APEX, Simplex or Vanquish?

M1abrams

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Wife and I are looking to buy two metal detectors. Out of the the three in title, what one dose every one recommend? Will mostly be used in our travels so park and yard hunting. Maybe an occasional beach hunt.
 
Wife and I are looking to buy two metal detectors. Out of the the three in title, what one dose every one recommend? Will mostly be used in our travels so park and yard hunting. Maybe an occasional beach hunt.

That's a pretty big range of price and features, actually. Anywhere from 400 dollars for a pair of Vanquish 340s with no headphones (regular battery powered) to 1000 dollars for a pair of Ace Apex Wireless headphone bundles (rechargeable battery).

There's something to be said for a simple machine with regular batteries and wired headphones. You keep a pack of AA batteries around, grab the detector, and go hunt. If you're hunting a lot, then keeping up with charging batteries (either built in or replaceable) is the way to go.

You'll know within a year if you want to upgrade one or both detectors.
 
....Out of the the three in title, what one dose every one recommend?

As a simple reminder, literally no one can give you a realistic recommendation about the Apex based on its performance beyond sheer speculation. Not even Garrett knows what the final tuning is going to be on the Apex, as only prototype versions are out in the hands of a few tight-lipped testers. I think the Apex is an interesting looking machine, but it would be ludicrous for anyone to recommend an Apex over the other units right now.
 
The Simplex being fully waterproof, adjustable and feature rich is really nice. I have used one and it is pretty nose heavy but very sturdy. Way more detector than the entry level price. The Simplex is reported to do well in freshwater and OK in saltwater.

I have used all three Vanquish models and own the 340 and 440 which are extremely well balanced, remarkably deep and accurate, very adjustable and easy to operate. They are not fully waterproof. Great detectors that anyone can swing and really enjoy just about anywhere including saltwater dry and wet beaches (not in the water) since they are simultaneous multi frequency and have built in automatic salt beach capabilities that the single frequency Simplex does not have.

Few if any of us have used the Apex yet. I know Garrett said July. Whether us mortals can actually get one then is a question. It might be more like September when they start being easily available plus there will be plenty of opinions from the early users to help us decide. The Apex looks fantastic, has simultaneous multi frequency and single frequency operation which the Vanquish does not have (single frequency) and many other outstanding features and it's weatherproof, not waterproof. The Ace series was slightly nose heavy and the AT series was very nose heavy so, hopefully Garrett's design team is telling the truth when the say it is 2.5 ibs and very well balanced.

If you absolutely have to have two detectors right now and they need to be the same brand (which is a good idea) the Multi IQ Vanquish series would be my choice. You will still need handheld pinpointers. Personally, I would go with at least the Vanquish 440 since it has a very good onboard pinpoint function along with good discrimination segments.

Jeff
 
There's something to be said for a simple machine with regular batteries and wired headphones. You keep a pack of AA batteries around, grab the detector, and go hunt.


Or grab a charging bank and charge while you detect or are on a break. I'll take rechargable internal batteries over replacing AA batteries any day.
 
You all have given great advice, I think we are going with a Simplex and a Vanquisher 540. Will be good to have two different detectors out in the field.
 
On the Simplex, I found the menu buttons way too hard to push and didn’t care for the single tone Beach Mode. Not what I would recommend. Of course I’m a beach hunter.
Good luck in your choices.
 
Too hard to push? Maybe it's time to grab a gym membership because the buttons, at least on mine, are anything but hard to push. I think they are perfect. Easy enough to push without any issue but just stiff enough to not be accidentally pressed causing something to be changed without knowing it.
 
On the Simplex, I found the menu buttons way too hard to push and didn’t care for the single tone Beach Mode. Not what I would recommend. Of course I’m a beach hunter.
Good luck in your choices.

Beach Mode: I was under the impression it was 3 tone not a single tone as you suggest??

Is it a single tone on Beach Mode?
 
Beach Mode: I was under the impression it was 3 tone not a single tone as you suggest??

Is it a single tone on Beach Mode?

I may be wrong but I believe so.
From the manual:
Beach
Different than the other modes, targets with 0-15 IDs are notched out by default and cannot be changed in order to ignore ferrous metals or ground noise. In this mode, the device produces a medium tone for gold and non-ferrous metals with IDs 16-99.

Quote from Monte here on the forum:
The Beach mode has the first 3 Disc. segments notched out which covers the 0-to-15 Iron Range so there is no 'Low-Tone' for Iron like the Field mode offers. Thus all you hear are the higher-conductive targets above Iron with a non-processed single, or 1-Tone, mid-range audio tone. And, it is NOT VCO enhanced. Better depth than Park mode, and a nice, clean audio on mid-depth to deeper targets.
 
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Too hard to push? Maybe it's time to grab a gym membership because the buttons, at least on mine, are anything but hard to push. I think they are perfect. Easy enough to push without any issue but just stiff enough to not be accidentally pressed causing something to be changed without knowing it.

A gym membership may not be the right thing to do at this time in history but I appreciate the suggestion.:D
The Simplex buttons were stiff on mine and the menu navigation would return too quickly back to default making it cumbersome to use. I see that this has been addressed in the latest update.
I’m glad you are enjoying the Simplex. Good luck!
 
On the Simplex, I found the menu buttons way too hard to push and didn’t care for the single tone Beach Mode. Not what I would recommend. Of course I’m a beach hunter.
Good luck in your choices.


I just got my Simplex a few days ago.

I found the buttons very "stiff".
 
I just got my Simplex a few days ago.

I found the buttons very "stiff".

I like having to deliberately press down the buttons and I prefer a raised button over a flat panel (but that is just my preference) the biggest problem I’ve had so far with my Simplex was that I’ve accidentally shut it off a few times pressing the wrong button.
 
A gym membership may not be the right thing to do at this time in history but I appreciate the suggestion.:D
The Simplex buttons were stiff on mine and the menu navigation would return too quickly back to default making it cumbersome to use. I see that this has been addressed in the latest update.
I’m glad you are enjoying the Simplex. Good luck!

Yeah...I went straight to 2.77 out of the box so I didn't have to deal with the menu issue. How they have it now seems to work out very well. Only once have I had the menu time out on me but that's because I got distracted and stopped doing what I was doing for a few seconds.
 
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