Thanks a lot!

Thanks a lot!

Thank you!

Thanks Walt! If money is not a factor I would definitely go with the Nox. Good luck with whatever you decide!

Thanks!! 👍👍

Thanks a lot for the feedback!

Thanks! Let us know what you think if you do.

Thanks! I try to give ever brand and machine an honest and fair look.

Well they just deleted my comments today on the forum and kicked me out then blocked me so....

@@ohiofarmhunter3301 Really?! What forum?

@@detectorben8007 Garrett ace apex official Facebook page

I am in Nebraska. Soil is pretty mild here for the most part.

@@detectorben8007 Oh wow, I thought I'd seen that you were in Colorado a while back. I've wondered because the soil looks so rich and organic rich. You dig some nice looking vintage coins! Keep those videos coming and good luck with your treasure hunting! ATB!

I do hunt and prospect in Colorado from time to time as well. I love the mountains! But I live in Nebraska and hunt Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas for the most part. Thanks!!

My apex is shit 3 bars of sensitivity to stable machine. Does not find deep targets

@@steverampling8386 ha ha you must have a faulty machine 🤣 I hit silver dimes at 10 inches with the apex and stock viper coil.

It is a good idea yes. I believe I did that most of the time. However while on this site it ground balanced to the same number almost ever time. Realistically you only need to ground balance again when the soil conditions change.

Thanks! Yeah I think it will be more comparible to those models. I have not used the vanquish or simplex myself so I'm not sure.

@@detectorben8007 my wife runs the vanquish 540 and I run a nox 800, we get the same depth. The only real difference in performance between the vanquish and nox is the iron separation. The vanquish gets fooled by iron much easier than the nox. Other than that, they honestly perform about the same.

@@jonpie1987 Good to know. I have heard really good things about the vanquish. If it is comparible on depth to equinox then it will definitely outperform the Apex.

I owned the simplex before I bought the nox and simplex is absolutely better than the apex. I had a lot of fun with it, but I hunt in the saltwater a lot so I went with the nox 600

Yes there is some EMI there. Equinox gets pretty chatty also but still hits the targets. I have footage of Equinox in the test garden in past video comparisons.

What settings are you referring too? The only thing you can really adjust is sensitivity and iron volume. I am always open to suggestions and plan to do more testing.

@@detectorben8007 Notch out the iron. Here is the test I just ran with mine and results. IRON MASKING: You have all seen the videos...not looking good. I don't do videos, so I will just post what I found. I just ran the test...However, unlike the videos, I used Garrett's recommended approach to unmasking (pg 20 of Manual). I was in Zero mode, MF, and Sen at 2 below full (yard has a lot of EMI). Ground balanced at 72. I put down a silver Merc and small chunk of dug old iron (1"x 1/4"). Dime almost totally masked all angles...just occasional tiny squeak, no good VDI. I put down a silver Seated Quarter and the same small chunk of dug old iron. Quarter almost totally masked all angles...just occasional tiny squeak, no good VDI. Now I set as Garrett Reccomends: I notched out 30, as that is just above what the iron was hitting. All other settings same. GB again the same. I put down the Merc and small chunk of dug old iron. Dime was masked when sweeping the vertical layout of the items from both sides. However, when sweeping the horizontal presentation from either side, the dime screamed through repeatable, with good VDI. Exact same result with the quarter. Put the iron over top of the dime: Exact same result. Only hits solid from two opposing angles, but it is clear. Exact same result with the quarter. SO...it will hit it and present a solid repeatable tone with good VDI if you set your machine up as Garrett reccomends. That stated, you better check your iron grunts good with these settings. It is not as "switch on and go" as advertised. You gotta put the work in. I did not do any depth testing.

@matthew shipley Ok I will give those settings a try and post results. I have a few other settings I need to test as well to try and improve depth.

@@detectorben8007 Will be interested in that...here is what I got just now... QUICK DEPTH TEST: I used same silver as I did in the Iron Masking test, multiple modes, multiple Freq settings, no notching in Zero, GB @ 82. Now it's new silver to the ground, so it is not like it's been in the ground 60 -100 yrs. Neither silver would hit below 5 or 6". It just became an iron grunt with an occasional non-repeatable high tone.

@matthew shipley Yep I just tried retesting depth in all frequencies including MF and MS and no real noticeable difference in depth. Still won't really hit 8" dime and "6 deep dime is not really solid. I also tried the settings in manual for iron separation and found no real improvements. Simply turning down the iron volume quieted things up but it still only hits coins when nails are parallel to coil. Nothing from the other direction. I tried lower and full sensitivity as well. I will try to post some video later.

I have the Equinox 600 and the Simplex+ You are right about being better off with the Simplex+ and it only costs $254.00

@carved stone quest Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I was not using the equinox to compare machines simply to find deep or challenged targets to test the Apex on. I also pin pointed targets with equinox so I already knew where the center of target was. There is no comparison between these two machines. That would be like racing a fiat vs a Ferrari. The Apex does not have the depth or separation ability the equinox does and it's not close. To be fair Garrett did not make the Apex to compete against high end units like equinox. It is an entry level machine. It performs ok for an entry level machine.

@@detectorben8007 Of course everyone is entitled to say an opinion, but most of your viewers trust what are you doing, and if you "playing around" or whatever with that test, they will take it in serious. I recommend you to specify before the video play, and, please, don't say that you are not comparing both detectors because as long you show two detectors to see how they find targets, you're comparing.

@@architecad Lol you do your videos the way you want and I will do mine the way I want. Thanks for the view. Happy hunting!!

@@detectorben8007 WOW. I thought you did an fair job with both detectors. You used both detectors with their supplied coils. That is how most people will be using the detectors. I believe Garrett opted to use a smaller 6x10 coil to keep it light and balanced and to help with separation. A bigger coil is better for covering more ground faster but a lot of the time, it doesn't increase the depth much if any due to mineralization and trash. Plus bigger coils are heavier and take more skill to isolate and separate targets with. On mid to shallow targets, the smaller coil has the advantage. So coil size is a diverse subject that can't be easily accounted for.

@@halfstep67 Thanks. I try to be as real and honest as possible. At that time that was only coil available for Apex. I plan to try at least one larger nel coil for Apex once weather warms up here as well.

I have never used the 400. I have used the 300 and I would say the Apex is an improvement over the 300 for sure. But I don't think Minelab will lose many sales or customers to Garrett in the mid to high end market.

I was only using equinox to find signals. I wanted to test depth capabilities of apex with stock coil. I have a nel tornado coil for Apex now which is 12×13. After 1 hunt I am not impressed. The nox with stock coil still hits deeper targets. I will be doing more testing with apex throughout the summer. A more fair comparison would be vanquish vs apex which is why I did not do a head to head full comparison with the nox. Thanks for watching! Good luck!

The evo 6000 is a single frequency machine so I am not sure it will be able to compete with machines like the equinox. I may have to try one out anyway we will see.

@@detectorben8007 multi isn't everything, as the Deus is a phenomenal machine.

The deus excels in certain types of hunting but the equinox is a better all around detector in my opinion. I will keep my eye on evo 6000 and if it looks like it will work well for US coins I may test it out.

@@detectorben8007 they have been taking every opportunity to perfect this beast of a machine. I have high hopes that c scope will Excel.

@@takeitonthechin3965 Nobody is talking about it here in the US so I had not even heard about it until you mentioned it. I am curious now to see how it performs so I will keep my eye on it. Hope to see some videos or reviews soon.

Yep! I have already found more silver in this park in areas I previously hunted by using 4khz

@@detectorben8007 Nice! That 4khz is out of this world

I rarely use any discrimination on any detector. If you are using disc you are missing good targets. Simple as that. I run wide open so that I can hear everything including the iron. Only time I run disc on any machine is if I'm comparing discrimination programs or the site is extremely trashy and tone fatigue becomes a problem. Apex is a decent entry level machine but it is not something that will compete with the equinox, anfibo, xp deus etc. I am currently testing xp deus 2 and will be comparing it to the equinox 800. Thanks for watching!

Yes I would agree with that. Not as deep. Not as fast. Not as much adjustability. Alex is in a lower price range to be fair so it shouldn't outperform the equinox. Apex is a good machine at its price point. Good beginner to intermediate user machine.

Yeah I don't want to write it off until I test more including single frequency modes but depth was very dissappointing in multi frequency.

Vanquish for me....Great machine for the $$...Wished they came out before the X-terra series did.

Hanscom of course. My proving grounds lol.

Garrett apex is a good machine but not great for price in my opinion. There are better options in this price range.

@Stuart N At 1:49 of the video I show the settings I am hunting in with Apex including the frequency which was multi frequency. Apex is setup and operates almost identical to previous ACE machines and AT Pro. I owned and used the AT pro for over 4 years so I am pretty confident operating the Apex. Thanks for watching! Happy hunting!

Seems like the iron masks the targets on the Garret where the Minelab picks them up! If you were just running the Apex you would have missed that Barber!🤷🏻‍♂️

Ohio farm hunter I run a Nox 800 myself and have dug silvers at over 10 inches surrounded by iron. It comes across as an iffy high tone but if I still catch it most of the way around the circle dance I dig it! Lol

@@mikelacey9753 so I'm confused are you saying the apex is a good machine or bad. Because Im saying the apex is lacking serious depth and the signal tones were all over the place.

Ohio farm hunter also, for $500 I would go with a Nokta Macro Simplex and keep $150 and still have a better machine! Lol

@@mikelacey9753 ok so we are on the same page

Well I don't know about you but most sites I hunt have emi. So how a detector performs while emi is present is very important. The Apex actually handles the emi at my test garden a little better than the equinox does.

@@detectorben8007 Some EMI yes but that is overboard for a test so much chatter you can't really tell whats a bad reading on a coin.

To each his own I guess. Most sites I hunt sound just like that. I test all my machines in this exact test garden and local parks so the playing field is level.

@@MrNetjunky he clearly shows these 2 machines side by side. How can you argue about emi when both machines are subject to the exact same circumstances? I'm loyal to garrett... never have considered buying any other brands, but I've seen enough proof now that minelab has seriously surpassed Garrett. My next machine will be an equinox

@@dannybell926 I have been using the Apex the past 2 weeks about 60 hours total and Its not a deep machine but I also noticed how EMI affects its ability to give a clear signal that is the problem. I love my nox 600 and 800 the Apex only gets about 6 inches on a copper penny its a good starting detector but I am finding it misses a great deal of coins as I go over the same areas with the nox 600.

Thanks! I am partial to the Minelab tones myself so I hear ya lol

@@detectorben8007 Agree!....never did like Garrett tones

Bingo!

They do make an excellent pin pointer! Lol

Their wireless headphone system is better than almost anything out, IMO at least. I wish the batteries lasted a little longer, but it connects instantly every time, zero lag or interference, and I've dropped them more times than I can count.

@@Ferrous_Bueller I agree. This is my first experience with their wireless headphones and they were great. They actually connect quicker than my Minelabs do on equinox.

@@detectorben8007 I use them on every detector with the Z Lynk receiver except the Equinox, mainly because I have low latency earbuds I used for that and I'm too lazy to hook them up. Now if only Garrett could put something out that gets deeper, separates just a little better, and get rid of that S shaft. I'm a big fan of buying American, but detecting times are tough and we don't have it as easy as the detecting pioneers before us had it. Depth and separation are king.

I agree completely!

Yeah Im partial to Minelab tones myself. But I would take Garrett tones over Nokta or XP personally.

@@detectorben8007 Yes all three sound like sick ducks ! You might want to check out the Rutus Alter 71 , great tones , great depth and excellent target ID with 120 points of target ID. I own 14 machines and from all of them it is my goto machine. Even over my 800 and CTX.

I have heard good things about the Rutus. I might have to check that out.

@@detectorben8007 Ben check out my video on the Rutus. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ZpxxaMR9q96pnok.html

I don't think it was total BS...but I do think the Apex requires more tuning than Garrett let on. Nobody I have seen thus far uses Garrett's recommended unmasking setting for iron rich areas...it looks to me as if zero mode is not a great mode to detect in, unless searching for an area possibly holding good targets. Like any machine, one is gonna have to put some work in to get it set right. Depth...that may still be an open question ATM.

@walter evens I was in all metal mode on equinox which is essentially the same as zero mode on Apex. Thanks for watching!

@matthew shipley what are these recommended unmasking settings you keep referring too?? I have not seen or heard about them. I would be glad to try them out and post the results.

@@detectorben8007 Posting here again...just ran the test with mine. See below. IRON MASKING: You have all seen the videos...not looking good. I don't do videos, so I will just post what I found. I just ran the test...However, unlike the videos, I used Garrett's recommended approach to unmasking (pg 20 of Manual). I was in Zero mode, MF, and Sen at 2 below full (yard has a lot of EMI). Ground balanced at 72. I put down a silver Merc and small chunk of dug old iron (1"x 1/4"). Dime almost totally masked all angles...just occasional tiny squeak, no good VDI. I put down a silver Seated Quarter and the same small chunk of dug old iron. Quarter almost totally masked all angles...just occasional tiny squeak, no good VDI. Now I set as Garrett Reccomends: I notched out 30, as that is just above what the iron was hitting. All other settings same. GB again the same. I put down the Merc and small chunk of dug old iron. Dime was masked when sweeping the vertical layout of the items from both sides. However, when sweeping the horizontal presentation from either side, the dime screamed through repeatable, with good VDI. Exact same result with the quarter. Put the iron over top of the dime: Exact same result. Only hits solid from two opposing angles, but it is clear. Exact same result with the quarter. SO...it will hit it and present a solid repeatable tone with good VDI if you set your machine up as Garrett reccomends. That stated, you better check your iron grunts good with these settings. It is not as "switch on and go" as advertised. You gotta put the work in. I did not do any depth testing.

Haha well I had to find some way to actually detect deep targets to test the apex depth capabilities.