https://www.ahrps.org/forums/read.php?12,23552,23573#msg-23573
James45, you asked a good question, and I have read a lot of good reasons or suggestions why. Most of the main reasons were touched on, and I owned three of the Vanquish 540 Pro Pack units and can share with you why they are no longer in my Detector Team.
1.. There is no automated or manual GB and the fixed GB range causes falsing in over 90% of the ground I hunted with them in a couple of states and a wide-range of mineralization. It's so bad that it makes trying to use the All Metal Accept 'Horseshoe' basically useless. The best set-up is a 'Custom' mode and rejecting the first two notch segments.
2.. In all the many years I have enjoyed detecting, I have NEVER had a detector that consumed batteries like the Vanquish! Using quality AA alkaline batteries will chomp at your bank account if you get out often.
3.. I found the red back-light to be useless for the night hunting I did. Had to go to a model with a white, and bright enough, back-light.
4.. I didn't care for the compressed VDI read-out.
5.. It worked OK for some urban Coin Hunting, as long as the coins were scattered about and away from offending metal objects. I experienced falsing or strange processing behavior using both the 5X8 DD, which was my main-use coil, as well as the 9X12 DD I kept on a 2nd V-540 and I wasn't the only one who encountered that issue.
My friend Gregg sent a Vanquish 540 to 'zincoln' to give it a try. He usually uses a V3i or MX Sport, and also has a modified IDX and an M-6. He took the V-540 to one of his productive sites and in the hunting he did, he came upon 40¢. That was a Quarter next to a Dime with a Nickel on top of the time partially. Those were on top of the ground, in the grass and in plain sight. Those three coins, together, should have produced a good audible hit and a blended VDI read-out due to their different conductivities. Didn't happen.
"Now, the one thing that occurred today that left me a bit flat was a 3 coin spill on the surface. A nickel on top of a dime, immediately beside a quarter. I only got the tiniest of bleep in one direction. Basically indicated it wasn't there....more like falsing or a deep nail. I'd expect it to hit hard, with inaccurate VDIs. I stopped and looked only because the blip was a high tone and spied them and tried to get it to hit them....but it wouldn't.
So, that left me wondering - what the heck." And he included a photo of the three coins as found together.
I had that experience several times when Coin Hunting a very productive old park around the picnic bowery and near some swings that were in pea gravel. Small 'clusters' of dropped and pocket-spilled coins of 3 to 5 or maybe 6 coins together in a small 'cluster' and most adjacent-to and touching other coins or some on top of others. Some on top of the ground, grass, gravel or dirt, and some just barely under an inch or so, but together and some in contact with others.
I was using the V-540 with the 5X8 DD at my local park so I swapped to the V-540 w/9X12 DD. Same/similar results. I was working both the picnic area and the swing-set area and evaluating performance of the 540 and a few other models I had, to include the Nokta/Makro Simplex + w/5X9½ DD coil, and especially my Garrett Apex that I had recently received. I used the standard 6X11 DD Viper coil along with my main-use 5X8 DD Ripper coil. Same size and type coil on both the V-540 and Apex, but the Apex and Simplex + gave me both a good audio response as well as reasonable TID reports for the blended coins. Not the Vanquish.
I had those experiences a few times before 'zincoln' got the Vanquish in-hand so I wasn't too surprised by his report. I mainly Relic Hunted old remote sites and have the detectors and coils I know handle those environments the best. I was curious about the V-540 for urban Coin Hunting that I need to switch back to more due to health issues. I bought three to keep the Pro Pack coils on two of them and have a 3rd V-540 as a 'loaner unit'. But after several bad experiences when hunting urban sites and encountering 'spills' or 'clusters', and the other things that were mentioned, I lost interest in the Vanquish.
I sold or traded all of them, and replaced it with the Apex and similar thinking. My main-use unit sports the 5X8 DD Ripper coil working full-time, the other keeps the 8½X11 DD Raider coil mounted for wide-open, sparse-target needs. The 3rd Apex? It is a 'loaner-unit' for friends and family so they will be using the same detector I am. It has the same turn-on settings with Headphones and Pin-Pointer to let them use the same detector set-up I am. That eliminates the thought they might have of me loaning them an inferior product and me using a top-end unit to out-hunt them. Level playing ground, and a detector that works well on those Coin Hunting encounters of multiple coins together. I keep the standard Viper coil on my 'loaner-unit'.
Are there things I like about the Vanquish series?
Yes. I really like the physical package they use as it is a very functional design to collapse or extend the device. I only like the V-540 because it offers the best control design and adjustment settings of the three models. I like the easy-to-access battery housing ....
because I had to do it often to replace the quickly discharged batteries.
I also liked the 540 'Pro Pack' because you also get the wireless Headphones that work quite well and are comfortable You also get the two better-size coils
(my opinion) for routine day-to-day hunting or one for covering wide-open places for a little better detection depth and site coverage.
I did like the three modes or different Disc. programs, and that they had different recovery rates and two had a different GB reference point than the 3rd mode. I also liked the update to provide Iron Audio Volume for the 540, setting it apart from the others.
I also liked using it in wide-open areas with single-target encounters as the visual Target ID would work almost as deep as the audio response and provide reasonably accurate VDI read-outs on mid-depth to some deeper coins than most detectors can achieve.
The 540 Vanquish is, in general, an OK detector, but like any and all models, regardless of price, they have their strong an weak points. For me, the V-540 turned out to be not the right unit for me and where I usually hunt. Sure felt good in the hand, but not in how it didn't work on occasion.
Monte
Whats the main problem with them
Please need some feedback before I make a big mistake
