I have the Equinox 800, the Deus II, and the Manticore and can confidently say that both are fantastic. What I have noticed so far is that the Manticore has picked up some targets that the Deus missed just in my own yard (that’s the only place I can be 100% certain it isn’t just that I missed that spot or that this was dropped by someone since my last visit). The Deus is remarkably light and comfortable to swing for hours. The manticore isn’t bad, but I really dislike the headphones (I’m waiting on one more part before moving them to a new body).
For me, the Deus completely supplanted my Equinox 800 purely for weight and size. For traveling with my Equinox, I got Steve from Steve’s Detector Rods to make a rod for me that had a counter balance, but then fitting it with a 3D printed hinge that let me fold the controller box flat and fit it all into a 42” hard case. By comparison, my Deus II was so light that I could run it for a few hours and not feel a thing - and it fit into a backpack. My Equinox is far from being obsolete, but I don’t want to drive all over with it. I gave it to my dad a few months ago so he could explore the woods by his house.
When the Manticore arrived, it reminded me of an Equinox 800 but better. From the menu system to the 2D target ID to target trace to the notch button to the integrated flashlight, this thing is just really well thought out (except for the headphones). It does have some iron falsing issues, but I’m hoping a firmware update will fix that. The two things that make me reach for the Manticore over the Deus II at the moment are:
- It’s new (~1.5 months old) and therefore novel
- The Deus II batteries are annoying. I haven’t been caught out with a dead battery yet, but I have got out and seen that I was at 1 bar on either my control box, my coil, my headphones, or my pinpointer a few times. They have a good squid cable that charges the control box, coil, and headphones simultaneously, but you’re on your own if you also need to charge a pinpointer.
One other thing to consider is the posibility of wanting/needing to modify the device. For what you pay, I think the Manticore is much closer to an “out-of-the-box” win. The Deus II started out as a good detector in my eyes, but became a great detector once I replaced the lower shaft with a carbon lower shaft from a Nokta Simplex. It’s ~$100, so not a big deal, but for some reason that bothered me. I wasn’t terribly pleased with the Deus II WS6 headphones out of the box either. They are nice and compact, but I had occasional issues with fit or with the hinge giving out and folding slightly while I was wearing them. The WSA II XLs were a massive step up and exactly what I wanted, but that added another ~$200 to the overall cost. So the real cost of the Deus was ~$1750 before I was really happy with it. Even then, I have concerns when taking it out in the surf. The control box has popped off of the shaft twice on me (now I have it tethered for safety) and you have to attach a really annoying antenna wire if you think you’ll submerge the cable at all. None of this is insurmountable, but for my money, I would definitely go with the Manticore again.
Oh, and if you don’t want to wait, I ran into someone yesterday who said they were able to get one shipped from Cabela’s immediately. Apparently they had a bunch in stock across their stores. Definitely worth checking.