Olha, com relação à essa afirmação do equals chamar toString, eu não sei se está correta não. Olha o código fonte da classe Object:
/**
     * Indicates whether some other object is "equal to" this one.
     * <p>
     * The {@code equals} method implements an equivalence relation
     * on non-null object references:
     * <ul>
     * <li>It is <i>reflexive</i>: for any non-null reference value
     *     {@code x}, {@code x.equals(x)} should return
     *     {@code true}.
     * <li>It is <i>symmetric</i>: for any non-null reference values
     *     {@code x} and {@code y}, {@code x.equals(y)}
     *     should return {@code true} if and only if
     *     {@code y.equals(x)} returns {@code true}.
     * <li>It is <i>transitive</i>: for any non-null reference values
     *     {@code x}, {@code y}, and {@code z}, if
     *     {@code x.equals(y)} returns {@code true} and
     *     {@code y.equals(z)} returns {@code true}, then
     *     {@code x.equals(z)} should return {@code true}.
     * <li>It is <i>consistent</i>: for any non-null reference values
     *     {@code x} and {@code y}, multiple invocations of
     *     {@code x.equals(y)} consistently return {@code true}
     *     or consistently return {@code false}, provided no
     *     information used in {@code equals} comparisons on the
     *     objects is modified.
     * <li>For any non-null reference value {@code x},
     *     {@code x.equals(null)} should return {@code false}.
     * </ul>
     * <p>
     * The {@code equals} method for class {@code Object} implements
     * the most discriminating possible equivalence relation on objects;
     * that is, for any non-null reference values {@code x} and
     * {@code y}, this method returns {@code true} if and only
     * if {@code x} and {@code y} refer to the same object
     * ({@code x == y} has the value {@code true}).
     * <p>
     * Note that it is generally necessary to override the {@code hashCode}
     * method whenever this method is overridden, so as to maintain the
     * general contract for the {@code hashCode} method, which states
     * that equal objects must have equal hash codes.
     *
     * @param   obj   the reference object with which to compare.
     * @return  {@code true} if this object is the same as the obj
     *          argument; {@code false} otherwise.
     * @see     #hashCode()
     * @see     java.util.HashMap
     */
    public boolean equals(Object obj) {
        return (this == obj);
    }
O equals da classe object só compara a referência (hashCode) mesmo.