CTX or Equinox

[Normsel]

I been wanting a CTX 3030 for about 3 years but since I have seen all the hype about the Equinox 800 I am kind of torn between which one I want now. I have an Etrac and a Spectra V3i and like them both but I don't need a new detector it's all about want and the challenge of a new detector. I am afraid if I buy a new detector I will be in divorce court.

She still reminds me of the AtPro I needed because the Ace 250 was good but the ATP was better and then the V3i was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Then of course the Etrac that would bring home the bacon. I gave the Ace 250 to my grandson. I am thinking I may have to find a buyer for the V3i and the AtPro but used detectors don't bring much. I am not advertising them on here it's just my thoughts at the present.

I need a excuse to bite the bullet and buy a CTX or Equinox. I know that no matter which one I buy I will still long for the other one. I seen the pre release videos on the Equinox but they didn't prove much. I know a cpl guys that own the CTX and they swear by them but even with all they can do they miss stuff but that's more due to user error than the detector.

Maybe I should stay off Tnet because I have spent in excess of 3k following recommendations of guys from Tnet....lol

If I don't log on I won't be tempted

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!

[chub]

You've waited 3 years....another 3 months wont hurt....

I'll bet some of the first shootout videos will be multi freq vs multi freq. So I would imagine by the end of Feb someone would have compared it to the CTX... Just to see if its worth the $$$ and the weight.

Chub

 

[WaterScoop]

These two machines are in a league of their own.

It’s like a Lexus and a Camry. Yes made by the same company but two total different animals.

Like Chub mentioned.. what’s another 3 months, I think you should wait to hear the feedback from actual field trials by real Metal detectorists not just “paid” spokespeople

Cheers

 

[Normsel]

That's pretty much what I plan on doing is waiting a cpl of months. I have an Etrac and love it but if I get an Equinox or CTX I think I will have a perfect balance with the Etrac. I still have the problem of two detectors I don't need..lol

 

[WaterScoop]

.... I still have the problem of two detectors I don't need..lol

You could always have xtra to introduce others to our hobby that are interested then maybe eventually sell them your extra


Just a thought

 

[IDXMonster]

Norm...I went from the Explorer2 to the CTX and it was a breeze. Instantly finding a lot more very deep silver helped. I click with it very well,but that doesn’t mean you will. If you are of the mentality that you will LEARN how to use it come hell or high water...you’ll do very well. If you don’t want to make the effort..you won’t. Same with anything. FBS2 is very accurate with numbers. The Equinox may be as well,but is a new technology. How well will it work OVERALL? Who knows. Are you looking to liven up your old sites or just want a different toy? I don’t think you’d go wrong with either,but you definitely won’t go wrong with the CTX as long as you get to know it,and know it well.

 

[marjam]

Minelab will still want to sell the ctx, so I highly doubt the equinox will outperform it. If it does, i would be completely surprised. I think it was made to steal buyers away from the at max, and mx sport, and others as these are comparable in price. Now this is just me speculating, and I hope i am completely wrong, but would you want something that costs 899 replace your 2500 dollar detector if minelab was your business?

 

[chub]

Minelab will still want to sell the ctx, so I highly doubt the equinox will outperform it. If it does, i would be completely surprised. I think it was made to steal buyers away from the at max, and mx sport, and others as these are comparable in price. Now this is just me speculating, and I hope i am completely wrong, but would you want something that costs 899 replace your 2500 dollar detector if minelab was your business?

I agree with you... Next question would be what is the future of the CTX?

Chub

 

[Jason in Enid]

Normy, if you've waiting this long, wait a few more weeks for the Equinox. Even if its not as good as a CTX (and I'm not convinced yet it wont be) you will be getting almost the performance of the CTX for 1/3 the price.

Chub - Minelab has stated that they have push FBS as far as it can go. I'm sure they will still have them for sale for a while but I see the price being reduced when they release a flagship version of an Equinox (platypus) detector in a couple years.

 

[☠ Cipher]

It boils down to what is the difference between FBS and Multi-IQ. It's important to know what each are to compare and contrast. Minelab has caused confusion about what FBS is by their marketing sleight of hand. They give users the impression that it is 28 frequencies. The testing of Carl Moreland tells a very different story. Minelab only claims to TRANSMIT 28 frequencies. Well any multifrequency machine can claim to TRANSMIT 28, or even 99 if they want to. Most of those would be byproducts of the base frequencies that serve no useful purpose. The real question then is how many frequencies do FBS machines actually USE. By use I mean transmit, receive and process. According to Carl Moreland et. al., only 2, and the same 2 (3.25khz and 25khz) over and over in an 8:1 ratio. That's FBS. Multi-IQ is still unknown and as you see with Minelab, you must pay close attention to their language, semantics etc. They claim Multi-IQ uses 5 frequencies "simultaneously." It would be the first production machine I'm aware of that would simultaneously transmit, receive and process more than 3 (Whites V3i). Steve Herschbach is testing one and reports something interesting. No loss of depth switching from single frequency mode to multi-IQ. This goes against conventional wisdom. A low single frequency should penetrate deeper than multiple frequencies, which divide the power of the machine and weaken as they overlap (why FBS machines are not as hot on small gold). It sounds like multi-iQ may not actually run those 5 frequencies simultaneously, except in a loose sense, but rather in automated sequences, likely rapidly firing one after another in microseconds. It wouldn't surprise me if multi-iQ is better than FBS at most things, and the beginning of a whole new platform. The CTX-3030 may someday become the CTX-3050 utilizing multi-iq. The CTX is still a brilliant machine that does many things the Equinox doesn't, like detect more than one target at a time, target trace (awesome feature) etc.

 

[☠ Cipher]

For those that have a hard time imagining Minelab making a "better" machine at $899 than at $2,500, from a marketing standpoint it would make sense to start a new and "better" platform from the mid range where people can afford it and develop it upward into a more capable machine like they did with the Explorer to the CTX. They would sell more machines this way, rather than starting out at $2,500 or $3,000. If the Equinox has better ID, but the CTX still has more features until it is replaced, both will continue to sell until the whole lineup is replaced. We should even see a price reduction on the CTX at some point. I'm very interested in how the Equinox at $649-$899 will affect less capable machines like the AT Series and MX Sport. How would Garret and Whites justify $749 for a less capable machine. Their hope of making profits like they were is out the window. Steve H sold his Deus after using the Equinox. What will the Equinox at $899 do to the Deus Lite at $800 and the Full Deus at $1,200-$1,500 if others feel the same as Steve. I can see prices coming down across the board. It seems they would have to. Even Minelabs Xterra series now starts at $259. How will that affect the low end machines that don't offer 2-3 frequencies (albeit by coil change with the Xterra, but still). This is the beginning of more for less in my opinion.

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

Love your dialog and agree w you 100%. FYI. I've owned the CTX 3030 for almost a yr now and absolutely love it's discrimination ability. This comes in vital when I have limited time at low tide to find the gold and silver jewelry. I can ignore the high probability targets (bottle caps - screened out; ignore cents at 12:37, 12:41; Tabs and junk aluminum from 12:15-21, etc) and concentrate on low probability targets like gold (12:02-05-13, 12:24-35) and silver (13:44-48; 12:31-33,12:45-48). Sure I still find junk but at the last low tide I found 4 gold rings over 2 days while ignoring more common material. When I ran out of high valued targets I started to recover the common material and, knock-on-wood, I haven't been REAL surprised by the common material so far. Strongly suggest reading both operation manuals and get to know how the CTX 3030 works (2 - dimensional, thus the 2 sets of numbers). I have tried to find a cc of the Equinox 800 w/o luck. BUT, if the Equinox isn't 2 dimensional than I'd chose the CTX 3030 for my line of metal detecting (wet sand and salt water surf). The cool thing about the Equinox 800 is the selection of frequencies, and you can even go prospecting with it at 40K, and it is multi-frequency so it would be great for the beach and salt water...the more I talk about it the more I'm leaning toward the Equinox 800...hummm

 

[marjam]

Well, one thing about it, the speculation is about to end. We will know soon its performance. And I for one hope it smokes everything out thus far. We will see real soon......

 

[☠ Cipher]

Well, one thing about it, the speculation is about to end. We will know soon its performance. And I for one hope it smokes everything out thus far. We will see real soon......

I think the Equinox 800 and ProFind 35 are going to be a deadly combo. When someone as hard to please and brand agnostic as Steve H sold off most of his collection of machines after testing the Equinox for a while, the detecting world took notice. When he said he would now refuse to test any further single frequency machines, we sat up a little further. Pretty strong statement. A natural next question is, what machines did he hold onto and why. He held onto a GPZ (Also new tech, Zero Voltage Transmission) for prospecting, a Racer Gold only for sentimental reasons and likely temporary, and a V3i for 3 reasons. 1. It's a detector nerds dream because of all the access to internal function. 2. It's the only machine he has that can use the Bigfoot coil. 3. For jewelry. 3 may be connected to 2. All other machines got the boot.

 

[RustyGold]

I also think I’d wait to see how the Equinox performs before spending 2000.00 on a detector. The Equinox may be the Camry compared to the Lexus but both do the same thing in the end and that’s get you down the street.

 

[Normsel]

Thanks guys, that's an overload of information and that's what I like. I agree Cipher about the V3i being a detector nerds dream. If I go with the CTX I will probably give my eTrac to my grandson and if I go with the Equinox I will probably sell the V3i and still give the Etrac to my grandson. In either case I will probably get rid of the V3i. I will keep my AtPro because it's nice to have an extra detector around to introduce a newbie to detecting and it's easy to use.

 

[smokeythecat]

If at all possible, I'd test each at a dealer's. Give it a couple months, see what the reviews are. Hold any machine in your hand you are looking at buying. Here's something to think about. Assuming Minelab has created the end all machine in the Equinox 800, if that has happened, they won't be selling any of their high end VLF machines any more, with the assumption no one will want to pay more for less. So...with that thought, I doubt the Equinox will walk on water. I do believe they are trying to compete with the AT series and the MX series, as others have stated, and not underpricing and outperforming their own high end machines. Just a thought. Or as dad used to say, you get what you pay for. I am sure it will be a good machine, but, will it beat everything out there. No, too many variables to contend with for any machine to do that.

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

Just discovered the Equinox 800 is a 2 dimensional machine that gives it stability, like the CTX 3030, in target identification at different depths - a feature I was hoping it would have and yet another reason to seriously consider the Equinox 800. At $899 this machine appears under priced for the features...can't imagine anyone choosing a single VLF machine over the 800.

 

[marjam]

Just discovered the Equinox 800 is a 2 dimensional machine that gives it stability, like the CTX 3030, in target identification at different depths - a feature I was hoping it would have and yet another reason to seriously consider the Equinox 800. At $899 this machine appears under priced for the features...can't imagine anyone choosing a single VLF machine over the 800.

Are you saying that it is going to have the FE CO numbers like the etrac and ctx? All I saw on the demo videos were conductive numbers on the target ID.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Are you saying that it is going to have the FE CO numbers like the etrac and ctx? All I saw on the demo videos were conductive numbers on the target ID.

No, its uses the same principle as the CTX in its target separation, but its a straight line -10 to 40 display