in stock to ask about this detector. His reply, why would you buy a Safari when you can buy an Equinox 600 or 800. Further, he stated that it is way too slow and I would not like it.

His answers bothered me. Not that I was completely sold on purchasing one but it was on my list of top 3. I was going to primarily hunt for coins in fields, playgrounds etc. I read forums about people who have the Safari and they seem to really like them. Any input that you have negative or positive about the Safari would be helpful. I currently to not have a detector and was trying to do my due diligence before purchasing one. Thanks!

There will be a bit of a learning curve with any detector, but given the cheaper costs of the Equinox and its faster responses I think the Nox would be better unless you can come across a good used Safari.

 

[cudamark]

I have a question for the Safari user/owners past and present. I gave some thought about buying a Safari. Why the Safari? As a beginner, I think the various modes and the simplicity to use them would work well for me. It also appears that they are reliable. So, I contacted a dealer who has some in stock to ask about this detector. His reply, why would you buy a Safari when you can buy an Equinox 600 or 800. Further, he stated that it is way too slow and I would not like it.

His answers bothered me. Not that I was completely sold on purchasing one but it was on my list of top 3. I was going to primarily hunt for coins in fields, playgrounds etc. I read forums about people who have the Safari and they seem to really like them. Any input that you have negative or positive about the Safari would be helpful. I currently to not have a detector and was trying to do my due diligence before purchasing one. Thanks!

The Safari is kind of a poor man's Etrac. Don't get me wrong, it's a good machine, but, a lot less adjustable than it's big brother. It's not waterproof either if that is important to you. The Equinox is a lot lighter too, which will be more important as you get older. If your budget will stand it, I'd get the Equinox. It's a better machine in every aspect, and the difference in learning it over the Safari is nil. There are several turn-on-and-go programs on the Nox. You can tweak it later as you learn all it's options.

 

[cairnterrier]

I spoke to a dealer yesterday and it looks like as a semi beginner that I am going to buy the Safari. I had a Fisher decades ago and have decided to get back in to the game. My reasons whether valid or not with going with Safari is that I am primarily after coins, battery availability and replacement, learning curve (compared to others) and reliability to name a few. I am aware that the Safari is heavier, not water proof and slower recovery time and higher cost. Other detectors I consider were Equinox 600/800 and Vanquish 540 Pro Pack. I have not made final decision but I slept better last night after weeks of research.