Is Vanquish 540, Apex, Or Simplex+ For A Beginner?

[CPT_GhostLight]

My wife has expressed an interest in getting into metal detecting and I'm trying to decide which would be better to start out on. She is at retirement age, like me, but small framed (short and sweet). Detector weight is a consideration and she has never detected before, so easy to use and light would be best. Would the Vanquish 540, Apex, or Simplex+ be a better choice? Which would you recommend and why? Thanks!

[Jeff McClendon]

Since you are in Colorado and ground mineralization can get iffy sometimes, a simultaneous multi frequency detector is a good idea. Since the Vanquish 540 (or the 440 if you don't mind being wired to the detector) are SMF they work pretty well. Since they don't have a user ground balance adjustment, they can also get a little noisy on hot ground. So there are good and bad parts to the Vanquish. Another real plus in your situation is that you already have an Equinox 800 so the Vanquish models operate very similar and have similar tones and target IDs.

The Apex would work too and it does have a user ground balance function. The ones that I have used were not as accurate as the Vanquish as far as overall target ID on coins and jewelry or depth with good target IDs.

The Apex felt good in my hands ergonomically and so did the Vanquish.

Personally, I really like the Simplex too, but to me it is quite a bit more heavy feeling and its target IDs are not quite as good as the APEX and not nearly as good as the Vanquish for accuracy at depths deeper than 3 to 4" in some of the high mineralization I hunt in.

Some of my grown kids visit me and like to go detecting. They have been first time users of all three and they really liked the ease of learning, ease of use, comfort and target ID accuracy of the Vanquish 440 and 540 over the rest. They were very successful with the Vanquish. 

[palzynski]

I would have added the XP Orx to your list , because it is the lightest machine of the market and a very good detector .  Then my proposal  is the following :

1. XP Orx              800g  

2. Garrett Apex    1.17kg 

3. Vanquish 540   1.3kg with the V12

4. Simplex+          1.4kg

If I had to choose , I would just keep the Orx and the Apex for the final decision , because the Vanquish 540 and the Simplex+ are a little front heavy with their stock coils.  It also depends on the kind of detecting that your wife plans to do ( inland , prospecting , beach , etc  )... Just my opinion

[mh9162013]

If you get the 540, I would recommend 2 things given how weight is important to you (your wife).

First, run it off AAA batteries with AAA to AA adapters (this assume your wife will detecting for an hour or 2 at a time).

Second, run it with the V8 coil, not the V12.

If you run the 540 with the V12 and AA batteries, it will wear you out if you're not used to metal detecting. This is true even if you worked out regularly. The unique forces placed on the wrist, arm, elbow and shoulder take its toll after an hour or two of swinging.

I also find the top of the 540's grip to be uncomfortable and used a foam donut (like you see on the Equinox) to distribute the weight more evenly on my swinging hand.

[Jeff McClendon]

I absolutely would not recommend the XP ORX for coin and jewelry detecting where you live if you will be hunting in higher mineralization in very aluminum trashed areas or for obtaining any kind of accuracy on deeper targets. It’s limited three tone audio makes it very hard to distinguish some US coins and jewelry from aluminum trash. For extremely basic bark tot lot and athletic field hunting it is okay. For iron trashed relic sites it works fairly well taking into account its limited iron range which makes some “sub zero” iron targets give no audio tone or numbers. Those targets will null the threshold or background noise. For gold prospecting for tiny shallow gold it is excellent  

The reason I recommended the Vanquish 440 is because of its price and it’s outstandingly balanced 10” coil. It too has three tone audio but it is way more accurate and deep compared to the ORX in higher mineralization. My son has my 440 at the moment and uses an inexpensive  Quest wireless transmitter and headphones setup with it very successfully. 
 

 

[palzynski]

1 hour ago, Jeff McClendon said:

I absolutely would not recommend the XP ORX for coin and jewelry detecting where you live if you will be hunting in higher mineralization...

 

Weird , I have had excellent results with the Orx during my testing and it is known as an excellent detector over here in France . But we use it in low to moderate mineralizations , and its behaviour may be different in higher mineralizations/different conditions  ...

Concerning the Vanquish I agree the 440 V10 is a much better choice than the 540 V12 for lightness. The V12 coil weighs 440g and the V10 only weighs 360g , this makes a big difference when sweeping the detector

[Jeff McClendon]

36 minutes ago, palzynski said:

Weird , I have had excellent results with the Orx during my testing and it is known as an excellent detector over here in France . But we use it in low to moderate mineralizations , and its behaviour may be different in higher mineralizations/different conditions  ...

Concerning the Vanquish I agree the 440 V10 is a much better choice than the 540 V12 for lightness. The V12 coil weighs 440g and the V10 weighs 360g , this makes a big difference when sweeping the detector

As I have reported many times on this forum, the XP Deus and the XP ORX using any mode, any frequency and any coil, will severely up average low to mid conductive nonferrous target IDs into the mid 80s to high 90s at just 3" depth where I detect. All non-ferrous targets will register as silver range targets deeper than 3" here and overall depth for the 9" coils is around 7" on coin sized objects. The mineralization here moves the mineralization bar up to 3/4 full to completely full on the Deus and ORX.

So, an aluminum pull tab that normally is 58 to 63 with a medium tone on the ORX will respond with 90 to 95 and high tones deeper than barely 3".

The Vanquish models and the Equinox will still give the correct target ID numbers and tones on that same pull tab at 10" depth.

[JCR]

Jeff, is the up averaging on low & mid conductors a problem on your Simplex? How well does it handle your mean ground?

[Jeff McClendon]

The Simplex handles the upaveraging better than the ORX, Deus or any other single frequency detector I have used so far including all of the other Nokta Makro models. 

In its 3 tone Park 1 mode, the Simplex will continue to detect a pull tab with a mid tone down to 4” depth. The target ID numbers will go up a bit but they stay in the low to mid conductor nonferrous target mid tone audio bin and start to transition over to high tones and high numbers between 4 and 5”.

[JCR]

It will be interesting to see how NM addresses this tendency on their MF offering.