After weeks of contemplating what metal detector to purchase for my next machine I have finally made my decision and my new detector is on it way.
I did not end up getting my top pick of the Minelab 800 as I have been drooling over the idea for the past month or so. Instead, I did some research and made the tough decision to go with a different machine and series all together.
I did however stay with a Minelab product I opted for the Minelab Vanquish 540. This was a tough decision to make considering I really had my heart set on the Vanquish 800. however after days of research the reality set in that the differences and comparison between the Minelab Vanquish 540, & the Equinox 600/&800 detectors for the difference in money spent, only made sense to me to opt for the cheaper model considering my needs vs wants out of a detector.
There are a lot of attractive additions that the Equinox series have that the Vanquish series do not. For example. The Equinox is completely %100 submersible up to 10ft below the water line,
compared to the fact the vanquish series are only submersible to 3 ft below, & that’s just the coil (only,), & not the control display box. This was a huge thing for me to be honest as I really enjoy beach combing and like going into the shallows with my machine. It just means I’ll have to be extra careful around the waters I guess,
But there are significantly more options with the Equinox series than with the Vanquish series. However at the end of the day all 3 detectors will be able to locate relatively the same metals, be able to have multiple personal recordable settings saved to the machines depending on the grounds you will be hunting on. All three use multi frequencies technology. And all 3 models when tested side by side will detect just about the same items at the same tones and relative numbers when set on the same settings.
The selling feature for me as to why I ended up with the Vanquish 540 is largely due to cost. Quite simply put, I just saved myself $1000 for a machine that will perform very, very similar to its higher end cousin, the equinox.
Also after my research I tend to believe that Minelab has done some great advertising with all of their series and they know that a consumer will sometimes pay more for a product even if the additional cost is not necessarily representative of a better product than a cheaper model. I believe this is the case between the high end Vanquish series and the equinox series. Especially the lower end 600 model. But each one of these machines have the basic same technology to search metals in the ground. However the difference between my existing 340 model and the higher 540 model is significantly different and the 540 far out performs the younger brother (the 340).
Here is a link to a comparison between 2 of the Vanquish series machines, the 440, & 540.
So in conclusion I believe I got a decent machine for a decent price with the Minelab Vanquish 540. Can’t wait to try it out in a few days when it arrives . I’ll keep you posted on how I find it compared to my other one.
Relic XPeditions 