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Simplex Versus Vanquish At The Beach


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Very good unbiased video!

   I like both detectors very much! But i have a slight lean to the Simplex+ for waterproofness and price! Mostly because I'm primarily a beach hunter!

   I like the Vanquish for it's sounds, and strength at depth! And coil choices!

   Ideally i would get both, to cover many situations, if they were my only two detectors! And budget was key!!👍👍

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I would have liked to see the test done in actual wet sand or shallow water, and not just slightly damp sand. Get down where when you scoop out some sand, water starts to fill the hole. That would be a better test to see what it would do in a salt environment.

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Cuda,

   Maybe he will do another like that, if we ask! He did a good job with that one!

Update: I went on there and asked! Will see!!👍👍

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I appreciate this guy doing the test. No bias involved.

Impressed with the Simplex. For a single channel VLF it does ok.

Also agree that it would have been better to see this in actual water or water filled holes. Wonder how the equinox does in this test? I have not personally been to the beach since 2007 😞

With work how it is, along with finances it is unlikely I will see the beach anytime soon. I'm a land hunter and do heavy trash/garbage sites. It's tough detecting grounds for me. Machine gun fire iron on anything I use. I envy the people close enough to beaches that can take an hour trip and go detect.. Wish it was like that for me. At best, it is 4+ hrs one way!

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    Like everything Rob, the "grass is always greener" if you have been in one location for a long time! I feel your pain!

    I've been near beaches in S. Florida my whole life, and many times it gets old! They are not what they used to be! Too many restrictions and rules! And too crowded! And other than the Treasure Coast, no old coins or relics to be found! (And rare when you do!) But i guess we deal with what we have, until we are able to relocate! Which i hope to do in the next year or two!👍👍

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  • 3 weeks later...

As a 31 year-old newbie who wants to get into this hobby I'm debating between these two models. I'd use it exclusively for the beach looking for jewelry. Anyone know which would do a better job on northern California beaches for skipping random trash? 

The pros on the Simplex (over Vanquish) seem fairly clear - waterproof, looks better, cheaper, rechargeable built-in battery vs. double AA's.

From the video it's not obvious to me why someone would go with the Vanquish over the Simplex though. What are the advantages? Overall I'm happy to ignore waterproofing, etc. if it means that it only goes off on useful targets.

Thanks all for your thoughts!

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17 hours ago, snufferbottle said:

Anyone know which would do a better job on northern California beaches for skipping random trash? 

Both the Simplex and Vanquish can be set up to "skip" most conductive "random trash" at beaches that consists of aluminum pull tabs, bits of foil, condiment pouches, juice bottle foil freshness seals, screw caps, crown caps, beer and soda cans, sunglasses, e-cig parts, fishing tackle, zippers, snaps, tent stakes, toy cars, bullet casings, and countless other odds and ends including junk costume jewelry.   Clad coinage is the next most common "trash" item encountered by hard core beach jewelry hunters, including the dreaded corroded modern zinc penny - affectinately known as zincolns.  Furthermore, lower valued tungsten and stainless rings abound as well as lower conductive precious metals like platinum and palladium.  These and gold chains all also tend to ring up like like low conductive ferrous trash (e.g., steel tent stakes and some crown caps) which can also be inadvertently discriminated out.  I usually set up my detector to not discriminate or filter out anything and let my ears and brain do the "discriminating".   On the beach I mostly scoop it all if the signal falls in the gold jewelry range but more often than not it turns out to be a pull tab, freshness seal, or nickel.

The problem is if you set the machine up to skip most "random trash", especially by notching out aluminum trash which comprises a good percentage of the above list, you will also be notching out gold jewelry which also happens to ring up in the aluminum range.  Just a cruel little trick the detecting gods have decided to pull on us detectorists. 

So the realty check is that you are going to have to scoop a hell of a lot of aluminum trash signals before that gold ring finally pops out of the sand.  Just comes with the territory.  There are no real shortcuts and "skipping random trash" is not realty part of the equation.  Beach detecting is a lot more nuanced than you might think.  It has more to do with being able to read the beach for signs of erosion, follwing the tide tables, knowing where people usually lose their stuff (most jewelry typically gets lost in the water than in the sand when cold water and sunscreen or wave action causes rings to slip off fingers or earrings and chains to be broken off and lost, other areas to focus on are the towel line, beach entrance areas where they are taking off their flip flops, and concession areas and lifeguard stands).  Being able to get clues from the trash you scoop can also point you to the more productive areas on the beach where the heavier gold objects may have collected.  It takes (a lot of) patience and if you are going to brave the surf for gold, means you and your detector are going to take a lot of punishment.  Dry and wet sand detecting timed around low tides can be productive and avoids the need the need to have a fully submersible detector.

Bottom line is that either detector would suit the beginning beach detectorist.  If you plan on getting the detector submerged, then obviously the Simplex is your choice.  However, despite being waterproof and touting beach modes, the Simplex suffers from the drawback of being a single frequency detector and its stability will be limited vs. the multi-frequency Vanquish in the wet salt sand and shallow salt surf.  The lower stability of Simplex in wet salt conditions can be countered by lowering sensitivity but that obviously also lowers its wet salt depth performance vs. Vanquish.  If you plan on doing a lot of wet salt sand detecting, Vanquish is a better bet.  If you your beaches also have a lot of ferrous black sand, then going higher end to the Equinox 600 would improve performance over both the Simplex and Vanquish.

Also, unless you are just going to prowl the dry sand, look into getting a decent long handled, heavy duty wet sand/water scoop.

Good luck out there.  Hope you get some of that shiny yellow stuff.

HTH.

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Thanks for the detailed response Chase! I did go out and get a decent scoop already (CKG stainless steel), but didn't get the detector yet because I keep debating between the various entry-level models. Eventually I'll probably get an Equinox 800 but first I want to get to a point where I'm being limited by the machine. Given that I haven't used one yet, that'll be a bit!

Watched some more videos since I posted that and I'm leaning towards the Vanquish as I plan to do a lot of wet sand detecting. Will talk to a local metal detector dealer tomorrow who carries both Minelab + Nokta to see what he recommends for our beaches.

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   I think the ML 600 would give you the most options for the price! If your hunting the low tide line, it is inevitable that you will get hit with a rouge wave, that could drown the Vanquish! Plus the 600 gives you more options than the Vanquish, at close to the price point! Food for thought!

    The dealer may try to upsell you on the 800, which would not totally be a bad thing, but the price and extra features may be more than you want to deal with right now!👍👍

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