First Hunt With The Ace Apex

[Chase Goldman]

9 minutes ago, phrunt said:

You post was good Jeff except there should be a disclaimer on it that you have unusually hot soils ? , only some people need the ground balance feature so for someone like me that doesn't the Vanquish is perfect.  I've never used my Vanquish and thought Damn! I wish I could balance this thing.  I find it's fixed balance very forgiving for the places I detect, works well, never had ground noise.

Happy for you Simon, but still doesn't excuse not providing what should be a standard entry level detector feature at this point.  ML stands out as the only recent entry level detector without this feature.  Doesn't keep the big box stores from selling this detector in regions like mine where neutral ground is the exception not the rule.  So the newbie detectorist gets to roll the dice and find out whether he can actually use the AM button where he lives?  Does that seem right?

[palzynski]

42 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

....

Anyway, having owned and used a Simplex, all three Vanquish models and both Equinox models, I agree with Chase.......the Simplex is by far the best deal out there for someone who just wants a fairly easy to use, all terrain, wireless, built in battery, with decent audio, good mode choices, excellent target ID accuracy for a single frequency detector, surprisingly fast recovery speed, is updatable by the user and is ridiculously affordable. It is a great choice for a grab and go or backup detector. 

....

 

Yes but the Simplex has an important drawbac:k  ; it is an heavy machine with its 11 stock coil . At around 1,4kg it is largely above the average , its 11coil / 480 grams is front heavy compared to the 360grams of the Vanquish 340and 440. I would not recommend the Simplex for young people and women for example ..

[Chase Goldman]

7 minutes ago, phrunt said:

Yup, I understand people in hotter soil regions get screwed over if they buy a Vanquish, and if I was a person in a hot soil region and I bought a Vanquish I'd be contacting service@minelab.com.au and complaining.  The squeaky wheel gets the oil, if enough people complain about it I wouldn't be surprised if it was added in a firmware update, I'm sure it's not a difficult feature for them to add.

Agreed.  That's why its a head scratcher they didn't include it in the first place.  The good news is that we now have verification that ML will support Vanquish with FW updates which holds a lot of promise for expanding the capabilities of the Vanquish line.  User firmware updates is a feature notably and inexplicably missing with Apex.

[Steve Herschbach]

Ground balance is not a needed item on most entry level detectors. People do not walk into stores saying "I want to learn how to ground balance." A zillion Ace users are quite happy without ground balance, and for most turf detecting, the real market here, it simply is not needed from a technical perspective either. Simplex is actually too complicated for many people. You guys would benefit working in detector retail for some time, because what you want, and what the market wants, don't match up quite as well as you might think. People in general want to find stuff, and the less controls the better.

[GB_Amateur]

2 hours ago, palzynski said:

Yes but the Simplex has an important drawbac:k  ; it is an heavy machine with its 11 stock coil . At around 1,4kg it is largely above the average....

1.4 kg = 3.1 lb.  Above average compared to the Apex and Vanquish, OK.  But there are still many <$1000 IB/VLF detectors sold and (especially) used today that come in above this weight.  My Equinox became easier to swing when I put an S-shaft on it and added 1/4 lb (~110 g) of counterweight.  I don't include that claiming the Simplex (or Vanquish or Apex) are performancewise competitive with the Equinox, just to say that detectors over 3 lb can in some cases be more comfortable than detectors under 3 lb, depending upon other factors (especially balance).

[palzynski]

On 9/28/2020 at 7:45 PM, phrunt said:

It's becoming more clear with the more people that buy it that aren't Garrett Fanboys that the machine is Porsche look-a-like with an old clapped out VW motor in it.

And the Vanquish is just the opposite , a VW pink beetle look-a-like with a Porsche motor in it .... ? ...

Honestly I prefer the pink beetle with the Porsche motor .. ?

[kac]

I do wish they had user updatable firmware. I am guessing as it is rolled out there will be tweaks on future machines. I noticed a huge difference in performance in depth with my AT Pro when they updated it for me when I had sent it in for repairs earlier this year.

Swing speed I think is important, many flail away at a target and different speeds and this can effect how the TID's are displayed as some machines have a slower recovery speed. I would start at 1-2ft per sec, and on the slower side on trashy areas or where the ground may vary in mineralization but that is just me, I like to take my time.