Results of 2 different park turf tests. Nox vs Exp. II duels

Hey gang. I've been at this since about 1975 or '76 (started @ about 8th grade). Been "up through the ranks" of everything from the 77b & Whites 66tr, through the VLF/TR era. Through the 6000 and ADS III era, to the Eagle and XLT era, etc... And now am currently using as Exp. II for most all my hunting. Occasionally grabbing a Bandido for certain ghost-townsy locations. Some of you know my finds from other forums, and you've followed Brian (Cal Cobra) and I's hunt exploits, to know that I'm no slouch in md'ing. I've pitted many machines before deciding to try something new. So I'm very aware of the "come-back" lines that can be raised for any perceived failure of a machine in a test. I've done my best to short-circuit any such shortcoming. Eg.: subconscious biases, etc....

First stop was a certain downtown/oldtown park in CA . It dates to the 1860s/70s. Soil is moderate to low minerals. Most all the easies has long-since been pulled. But a person with a deep-seeking turf machine (explorer, etc...) can still pull some silver, wheats, IH's, etc...

I flagged a few suspected deepies with my Exp. II. Then pulled out the Nox 800 to try. I only used stock park 1 and park II modes. With nothing but a noise-check. No ground balance. No increasing the sens. No alterations of iron-bias or recovery speed. I also knocked out everything on the disc. from 17 downwards. So that I wouldn't be hearing the foil, nickels, round tabs, etc.... So too was I doing the same on my Exp. II , for purposes of this test. So that those factors are even between the 2 machines.

My total take for this hunt at this park was a very worn '68 seated dime, a '92 P barber dime, a '28 merc., and a few teens wheats. Depth's ranged from 6 to 8" . The Nox 800 could hear all of them. More pronounced and tell-tale "fluty" in the Park-2 mode. Hence so-far so-good. HOWEVER: In each case, it seemed that the Exp. II was giving them with "more room to spare". On the Nox , it seemed I needed to know exactly where the spot was. And then "work at it". Nonetheless, it could hear them. So I wrote off the strength-difference as to being, perhaps, my lack-of-experience on the tone-nuances of a new machine. Versus the Explorer II, where I am very familiar with its language.

I tried briefly to walk around with the nox to, likewise, find something to flag to test in reverse order . But when I went to try a few of those flags with the Exp, they were 4" deep zincs , or various other clad that I would not have even stopped to dig with my Exp. But , again, I wrote that off to un-familiarity with the Nox.

So , at least, I have nothing conclusively bad to say about the machine so far. Since *technically* I could find the accepted signals with either machine (given some effort & persuasion). Oh: And I did try switching to 5 khz on a couple of targets. It did not improve their strength over the that of the multi-freq. And if anything, added chatter.

Next day I took it to a certain center grass median strip in San Francisco. It dated to only the 00's to teens. The downtown high-rise electronic noise is awful. And the soil is funky minerals, such that deeper targets don't want to lock on. They seem to skew downwards on the TID. So that, for example, a silver quarter might read @ dime. A copper penny might read at zinc. And so forth. The strip is very littered with tabs, foil, iron, etc... On a certain block or two of this ~2 mile long strip, I have pulled many silver & wheaties in the past . And whenever I'm in the area, can be pretty certain that my Exp. II can get additional ones whenever I want.

For this test, I found a clean spot of ground with my Exp. II. Tested to make sure there was no signals of any sort, so-as to provide the ground balance spot for the Nox. I balanced the Nox, and locked it (no tracking). For my explorer sens, I was at 19 for most of the time. Sometimes down to 15. For the Nox: Sens. between 18 to 21, depending on chatter. And perpetual noise-cancels at varying intervals on the Nox & Exp. Iron bias was 02 on both park 1 and park 2 mode. I did not try up to 5 & 6 as TN-sharpshooter recommends, for nasty minerals. Didn't recall that recommendation till now. But: Wouldn't that simply have put me at risk of getting fooled by large rusty nails globs ? In any case: Iron bias was 02. Recovery speed 6 on both. Multi-Freq. on both. Tones @ 50. Disc. set to reject all items from 17 and downwards. (again, this is the same for the explorer , where I've got the flimsy square tabs and downwards knocked out).

I liked it when I hit the horseshoe button. It allows you to hear an all-metal sound, while simultaneously hearing your accepted targets in their correct TID tones (If I'm understanding correctly). I would definitely use that for relicky sites where I want to hear iron in the background, to perpetually let me mentally gauge the amount of human historic traffic I'm in, and the iron I'm' trying to contend with /see-around.

Yes the modulation is very poor for the top 5" or so. Very difficult to gauge 1" vs 3" vs 5", etc... And I notice that the 6" or more, where there starts to be a "fluty" sound, is very narrow band. Ie.: you have to be right over your target, swinging "just right". And also: A shallower target can be made to 'be fluty' by simply happen-chance having the coil slightly higher, or being slightly off, etc.... Unlike the Explorer where I more immediately recognize the signals for what they are. But, again: Wrote all this off to my vast experience on the Exp., and experimental only on the Nox.

At the San Francisco grass strip median: The first couple of targets I flagged and compared, proved extremely poor for the Nox. But then later I saw that I .... for some reason ....... had been in only 16 sens. (not sure how it got bumped lower since the day before). Once I put it up to 21, I could, like the day before, start to hear some flagged signals. Occasionally had to lower sens. to 18, since 21 was producing chatter. Likewise the Exp. II had to be lowered to 15 on those same stretches. As I flagged more signals, they again, like the day before, seemed bolder and stronger on the Exp. vs the Nox.

One particular reverse order flag (found first with Nox) was one that the Nox gave a good fluty deep repeatable signal. And when I went over it with the Exp. II : I had to admit that I WOULD NOT have elected to chase this one with the Exp. Hmmm. I had to "coax it out" JUST to even see/hear what the Nox had even been beeping on. Hmmm, this was going to be interesting !! Eh ? Turned out to be a mid-conductor metal nut thing. That ... yes ... once out of the ground was indeed within my acceptance range on the Exp. disc. settings. So *technically* I should have gotten it on the flagged stage of the test (albeit with a TID I might have elected to pass). So this proved a plus point for the Nox.

HOWEVER: At a certain point, I'd just dug a 1915 deep green wheatie. Which both machines had heard (albeit with some coaxing on the Nox). And once I'd covered the hole, I rechecked it. Just slightly off to the side, I got a sssuuuppeerr deep warble. Almost a null, but with a hint of something trying to warble in. This was a signal that, if it hadn't been for just having dug a deepie, and double checking for additionals, I might not have even registered. One of those "is this my imagination?" type signals. Yet ... you suspect "Oh, maybe there's another one down there @ same hole" type of moments. And it was slightly to the side, in un-disturbed ground.

Now on THIS one: The Nox could not hear it. No flicker of the audio. No flicker of the #'s. Nothing , nada, zilch. Tried noice-cancel. Tried playing with the sens. Tried everything. It could not be made to get any hint whatsoever. Turned out to be a very deep 1919 wheatie. 7 to 8". Which, I know, is not "deep" for some parks. But here, as I say: Stuff in this depth range , in this soil, is funky.

So IMHO this was a negative chalk mark for the Nox. on that target. I know someone will come on saying how it could have been heard doing XYZ. But realize that if you start "hopping up the settings", you then run the risk of loosing differentiation on other targets (ie.: EVERYTHING starts to "sound good" or "give identical signals", etc...). I did not have to "hop up" the Exp. II to get that signal. So IMHO, that one signal was given a fair shake.

Thus to conclude for turf: IMHO : If you put 2 expert users in a deep-turf scenario: User #1 with an Etrac or Exp. II. And User #2 with a Nox 800. I do not believe the Nox user is going to out-hunt the Explorer user. At least not on THIS exact grass median I was on yesterday.

This was not a test of iron-riddled ghost town sites. Was not a test of beach. It was only tests of various deep turf strategy cherry-picking for high-conductors type hunting.

Oh, and for kicks & giggles, for those who might know what long center grass median strip in SF I was referring to: My total take was 2 mercs ('20 & '44), a silver roosie ('64) , 9 wheaties (1913 and onwards), and an '03 IH.

The IH was in the hole with 2 twenties wheaties. And 2 of the wheaties were in a hole with the '44 merc. So if you count those pocket spills as "1 target", then the total take of oldies was 8 oldies.

I also had various "woulda-couldas" that mimic old coins. Eg.: very deep copper grommets, hinge, flat brass sportsmans button the size of a quarter, and so forth. So even besides coins, there was "period targets" at-depth, that were counting towards the flagged tests, as being just as legitimate as if they'd turned out to have been coins.

I had tried to do some videos of both machines. But it was a very windy day. So whenever I tried to unplug the jack to capture audio, I was getting tree-rustling, and car traffic noises too much. Nonetheless, I did end up capturing some audio tests, where a person can plainly see the Nox is needing "coaxing" to get in what the Exp was getting more boldly (again, I know this is user specific and a bias and familiarity I may have). But ... the viewer could judge. HOWEVER, as Murphy's law would have it: Each time I took great lengths to stop , video, narrate, etc... : Those turned out to be household doo-hickeys like hemweights, copper tent grommets, or whatever. Yes they are "period", yes they read in the coin range. Yes they were as deep as period coins. Thus yes they hold equal merit to a deep-turf-coin test. But it just took the wind out of my sails when they turned out to other items.

I've got the videos saved on my phone Brian. Next time we meet up, if you want to off-load them and make a video.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2018 05:05PM by Tom_in_CA.

Very detailed info Tom.

Speed setting.
Lower minerals allows for lower speed setting.
In inert ground for example speed settings of 3 and 4 useable for deeper targets, yet you loose separation/unmasking abilities.
Medium mineralized lowest speed setting I have found to be useful is 5.
In the higher mineralization speeds 6 and yes 7.

Iron bias don't need to be too high either.

Park 1 has speed setting of 5, that was what I was referring to, realizing your soil is not gentle to increase speed from 5 to 6.

Also to note here.
In higher mineralized soil, it may be possible to get some additional,depth using field 2, again keeping speed at 6.
Since field 2 is using a higher sampling it seems freq wise vs park 2.
Like in 5 or 6 bars indicated F75 soil.

Thanks for sharing Tom.
I wish Minelab would have put mineral strength meters on all their mid and higher priced detectors.
Would help us all especially when comparing.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2018 02:21PM by tnsharpshooter.

Tom - I really appreciate the time to test and post your findings. Never have been a user of the Exp. but I'm looking forward to receiving the 800 Nox. Thanks!

Thanks for the fair and honest report Tom. The Nox actually did better than I had expected when pitted against an experienced Explorer user such as yourself.

Will be interesting to me and many others to see the relic site results.
Tom

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In a democracy, it is difficult to win fellow citizens over to your own side, or to build public support to remedy injustices that remain all too real when you fundamentally misunderstand how they see the world.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2018 02:22PM by Jackpine.

Hey Tom,
When you go to your ghost town sites.
Some thing you may witness.

Speed setting.
You'll get good depth on bigger nonferrous with lower speed setting like say 5 or 6.
Like regualr coin size targets.

But depending on soil mineralization levels, take the small $1 gold coin. Speed 5 or 6 might miss, but speed 7 might get. (And this not connected with ferrous object trying to hide)
Due to speed 7 unmasking (differentiating) the smaller target out of the mineral.
So not cut and dried in a perfect sense. With depth ( all target sizes/conducivity ranges).

I can't wait for yours and Cal'a experiences in your ghost town sites.
Have popcorn on standby.

That was a good read, Tom. Thanks for posting it.

HH
Mike

ouch Tom, you bitch slapped my baby, lol

Tom, I would rather have your explorer knowledge and experience...and a Exp2...verses a new Nox. Your Exp 2 knowledge is near priceless, thanks for the report.

Tom, I've been checking back in here periodically to see what the general consensus from Nox users is, now that more and more have the units in-hand, and are getting out with them. As my post about a month ago indicated, my buddy and I went halves for the 600, and long story short, we pretty much came away with the same conclusion you did. The only difference was, we tested ours against our Etracs, not the Explorer.

I am SO happy someone did an actual head-to-head comparison specifically for deep coin turf hunting, since that's my world. Our spots mirror yours almost exactly. Silver and other old coins start at about the 5 or 6" mark for us. Aside from the occasional shallower old coin that's found due to masking or plain dumb luck, you'd be hard pressed to find any old piece of coinage where we hunt at less than the 6" mark. We also have fairly moderate mineralization here, just like you. So...

HEARING a signal is one thing, but being able to have enough information to cut down on digging the sheer abundance of trash that exists in our spots, is another. Meaning, having good modulated audio, tight/accurate VDI #'s, and the differentiation of tones is critical. All of which the Nox did not have, or, if it did, wasn't as good as it was on the Etrac, at least in our testing. As you said so well, I'm sure there will be targets that can be heard better or I.D.'d better by the Nox by playing with some settings and changing things around on-the-fly, but to me, that is not only a major inconvenience, it's also extremely time consuming. And why go through all of that anyway when the Etrac/Explorer/CTX can do it effortlessly, right out of the box?

Based on what I saw, yes, the Nox will surely find deep coins, but not as easily or quickly as the older units can. And you'll also wind up digging a lot more junk with it, too, versus a unit like the Explorer or Etrac. In my mind - and my thinking is even stronger now after seeing this and many other posts on the subject - the Nox's strong suit is mainly as an unmasker/relic unit, and I have no regrets letting mine go, since that's not the type of hunting I primarily do.

Thanks for taking your time to do the testing, and for providing an honest opinion regarding your findings.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2018 03:31PM by njnydigger.

Thanks cant wait to see your ghost town report...

What mystery is being revealed? Isn’t this what Minelab has been saying all along?

Minelab, October 19, 2017 [www.minelab.com]

“How does Multi-IQ compare to BBS/FBS?
Multi-IQ uses a different group of fundamental frequencies than BBS/FBS to generate a wide-band multi-frequency transmission signal that is more sensitive to high frequency targets and slightly less sensitive to low frequency targets. Multi-IQ uses the latest high-speed processors and advanced digital filtering techniques for a much faster recovery speed than BBS/FBS technologies. Multi-IQ copes with saltwater and beach conditions almost as well as BBS/FBS, however BBS/FBS still have an advantage for finding high conductive silver coins in all conditions.”

Sooo, what you're saying is, that the Nox performed exactly how Minelab said it would in comparison to their FBS line for high conductor targets? Did I interpret that correctly?

Why are so many of you surprised at That?

I don't understand why somebody would take a machine the manufacturer said would excel on certain targets, and then the only comparisons made are done in scenarios that already favor the strengths of the other machine. You set it up to fail before you even turned it on IMO. You already knew what the outcome would be.

Just like in vehicles...my wife and I bought a 2018 Toyota Rav4 hybrid yesterday for our soon to be growing family and for better gas MPG on road trips. It has more room in it than her F150 had in it, and gets more than double the gas mileage. That is its strengths. The F150s strength was it had a bed for hauling stuff and could tow a boat, trailer, etc. Its weakness was, at best, it got 18 mpg. It wouldn't make a lot of sense for me to hook a trailer to the Rav4 and compare its towing capacity to my Tundra. Rav4 is not known for towing capacity and would make a terrible choice for a farm vehicle. That's where my Tundra shines. At the same time, I wouldn't want to fill my Tundras tank up and head out on a long road trip. That's where the Rav4 Hybrid strength is going to kick in and not drain the bank account by having to fill up so many times in gas.

It has been said many many times. Horses for courses.

thanx everyone for your replies so far. I thought I was going to be heavily criticized. But.... this forum is made up of guys who relish the technology comparison side of the hobby equation. And is populated by some hard-core hunters. So I'm glad my testing wasn't immediately "tossed out" with all the usual come-back-lines.

Not saying some "come-back lines" aren't true or useful . Eg.: "You didn't try it long enough", or "you should have used this setting instead of that", blah blah. But.... the problem is, sometimes those can be never-ending. Some of the come-back lines can never be overcome. Anyone can say "you need 6 weeks and 100 hrs.". And if , in 6 weeks, they've concluded the same, then the claim could be made "give it 12 weeks and 200 hrs before you can say anything. And so forth into infinity. Thus *at a certain point*, when the test was over flagged "known" signals, with ample time to try a myriad of settings, then no amount of additional time is going to change those results. So while there's "merit" to come-back lines, there's also de-merits.

njnydigger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> the Nox's strong suit is ma
> inly as an unmasker/relic unit, and I have no regr
> ets letting mine go, since that's not the type of
> hunting I primarily do.
>
> Thanks for taking your time to do the testing, and
> for providing an honest opinion regarding your fin
> dings.

Really liked your post njnydigger. And yes: My conclusions/opinions could be very different in relicky ghost-townsy nail conditions. Because admittedly: The exp II (and Etrac, etc...) are not good at iron-see through tasks.

For that test, I'd like to see the Nox pitted against the Racer, or Impact, or Bandido, or Dues. On flagged targets.

calabash digger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks cant wait to see your ghost town report...


This will be on some upcoming hunts with Brian. A few of our relicky spots are not a function of iron-see-through. But a few others most definitely are.

One thing that, unfortunately, will not be happening, is to have Brian pit it against his tried & true Racer and Impact. I saw his finds #s go way up when using those machines. Admittedly seeing through iron better than my Explorer. And admittedly deeper than the bandido. So I'd really love to have him compare-duel his own machines. But ... I don't for-see that happening . So it won't be known if the afore-mentioned machines couldn't equally have gotten a signal.

Unless I'm wrong and you intend to do this Brian ?

Steve Herschbach Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What mystery is being revealed? Isn’t this what Mi
> nelab has been saying all along?
>

Daniel Tn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sooo, what you're saying is, that the Nox performe
> d exactly how Minelab said it would in comparison
> to their FBS line for high conductor targets? Did
> I interpret that correctly?
>
> Why are so many of you surprised at That?
>


Perhaps. But it's not what some of the consumer fan-fair has been saying. Some folks will simply not believe it is not far-and-away superior to existing machines for every venue.

As for superiority on lower conductors: About the only place I'd find that a "plus" is on the wet-salt beach. Because, of course, for jewelry. But teensy low conductors on land ..... while noble ... is not my objective. Heck, even gold coins (unless you're talking the $1 gold) are actually mid to mid-high conductors . Ie.: nickel, to pull-tab, and up. Of which standard machines have NO PROBLEM hearing.

When I'm hunting old turfed parks, I'm cherry picking for coins. So the "better sensitivity for low conductors" becomes a non-issue. It would only be a benefit for the beach. But since I do most of my beach hunting @ beach storms, then depth becomes a non-issue, and speed becomes the name of the game (erosion sometimes disappears in a single night). Yes, it would be nice to have a beach machine which gets dainty chains better. But I can already get some pretty small gold jewelry with my explorer, yet I'll admit it's weak or non-existent on micro-jewelry. It's also weak on nasty jet black minerals. Perhaps the Nox would be an improvement in those conditions over machines like the Sov, the Excal, the Exp., etc....



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2018 05:38PM by Tom_in_CA.

Steve Herschbach Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What mystery is being revealed? Isn’t this what Mi
> nelab has been saying all along?
>
> Minelab, October 19, 2017 [www.minelab.com]
> go-minelabbing/treasure-talk/equinox-technologies-
> part-1
>
> “How does Multi-IQ compare to BBS/FBS?
> Multi-IQ uses a different group of fundamental fre
> quencies than BBS/FBS to generate a wide-band mult
> i-frequency transmission signal that is more sensi
> tive to high frequency targets and slightly less s
> ensitive to low frequency targets. Multi-IQ uses t
> he latest high-speed processors and advanced digit
> al filtering techniques for a much faster recovery
> speed than BBS/FBS technologies. Multi-IQ copes wi
> th saltwater and beach conditions almost as well a
> s BBS/FBS, however BBS/FBS still have an advantage
> for finding high conductive silver coins in all co
> nditions.”

"what mystery is being revealed"?--Actually None as per ML releases from the git go.

I think Mr. Greenspan coined a phrase that would help to explain some of the conflicting noise levels:Irrational Exuberance.

Some have proclaimed that with since the NOX all other detectors should be deep sixed and that anyone who thought differently should join their now worthless detectors. Others have stood by Ole Nelly no matter what,when, or where tests have been done.

Me thinks it all boils down to Irrational Exuberance or Irrational Rejection.

No Doc,
It was wishful,thinking of some's part, somehow try get to get the Nox to match or exceed fbs types on depth-high conductive coins.
I have said nowhere where I have posted that in medium mineralized ground Nox is as deep or deeper than fbs types-high conductive coins.
Lower conductive coins different story though.

But the Nox can hunt behind the fbs types if certain conditions exist.
Minelab like Steve pointed out told us this long time ago.

Hey nice finds live in trash and iron.
They live in the open too.
Folks use and buy what they want.

There was a very bright gent who replied to a question here few weeks ago.
His response was.
((( Depends on application))).
Shouldn't be too hard to figure out who this bright person was.
By looking at his total response above.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2018 05:52PM by tnsharpshooter.

doc holiday Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Some have proclaimed that with since the NOX all o
> ther detectors should be deep sixed and that anyon
> e who thought differently should join their now wo
> rthless detectors. Others have stood by Ole Nelly
> no matter what,when, or where tests have been done
> .
>
> Me thinks it all boils down to Irrational Exuberan
> ce or Irrational Rejection.

Thanx Doc. That's what I wanted to test. Was for that crowd. Not the crowd that already acknowledges that it will not meet the Exp. and Etrac and CTX depths on high conductors in certain hunt venues.

Oh, and let's be clear : That "acknowledgement" that Minelab gave early on: Read it again. You'll notice it's rather ambiguous. Ie.: it doesn't come right out and say "not deeper" . IN FACT : Look close as Steve H's quote. It says:

..... still have an advantage for finding high conductive silver coins in all conditions.”

Hmmm, do you see how this "admission" was very weak at best ? And could be interpretted by some to believe they'd loose nothing (eg.: a step sideways) or in fact actually do BETTER at high conductors . See ? So for those who think it's a numb-skull post to test it in this fashion, re-read the supposed pre-release admission. And you'll see it leaves the question very much open-ended.

I’m speaking for myself, but I’m sure there are others out there who feel the same as I do. If you take a look at the tidbit Steve posted, above (which I saw before buying as it was posted everywhere online), you’ll notice it says BBS/FBS has the “advantage” on silver in nearly all conditions versus Multi-IQ. Fine. However, it doesn’t state how MUCH of an advantage.

Imagine calling a dealer to buy an Etrac or a CTX, and not being given prices. He only tells you that the CTX is more expensive. Okay, by how much? If it’s $10 I’ll obviously take the CTX. If it’s $600 I’ll go for the Etrac. It’s specifics.

The motivation for my purchase of an Equinox was thus: If it was VERY close in performance to my Etrac, I would have happily dealt with a few drawbacks like losing the FE/CO info, etc., as the lower price, lower weight, waterproof & wireless capabilities would’ve more than evened the playing field. However, once I actually got the unit in my hands, and saw how stark of a difference it was, TO ME, it wasn’t worth it. Others might feel differently. Obviously, I could only gauge what “advantage” truly meant once I tested it, myself. And after doing so, it just wasn’t the right machine for my needs. No biggie.

So, for me, I knew fully well going in that the FBS/BBS units have the “advantage”, edge or whatever else you’d like to call it, but I needed to see with my own eyes just how close or far that advantage truly was.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2018 06:08PM by njnydigger.

Steve H, and Daniel TN: Can you please re-read Minelab's advance statement (which Steve quoted above), and address that ... when read carefully, it was not really saying anything concrete about silver-at-depth. It was open-ended enough, that it could be read, by some people, as actually saying they were going to get an in-bound detector that spanks others for silver-at-depth.

Again, consider this line in it:

" .... still have an advantage for finding high conductive silver coins in all conditions.”

That hardly sounds to me, that anything is being admitted to as a weakness

Tom ,I think you test "in the wild" is the Best type test for showing what YOU were testing for and it was very revealing. Thanks for the effort. Look forward to more "in the wild" testing.

Personally, I don't care which is deeper, better on low conductors, better on high conductors, has x-ray vision, can pick lotto numbers or anything else. It's only better if it's better for me where and how I hunt. It or any other machine can provide hours of entertainment learning how best to run it in several situations but they will have to be MY situations before it means much to me. And I won't be making videos because they would mean little in YOUR situation.

Still, it's fun to read the experiences of others and who knows.....I might just get a little nugget of useful info.

The only thing I've noticed about my Nox so far is that.......I DON'T HAVE IT YET !!!.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2018 06:34PM by PhDtector.

Hey Tom,
Well written, clearly presented report. The only question I have is related to swing speed. I expect swing speed with Explorer is quite slow. And ML suggests in their manual, if I'm not mistaken, that Equinox improves in depth and TID accuracy with a fast(er) swing speed.
Just curious if you were able to faithfully apply faster swing speed to Equinox while co-using the Explorer? If you varied swing speed with the EQ, did you notice any difference in signal strength and or TID?

Thanks

Wayne

PhDtector Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Personally, I don't care which is deeper, better o
> n low conductors, better on high conductors, has x
> -ray vision, can pick lotto numbers or anything el
> se. It's only better if it's better for me where
> and how I hunt. It or any other machine can provid
> e hours of entertainment learning how best to run
> it in several situations but they will have to be
> MY situations before it means much to me. And I wo
> n't be making videos because they would mean littl
> e in YOUR situation.
>
> Still, it's fun to read the experiences of others
> and who knows.....I might just get a little nugget
> of useful info.
>
> The only thing I've noticed about my Nox so far is
> that.......I DON'T HAVE IT YET !!!.

Well said! Also, it's not just " situational" (environmental). I think that "personality" comes in to it as well. I have had machines that work great for my hunting buddies, hunting in the same environs, that I just didn't "click" with.

I hope you get yours soon!

Dean

Tom_in_CA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Thus to conclude for turf: IMHO : If you put 2 e
> xpert users in a deep-turf scenario: User #1 with
> an Etrac or Exp. II. And User #2 with a Nox 800.
> I do not believe the Nox user is going to out-hunt
> the Explorer user.

So what you are saying is that I should not have given away my Etrac and my Explorer II because I now own a NOX......


Up to my ____ in Pulltabs, Grant

Good report Tom.
The Equinox will not be everyone’s cup of tea.. I can see where some FBS users won’t take to it..
If you want more of the Explorer feel on deep targets you are going to have to drop your Recovery Speed way down
to around 3 or so.. I like 4 when I’m not in heavy Trash.. That will give you your longer bigger tones at depth like your Explorer..
You of course will start loosing separation at those speeds..
The speed is the beauty of the Equinox.. After a few hunts you will start finding coins next to trash that will surprise you..
The first couple finds like this you will think it was just luck. Then it starts becoming apparent that this is the norm for the Equinox..
It’s not an in your face magical experience the first or every time you go out.. It will be just one or two coins per hunt that you will just shake your head at..

My Equinox has been very deep in my soil on both mid and high conductors..
It seems deeper then my E-Trac with the Tornado coil on, but I have not verified in the wild..
I had plans to do side by sides but the 8-10 inch coins have come through so clear I just didn’t feel the need to do a side by side..
You have inspired me to drag my E-Trac along for some depth testing in the wild..

I hope you give the Equinox a few more hunts..
Worse case it would be a great companion to your Explorer for when you get in to the heavy trash,
water or relic hunt..

Bryan

Tom after a few more varied hunts under your belt, you will probably realize that the nox is an excellent sidekick to your exp 2.

ncwayne Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey Tom,
> Well written, clearly presented report. The only q
> uestion I have is related to swing speed. I expect
> swing speed with Explorer is quite slow. And ML su
> ggests in their manual, if I'm not mistaken, that
> Equinox improves in depth and TID accuracy with a
> fast(er) swing speed.
> Just curious if you were able to faithfully apply
> faster swing speed to Equinox while co-using the E
> xplorer? If you varied swing speed with the EQ, di
> d you notice any difference in signal strength and
> or TID?
>
> Thanks
>
> Wayne

Wayne, excellent question. Yes I had noticed on the air bench testing, before I even went out, that this one requires a faster swing speed. And the answer to your question is : Yes, I had toyed with swing speed over each of the flag signals. Little bit faster, a little bit slower and everything in between.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/2018 02:11AM by Tom_in_CA.

Tom -- I can only offer you my take on the FBS vs Equinox thing.

Simply put, the Equinox wasn't ever designed or intended to compete against Minelab's own flagship models. It was designed to go head to head against the Deus and other similar machines. There was a big gap in the Minelab detector lineup and the Equinox fills that gap. The closest Minelab had to any form of a relic hunting or site work machine, was the X-Terra and there is a big difference between that and the heavy hitter relic machines out there. When it came to the FBS machines in attempting to relic hunt...I would rather you give me a Tesoro than a CTX or eTrac.

The strengths of the Deus that everybody loves, are the wireless capability, the light weight, and picking stuff out of iron. Minelab met them on the wireless side, gave people a lighter weight machine, and made the machine be able to compete against the Deus in picking out of iron. BUT it didn't stop there. It added being water proof, and being able to change frequencies from 5 to 40 khz without having to buy expensive coils to do so, and the addition of running true multi freq. This makes the Equinox do things the Deus just can't do. I have had two Deus machines and I admit I don't have a lot of time behind them like some people do. I total about 2 yrs on mine. I found the ID to be near useless on it...as the saying goes, use the remote to make setting changes, and then stick it in your pocket and ignore it....if it beeps, dig. That's great for a place you can dig everything in. But some places you just can't do that. I have more places that I can't do that in, than I have places that I do. Some may be the opposite. Enter the Nox....just as good at picking through the iron and trash (if not better), with the added bonus of a target ID that works.

It does have some bonus stuff going for it too. It has one of the better abilities to handle high minerals. I've been able to hunt places I normally would have to go to all metal on machines that offered it, or to pulse machines, which as soon as you hit heavy iron, pulse machines struggle.

Low conductors aren't such a bad thing in the eyes of a relic hunter. I know you park guys automatically think of low conductors as being foil and can slaw. But when it comes to buttons and lead, this thing eats them alive like nothing I have used in the past. I've not dug any micro pieces of aluminum or can slaw as of yet...but I admit I've only been chasing the signals from 15 on up. I am not currently running discrimination with mine though....just an old habit of running wide open disc.

When I first got my first FBS machine, I was amazed at places where silver dimes and coins would pop up. Seems like I could hunt just about anywhere and pop up a silver dime or quarter while running that first Explorer 2. Since getting the Nox, it has been that way with flat buttons. Seems like every where I go, I'm popping up a flat button or buttons, and or bullets and lead chunks. I'm up to 20 something out of one spot on my property just by itself.