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I've had both the etrac and ctx. My partner hunts with an eqinox 800 and while he loves it he really is wanting a ctx. My silver count is higher and like an above poster said we compare a lot of signals and FBS just seems to id coins better at depths of (6+ inches). In the water its a tossup and I would lean the edge to the equinox for the better ability to find gold.

As for me and old coins there is no question. FBS just has amazing ID that I couldn't give up
 
Jeff at Quality Metal Detectors (forum sponsor) took care of me and got me an awesome deal on a new CTX 3030 and shipped fast! :cool12:
 
I'd like to see Minelab refresh their Etrac>Etrac 2 into a less heavy updated control box....for extended hours of swinging in the field. Had my eye on this FBS machine over the Equinox for several years but went for the French XP Orx over the Etrac due to the weight. Could have looked into a hipmount method however. How is the pinpointing on the Etrac? XP Orx at times I have a little trouble with the wiggle method for exact pinpointing.
 
You'll dig alot of junk and zincs with the equinox, not so with the etrac.

If you want to dig IH's and small silvers (half reales, half dimes), you have to the zincolns. There is really no way around that on the E-Trac that I have found.

I've been using an E-Trac for 10 years, and can swear by it for coin shooting and durability. I've seen Nox owners complain about flimsyness. (Note also I use an aftermarket 13 inch coil, which may offer an advantage. A used E-Trac and the after market coil will put you at about $900-950).

That said, there are plenty of Nox owners who claim the machine does very well in places hit hard by E-Tracs, and side by side against them. I'm debating getting a Nox and watching these discussions and videos very keenly (a negative of the Nox for me is no after market coils; that is a big deal to me).

So, there are plenty of stories of which is better on both sides. I am starting to believe that it may come down to location. That is, perhaps one machine performs better in a particular mineralization or trash density. For me, who hunts mostly fields and sparse parks, the E-Trac with a big coil works out just fine.

It also may be a question of skill. Having had the thing for 10 years, I think I am pretty skilled with the E-Trac. One of the factors that is not controlled for in these comparisons is the skill of the operator. Even if the Nox is better, will an expert E-Trac user outperform an intermediate Nox user? We don't know.

Overall community skill with the Nox will increase over time from here. I think that is pretty tapped out on the E-Trac. Also, I believe Nox users receive periodic firmware updates, which may be good or bad, depending how you view those sorts of things. A Nox user can correct me if I am wrong on this point, and chime in on its value.

I do know I would recommend Minelab FBS technology, tho I have never used anything else recently. If I were choosing blindly, I would choose the machine with the lowest native frequency (for finding silvers), but that information is not easy to obtain for all machines (including the E-Trac).

Another factor is whether you care about wired or wireless headphones. The E-Trac does not offer wireless headphones, AFAIK. I don't care personally, as wireless headphones seem like one more thing to worry about flat batteries on.

HTH and good luck. Let us know what you choose.
 
"Another factor is whether you care about wired or wireless headphones. The E-Trac does not offer wireless headphones, AFAIK. I don't care personally, as wireless headphones seem like one more thing to worry about flat batteries on."

You can use pretty much any 2.4ghz or low latency Bluetooth wireless headphones and module with 1/4" or 1/8" plug(with adapter) on the Etrac.

I use a 2.4ghz wireless headset and module on my Etrac and it works great.
 
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