Jeff McClendon

This topic was started because of my struggling friend. He would spend minutes over a target trying to decide what to do and then once he started digging, the target was usually trash unless he got over a recent coin drop. Anything deeper than 2 or 3" using any setting on his APEX created a kaleidoscope of tones for him as he described it. My little bit of using his Apex and the two I owned previously....see, I thought it might be me too, a bad unit or I just didn't give the APEX a chance......exactly the same performance for a detector in the upper entry level to lower intermediate level price range. 😪 I included the XP ORX in the video because it also has a very competitive price and is considered by many to be XP's entry level Deus 1. It up averaged those deeper US nickel low to mid conductor targets just as much as the APEX did but the ORX was running in single frequency unlike the APEX which was running in MultiFlex......and the ORX had much more consistent tone and ID responses. Some of us that have been detecting a long time and have used many different detectors know how great it is to finally have some detectors with very accurate target IDs for the most part even if the coin sized targets are deeper than 6" while also having outstanding, competitive VLF depth even in pretty bad soil conditions. I would also include the very affordable Vanquish models under that umbrella if the ground isn't too trashy or mineralized. That is the advantage of most of the latest SMF technology from XP, Nokta and Minelab. I really wish that Garrett could add its name to that list so that even their future entry to intermediate level detectors would be a success not just for their bottom line, but also for guys like my friend that want to buy affordable AND dependable USA tech first when they have a choice.

I would have to disagree with that. The Legend is a far better detector than the Minelab Vanquish and is on another planet compared to the APEX. For me, what I was describing is a Garrett SMF detector that has some SMF guts not just a setting that says MF when it really is not better than the single frequency settings that are on the APEX at least where I detect. Back when all of the Deus 2/Equinox/Legend wars were happening on YouTube, several people expressed the belief that the Legend was in the same league as the APEX and Vanquish or even the AT Pro.......... At least in my backyard test area and for general coin and jewelry detecting the Legend absolutely eats those detector's breakfast, lunch and dinner 365 days out of the year. Right now, the Vanquish 540 complete package, APEX with headphones package and the Legend WHP are within $50 of the same price here in the USA. The only time I can realistically conceive of using my Equinox 800s at this point over the Legend is for gold prospecting (simply because my Nox setup is lighter and I trust it) and for going as deep as possible on clean ground. Otherwise, the Legend or Deus 2 are the detectors that I pickup for everything else at this point.

If Garrett could get the rights legally to put the Vanquish tech inside of the beautiful APEX control housing.......now I would gladly pay $400 to $500 for that detector if they added manual ground balance and selectable single frequency and Z-Lynk. It could even be a joint Minelab/Garrett venture somehow. That detector would sell out fast here in North America. Just waterproof it and.....Holy Cow! As it stands right now....the Apex is a $400 to $500 ergonomic/exterior beauty with Ace 200, $200 performance unless its being used at a saltwater beach where its Multi Sand setting actually offers a bit of an advantage. I am being generous with that assessment at least for where I detect. On the other hand, if selling plenty of the APEX detectors helps Garrett fund its more advanced SMF tech.......then it is worth it.

The sandstone is from my area (Fountain formation sandstone) and it has fairly high magnetite. The ground underneath them is really bad. I look at using the foam/PVC pipe this way.....it is way more realistic than air testing for sure and I can use it for trash, relics, nuggets and jewelry too. The 6" nickel and 6" quarter along with the other targets in my test area are all "in the ground" well established targets. I don't see much difference between the established targets and the PVC/foam setup.

The Apex is a straight forward easy to learn detector so the only thing left to "figure out" is will it work well in difficult soil conditions. Apparently for some including me, the Apex doesn't if good target ID accuracy on coin sized targets deeper than 3" and achieving advertised depth are what is needed . The ORX would not be my first choice for coin/jewelry hunting in high mineralization and high modern aluminum trash either since target ID accuracy and maximum advertised depth are severely affected and digging restrictions (can't just dig it all without being banned from city parks and private yards, etc.) makes using the ORX pretty frustrating. In scenarios where there is milder mineralization, no digging restrictions and digging all good sounding targets where basically ignoring target IDs is the way to go.....no problem with either detector.

Nothing wrong with the Legend. I can set it up so that the screen backlight will turn on when a solid target is detected. Many Nokta Makro detectors have had this feature as an option.

All three detectors are challenged to varying degrees by the soil conditions in my area. However, I agree....the Legend did very well even using the smallest coil, an average reactivity setting and with the lowest sensitivity setting of the three. With them all being priced very similarly at this time, I hope I can sell his Apex so that he can buy a Legend or another detector with simultaneous multi frequency technology that actually works well in our area.

The Apex being used here has the latest update. I also bought my friend the Ripper coil which is being used in the video so there would not be any question about whether his Viper coil was functioning well or not. Both coils have the same results. I have had a chance to use a different APEX at two very mild black sand East coast beaches. It did fine and it handled mild mineralized ground much better than the dirt in my area. The Legend in the video has the latest 1.09 update which really helps it a lot in thick trash like you experienced.

This test could have been done with pull tabs or aluminum canslaw as substitutes for the US nickels and the results would have been very similar. Just to be clear, the first target is a surface US nickel. All three detectors identify it correctly. Then there is a 4” deep nickel in the removable PVC pipe and a 6” deep nickel under the hard to read white label. The other surface coin is a US clad quarter which is also identified correctly by all three detectors followed by a 6” deep clad quarter under the other hard to read white label.

It was his first detector……and he thought he was the problem not possibly the detector. I hope he will keep detecting using a different detector in the future. Money is an issue for him however.

A friend of mine has been struggling with finding anything much with his detector. I offered to sell it for him on Ebay. Since I have had it for a few days and my messed up ankle can at least let me stand on it..... I decided to do a little US nickel/US quarter target ID accuracy test video featuring the XP Orx, Garrett Apex and Nokta Legend. It is only 3 minutes long or so. Nothing earth shattering or unexpected in this video from these three detectors that have very similar prices. A surface US nickel, a 4" deep US nickel and a 6" deep US nickel are detected for accuracy and signs of up and down averaging in high iron mineralized dirt. Same for a surface US clad quarter and a 6" deep US quarter. See if you can guess which detector is driving my friend crazy enough to just stop detecting for good.......

So does the original Deus. Chase and I own the Equinox, Legend and Deus 2. We know how good they really are. We aren’t likely to snap at you for taking a jovial swing at any of them. Others on this forum might however especially some Deus 2 high powered owners or people who are going nuts waiting for their beastie. So get ready to duck if you disparage Deus 2 or the Mantis.

Not meaning to overly state the obvious but currently at least for the hobby market, wireless and waterproof don’t exist since Bluetooth transmission and water don’t play well together so the market for waterproof BT over the ear headphones is limited. Serious Detecting appears to have the Quest Equinox compatible headphones in stock.

Steve H may chime in at some point. He has used them all. Oldkoot knows the Legend and is getting to know the Garrett 24K. I have a lot of experience with the MXT, MX5, MX7 which are all good roughly 14kHz detectors and are sensitive to .25 gram and up gold with the right coils and do pretty well for coins, jewelry and relics depending on iron mineralization levels. Some other possibilities are the Nokta Legend, Nokta Gold Kruzer, Minelab Equinox 800, Minelab Gold Monster 1000, XP ORX or a used XP Deus 1. The Garret Goldmaster 24K, Nokta Gold Kruzer, Nokta Gold Finder 2000 and Minelab Gold Monster 1000 are mostly single frequency 45 kHz and higher gold nugget detectors due to the way they are setup, their features and coil selection. The Minelab Equinox 800, Nokta Legend and XP ORX or original Deus can basically do it all. The Equinox and Legend can operate in single frequencies up to 40 kHz or in simultaneous multi frequency programs with 40 kHz being one of those multiple frequencies and they have dedicated gold prospecting modes that work very well. The ORX and original Deus have selectable single frequencies up to 81 kHz depending on what coil is being used and they have dedicated gold prospecting modes that also work very well for smaller gold. They are also the absolute lightest detectors available and are easy to break down, back pack and use in difficult terrain. I don’t currently have an MXT. I do have the Equinox 800, Legend, ORX and the new Deus 2 (which I can’t recommend yet for small gold until there is a software update). I did do a lot of testing and some side by side prospecting with the MXT E Series and the ORX and Equinox. The MXT was competitive with the Equinox and ORX which were running on 40 to 54 kHz as long as the gold or targets were roughly 0.4 grams and bigger. Anything smaller, the Equinox and ORX quickly added an inch or more of potential depth and sensitivity. I have found the Legend to be just as sensitive to smaller gold as the Equinox which apart from the Garrett 24K is the benchmark for me anyway. I am a big fan of the 24K. Unfortunately for me, most of the areas I detect will quickly make the 24K overload so I have to turn sensitivity way down and when I do that the Equinox will out perform the 24K.

Chase, I totally get where you are coming from. The way XP did the user profiles is just weird and for your scenario, awkward at best. I do most of my detecting with Deus 2 WS6 using the Fast program variants so thankfully they are all grouped together and are easy to navigate. I wish the Park program was not sandwiched in between them and Deep HC….and I wish the Relic program was next to Deep HC also. For now, having Mono and Goldfield next to each other has worked out really well for me for gold prospecting. I just ordered the WSA ll headphones with the removable audio module so I can use it with my Detechs. That way I can have a choice of light weight on the ear back phones for warmer weather and excellent over the ear option for colder weather or for gold prospecting where I need really good external noise cancelling most of the time whether I mount the WS6 on the stem or keep it tucked safely away due to rough terrain or water. Great topic…….

The light colored crystals appear to be mostly quartz and some calcite which can both form in a near volcanic rocks.

This is why I visit this site often during my day. I always find something interesting to read even when I may find the topic more akin to raw opinions or click bait than actually being based on facts. Keeping it as real as possible is what I respect the most even when things like detecting in general and differing opinions about different detectors are subject to plenty of subjectivity and site specific conditions. Even when there appears to only be the same old nuts and bolts stuff (especially from me) to read here and debate about, there is also a wealth of solid knowledge in most of these decade of old posts. Thanks for setting this straight from your perspective Steve H and maxxkatt, thanks for giving Steve H that opportunity.

Used Equinox 600s and 800s or a new Legend are ridiculously inexpensive right now. If the release is delayed and you can afford it, pick one up as a backup to the Manticore and learn how to navigate it. Resale value will be good on those detectors for quite awhile and they will keep you out of the Psyche ward.

For me and my soil conditions compared to the Equinox 800, the Legend is just as deep, separates better and has FOUR other big at least for me, advantages. It's actually waterproof. It has Pitch tones for its Park and Field modes so a highly modulated VCO variant for non-ferrous with the option to hear or not hear a separate low grunt iron tone audio. It has a wider target ID spread in the small gold to USA zinc penny range so common aluminum targets are more spread out and don't mostly clump up on top of US nickel target IDs. 16 custom program slots as opposed to 1 on the Nox 800. For me, the Equinox pod is way easier to navigate so far.

I answered on a different forum. Same for me. The current software version for the threshold when using Bluetooth is waaaaaay better than the earlier attempts.

Your Deus will work in creeks just fine with the antenna and a waterproof pouch. I would be very hesitant to use the HF coils with their battery inside the shaft.......The 9" X35 coil on 28kHz works really well however and won't miss much. The problem is the inconvenience of hooking all of those accessories up securely. It is much easier to just turn on and go with the Equinox or even better.....a Legend.

Like GotAU said plus several North American owners on here are waiting for their GPX 6000 repairs to be completed and/or to get their's back from Detector Center.

Unless there is a firmware update included with the board level component upgrade……… and the service agents are not mentioning it? Sounds like a lot of conjecture to me. As long as the GPX 6000 has lower susceptibility to interference from its own speaker and from EMI in general without incurring a noticeable performance loss, I’m good with whatever the fix is.

I sold my ML 80s almost immediately because I AM an orchestral musician and a classical music trained singer and those headphones had way too much bass and the mid and high tones had most of their brilliance removed. So those phones were very bottom heavy. I tried them on other audio sources with the supplied audio cable and they were the same......biased way towards the lower bass range and no way to adjust them enough even with my equalizer.......The WM08 module with any "normal" wired headphones or just plugging in a decently balanced set of wired headphones into the control pod made for a completely different audio experience for me. So did using the aftermarket BT headphones and earbuds that I purchased. So it isn't BS longbow62. Some of us have very different and subjective hearing abilities and preferences. When I am nugget hunting I don't want muffled sound, I want bright and very immediate sound responses for those faint signals. The ML 100s that come with the Minelab GPX 6000 have a much more balanced audio response. I have no complaint with those. The Garrett Z-Lynk headphones are a bit bottom heavy but doable. I have never had an issue with my Z-Lynk headphones or transmitter timing out when being used with other non-Garrett detectors.

It all depends on where one hunts and what types of targets. He needs an actual waterproof detector and one that can handle heavy iron trash really well. The Equinox has proven itself to not be consistently waterproof and it is just OK in heavy iron trash. It also has a very compressed target ID area in the US nickel/modern pull tab range which Manticore doesn't have. If he was a nugget or meteorite hunter in high iron/volcanic rock mineralization, he might be saying something completely different.