Nokta/Makro SMF (My Prediction)

detectorben said:

I have a wife and two daughters and a business as well lol. What does that have to do with being angry and not hunting with others?? I enjoy my family and running my business. I also enjoy detecting with others and have a blast doing it. Sounds like maybe your doing it wrong??

It's not that I can't sell it for what I want. The fact is I can't sell it at all. Nobody wants it on any of the forums or ebay. My best offer so far is 2 pinpointers LMAO. I have sold coils for more than that.

Sent from my SM-G981V using Tapatalk

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tnsharpshooter said:

Maybe Garrett should have dropped Apex out of airplane. Lol

It is a bit (can’t think of right word) for Garrett to launch a SMF detector and it be part of the lowly ACE Line. Makes no sense. Other than the fact they were either on a shoe string budget or on a tight time frame schedule. After all they had to be hemmoraging sales to due to EQX line.
Just look around. Seems some of the what use to be Garrett YouTubers are on the Nox road not the Garrett road.

Yeah YouTube has helped keep the industry more honest.
Metal detecting forums too.

Takes more than just slapping a SMF sticker on detector for it to be a barn burner seller. Now we have proof.

You all take it easy.
Maybe one day I can tell folks what I have been doing as of late.

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tnsharpshooter said:

Maybe Garrett should have dropped Apex out of airplane. Lol

It is a bit (can’t think of right word) for Garrett to launch a SMF detector and it be part of the lowly ACE Line. Makes no sense. Other than the fact they were either on a shoe string budget or on a tight time frame schedule. After all they had to be hemmoraging sales to due to EQX line.
Just look around. Seems some of the what use to be Garrett YouTubers are on the Nox road not the Garrett road.

Yeah YouTube has helped keep the industry more honest.
Metal detecting forums too.

Takes more than just slapping a SMF sticker on detector for it to be a barn burner seller. Now we have proof.

You all take it easy.
Maybe one day I can tell folks what I have been doing starting a few weeks ago.

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kajunman said:

When you go silent, you're testing. I've seen this before.

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kajunman said:

Show me a Teknetics or Whites that looks like an early Quest/Deteknix. No detector looked like that before Quest. I'll wait for the picture.
I will just let you Google Minelab CTX.........XP Deus.........

$500 can get a person a really good, brand new detector form FTP and Nokta Makro if you shop carefully. Cool. How many of them are SMF ?

None. However, aside from beach hunting, where the APEX is better, I would take any T2, G2+, Omega 8500, Nokta Makro Kruzer for overall depth or for any other category of detecting. Depth on the APEX with any kind of reliable target ID is not good and going from single frequency to multi makes no difference.

ACE APEX with wireless headphones vs Minelab Vanquish 540 Pro Pack costs the same. ACE APEX can be user ground balanced and does better in iron. The Vanquish 540 has way better accurate target ID on non-ferrous targets shallow or deep (10"+) and overall depth. One says Garrett and one says Minelab on it. Other than that, The only place I would prefer the APEX is maybe on a shallow relic hunt in thick iron trash or in a detector beauty contest since.....

The APEX is one nice looking detector. The Vanquish is just butt ugly.

Detecting wise, I would pick the APEX for a shallow target relic hunt in moderate to thick iron over the Vanquish 540. I would pick the Vanquish 540 for all other types of basic coin, jewelry and relic hunting from experience using both detectors extensively.

I am a person who owned a Garrett AT Gold for a long time and really liked it. I sold it recently and was going to use the money to purchase and APEX. I was able to try one out for a week from a friend of mine who bought an APEX and was not happy. He hoped I would buy it..........after 20 hours of testing it head to head against my Vanquish 540......no thanks.

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Tahtsadatsago said:

I must have missed all those Garrett advertisements that claimed the Apex was an Equinox-slayer. Was it some sort of subliminal thing that the naive didn’t catch, or was it more direct with an open claim that all other machines were now obsolete?

Were all Apex owners fooled by Garrett, or was it just those owners who succumbed to the subliminal messaging?

Bluntly speaking, I don’t get the whole animosity toward Garrett thing. They put out a good machine at a fair price, and for doing so Garrett should be embarrassed?

Why were Garrett’s early coil issues (Apex) more problematic than Minelab’s ongoing coil issues (and water issues)?

Why are videos touting the Equinox evidence of its superiority, but videos touting the Apex are examples of paid shills doing the devil’s work?

Where are the apologies from those Apex “reviewers” who claimed that the Apex couldn’t be updated? (Did those “reviewers” ever notify Garrett of their “fact”?)

Where are the posts comparing Minelab’s Go-Find series to a Fisher F75 (and the accompanying declarations of Minelab shaming itself for releasing a less expensive machine that can’t compete with a competitor’s top-of-the-line machine)?

It wasn’t that long ago when everybody and their dog was swinging an AT Pro. The forums were full of posts declaring ‘you can’t go wrong with the AT Pro’ and everyone looking for machine recommendations were ominously warned that nothing less than the mighty AT Pro would suffice - even if it was significantly more money than the persons asking for recommendations could spend.

I found it annoying then, and I find it annoying now that the Equinox is all the rage. The funny thing is that I owned Minelab machines (Etrac and CTX 3030) and had AT Pro owners (who just couldn’t comprehend why someone would choose something other than the machine they chose) tell me that I had made a terrible mistake in judgement.

The same inability to comprehend a different choice reared its head when I sold those Minelab machines and went with Whites machines.

It seems that there are but two possible explanations for my inability to understand the rancor displayed toward machines/companies that aren’t the current rage...

1. I’m not one of the cool kids and I’m a slow learner. By the time I come to grips with the fact that the Equinox is absolutely perfect for all - it’ll be too late as another company/machine will be the chosen one. Also - competition is a bad thing; we’d all be better off if there were just one company offering one machine at a price of their choosing.

2. One size doesn’t fit all. Some are loath to accept that - as if different choices (in metal detectors) are somehow a personal slight.

BTW - I do own a Vanquish 440 (actually it is my wife’s machine). I much prefer the Apex.

Yes, I know..... see answer #1.

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tnsharpshooter said:

Wrong.
I haven't Posted much here since last year until recently.
I was doing a lot of (game) hunting and yes testing crossbows, and crossbow strings and cables for a company.

Don’t know how I get to do these things.
They find me somehow. I don’t seek out wanting to do.
Maybe based on my forum postings.
I don’t know for sure.

Fun though.
Learning too.

Those ndas are a bitxh. Ain’t they?

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mh9162013 said:

I think detectorben's struggles to sell the Apex and the Apex's selling price on the secondhand market say a lot. While a comparably low resale price of a product doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad product (or that many people are unhappy with it), I'm pretty sure there's a strong correlation.

I never got the impression that many others here who are critical of the Apex are thinking what they use is the best or that anyone who decides to use the Apex is wrong. But for the marketing hype that preceded it, along with its retail price, many of us are disappointed with the Apex.

You say the Apex is a starter machine; I agree. But it's not priced that way, nor has it been consistently marketed that way. It's these latter 2 points that I and I feel a few others are taking issue with.

Imagine if the Equinox 800 retailed for $3,000. Do you think it would be getting anywhere near the praise that it's been getting?

Now imagine if the Apex's base model retailed for $175. People would be waxing eloquent about it and it would be selling like hot cakes.

I know these are unrealistic numbers, but when analyzing the merits of a machine, you have to factor in all the variables, including promises made by the company and its base retail price.

A great example is the Simplex. It's performance is not what gets the attention. It's the performance for its price.

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kajunman said:

I NEVER said you were testing a detector. You've mentioned more than once about your hunting escapades. Now, I didn't know it was a crossbow. I was thinking more of a regular bow. I used to shoot as a kid. It's a lot of fun and I was good at it.

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jmaclen said:

kajunman said:

Show me a Teknetics or Whites that looks like an early Quest/Deteknix. No detector looked like that before Quest. I'll wait for the picture.
I will just let you Google Minelab CTX.........XP Deus.........

$500 can get a person a really good, brand new detector form FTP and Nokta Makro if you shop carefully. Cool. How many of them are SMF ?

None. However, aside from beach hunting, where the APEX is better, I would take any T2, G2+, Omega 8500, Nokta Makro Kruzer for overall depth or for any other category of detecting. Depth on the APEX with any kind of reliable target ID is not good and going from single frequency to multi makes no difference.

ACE APEX with wireless headphones vs Minelab Vanquish 540 Pro Pack costs the same. ACE APEX can be user ground balanced and does better in iron. The Vanquish 540 has way better accurate target ID on non-ferrous targets shallow or deep (10"+) and overall depth. One says Garrett and one says Minelab on it. Other than that, The only place I would prefer the APEX is maybe on a shallow relic hunt in thick iron trash or in a detector beauty contest since.....

The APEX is one nice looking detector. The Vanquish is just butt ugly.

Detecting wise, I would pick the APEX for a shallow target relic hunt in moderate to thick iron over the Vanquish 540. I would pick the Vanquish 540 for all other types of basic coin, jewelry and relic hunting from experience using both detectors extensively.

I am a person who owned a Garrett AT Gold for a long time and really liked it. I sold it recently and was going to use the money to purchase and APEX. I was able to try one out for a week from a friend of mine who bought an APEX and was not happy. He hoped I would buy it..........after 20 hours of testing it head to head against my Vanquish 540......no thanks.

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Ok. Go buy one.

I have a cadre of detectors. No one detector is the best at everything.

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Tahtsadatsago said:

I must have missed all those Garrett advertisements that claimed the Apex was an Equinox-slayer. Was it some sort of subliminal thing that the naive didn’t catch, or was it more direct with an open claim that all other machines were now obsolete?

Were all Apex owners fooled by Garrett, or was it just those owners who succumbed to the subliminal messaging?

Bluntly speaking, I don’t get the whole animosity toward Garrett thing. They put out a good machine at a fair price, and for doing so Garrett should be embarrassed?

Why were Garrett’s early coil issues (Apex) more problematic than Minelab’s ongoing coil issues (and water issues)?

Why are videos touting the Equinox evidence of its superiority, but videos touting the Apex are examples of paid shills doing the devil’s work?

Where are the apologies from those Apex “reviewers” who claimed that the Apex couldn’t be updated? (Did those “reviewers” ever notify Garrett of their “fact”?)

Where are the posts comparing Minelab’s Go-Find series to a Fisher F75 (and the accompanying declarations of Minelab shaming itself for releasing a less expensive machine that can’t compete with a competitor’s top-of-the-line machine)?

It wasn’t that long ago when everybody and their dog was swinging an AT Pro. The forums were full of posts declaring ‘you can’t go wrong with the AT Pro’ and everyone looking for machine recommendations were ominously warned that nothing less than the mighty AT Pro would suffice - even if it was significantly more money than the persons asking for recommendations could spend.

I found it annoying then, and I find it annoying now that the Equinox is all the rage. The funny thing is that I owned Minelab machines (Etrac and CTX 3030) and had AT Pro owners (who just couldn’t comprehend why someone would choose something other than the machine they chose) tell me that I had made a terrible mistake in judgement.

The same inability to comprehend a different choice reared its head when I sold those Minelab machines and went with Whites machines.

It seems that there are but two possible explanations for my inability to understand the rancor displayed toward machines/companies that aren’t the current rage...

1. I’m not one of the cool kids and I’m a slow learner. By the time I come to grips with the fact that the Equinox is absolutely perfect for all - it’ll be too late as another company/machine will be the chosen one. Also - competition is a bad thing; we’d all be better off if there were just one company offering one machine at a price of their choosing.

2. One size doesn’t fit all. Some are loath to accept that - as if different choices (in metal detectors) are somehow a personal slight.

BTW - I do own a Vanquish 440 (actually it is my wife’s machine). I much prefer the Apex.

Yes, I know..... see answer #1.

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tnsharpshooter said:

Ok I misunderstood.
Sorry.

See I am human.

Seriously I have more confidence in better detectors coming to the market than I do with areas for folks being allowed to hunt in USA.
Lot of new homes built. Land cleared. And folks relocating out of urban USA to more more isolated places. These move ins I call them. They are pretty protective of their land. Can make things tough. I am feeling this even in back woods Tn. Go figure.

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mh9162013 said:

I haven't seen any of that (or much of that) in this thread. Being critical of a company doesn't mean one has animosity toward that company.

I respect Garrett as a metal detecting company. But I also recognize their flaws. But they're not the only ones with flaws, as Minelab, Fisher and Nokta/Makro have them too.

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Tahtsadatsago said:

So you're a 'one size doesn't fit all' kind of guy?

I concur. No such thing as the perfect machine. Never will be such a thing. Competition is a good thing - for consumers.

My comment (the War & Peace rendition) wasn't solely in response to this thread only, but I was addressing some of what has been posted in this thread.

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