Test Team Spotlight: Matt Ryan from Tennessee Adventures

Published by Jenna Anderson on 07/30/20

Matt Ryan, otherwise known as Tennessee Adventures, has been detecting for three years.

Matt Ryan, Otherwise Known As Tennessee Adventures

He became interested in detecting after discovering metal detecting videos on YouTube. Having always been a history buff, it was intriguing to him that he could find they stuff talked about in history books possibly buried in his backyard.

He seems to have a knack for finding rings. Over the course of the last three years, Matt has found over 100 rings and has been on the news four times for his ring returns. His favorite places to hunt are parks and old homesites to find the history got him into detecting.

Uncover his Treasure Find using a Nokta Makro Simplex+

Equinox 800

The Minelab Equinox 800 brings a new perspective to the detecting world through the implementation of what Minelab calls Multi-IQ technology. The Equinox 800 can simultaneously operate on up to five VLF and LF frequencies (5Khz, 10Khz, 15Khz, 20Khz, 40Khz), designed to enable detection of small and large targets, both ferrous and non-ferrous. Or, each individual frequency (except for 20Khz and 40Mhz) can be selected separately, allowing the Equinox to operate as a traditional single frequency VLF detector.

There are a series of factory-preset detect modes: Park, Field, Beach, and Gold. These allow you to jump to different situations with slightly varying levels of discrimination, sensitivity, recovery speed/separation, number and type of tones, and so on. Each mode has two levels, the second of which is generally more finely tuned for that environment.

The Equinox 800 was operated primarily in Field 2, however, Field 1, Beach 2, and Gold 2 were also tested. In all modes, Multi-Frequency was used in order to thoroughly vet the detector’s Multi-IQ technology in the heavily mineralized environment. The all-metal mode was utilized frequently to assess the detector’s target separation fidelity and recovery speed. Tracking ground balance was unable to be used, however, because of the highly volatile, scattered soil conditions.

Weight: 2.96 lbs
Frequency: Multi, 5kHz, 10kHz, 15kHz, 20kHz, 40kHz
Waterproof: EQUINOX is Fully Submersible, Ideal for Detecting at the Beach and in Rivers, Streams and Lakes (3m / 10-feet)
Warranty: 3-year limited (detector), 1-year (battery)

Our Rating

Ease of Use

5.0

Features

5.0

Durability

5.0

Weight and Balance

4.0

Bang for Your Buck

5.0

Battery Life

4.0

Pros

The Equinox 800 has a noise cancelling feature that enables the machine to deconflict with interfering nearby detectors, power lines, or other forms of electromagnetic interference, and automatically select the optimal operating frequencies.
This is in addition to the ground balance capability, which optimizes the detector based on soil conditions.
Ground balancing the Equinox 800 can be done manually, as traditionally done with most detectors, or it can be set to automatic/tracking ground balance for more highly mineralized conditions or changing conditions.
Field 2 seemed to provide the most consistency once the recovery speed slowed down to 5, and with constant ground balancing.
The Equinox is also able to easily receive factory software updates by connecting the detector to a computer and following a few simple steps.

Cons

The Equinox 800 struggled throughout the day to consistently maintain lock on targets, or in several cases even detect the target.
The Equinox 800 can take some time to learn. It has a lot of detailed advanced and custom setting options that allow you to fine-tune the machine, such as threshold, threshold pitch, number of target tones from 2-50, tone pitch, and tone break.
However, good results can be obtained with the Equinox straight out of the box using one of the standard factory-preset modes.
Checks of the Field 1, Beach 2, and Gold 2 did not provide any increase in detection capability or consistency, although out of those three modes, Gold 2 did the best.

The Bottom Line

For this evaluation, the machine was operated first with the factory-installed v1.75 software, and then upgraded to the v2.1.12 update and tested again.

Learn More

Garrett Pro-Pointer AT

The Garrett Pro-Pointer AT pinpointer is waterproof up to 10 ft. It features a one-button power operation, retune sensitivity adjustment, silent vibration mode, automatic power-off feature, and a lost pinpointer alarm, ensuring you can easily locate your pinpointer if it’s misplaced. It requires one 9-volt battery.

Another great feature of the Pro Pointer AT is its three sensitivity settings – low, medium, and high. These help you find smaller items at deeper depths. The sensitivity settings determine the detector’s responses to electromagnetic fields.

It has a built-in scraper for searching targets and loud audio. The Pro-Pointer includes a 30-hour 9V battery, woven belt holster and lanyard attachment loop.

Weight: 6.5 oz
Frequency: 11.5 kHz
Waterproof: Up to 20 ft.
Warranty: 2 years