First Impressions On The Apex

[Chase Goldman]

13 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

People keep thinking Garrett was supposed to deliver a Equinox knockout at this price? This is a huge deal in the big picture, but few are seeing it. Rate all available multi with selectable single frequency models in any order you want, Garrett is in the top three, with the lowest price. The other competition have got nothing, or gone out of business. Hello?

Even if you put multi aside - No one else sells a selectable single frequency machine at the Apex price point at the moment, either.  That was a feature I think is worthwhile and people sleep on it.  I think it was a huge omission to not include a ground balance adjustment on Vanquish.  I think not having a single frequency mode on the Vanquish is also another oversight.  Given that these two features are included with the Apex, I am really surprised that Apex is not more popular

[Guest Tnsharpshooter]

32 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

Even if you put multi aside - No one else sells a selectable single frequency machine at the Apex price point at the moment, either.  That was a feature I think is worthwhile and people sleep on it.  I think it was a huge omission to not include a ground balance adjustment on Vanquish.  I think not having a single frequency mode on the Vanquish is also another oversight.  Given that these two features are included with the Apex, I am really surprised that Apex is not more popular

I don’t know how popular Apex really is.  Guess what I am saying, did A lot of ACE users post on the different forums before the ACE Apex released?

And why did Garrett put Apex in Ace lineup?  Why not create new line.  They coulda always added new models to the line if they materialized later.  Medium and higher experienced detectorist  see this word Ace in front of Apex, this just might turn them off.  A person looking at getting into detecting might be drawn away from Apex due to price.

How much does one usually spend on their first detector?

Probably not like what I’d did - $1499.  

I have no marketing degree. So guess I better shut up.

[mh9162013]

IGNORE

[Chase Goldman]

Agree that Minelab did it consciously.  But I consider them oversights or poor design decisions because neither feature actually costs anything to implement as they are both SW driven and easily portable from the Equinox platform that forms the basis for Vanquish.  Agree they are also  probably not appreciably hurting sales.  Still consider it a miscalculation based on the GB feature being present on the rival Apex and even Simplex detectors.

[palzynski]

I dont worry for ML ,  they sell a lot of Vanquish at least over here in France,  this even without the GB ...  🙂

[EL NINO77]

Remember one thing, Vanquish starts with the V340 model on the 237eur price tag, .. and here I would not expect ground balance to be a natural feature ... With the V540 model, I would expect the possibility of setting GB or tracking GB.

because Vanquish is not an Etrac ... who will work great and work on different terrains when he doesn't have GB.

Garrett at Apex .... moved beyond the capabilities of the old Ace models .... and incorporated ground balance u as a standard function ... and thus really moved the Apex model to a higher level..and the multifrequency also the optional 1f frequency provide good capabilities in detection ...

....very demanding detectorist working on heavily mineralized terrains may expect something more...

[Chase Goldman]

29 minutes ago, palzynski said:

I dont worry for ML ,  they sell a lot of Vanquish at least over here in France,  this even without the GB ...  🙂

Yeah.  And the Vanquish obviously fits many user needs just fine.  Like you and Simon.

[Chase Goldman]

6 minutes ago, EL NINO77 said:

With the V540 model, I would expect the possibility of setting GB or tracking GB

Yes.  My comments are focused solely on the 540. 

[Steve Herschbach]

6 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Agree that Minelab did it consciously.  But I consider them oversights or poor design decisions because neither feature actually costs anything to implement as they are both SW driven and easily portable from the Equinox platform that forms the basis for Vanquish.  Agree they are also  probably not appreciably hurting sales.  Still consider it a miscalculation based on the GB feature being present on the rival Apex and even Simplex detectors.

That is not how retail works. It is by intent, to separate categories and create price points. Yes, we all want perfection for $100 but it simply is not reality, and fighting reality is not productive. People overestimate how much manual ground balance is needed by a properly multifrequency machine, as that can be done entirely in the processing. Generally lots of theory not backed by actual evidence. Certainly not evidence as provided by lower mineral ground in most of the country. I would expect a V340 with small coil to work better as a nugget detector than people think, merely because of preconceptions over what must be included to make a detector work well. High end users are the easiest to manipulate into higher price detectors, by convincing them that key features MUST BE HAD to be successful. It simply is not as true as people make that out to be. I say that as a person that wants certain features, but I also know I can grab a low end machine and out detect most other people.

In retail all that matters is sales and margins, and giving away features for free is stupid business. People always look at detecting from high towers instead of the trenches.... the trenches are the real world, and it is usually a chess game. Problem has been Minelab playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers.

[Joe D.]

   MineLab must also be good at checkers too! They did give us some "free" updates!😁

   Alright, who's ready to learn Mahjong?...... Don't laugh!!🤔👍👍