abenson

I put the Apex on eBay a few days to see if it would sell at $340 plus $20 shipping (that's $65 less than the going price new). Got a lot of questions about how I liked it and why I was selling it. Also got a bunch of low ball offers at $250-$300. I assume from this the Apex isn't going to be a hot seller used. When I sold my Vanquish 540 pro package it was gone at $425 plus $20 shipping in a matter of hours. So if I have to give the Apex away I guess I'll keep it and see what additional coils/updates come out in the future. From the 20 hours or so I have on the Apex I really can't see myself using it for anything but urban clad coin hunting. If they bring out a smaller coil it might do OK in a ghost town.

Correct the Apex is not as fast as the Equinox even with the Equinox wearing an 11" coil.

I was hoping for some multi frequency competition from Garrett. But as it stands right now they aren't even close to what Minelab has. I honestly can't tell much of a difference in performance between multi and single frequency on the Apex. Yes its stable in MS on the beach but the Vanquish is still a better machine for less money. IMO Garrett should have waited until they had something better, instead of rushing a multi frequency to market just to say they had one. The thing that disappoints me is that it doesn't even give the Vanquish a run for the money. The Apex is a bit better at separation in iron if you have it setup right than the Vanquish but not by much. On the other hand the Vanquish is deeper and more stable. Maybe they will surprise us all with an AT Apex that will really shine. In the mean time I'm waiting for the Equinox 1000.

Yea I decided I'm going to sell mine. I just don't need another mid-priced detector. Great for urban park hunting but I just don't do much of that anymore and when I do I only dig deep signals. In that case the deeper signals are out of range for the Apex. Probably through it on one of the Facebook Garrett Apex user forums since that's where the Garrett fans hang out.

My iron program is based off the deep program. Disc 8.7, iron vol 3, sensitivity 90, 31 KHz, reactivity 4, silencer -1, 5 tones with breaks at 8.7, 50, 80 and 97. The first and last breaks the tones are set to 202. 2nd break set at 367, 50-80 is at 593 and 80-97 is at 993. As you know with the HF coil 31 KHz up averages everything. So everything but nickels and similar items are in the 80-97 bracket. The mid tone I scrutinize closely in iron as it usually represents a masked target. You also have to be careful with the break at 97 because bigger silver like halves and dollars can come in that high. But where I'm using this program there is little chance of that happening.

Sorry here is the link. Iron Masking

I know there's already a bunch of stuff written on iron masking. But there might be some new readers that could benefit. Over on Monte's forum I started a discussion on iron masking didn't get a lot of response but Monte did write some very informative responses if you want to visit the topic on his site it's under the relic/old site hunting section. Here's the video. Would love any additional comments on the subject if anyone would like to interject. I'm no expert and certainly don't know everything about every metal detector out there so I'm open to any constructive criticism or comments.

I've conversed with Monte a few times about these videos that Garrett released and why Garrett seems to do so much better than what I got or even he got. I think I already posted (I can't remember) about my nail board being smaller than the official Monte Nail Board so Monte sent me one. Sure enough the Apex does do better on his official sized board I can get 6 out of 8 rather than 4 out of 8. But on the flip side the Simplex and the F19 do even better. The other thing that makes the Apex perform better in iron is coil height above the ground. We found that if you hold the coil approximately 3.5-4 inches about the nail board or the line of nails and coins the Apex does much better. Now in the real world I don't go around swinging my coil that far off the ground, 2 inches at most. But at least the info is there if you happened to need better performance. Obviously that's only going to work for surface targets.

I think a lot of people have lost interest in the Apex. With any metal detector I get I like to put it through all my tests and hunting grounds to see where it fits with the other units I have. I've taken it to parks to coin hunt, a really trashy ghost town and an old relic site. At this point I can say that it wouldn't be my first choice in any of those scenarios but you can make it work and you will find stuff. I'm going to hang onto it and see if they bring out some new coils for it. But as it stands it's a mediocre performer as it should be at the price. It's been a long time since I used an Ace detector and that was a 250, I can say I do like it a lot better than the 250. I also had an AT Pro and I still think I like the AT Pro performance better but the Apex is better in the ergonomics department. Better balanced, better display, better looking and wireless headphones built in.

If you want to see the Apex in the action in the field here is a video I did over the weekend. Didn't compare it to anything in this video just got out and hunted with it.

When I coin hunt it's usually only for older coins. So I want a metal detector that can not only go deep but have an accurate ID at depth in my bad soil. Equinox 800 fits that bill for me, nothing else but a FBS machine can come close.

The Apex is a great detector with lots of nice features. Get to know it and enjoy it. I personally am critical of metal detectors because of the tough conditions I use them in. But for someone just getting into the hobby it's a great one to start with.

I said I was done with the videos about the Apex but I had to do one more that does show some improvement on the in-line nail coin test. I have no problem admitting that sometimes there's a better way to do things, I would like to see Garrett succeed just as much the next guy, so anything that shows improved performance is welcome. If you're only interested in those results skip to 2:46 in the video. FYI Monte Berry posted somewhat of a review on metaldetectingforum.com that pretty much matches what I've been saying about the Apex. He's also the one who suggested using iron audio off for the best results. Monte does pretty thorough tests and misses very little. You can see his comments here Apex comments The rest of the video addresses some of the comments made on Facebook about my previous videos. The only link I posted to the video was on this forum but someone posted it to an Apex users group and let the fun begin. You'd think I killed their favorite dog. It is what is. So i'm sure someone will find this video and post it there as well, not going to be me though. If people watch it at least they will know where I'm coming from.

Update on the chatter issue I talked about earlier with the Apex. I took the Equinox to the same park and definitely EMI. Equinox was almost as bad, noise cancel made no difference. Lowered sensitivity on the Equinox to 14 and ran in 15 KHz just to make it bearable but even then still chatty. Must be a cellphone tower or underground high voltage line in the area.

Last night I took the Apex out to a local park for about an hour (remember I have bad ground). Boy was I lost in all the noise that thing was making and I know my way around metal detectors pretty well. Could have been EMI could have been the ground minerals or iron/junk in the ground I don't know. I tried everything, different modes, sensitivity down, different KHz, turned it off and on, etc. It definitely is not this bad at my house. I contacted another person who I know has the Apex to see if they had experienced anything like that themselves, haven't heard back yet. But I also came across this video of the Apex doing the same thing. So my question at this point after watching the above video, hearing the makers comments, and experiencing a similar situation. Is the Apex even a beginner/intermediate metal detector? I can't imagine a beginner going through the same issues and not wrapping the thing around a tree. I plan to go back tonight and figure out what was going on. I'm taking along the Equinox as well to compare some signals.

The Apex in coin or jewelry mode vs the Simplex in Park 1 or Park 2 mode actually gets it's butt kicked worse. Apex in pro zero is actually the best performing mode in iron and that's why it was used.

I'm thinking EMI. I can't run the Equinox in multi frequency in one of the parks close to me because the EMI is so bad. You should try using it in a single frequency like 15 or 20 KHz and see if that makes a difference.

Yea well since the question was raised I figured I would go ahead and put that to rest. In all honesty it did make it hit one more direction, Hurray now we're up to 50% on the NBPT. I run iron audio on with all my detectors and it makes absolutely no difference on separation performance. So if this is an issue with Garrett detectors they better get it fixed.

I've got a lot of extra time on my hands right now. Transition between seasons and school starting is slow for my business this time of year. So I've been spending some time metal detecting and making videos. Hope you like it. Book value is $500 plus.

OK new comparison and probably the last one for me. Doing this one because Monte made a comment on another forum about the Apex needing to have iron audio off in order for it to perform better on the nail board test. I thought I would throw the F19 into this video since it's in the price range of the Apex. IMO the Apex is just another choice in the $250-450 price range and it's going to come down to the features and performance you want as to which metal detector you chose. Like Steve, I feel like it's closest competition is the Vanquish 540 at $369 and to me the Apex isn't worth the extra money. Funny I should say that because I don't have the Vanquish anymore.

I appreciate the work you put into the graph. Sorry, I kind of rushed through my evaluation on some of the detectors because I was mostly concerned with comparing the Apex and the Simplex. Your red squares with no signal aren't exactly accurate (not that you didn't read my report right) but because I didn't give enough information. The Deus can see all the targets it's just that the ones in red gave a high 90's ID which could be anything so I would say marginal signal. Same goes for the Racer 2 red should be marginal signal. F19 marginal signal on the 6" nickel and quarter, the rest red as you have them.

Garrett Ace Apex Review Part 2 Part 2 is the Apex depth test and comparison. Let me say right up front that my soil is 4-5 bars on the F75, so not mild ground. So, you’ll probably get different results if you have really hot ground or mild ground. The multi frequency feature of the Apex is what most interests me. I want to see how it compares against the Equinox (for target ID and depth) and other single frequency machines with similar sized coils. I’ve got a test garden in my yard of buried items, some in polluted holes. They are quarters buried at 2, 4, *6 & 8 inches. Dimes buried at 2, 4 & *6 inches. Nickels buried at 2, 4, 6 & 8 inches. Small pewter button (is a close representation of a $1 gold coin) buried at 2, 4 & 6 inches. *indicates polluted hole. In the above test, I’m not only looking at whether or not a machine can detect the item but how accurate the ID is at each depth. The Apex was tested against the following metal detector and coil combinations: Minelab Equinox 800 (park 1) 6” coil (closest size for comparison), XP Deus 9” HF coil (deep mode), Fisher F19 5 x 10 coil, Nokta Makro Simplex (field mode) 5 x 10 coil & Makro Racer 2 (deep mode) 7 x 11 coil. I’ll try to make this short-Equinox with 6” coils sees all targets, and accurately ID’s the 2, 4 & 6 inch targets it will also accurately ID the 8” nickel. Nokta Makro simplex accurately ID’s the 2 inch targets, hits the 4” but ID is off, can also see the 6” targets except the dime and small pewter. Fisher F19 can accurately ID 2 & 4 inch targets. XP Deus can accurately ID the 2 & 4 inch targets can also ID the 6” quarter and nickel. Makro Racer 2 can accurately ID 2 & 4 inch targets. Garrett Apex can accurately ID all 2” targets but after that it can hit all targets but ID is for the most part all over the place. I only did a video on the Simplex and the Apex. Would just take way too long to video every detector. You can find the link to the video at the end of this post. Also, in my yard I have an IHP buried at 3” with 2 nails on the surface 3” out from center. A 5” coil can get between the two nails but regardless of the metal detector/coil used I’ve yet to find one that can hit the IHP (even with a 5” coil). The nails always win, might be my mineralized dirt. But, in any case the Apex can’t hit it either. The only other metal detector I wish I had access to is the Minelab Vanquish 540. But I know that unit well enough to know that performance in iron would be about the same as the Apex. However, the Vanquish I feel would have a clear depth advantage. Overall I feel like the Apex (as far as depth goes) fits nicely in the price range it falls in with other similar detectors. It looks good, feels good, has wireless headphones and a rechargeable battery. Performance would best suit it for open park areas and wet sand on the beach. In a trashy environment the Apex seriously lacks performance and I personally feel like I would be walking over too much in a ghost town or trashy relic site or any trashy site to justify using it. Here’s the video If you want to see the Nokta Makro Simplex and Garrett Apex being compared on a separation and depth test.

One other thing. Target ID is really pulled down with iron near a good target on the Apex, even in MF. Unlike the Equinox or Vanquish when they hit a target next to iron the ID suffers very little. Example: on the nail board test, even though the Equinox is not a super performer, the targets it does hit shows a pretty accurate ID. The Apex grunts just above iron on the few directions it can hit the penny. Probably explains why the relic mode was the best performing.

Single frequency or MF results were honestly about the same. 20KHz gave a slight edge but not enough to worry about. The relic mode actually was the best performing mode on the separation tests for me. I would have thought coin or jewelry. It really doesn't appear there's that much difference in recovery speed between modes though. Pro zero made it plain annoying with the iron audio.

I want to start by saying that I really hate posting reviews like this when I'm disappointed in the results. Makes me feel like the bad guy or that maybe, just maybe I had the metal detectors setup wrong. Anyway here is a quick review. Garrett Ace Apex Review Part 1 Got a Garrett Ace Apex delivered today, work is slow right now so I got right to testing it out. I’m going to post my review in 2 parts. Part 1 will be about the separation abilities of the Apex. Part 2 will be about the depth capabilities of the Apex. First wanted to say, I’m pretty impressed with the build quality and ergonomics of the Apex. I won’t bore you with the overview of the machine. I’m sure there are others that will give or have given a full run down of the physical qualities of the detector. In my mind (and I might be wrong) the question most educated (meaning they already own a metal detector) perspective buyers will have is how does the Apex compare to the Minelab Equinox and Minelab Vanquish. Minelab pretty much has the multi-frequency thing figured out, so how will the new Apex compare in multi-frequency. Historically multi-frequency machines haven’t been known for their lightning speed separation abilities. So not only will I compare the Minelab Equinox but I’m also going to through in some other popular detectors. There are 2 tests I like to do that will give me a pretty good idea of how a metal detector performs in iron. The end to end nail test with coins in between and Monte’s nail board (I used my own rusty square nails, not an official board you can buy from him). On the nail board (your results may vary, I think mine is tougher) I tested XP Deus 9” HF coil (sonar), Minelab Equinox 6” (park1), Fisher F19 5 x 10 coil, Nokta Makro Simplex 5 x 10 coil (park 2) & Makro Racer 2 7 x 11 (3 tones) against the Apex (zero mode MF). Results are as follows: XP Deus 7/8 hits, Minelab Equinox 5/8, Fisher F19 6/8, Nokta Makro Simplex 8/8 Makro Racer 2 7/8, Garrett Apex 4/8. If you remember my test of the Minelab Vanquish I was not impressed with either the v12 or v8 coil in this test. The end to end nail test has nails end to end with a penny, dime and nickel in between the nails with a space of about 1.5 inches. I like this test vs the coin between 2 perpendicular nails as most metal detectors can hit a coin between 2 perpendicular nails without a problem. Not a real good test IMO. Results from end to end nail test are as follows: XP Deus 9” passes even with a fast sweep speed, Minelab Equinox 6” coil struggles 11” coil has no problem, Fisher F19 5 x 10 passes even with a fast sweep speed, Makro racer 2 7 x 11 passes but sweep speed needs to be slow, Nokta Makro Simplex 5 x 10 passes but sweep speed needs to be slow, Garrett Apex will not hit any of the coins in any mode at any frequency. If you remember my test of the Minelab Vanquish with both the v12 and v8 coils neither coil could hit any of the coins either. The thing that’s interesting about the above tests is that some of the detectors excel at one test but not the other test and visa versa. For example the Nokta Makro detectors excel at the nail board test but kind of struggle with the end to end test. This is the very reason I like doing both tests it show performance in multiple scenarios. When I’ve taken the above knowledge into the field and compared one detector to another the performance results for the most part mirror the results I got doing the above tests. I read about people all the time saying I took this new machine to a place I’ve pounded in the past with this other detector(s) and I found this awesome coin/relic. This new metal detector is the best on the market. Well that all fine and dandy but if you didn’t compare the two prior to digging the target how do you know one’s better than the other. Maybe you just missed that patch of ground or you approached the target from a different direction, or, or, or. You get my point. But if you get a target and run another detector over the area and get no response, or better response, etc. then you can say, yes this is a better detector. Otherwise there are no facts to back your claim. I’ll probably do a video of the above results when I have more time. In the end I’m not impressed with the Apex compared to other machines in it’s price range. Slightly worse separation performance than the Vanquish 540. The Apex has a lot going for it, wireless, rechargeable batteries, light weight, looks good and weatherproof. But honestly, I’ll take a Simplex over the Apex. Hopefully the Apex can redeem itself in the depth test like the Vanquish did.