jmaclen writes,
"Minelab's own marketing statements are based on how they can keep from competing with their own detector sales and from trying to keep their older technology viable."
Please give a link to verify that statement, or if that's just your opinion, then say so.
The Equinox was intended to directly compete with the Garrett AT Series and the XP Deus. That was Minelab's intention. Their R&D department came up with a brand new technology from scratch. It was so good that it had unintended consequences especially when Minelab marketing flatly stated "Equinox obsoletes all single frequency VLF detectors" That statement included several of Minelab's own currently produced single frequency detectors in 2018, which they were still marketing as viable detectors and which cost around the same price as the Equinox.
Minelab marketing also went to some lengths to explain to its current BBS and FBS customers what they were doing by releasing the Equinox. Here is one lengthy marketing blurb:
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"When Minelab started developing our EQUINOX detector, we looked very closely at all of the current market offerings (including our own) to reassess what detectorists were really after in a new coin & treasure detector. A clear short list of desirable features quickly emerged – and no real surprises here – waterproof, lightweight, low-cost, wireless audio, and of course, improved performance from new technology. This came from not only our own observations, but also customers, field testers, dealers and the metal detecting forums that many detectorists contribute to.
While we could have taken the approach of putting the X-TERRA (VFLEX technology) in a waterproof housing and adding a selectable frequency range, this would have been following the path of many of our competitors in just rehashing an older single frequency technology that had already reached its performance limits. Another option would have been to create a lower cost waterproof FBS detector, but that also had its challenges with FBS being ‘power hungry’, needing heavier batteries, heavier coils, etc., and relatively high cost compared to the more recent advances that our R&D team have been making with the latest electronics hardware and signal processing techniques.
When Minelab develop a new detecting technology we aim to create a paradigm shift from existing products and provide a clear performance advantage for our customers."
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Didn't that paradigm shift and clear performance advantage over existing products also refer to ALL of their own previous technology? Yes it did. They did throw a bone to BBS/FBS users in another paragraph from the same Multi IQ marketing pitch.
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"How does Multi-IQ compare to BBS/FBS?"
"Multi-IQ uses a different group of fundamental frequencies than BBS/FBS to generate a wide-band multi-frequency transmission signal that is more sensitive to high frequency targets and slightly less sensitive to low frequency targets. Multi-IQ uses the latest high-speed processors and advanced digital filtering techniques for a much faster recovery speed than BBS/FBS technologies. Multi-IQ copes with saltwater and beach conditions almost as well as BBS/FBS, however BBS/FBS still have an advantage for finding high conductive silver coins in all conditions."
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So, even though Minelab was after much of the XP and Garrett market (which they succeeded in capturing) they also had to step on their own toes and those of their customers when the ramifications of the Equinox became fully realized. Although Minelab might feel bad about ruffling some feathers by unintentionally creating more forum arguments (like this one) about which Minelab detector is better than which Minelab detector, they have tripled their sales per month of consumer level "treasure" detectors since the summer of 2019 which is mainly due to the Equinox and Vanquish.
I personally have spoken with three dealers (two in person) about how they have to market the Minelab detectors they sell. Minelab does not want them to list the Equinox as a professional level detector or a gold prospecting detector in their dealership adds. All three of them have adhered to that policy for the sake of not blatantly hurting Minelab's or their own businesses by cutting into CTX 3030 and Goldmonster 1000 sales. At least one of those dealers is very active on a different forum and he has flatly stated that he no longer uses his E-trac, CTX or Goldmonster 1000. At least in his soil conditions which are moderate to highly iron mineralized, the Equinox out performs them on ALL targets including silver due to the Equinox being able to handle high iron mineralized ground with minimal depth loss while the E-trac and CTX suffer from 1/3 to 1/2 loss of normal depth to coil size. That has been my experience too. The Equinox is more sensitive to small gold than the Goldmonster 1000 also according to this dealer and the entire team of experienced gold prospectors/trainers that he employs to train his customers. That has also been my experience.
I am no fanboy and I am not trying to hurt anybodies feelings here. The original posters topic "going from the E-trac to the Nox 800" definitely seems to be a sensitive subject for sure.
Rattlehead's post above said it well:
"the Equinox is also pretty dang special. It definitely has a lot going for it and is one outstanding unmasker. I can definitely take my Nox behind my CTX and usually find a few tough targets or coins on edge that were missed before. This is where the Nox shines. I wouldn't want to be without either one of them."
I feel the same way about my XP Deus/Equinox and Pulse Induction detector combination. Like the CTX/Equinox, those three detector's weaknesses are counteracted by their strengths.
PS Even I had complaint's when I 1st. bought the machine , with mod's , it is good , hang in there !
