jmaclen: said:
Two different issues here. The high iron bias setting was supposed to help with shallow iron based crown bottle caps which was a major complaint from early Equinox users. Minelab updated the iron bias settings on the Equinox to deal with that issue AFTER developing the High/Low iron bias settings on the Vanquish. That high setting is only supposed to help on shallower iron based targets.
I have used all three models of the Vanquish and still own the 340 and 440. I don't expect those models to be great in iron trash. I rarely dig crown bottle caps or other shallow iron however so the high iron bias setting works well for those which for the casual beach or turf hunter digging mostly shallow targets is probably a big plus.
And 'by design' the High Iron Bias did a pretty good job of that, too. I've used my Vanquish 540 w/5X8DD in a couple of old-use picnic spots where others are very bothered by the amount of bottle caps.
Now, we know that most of the time, coins, bottle caps, ring-pull tabs and other lost of discarded stuff is going to be located relatively shallow, like the upper 3" to 4". Personally, I've applied the search techniques I started using back about 1971 and I can use almost any make or model detector and 'audibly classify' most bottle caps rather quickly and just ignore recovering them. With a couple of my detectors I also have some designed-in help to alert me that those pesky bottle caps are there w/o producing a really good non-ferrous target response. The V-540 is one of them using High Iron Bias.
The V-540 and a High Iron Bias setting is also quite useful when hunting places with rusty tin, frequently producing a desired Low-Tone audio response and visual display read-out. For many Hobbyists, not hearing as much problem trash is desired and hunting this way helps take out some of the audio annoyance they might get in densely littered locations with a lot of rusty tin or crown-type bottle caps. All of it all the time? No. But it will be helpful in handling a lot of it, and I find that enjoyable and useful for a lot of hunts I do.
But that's helpful for the newcomer or novice detecting Hobbyist. The more Avid Detectorist, who has more in-the-field experience and understands what it is we are talking about here, has the option of selecting Low Iron Bias on the V-540. And, if they are an experienced, they should appreciate the differences in performance, both audibly and visually, if they select Low Iron Bias and are dealing with Iron debris.
jmaclen: said:
JT, iron "falsing" on simultaneous multi frequency detectors is just a fact of life. There is no way for different simultaneous multiple frequencies to analyze a rusty iron target and come up with the same VDI unless you are using a DFX, VX3 or V3i in correlate mode. Even then it is not foolproof, which is why the Etrac and other FBS detectors have separate iron and non-ferrous VDI readouts.
Quite correct, again, Jeff. Every make and model detector, by different manufacturers, will have their own sets of strengths and weaknesses, and regardless of what unit we select, there is no such thing as a 'perfect' detector. The wise decision anyone can make is consider each make and model that interests them for various in-the-field applications they plan to take on.... then select the model or models, that they feel will best fit their needs. If acquiring more than one detector, try to make the second or additional detectors be a 'complement' to the primary-use detector they choose.
But in selecting a detector or two, don't fall into the misbelief that ALL Simultaneous Multi-Frequency models work the same, or that they can all easily out-perform a good quality single-frequency or selectable-frequency detector. SMF detectors have their set of strengths, and that's fine and good to know. However, all the SMF detector models also have some weaknesses, and therefore do not always out-perform non-SMF detectors.
jmaclen: said:
Expecting a $150 to $450 Vanquish to keep you from digging deep iron is asking a lot of a budget detector. However, even with the 340 setup in Jewelry mode which has just the iron range rejected, I get enough audio information over deeper iron targets to avoid digging too much deep iron. I have spent a lot of time experimenting in the field and if there is the slightest bit of distorted sound within any of the tones produced on deep targets with consistently jumpy numbers and tones I just go into all metals accepted mode (for 540s, hit the horseshoe button) and interrogate the target even more. Those so called "falsing" tones are just iron tells for me and not a design flaw.
All three Vanquish models offer a lot for their price, and what some call 'false' signal from ferrous junk are often easily learned to identify audibly. And the Vanquish models are not the only ones affected, either.
jmaclen: said:
The other issue being discussed here is something I complained about after first using the 340 and 440 which is: legitimate closely spaced shallow coin spills or closely spaced non-ferrous targets can be discriminated out in any mode except all metals accepted. Even with the Equinox, close to the surface or surface coin spills can produce some very weird audio responses which in the case of the Equinox is also a tell. With the Vanquish detecting with high iron bias and iron rejected, I have walked right over shallow coin spills and co-located targets thinking they were just shallow iron. Even using the horseshoe button did not help me identify those coin spills as shown in the testing here by others. This was during early field testing using a 440 and a Nox 600 on the exact same ground in sucession. That is NOT okay and needs to be addressed like many have said during this thread.
Jeff
I have encountered a few 'coin spills' and most of the coins are relatively shallow. Most were a mix of Zinc and/or Copper Cents, combined with one or more Clad Dimes or Clad Quarters. The 'spills' contained anywhere from 3 coins to 9 coins, and all coins were close with some touching, and all within a 4" to 6" diameter circle.
In all but three cases, the 'spills' produced a High-Tone audio response. What were the other three cases? They made a Low-Tone / Mid-Tone break-up audio on one spill, and a Low Tone audio on the other two. The difference was that those 'spills' also contained 1 to 3 common US Nickel coins, and hunting with a High Iron Bias, that tainted the response and dropped it down into the Low-Tone range. With a Nickel or all of them removed, the audio response was a nice-and-proper High-Tone report.
Trashfinder: said:
Sell it and get a 600 or 800 you will be much happier
I bought an EQ-800 and I was NOT much happier. I have mainly Hunted very iron contaminated ghost towns and similar sites and I have Relic Hunting models that easily out-perform the Equinox. I also do typical urban Coin & Jewelry Hunting and while the EQ-800 is good, I own and use models that can match or better the results.
As for my Vanquish 540, I enjoy it over the EQ-800 having used them both, side-by-side in some on-site comparisons. The Equinox is a good detector, but everyone doesn't need one.
Monte
