maxxkatt
Forum Supporter
In 2015 I got back into detecting and bought a new Garrett AT Pro. It had been out about 5 years and was a hot seller for many good reasons. Easy to learn, good detector performance, priced decent and the some of the best customer service by Garrett.
So had I lots of fun and success hunting with the AT Pro. Got up to speed rather quickly since there were not a lot of features to learn.
Then came Fall of 2017 & 2018 and I was impressed with the media blitz and forum posts on how great this detector was. It was the detector to end all other VLF detectors according to Minelab. You could even sky dive with the sucker. We all know by now this was the famous Equinox.
I just had to have one. Based on the media blitz and early reviews I just knew this new detector was going to double, no triple or maybe 10x my good finds.
Three years later I sold my 800 after being somewhat disappointed on that my finds actually were not as good as with my AT Pro and certainly not 2x,3x or 10x. How could this be?
Probably because I was fiddling around with all those advanced features on Nox 800 that I really didn't quite fully understand. So I was thinking of buying an XP Deus. My good source on another metal detecting forum vferrari said the performance of the Nox and XP Deus 1 were similar so I would be just bogged down learning a completely new detector.
So here we are today with a lot of people raving on the XP Deus 2 and how it is the very best detector. Then there is the legend crowd saying much the same thing.
Well they both might be the best detector. But are they the best detector for your hunting needs. Maybe? or Maybe Not. Are they better by a 2x factor. Hardly. Maybe more like a .025X factor if that.
At best the XP 2 & Legend are just maybe a little bit better than the Nox 800, but that is very hard to prove. Since most comparison videos are rarely apples to apples comparisons. It is virtually impossible to set the settings on an XP 2 and Nox 800 the same and make a fair side by side comparison of pre-dug targets. But that is the best we can do, but few youtubers make those almost direct comparisons because they have an agenda and employ settings and target setup that favor their latest and greatest detector they are promoting.
Your average detectorist would do well to buy a good detector and spend his/her time learning that detector and really learning to master it. This is how you increase your finds, not buy buying the next greatest and latest detector being hyped and having to waste valuable hunting time learning the latest and greatest menus along with new bells and whistles.
I admit I made that mistake with the 800. I spent way too much time trying to use the advanced 800 settings using it in a very trashy urban environment hunting civil war relics or rings in trashy parks.
Most Equinox users know how difficult a task that is and requires you to almost dig every signal. In a trashy urban environment like Metro Atlanta there are seemingly unlimited numbers of pop tops, pull tabs and pieces of can slaw to dig. And I might add great quantities of foil, bottle tops and foil lid liners/protective seals.
Based on advice from vferrari I have my forever machine a brand new CTX3030. Yes people are buying this detector that was released 13 years ago. Compared to the 800 it was fairly easy to learn. I still have a lot to learn, but the CTX is not as difficult to learn as the 800 in my opinion.
So I guess we will still see all these lengthy comparison posts and videos but the bottom line is there is not that much difference between an Equinox, XP Deus 1 or 2 and the Legend. So just why not flip a coin and stick with the one you buy for a long while and master it. Thinking your can master one of these in 50 hours is optimistic at best.
I am done chasing that extra 5% of detector technology. Yes you can make it lighter, better batteries, more buttons, more menus and faster processors but the hard fact of metal detecting physics and geology pretty much has us at stuck at our current limits. The only new detector I would consider at this point is a lighter, faster CTX3030.
So had I lots of fun and success hunting with the AT Pro. Got up to speed rather quickly since there were not a lot of features to learn.
Then came Fall of 2017 & 2018 and I was impressed with the media blitz and forum posts on how great this detector was. It was the detector to end all other VLF detectors according to Minelab. You could even sky dive with the sucker. We all know by now this was the famous Equinox.
I just had to have one. Based on the media blitz and early reviews I just knew this new detector was going to double, no triple or maybe 10x my good finds.
Three years later I sold my 800 after being somewhat disappointed on that my finds actually were not as good as with my AT Pro and certainly not 2x,3x or 10x. How could this be?
Probably because I was fiddling around with all those advanced features on Nox 800 that I really didn't quite fully understand. So I was thinking of buying an XP Deus. My good source on another metal detecting forum vferrari said the performance of the Nox and XP Deus 1 were similar so I would be just bogged down learning a completely new detector.
So here we are today with a lot of people raving on the XP Deus 2 and how it is the very best detector. Then there is the legend crowd saying much the same thing.
Well they both might be the best detector. But are they the best detector for your hunting needs. Maybe? or Maybe Not. Are they better by a 2x factor. Hardly. Maybe more like a .025X factor if that.
At best the XP 2 & Legend are just maybe a little bit better than the Nox 800, but that is very hard to prove. Since most comparison videos are rarely apples to apples comparisons. It is virtually impossible to set the settings on an XP 2 and Nox 800 the same and make a fair side by side comparison of pre-dug targets. But that is the best we can do, but few youtubers make those almost direct comparisons because they have an agenda and employ settings and target setup that favor their latest and greatest detector they are promoting.
Your average detectorist would do well to buy a good detector and spend his/her time learning that detector and really learning to master it. This is how you increase your finds, not buy buying the next greatest and latest detector being hyped and having to waste valuable hunting time learning the latest and greatest menus along with new bells and whistles.
I admit I made that mistake with the 800. I spent way too much time trying to use the advanced 800 settings using it in a very trashy urban environment hunting civil war relics or rings in trashy parks.
Most Equinox users know how difficult a task that is and requires you to almost dig every signal. In a trashy urban environment like Metro Atlanta there are seemingly unlimited numbers of pop tops, pull tabs and pieces of can slaw to dig. And I might add great quantities of foil, bottle tops and foil lid liners/protective seals.
Based on advice from vferrari I have my forever machine a brand new CTX3030. Yes people are buying this detector that was released 13 years ago. Compared to the 800 it was fairly easy to learn. I still have a lot to learn, but the CTX is not as difficult to learn as the 800 in my opinion.
So I guess we will still see all these lengthy comparison posts and videos but the bottom line is there is not that much difference between an Equinox, XP Deus 1 or 2 and the Legend. So just why not flip a coin and stick with the one you buy for a long while and master it. Thinking your can master one of these in 50 hours is optimistic at best.
I am done chasing that extra 5% of detector technology. Yes you can make it lighter, better batteries, more buttons, more menus and faster processors but the hard fact of metal detecting physics and geology pretty much has us at stuck at our current limits. The only new detector I would consider at this point is a lighter, faster CTX3030.
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