Minelab Equinox tips and questions

[Goldtarget]

So I called Reeds and just recieved another reply from Minelab via Facebook....

Reeds told me about the same thing Minelab wrote...there's an announcement in December, which is not really confirmation or denial of an earlier than Feb 2018 release.

The lovely lady at Reeds did ask if I wanted to be put on the contact list as they (based on previous history like the Monster) expected they might be the first to get the Equinox.

I did politely decline for 2 reasons. I don't trust shipping these days, seems things are getting worse. I can literally get things from places like Singapore delivered faster than some items out of Victoria at times...and at less cost. And your always at the mercy of the suppliers choice and the cartage contractors whims....Sad but true.

Secondly I hold hope someone might buy one and hate it or struggle and decide to sell with a chunk off retail....it happens all the time and I'm, well, ....cheap.

Any way I wait in hope of something filtering through the grapevine. As the weather gets drier my disatisfaction lessens a little.

 

[Whisp]

So I called Reeds and just recieved another reply from Minelab via Facebook....

Reeds told me about the same thing Minelab wrote...there's an announcement in December, which is not really confirmation or denial of an earlier than Feb 2018 release.

The lovely lady at Reeds did ask if I wanted to be put on the contact list as they (based on previous history like the Monster) expected they might be the first to get the Equinox.

I did politely decline for 2 reasons. I don't trust shipping these days, seems things are getting worse. I can literally get things from places like Singapore delivered faster than some items out of Victoria at times...and at less cost. And your always at the mercy of the suppliers choice and the cartage contractors whims....Sad but true.

Secondly I hold hope someone might buy one and hate it or struggle and decide to sell with a chunk off retail....it happens all the time and I'm, well, ....cheap.

Any way I wait in hope of something filtering through the grapevine. As the weather gets drier my disatisfaction lessens a little.

I'm hearing you about the shipping problem. Last week Australia Post managed to lose my pin pointer. No care taken and couldn't give a stuff.

 

[anton]

all i can say is from what ive seen so far (especially from the youtube video of those units at detectival), is i definitely wont be retiring the etrac, as the equinox falls well short (besides waterproof, but hey, we got the ctx or garrett etc)..watching the detectival videos,the id's in all frequencies are jumpy, they appear massively susceptible to emi, and i dont know who else noticed, but the equinox didnt seem to hit any of the test targets the minelab boys buried,with the lovely posters of the targets..that actually put a big red flag up for me and finally towards the end of the video, it shows a guy airtesting a coin by moving it towards the coil.. good grief!!! that was an 11 inch coil, my deus with the 9 inch will slaughter it! again, not impressive..im not impressed by multifrequency machines running single frequency at a time, machines, i own several (deus,impact,v3i) and they are all excellent..WHAT i really want is fbs and etrac tones in a lightweight, waterproof package, unfortunately this isnt looking like it, but a newer xterra with a poormans version of fbs one or 2 multifrequency chucked in ..oh well next minelab release maybe 8.(

after having appeared to knock the clappers out of it (from what ive seen), i am still going to try one.. i dont anticipate i,ll have it long,unless what ive seen on the video turns out totally wrong..but i,ll say this, it appears a good upgrade for the xterra guys, just not quite what us etrac/ctx users would have hoped for...

now for the caveat..everything,good or bad in this thread,until they actually hit the market, is just speculation,so until we get real reviews from production models, those who think this could be the best thing since sliced bread, or a peice of crud, until that day gets here, its all speculation

oh, and what genius at minelab came up with the slogan that it will make all other vlf detectors obselete? (what total bs!),he should be hung out to dry with the garrett guy who reckons the at max is a great salt water hunter, because they said that months before we saw the max and look at that,lol

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

all i can say is from what ive seen so far (especially from the youtube video of those units at detectival), is i definitely wont be retiring the etrac, as the equinox falls well short (besides waterproof, but hey, we got the ctx or garrett etc)..watching the detectival videos,the id's in all frequencies are jumpy, they appear massively susceptible to emi, and i dont know who else noticed, but the equinox didnt seem to hit any of the test targets the minelab boys buried,with the lovely posters of the targets..that actually put a big red flag up for me and finally towards the end of the video, it shows a guy airtesting a coin by moving it towards the coil.. good grief!!! that was an 11 inch coil, my deus with the 9 inch will slaughter it! again, not impressive..im not impressed by multifrequency machines running single frequency at a time, machines, i own several (deus,impact,v3i) and they are all excellent..WHAT i really want is fbs and etrac tones in a lightweight, waterproof package, unfortunately this isnt looking like it, but a newer xterra with a poormans version of fbs one or 2 multifrequency chucked in ..oh well next minelab release maybe 8.(

after having appeared to knock the clappers out of it (from what ive seen), i am still going to try one.. i dont anticipate i,ll have it long,unless what ive seen on the video turns out totally wrong..but i,ll say this, it appears a good upgrade for the xterra guys, just not quite what us etrac/ctx users would have hoped for...

now for the caveat..everything,good or bad in this thread,until they actually hit the market, is just speculation,so until we get real reviews from production models, those who think this could be the best thing since sliced bread, or a peice of crud, until that day gets here, its all speculation

oh, and what genius at minelab came up with the slogan that it will make all other vlf detectors obselete? (what total bs!),he should be hung out to dry with the garrett guy who reckons the at max is a great salt water hunter, because they said that months before we saw the max and look at that,lol

You seem to be making all the speculations.

History is good for Minelab, and what they release works and works well. For the price range it will definitely be on top of its game.

Example is GoFind, nothing around for that price works as well. Will a GoFind be used by a serious detectorist, NO. But once again, in that price range, there is no other option out there. So it is the leader of the pack for a detector under $500. (My kids have one, I don't like them lol, but that is besides the point, kids do)

I know a few detectorists who have had the opportunity to test them and they are on board, not sponsored by minelab either.

Anyways, all this so called speculation will be over very soon. Then we can let all the comments flow, good or bad.

The ID numbers are still getting sorted out last I heard from Minelab, so I wouldn't take too much from them.

 

[anton]

no, im making observations based on recorded evidence..big differenceas for what you heard from minelab about the id numbers,well, im sorry, i have to call bs, as the worldwide testing had already been done by detectival, and basically what they let the public and press get their hands on there is what the initial public release gonna be,and i too had a good friend involved in the testing of the equinox in the US since day zero, and like what i saw on the detectival release video of (what i percieved) as jumpy id,was one of his major dissapointments with it...look, it definitely will be a good spinner for minelab,and good luck to them ..my comments were coming from a ctx/etrac users perspective and how, it not really what we were hoping for, but you are right!..hopefully we shall see very soon how good/bad its going to be

as for your references to the go find,thanks for making me bring my breakfast back up,too,by the way , well,seriously, go finds are nothing but a joke..you want a quality detector for around 500 bux? only one company can seriously give you that,and it aint minelab think ace 200 or 300 i ..sorry to burst your minelab bubble, but the ace 250 is still the number one selling detector on the planet, and has been since its introduction..proven FACT..the go finds dont even register as a blip in that stratosphere..we could argue the point, but the numbers dont lie

 

[golddiggerart]

no, im making observations based on recorded evidence..big differenceas for what you heard from minelab about the id numbers,well, im sorry, i have to call bs, as the worldwide testing had already been done by detectival, and basically what they let the public and press get their hands on there is what the initial public release gonna be,and i too had a good friend involved in the testing of the equinox in the US since day zero, and like what i saw on the detectival release video of (what i percieved) as jumpy id,was one of his major dissapointments with it...look, it definitely will be a good spinner for minelab,and good luck to them ..my comments were coming from a ctx/etrac users perspective and how, it not really what we were hoping for, but you are right!..hopefully we shall see very soon how good/bad its going to be

as for your references to the go find,thanks for making me bring my breakfast back up,too,by the way , well,seriously, go finds are nothing but a joke..you want a quality detector for around 500 bux? only one company can seriously give you that,and it aint minelab think ace 200 or 300 i ..sorry to burst your minelab bubble, but the ace 250 is still the number one selling detector on the planet, and has been since its introduction..proven FACT..the go finds dont even register as a blip in that stratosphere..we could argue the point, but the numbers dont lie

The one's they used at Detectival as stated were prototypes to get more hype into it...They were still making updates/changes to it...Like any Detector the proof is in the actual buying/testing....
I mentioned last night that the 505 in my experience is more sensitive than the 705, having tested both.... All good machines and if tuned in right they will all find the good and not so good.....
I am wanting to buy one after it's initial release to see how the Multi Frequency option works on the Beach and being Waterproof as well is a big plus...Weight is also a big factor. :Y:

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/LxXHMedHwC8[/video]

@4:55 he does mention it is a prototype...

 

[anton]

no, im making observations based on recorded evidence..big differenceas for what you heard from minelab about the id numbers,well, im sorry, i have to call bs, as the worldwide testing had already been done by detectival, and basically what they let the public and press get their hands on there is what the initial public release gonna be,and i too had a good friend involved in the testing of the equinox in the US since day zero, and like what i saw on the detectival release video of (what i percieved) as jumpy id,was one of his major dissapointments with it...look, it definitely will be a good spinner for minelab,and good luck to them ..my comments were coming from a ctx/etrac users perspective and how, it not really what we were hoping for, but you are right!..hopefully we shall see very soon how good/bad its going to be

as for your references to the go find,thanks for making me bring my breakfast back up,too,by the way , well,seriously, go finds are nothing but a joke..you want a quality detector for around 500 bux? only one company can seriously give you that,and it aint minelab think ace 200 or 300 i ..sorry to burst your minelab bubble, but the ace 250 is still the number one selling detector on the planet, and has been since its introduction..proven FACT..the go finds dont even register as a blip in that stratosphere..we could argue the point, but the numbers dont lie

The one's they used at Detectival as stated were prototypes to get more hype into it...They were still making updates/changes to it...Like any Detector the proof is in the actual buying/testing....
I mentioned last night that the 505 in my experience is more sensitive than the 705, having tested both.... All good machines and if tuned in right they will all find the good and not so good.....
I am wanting to buy one after it's initial release to see how the Multi Frequency option works on the Beach and being Waterproof as well is a big plus...Weight is also a big factor. :Y:





@4:55 he does mention it is a prototype...

excellent post, and totally agree..i too will wait until they have been floating about for a few months and the real reports from actual users start flowing in, good or bad..and that is what im most interested is the multifrequency part of the machine, the single freq's on their own probably wouldnt be a huge upgrade over the xterra..hope the mf is good and can justify the xtra premium in cost over the venerable 705/505's

bottomline, i reckon, its going to be more evolutionary rather than revolutionary :Y:

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

PROTOTYPES

Clearly stated by Minelab and they even mentioned the ID numbers not being right and it would be sorted by launch time. Its data building.

Nothing good about the post.

 

[anton]

PROTOTYPES

Clearly stated by Minelab and they even mentioned the ID numbers not being right and it would be sorted by launch time. Its data building.

Nothing good about the post.

yeah , and i suppose they said they going to fix their obvious suseceptibility to emi at the same time,eh bud? look man, i prefer to deal in fact not rumour or wishful thinking youve blatently announced minelab have PUBLICLY said they going to fix a jumpy id (yeah, right, a huge company like minelab admitting to a problem with a product they are just about to unleash, lol ) now!! you link to so called admission of this on either the minelab australia, uk or us site, comeon man! put your money where your mouth is and prove me wrong, im a big boy and can take it, but remember, link to minelab themselves admitting to fixing a problem,not some third party :Y: i mean really, do you think minelab are going to give the obvious xterra replacement rock solid id at depth like their own 1800 or 2600 dollar etrac or ctx ? it just aint gonna happen my friend

 

[Coinballs]

PROTOTYPES

Clearly stated by Minelab and they even mentioned the ID numbers not being right and it would be sorted by launch time. Its data building.

Nothing good about the post.

yeah , and i suppose they said they going to fix their obvious suseceptibility to emi at the same time,eh bud? look man, i prefer to deal in fact not rumour or wishful thinking youve blatently announced minelab have PUBLICLY said they going to fix a jumpy id (yeah, right, a huge company like minelab admitting to a problem with a product they are just about to unleash, lol ) now!! you link to so called admission of this on either the minelab australia, uk or us site, comeon man! put your money where your mouth is and prove me wrong, im a big boy and can take it, but remember, link to minelab themselves admitting to fixing a problem,not some third party :Y: i mean really, do you think minelab are going to give the obvious xterra replacement rock solid id at depth like their own 1800 or 2600 dollar etrac or ctx ? it just aint gonna happen my friend

Well here's a tip old mate, don't buy one. Plenty of others will though

 

[anton]

PROTOTYPES

Clearly stated by Minelab and they even mentioned the ID numbers not being right and it would be sorted by launch time. Its data building.

Nothing good about the post.

yeah , and i suppose they said they going to fix their obvious suseceptibility to emi at the same time,eh bud? look man, i prefer to deal in fact not rumour or wishful thinking youve blatently announced minelab have PUBLICLY said they going to fix a jumpy id (yeah, right, a huge company like minelab admitting to a problem with a product they are just about to unleash, lol ) now!! you link to so called admission of this on either the minelab australia, uk or us site, comeon man! put your money where your mouth is and prove me wrong, im a big boy and can take it, but remember, link to minelab themselves admitting to fixing a problem,not some third party :Y: i mean really, do you think minelab are going to give the obvious xterra replacement rock solid id at depth like their own 1800 or 2600 dollar etrac or ctx ? it just aint gonna happen my friend

Well here's a tip old mate, don't buy one. Plenty of others will though

if you actually read entire posts in the conversation,without just jumping in with comments without getting the context, you would have read that im actually going to buy one, im just saying in my conversations with an obvious fanboy, that from my perspective as an etrac/ctx user it may not be the minelab myself and other users of their highend coin and relic machines were hoping for...im hoping their next release will be stellar,when they upgrade thier top end units :Y:

 

[Coinballs]

PROTOTYPES

Clearly stated by Minelab and they even mentioned the ID numbers not being right and it would be sorted by launch time. Its data building.

Nothing good about the post.

yeah , and i suppose they said they going to fix their obvious suseceptibility to emi at the same time,eh bud? look man, i prefer to deal in fact not rumour or wishful thinking youve blatently announced minelab have PUBLICLY said they going to fix a jumpy id (yeah, right, a huge company like minelab admitting to a problem with a product they are just about to unleash, lol ) now!! you link to so called admission of this on either the minelab australia, uk or us site, comeon man! put your money where your mouth is and prove me wrong, im a big boy and can take it, but remember, link to minelab themselves admitting to fixing a problem,not some third party :Y: i mean really, do you think minelab are going to give the obvious xterra replacement rock solid id at depth like their own 1800 or 2600 dollar etrac or ctx ? it just aint gonna happen my friend

Well here's a tip old mate, don't buy one. Plenty of others will though

if you actually read entire posts in the conversation,without just jumping in with comments without getting the context, you would have read that im actually going to buy one, im just saying in my conversations with an obvious fanboy, that from my perspective as an etrac/ctx user it may not be the minelab myself and other users of their highend coin and relic machines were hoping for...im hoping their next release will be stellar,when they upgrade thier top end units :Y:

I'll jump in with whatever I like pal, I run a ctx myself

 

[anton]

PROTOTYPES

Clearly stated by Minelab and they even mentioned the ID numbers not being right and it would be sorted by launch time. Its data building.

Nothing good about the post.

yeah , and i suppose they said they going to fix their obvious suseceptibility to emi at the same time,eh bud? look man, i prefer to deal in fact not rumour or wishful thinking youve blatently announced minelab have PUBLICLY said they going to fix a jumpy id (yeah, right, a huge company like minelab admitting to a problem with a product they are just about to unleash, lol ) now!! you link to so called admission of this on either the minelab australia, uk or us site, comeon man! put your money where your mouth is and prove me wrong, im a big boy and can take it, but remember, link to minelab themselves admitting to fixing a problem,not some third party :Y: i mean really, do you think minelab are going to give the obvious xterra replacement rock solid id at depth like their own 1800 or 2600 dollar etrac or ctx ? it just aint gonna happen my friend

Well here's a tip old mate, don't buy one. Plenty of others will though

if you actually read entire posts in the conversation,without just jumping in with comments without getting the context, you would have read that im actually going to buy one, im just saying in my conversations with an obvious fanboy, that from my perspective as an etrac/ctx user it may not be the minelab myself and other users of their highend coin and relic machines were hoping for...im hoping their next release will be stellar,when they upgrade thier top end units :Y:

I'll jump in with whatever I like pal, I run a ctx myself

well at least you got some good taste... keeping it on topic, are you gonna buy an equinox? thats why i commented in this thread, i want to hear from guys running etrac/ctx and if the equinox could be a good addition or whatever, rather than speculate on a machine thats probably 2 or more months away, at least

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

PROTOTYPES

Clearly stated by Minelab and they even mentioned the ID numbers not being right and it would be sorted by launch time. Its data building.

Nothing good about the post.

yeah , and i suppose they said they going to fix their obvious suseceptibility to emi at the same time,eh bud? look man, i prefer to deal in fact not rumour or wishful thinking youve blatently announced minelab have PUBLICLY said they going to fix a jumpy id (yeah, right, a huge company like minelab admitting to a problem with a product they are just about to unleash, lol ) now!! you link to so called admission of this on either the minelab australia, uk or us site, comeon man! put your money where your mouth is and prove me wrong, im a big boy and can take it, but remember, link to minelab themselves admitting to fixing a problem,not some third party :Y: i mean really, do you think minelab are going to give the obvious xterra replacement rock solid id at depth like their own 1800 or 2600 dollar etrac or ctx ? it just aint gonna happen my friend

What ARE YOU ON ABOUT????
I do not have to prove anything to you. It is what it is, deal with it.
Link???? Money??? Are you for real?
ID numbers not being finalised due to needing more fine tuning.
Pretty simple really.

And do I think Minelab would release a detector that is cheaper than a CTX but nearly as capable.....um yes. If you sell 3 units at $1400, that is a lot better than selling 1 unit at $2600. Simple maths....lower the price and sell more units. It is also smart in production wise, to lower building costs and this can be done in multiple ways.

How about you start your own thread about how much you think the Equinox will let you down and others. Call it Equinox Speculation or something.

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

yeah , and i suppose they said they going to fix their obvious suseceptibility to emi at the same time,eh bud? look man, i prefer to deal in fact not rumour or wishful thinking youve blatently announced minelab have PUBLICLY said they going to fix a jumpy id (yeah, right, a huge company like minelab admitting to a problem with a product they are just about to unleash, lol ) now!! you link to so called admission of this on either the minelab australia, uk or us site, comeon man! put your money where your mouth is and prove me wrong, im a big boy and can take it, but remember, link to minelab themselves admitting to fixing a problem,not some third party :Y: i mean really, do you think minelab are going to give the obvious xterra replacement rock solid id at depth like their own 1800 or 2600 dollar etrac or ctx ? it just aint gonna happen my friend

Well here's a tip old mate, don't buy one. Plenty of others will though

if you actually read entire posts in the conversation,without just jumping in with comments without getting the context, you would have read that im actually going to buy one, im just saying in my conversations with an obvious fanboy, that from my perspective as an etrac/ctx user it may not be the minelab myself and other users of their highend coin and relic machines were hoping for...im hoping their next release will be stellar,when they upgrade thier top end units :Y:

I'll jump in with whatever I like pal, I run a ctx myself

well at least you got some good taste... keeping it on topic, are you gonna buy an equinox? thats why i commented in this thread, i want to hear from guys running etrac/ctx and if the equinox could be a good addition or whatever, rather than speculate on a machine thats probably 2 or more months away, at least

Pretty sure the Etrac is dead now.

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

https://www.minelab.com/anz/customer-care/product-notices?article=316550

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

Next the E-trac be discontinued by the looks of things. Makes sense.

And I would say the CTX will stay around for a little while longer.

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

Unfortunately the E-trac is sitting right in the Equinox's price range. Let's see once released what happens to the E-trac... price drop I think.

 

[goldwright]

In the end boys it makes no difference some will love the Equinox and some will not just like every Minelab released in the last few years.

 

[Heatho]

As a CTX user I can see where Anton is coming from, I was hoping that the Equinox would be the CTX killer but I really don't think it will be either. For a start the Equinox only has conductive TID's where as the CTX having ferrous and conductive TID makes a big difference to the overall discrimination capabilities. Also having target trace and target trace pinpoint are pretty awesome features as well that the Equinox most likely won't have.

Don't get me wrong, I think the Equinox is going to be a great detector in that price range but I don't think it's going to be as sophisticated as the CTX, hopefully I'm proven wrong but I'd say Minelab will have another high end treasure detector in the future to replace the CTX. I'm hoping they will anyway.

The Gold Monster wasn't released as an upgrade from the GPX range, it's a budget entry level gold detector. The Zed was the upgrade from the GPX series. I only see the Equinox as a replacement and upgrade from the XTerra range, to be honest I don't think it will even match the Etrac in junk infested ground, I could be wrong though. Hopefully there will be a new treasure detector upgrade from the CTX, the only area I can see the Equinox being better is it is a lot lighter and maybe has a faster recovery speed.

I'd like to see Minelab expand on the CTX platform and make something even better. If the Equinox is better then I'll buy one without doubt, really looking forward to the release date and start seeing some reports from people who own both detectors.