The only speculation is that Nokta Makro can come up with totally new technology. That is not something they have done before. Nokta Makro's sales rep has already stated the rest of my "pure speculation" in her interviews so far.
Rutus on the other hand is well known for their very innovative designs. Too bad Rutus is not marketed here in North America. The Atrex definitely has multifrequency in its beach mode and uses a base frequency with harmonics for some of its other "SMF" Multi Filter tech. I know one of the field testers and he is very impressed and like me, is a long time user of SMF detectors.
I don't ever remember saying or believing that Minelab is the only company that can make a good SMF detector..........
I've have used/owned SMF detectors from Fisher, Whites, Garrett and Minelab. They have all been very site specific and have had places where I simply would not use them. They all did well in saltwater beach situations with lower levels of iron black sand. So far, only the Equinox has proven to me that it can handle most detecting situations that I have run into very well like, saltwater, freshwater, bed of nails in mild moderate and high mineralization, coin and jewelry detecting in all soil conditions and in heavy aluminum/iron trash, micro jewelry and gold prospecting in all soil conditions, etc. If that is the "illusion" that you are referring to, sounds about right but it's real not an illusion. Please note that I stated that the Equinox does very well in those hunting situations. I did not say it was the deepest, fastest, or the best at any of them.