Well not everyone thinks it's bad in iron and really it isn't that much better or worse than a Vanquish or Equinox. I have been running my sensitivity at 2 bars from the top so I would guess that's in the 70-80% range. I guess the conditions I hunt in are just way more demanding than what the general metal detecting public hunts. Garrett marketed the new viper coil and MF as if it was going to be great in iron and I guess that's where my concern is. It is proving to be better than my original tests but if you have to use a very specific sweep speed, the coil set a specific distance above the ground and the sun and moon aligned, it kind of defeats the purpose. The blending of targets for a MF machine is really subpar too. The big difference in the Garrett MF and Minelab's is the ability of the Minelab's multi-frequency to hold the target ID of the item up even in iron. When I hit the IHP on the nail board test with the Equinox it comes up a 19-20, exactly what it comes up with no iron around. Even other metal detectors in the Apex price range have a better audio when unmasking in iron. IMO Garrett should have made this introductory model a 3 tone machine so the audio difference between iron and very low conductors was spaced farther and easier to distinguish.

The other thing I'm noticing is that the Apex MF seems to have little if any difference in performance as compared to the single frequencies. In iron I feel 20 KHz does a little better but not enough to worry about. As far as depth goes 5 KHz does appear to be a bit deeper on dimes and quarters. But the big difference in the Garrett MF vs Minelab MF is target ID at depth. The Garrett has no real advantage running in MF (except maybe on a saltwater beach). The deep targets are just as jumpy in MF as they are in single frequency. One the other hand you can tell a big difference with the Minelab Equinox. In single frequency deep targets are really jumpy and up averaged. Put the Equinox in MF and everything settles right down.

I'm headed for a ghost town with it on Sunday, along with the F19, Simplex and Racer 2 to compare signals. After that I'll know for sure where it fits with the rest of my machines. But as of right now it looks like a good modern coin and jewelry hunter.

Andrew

XP Deus 2-Minelab Manticore, Minelab GPX 6000