I honestly don't know if having a background in previous FBS models will help you out with the Equinox or not. I think the best approach to this unit is to look at it for what it is...an entirely new thing...and that you will be starting from scratch on a lot of things. In my opinion, some people got the Equinox and didn't even give it a chance when they saw it was different than their eTrac or CTX. They just automatically assumed that because it wasn't the same, that it wasn't as good. I'm not the guy that is going to tell anybody that their opinion should match mine, and that they are wrong for not believing what I believe...so take that as just my observation of it all. I had both the eTrac and CTX and sold both of them. I actually sold the CTX first and hung onto the eTrac so that I could kinda get a comparison between the Nox and it. I saw immediately that I liked the Nox better....just in the way it handled my soil and responded to targets that the eTrac couldn't see (speaking mostly for relics...but deep coins too).
Some have said that the Equinox is a Jack of all trades but a master of none. I also disagree with that statement. It all comes down to soil conditions and sites you choose to hunt. For me, I do a little Civil War relic hunting, freshwater jewelry hunt, and on occasion if the opportunity presents itself, I will go look for some old coins but those aren't really my thing. Of course, once or twice a year I will venture to a saltwater beach and spend a few hours of vacation seeing what I can come up with. For me...the Nox is the perfect unit for all of that and I can't think of any other detector that I would rather have to do any of those specific things either...even as a stand alone unit for say, relic hunting. If I had any thoughts that there was something better, I would be using it. That's just how I am. I'm not going to use a detector that would limit me or hinder me from finding what I seek to find LOL.