Minelab Equinox available on Cabelas website

[Jason in Enid]

Minelab is offering a 15% discount guaranteed through dealers to veterans. No idea why Cabelas is not honoring something that Minelab will assure won't affect their bottom line. I suspect some Cabelas employees can't be bothered to go out of their way to figure this out. Bottom line though, my perspective is that they are actually short changing vets. That and the adverse impact that this has on the dedicated hobbiest dealer (cancelled orders and so forth) means they will not have my Equinox business. Sticking with my dealer.

Minelab isnt foot a dime toward any veteran discount. If they were, my dealer would be giving me the usual 15% anyone can get and then another 15% from minelab for being a vet. It's smoke and mirrors.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

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

[vferrari]

I have a very serious suggestion for any potential buyers. If you are looking for gold and other small objects deep, I would buy the 800. It's top frequency is 40 khz. The 600's top frequency is 15 khz. My own lawn is a bizarre place. My kids lost tons of metal there, I lost a lot of coins cleaning out the cars and not being careful about it, the 1890's house at the top of the hill threw a lot of stuff down over the hill including silver coins and rings. The 1780's house at the other end of the property has provided a few late colonial items. When I had my single frequency 15 khz machine and my other single frequency machine about 5 khz, I found some of the big stuff, coins by themselves, toy cars, sinkers from the boat, etc. Since the last machine purchase last August, I have killed it running 28khz and 74 khz. I am now pulling out gold, silver, small brass objects way deep, etc. There are still surface coins, toy cars, aluminum cans I hit with the lawnmower (deliberately) and sinkers, good Lord, enough of the sinkers already.

The 40khz setting on the 800 is going to lay the EQ 600 to waste regarding gold, silver and small relics that are deep.

I would sincerely suggest you get the 800. It will have way more potential.

While I too would recommend the 800 vs. the 600 for various reasons (gold mode which I intend to use for relics, higher max recovery speed adjustment, greater range of iron bias adjustment, adjustable non-ferrous tone breaks/pitch (600 can only adjust ferrous region tone breaks/pitch), user profile mode save button which basically gives you an additional custom program memory slot not available on the 600, AUTO AND manual noise cancel (600 only has AUTO) and the included wireless hardware which makes up a significant chunk of the price difference), I need to point something out to clarify/correct something Smokey said above. With all due respect to Smokey and the daily banner finds of which I am not worthy to even share the same site with, but somehow allows me to do so anyway.

Specifically, as far as Multi IQ multi frequency operation is concerned the 600 and 800 are identical and both use combinations of all five fundamental frequencies (5, 10, 15, 20, and 40 khz) in various programmed combinations to generate the six basic search modes (Park 1/2, Field 1/2, and Beach 1/2) common to both detectors. Multi IQ is the default frequency setting for ALL modes and based on user reports appears to be the best overall frequency mode for general use. The 600 does indeed only have individual frequency mode selections of 5, 10, and 15 khz, vs. the 800 at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 40 khz. But use of individual frequency mode appears to be useful in only a small subset of unusual situations such as EMI that cannot be cancelled out in Multi IQ mode and for use to interrogate targets giving questionable MultiIQ target ID's to help in bottle cap identification, for example (similar to what is done with the Deus, switching frequencies to see if the VDI goes up when it should go down and vice versa, indicating a corroded object). Basically, what I am saying is that since Multi IQ operates at all those frequencies, it would be the frequency mode I would use to hit the sites Smokey is talking about, but instead of changing frequencies, I would change modes which changes the way the frequencies are combined biasing towards the higher or lower side of MultiIQ (based on the mode selected*) to accomplish the same thing. THEN, I would hit it with my Deus HF coil at 58 or 75 KHZ just to make sure I got everything. LOL.

Just wanted to point out that the 600 DOES use 20 and 40 khz just like the 800 in Multi IQ frequency operation...but the relatively small price difference for what else you DON'T get with the 600 easily sways me towards the 800 (especially with appropriate ML price discounts applied ). HTH


* Just to put a finer point on this. The Park and Field 2 modes are biased high towards mid-conductors and small jewelry items (i.e., hotter), Park and Field 1 are biased lower and favor high conductive (e.g., silver) targets (i.e., less hot). Beach 1 (Sand) and Beach 2 (Surf) are least hot so that the machine is stable in moving/variable salt sand and surf. Gold mode, available only on the 800 is a VCO like mode that is the most hot mode of all (understandably so) and is what I hope will kill it in high mineralized soils.

You can read this in more detail in the Equinox manual link posted somewhere on this forum. (Mods may need some stickies soon, hint hint!)

 

[smokeythecat]

Interesting. The sales literature I looked at did not mention any frequency about 15 for the 600.

 

[1afox]

While I too would recommend the 800 vs. the 600 for various reasons (gold mode which I intend to use for relics, higher max recovery speed adjustment, greater range of iron bias adjustment, adjustable non-ferrous tone breaks/pitch (600 can only adjust ferrous region tone breaks/pitch), user profile mode save button which basically gives you an additional custom program memory slot not available on the 600, AUTO AND manual noise cancel (600 only has AUTO) and the included wireless hardware which makes up a significant chunk of the price difference), I need to point something out to clarify/correct something Smokey said above. With all due respect to Smokey and the daily banner finds of which I am not worthy to even share the same site with, but somehow allows me to do so anyway.

Specifically, as far as Multi IQ multi frequency operation is concerned the 600 and 800 are identical and both use combinations of all five fundamental frequencies (5, 10, 15, 20, and 40 khz) in various programmed combinations to generate the six basic search modes (Park 1/2, Field 1/2, and Beach 1/2) common to both detectors. Multi IQ is the default frequency setting for ALL modes and based on user reports appears to be the best overall frequency mode for general use. The 600 does indeed only have individual frequency mode selections of 5, 10, and 15 khz, vs. the 800 at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 40 khz. But use of individual frequency mode appears to be useful in only a small subset of unusual situations such as EMI that cannot be cancelled out in Multi IQ mode and for use to interrogate targets giving questionable MultiIQ target ID's to help in bottle cap identification, for example (similar to what is done with the Deus, switching frequencies to see if the VDI goes up when it should go down and vice versa, indicating a corroded object). Basically, what I am saying is that since Multi IQ operates at all those frequencies, it would be the frequency mode I would use to hit the sites Smokey is talking about, but instead of changing frequencies, I would change modes which changes the way the frequencies are combined biasing towards the higher or lower side of MultiIQ (based on the mode selected*) to accomplish the same thing. THEN, I would hit it with my Deus HF coil at 58 or 75 KHZ just to make sure I got everything. LOL.

Just wanted to point out that the 600 DOES use 20 and 40 khz just like the 800 in Multi IQ frequency operation...but the relatively small price difference for what else you DON'T get with the 600 easily sways me towards the 800 (especially with appropriate ML price discounts applied ). HTH


* Just to put a finer point on this. The Park and Field 2 modes are biased high towards mid-conductors and small jewelry items (i.e., hotter), Park and Field 1 are biased lower and favor high conductive (e.g., silver) targets (i.e., less hot). Beach 1 (Sand) and Beach 2 (Surf) are least hot so that the machine is stable in moving/variable salt sand and surf. Gold mode, available only on the 800 is a VCO like mode that is the most hot mode of all (understandably so) and is what I hope will kill it in high mineralized soils.

You can read this in more detail in the Equinox manual link posted somewhere on this forum. (Mods may need some stickies soon, hint hint!)

Looking at page 29 of the manual it appears that the 600 does not use the 20 and 40 khz frequency in multi.

 

[vferrari]

Interesting. The sales literature I looked at did not mention any frequency about 15 for the 600.

I would send you a link but might violate forum rules but on the Minelab Treasure Blog. It's in the online manual too, p. 29. And has been corroborated by the testers.

Here is a statement out of the manual referring to a MultiIQ diagram that shows the range of all 5 frequencies combined (5 through 40 khz).

"* 20 kHz and 40 kHz are not available as single operating frequencies in EQUINOX 600. The Multi-IQ frequency range shown applies to both EQUINOX 600 and 800. This diagram is representative only. Actual sensitivity levels will depend upon target types and sizes, ground conditions and detector settings."

It seems that ML threw single frequency operation in there as sort of an afterthought, because they could, technically. Not sure they really thought it would be all that useful compared to Multi IQ which is killing it out there.

IMO ML handicapped the 600 as a means to offer a lower price point machine, but the 600 and 800, hardware wise, have identical capability (other than the missing user profile save button on the faceplate of the 600). ML just chose to dial back the 600 software and not offer the high end audio hardware to justify a lower price point. A business, not technical decision. For me, I want all options available to be able to handle situations I haven't even encountered yet, therefore 800 all the way. No holding back (except I can't seem to get my hands on one, at least not on my terms. lol). A lot of people are also sleeping on what you can do with the non-ferrous tone breaks and pitch adjustments on the 800, which are missing on the 600. You can really set up the machine to audibly cherry pick mid-conductors such as buttons, nickels, gold jewelry, while sorting through low and mid conductive trash. A subtle, yet potentially really, really powerful feature the 600 lacks.

 

[1afox]

I would send you a link but might violate forum rules but on the Minelab Treasure Blog. It's in the online manual too, p. 29. And has been corroborated by the testers.

From page 29:
EQUINOX 600 offers 3 single frequencies of 5 kHz, 10
kHz, 15 kHz in addition to Multi, giving a 3 times (×3)
range or ratio from 5 kHz to 15 kHz, hence the 3F×3
technology designation.

 

[smokeythecat]

Hugh, I'd want the whole package too if I were you. Why skimp?

 

[vferrari]

From page 29:
EQUINOX 600 offers 3 single frequencies of 5 kHz, 10
kHz, 15 kHz in addition to Multi, giving a 3 times (×3)
range or ratio from 5 kHz to 15 kHz, hence the 3F×3
technology designation.

Please read the asterisked note under the Multi IQ diagram that I cut and pasted above (I added bold letters to make it easier for people to see the relevant phrase). In Multi IQ both the 600 and 800 use the ENTIRE range of frequencies. TNSS and others can confirm this also.

Like I said, except for very rare circumstances, single frequency is really not what you want to do with the Equinox, believe me.

 

[vferrari]

Minelab isnt foot a dime toward any veteran discount. If they were, my dealer would be giving me the usual 15% anyone can get and then another 15% from minelab for being a vet. It's smoke and mirrors.

All I can say is it IS a Minelab policy (for detectors only) and since Minelab does not sell directly to end users, it is what it is. I guess that is up to the dealer and Minelab. Some dealers have vet discounts regardless of Minelab policy, so maybe they don't want to double dip. Who knows.

Any way you slice it, no Cabelas for me.

 

[dts52]

I just cant pay full price LOL sorry never mind CT sales tax.
But if you are number 200 on pre order list good way to cut line.

What? You don't like seeing the sales tax you pay being flushed down the toilet?
dts

 

[Rookster]

Kinda sounds to me, you may be buying a minelad soon.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I only buy from dealers, they are who provide the hobby and owners with support and expertise, try calling Cabellas and ask them how to adjust a settings on a detector or correct an issue and see what they say.

 

[Jason in Enid]

I only buy from dealers, they are who provide the hobby and owners with support and expertise, try calling Cabellas and ask them how to adjust a settings on a detector or correct an issue and see what they say.

Try the same with a KC call taker.

 

[flgliderpilot]

From page 29:
EQUINOX 600 offers 3 single frequencies of 5 kHz, 10
kHz, 15 kHz in addition to Multi, giving a 3 times (×3)
range or ratio from 5 kHz to 15 kHz, hence the 3F×3
technology designation.

Multi is 5 frequencies.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Not true, that is only in SINGLE frequency mode. Why would you buy a multifrequency machine and then hunt in single frequency mode?

Both machines run 5,10,15,20,40 in multi mode.

Well, historically, there were advantages to putting full power into a single freq instead of spreading it over multiple freqs. You also had the ability to put that power toward the target types you wanted, ie lower freqs for silver, higher for gold. But testers seem to have determined that the EQX multi is better for all modes than any of the singles, but its still early.

Also, we still don't know what freqs the EQX is using in multi mode. They claim that FBS uses 28 freqs but tester have problem is actually put out only 2 driving freqs and the rest are harmonics. So just because of a picture, everyone ASSUMES it uses all of these 5 freqs? Until ML comes out and says it directly, I wont believe it. I'm waiting for an ocilliscope test of the EQX to find out.

 

[flgliderpilot]

Also, we still don't know what freqs the EQX is using in multi mode. They claim that FBS uses 28 freqs but tester have problem is actually put out only 2 driving freqs and the rest are harmonics. So just because of a picture, everyone ASSUMES it uses all of these 5 freqs? Until ML comes out and says it directly, I wont believe it. I'm waiting for an ocilliscope test of the EQX to find out.

Nearly all multifrequency machines use 1 or 2 driving frequencies and take advantage of harmonic frequencies. CZ-21 (5khz and 15khz) falls into this category for example.

 

[GreenMeanie]

LOL Nope I even get gas in MA to save money on TAX hehehehe.

What? You don't like seeing the sales tax you pay being flushed down the toilet?
dts

 

[smokeythecat]

From a consumer point of view, not a mathematician's I did what any consumer would do and in this instance looked at Cabella's website, as the availability there was the subject of the discussion here. On that site the 600 is listed at 3 frequencies. The average consumer will look at the sales material, ask people they know who detect, check their income and make their decision from there, regardless of what brand they get. They will not be referencing page 29 of any manual. They will see the manual if they buy something.

What I was looking at is what the average consumer would look at, the web page for the 600 at Cabella's. It lists 3 frequencies for the 600. Some of us are technogeeks, I'm pretty good with some stuff, however Average Joe Detectorist will not see those oscillation lines in his head when he looks at a website.

If I needed a machine like this, I'd buy the 800.

 

[toddbbq]

Some of the people that ordered have posted on other forums that their orders are showing SHIPPED but no tracking yet.

 

[laidback4sho]

Some of the people that ordered have posted on other forums that their orders are showing SHIPPED but no tracking yet.

Tell them to log on to Cabela's website to get the tracking number. For me, it was available on their website a good 24 hours before I ever got the email.