Garrett Ace Apex Follow Up Review & Target Separation Demonstration

I now have several hours clocked on the new Garrett Ace Apex and wanted to provide my readers with a more thorough review of this metal detector.

Physical characteristics

The Garrett Ace Apex feels like a high end metal detector. It is incredibly well balanced, and weighing just 2.5 pounds, I can swing this metal detector for hours on end without experiencing fatigue. The viper coil and shaft are designed in a way that makes it very easy to keep the search coil parallel to the ground. It is indeed very difficult to accidentally lift the coil off the ground which could result in missed targets. The Garrett Ace Apex is very sturdy, the shaft does not wiggle at all, and the hand grip is really comfortable. I do have one minor complaint; the narrow nature of the viper coil allows for the Ace Apex to fall on its side when placed on the ground.

Audio 

I always loved the audio on my Garrett AT Pro. The tones were set at the perfect pitch, and it was so easy to identify a coin using proportional and tone roll audio. The Garrett Ace Apex has a 5 tone audio system that I am finding to be very easy on the ears. I am still trying to get my head around hybrid audio, which according to Garrett “provides the simplicity of binary audio (found on existing ACE detectors) with the additional benefits of subtle proportional audio for faint targets.” I think that I can hear the tonal nuances of a coin vs a junk target, but it does take many hours to learn the audio on a new metal detector. Also, I really like the iron volume feature. I like hearing some iron, so that I can tell that I am metal detecting at a spot where people were, but I do not like being overwhelmed by iron audio feedback. Iron volume allows the user to control the volume level of iron targets, I tend to set iron volume at a fairly low level.

I should probably point out that I ordered the Ace Apex package that includes the Z-Lynk wireless headphones. Once you use wireless headphones you will never go back! The Garrett Ace Apex does not have Bluetooth, you can only use Garrett’s Z-Lynk headphones if you want to take advantage of wireless audio. The Ace Apex does have a 1/8th inch audio jack if you want to use wired headphones. You will want to use headphones with the Garrett Ace Apex because of the hybrid audio system, this is not a beep and dig metal detector. I wrote a great article a while back about the importance of using headphones when metal detecting.

Features and ease of use

The Garrett Ace Apex is really easy to use which is one of the reasons that I think that this metal detector will be an excellent choice for beginners. Simply turn the metal detector on, select a search mode, and go metal detect! The search modes on the Garrett Ace Apex are factory preset notch discrimination patterns. Select the search mode that is best suited for your individual detecting needs, or select the custom mode to create your own notch discrimination pattern. For testing purposes, I opted to use the US Coins mode because I wanted to see if I could get away with using the Ace Apex to cherry pick coins in areas that are contaminated with modern trash. I was able to find a handful of clad coins in a trash filled park with ease. Of note, US Coins Mode will cause the Ace Apex to not be able to identify the copper / nickel Indian Head penny, the Flying Eagle cent, and the three cent nickel. All other US coins however can be found using US Coins mode based upon my tests.

One thing that I’ve noticed based on my field tests is that target ID’s (TIDs) are very stable on the Garrett Ace Apex. I would attribute this to Garrett’s Multi Flex simultaneous multi frequency technology. Increased stability of TIDs is one of the benefits of simultaneous multi frequency technology. If you don’t fully understand metal detector operating frequencies, I would highly recommend that you read this article. I do wish that Garrett made more information available about how their Multi Flex technology works, my inner geek needs to know! 

The Garrett Ace Apex is not customizable to the extent that metal detectors such as the Minelab Equinox and XP Deus are. At the sub $500 price point, I think that this is totally fine. It is possible to adjust sensitivity, ground balance, iron audio, and operating frequency on the Ace Apex which is more than sufficient for beginning metal detector users. Having sold my AT Pro in favor of an Equinox and XP Deus; there are times when I miss the simplicity of the Garrett machines.

Who should buy a Garrett Ace Apex?

The Garrett Ace Apex was designed with beginners and intermediate metal detector users in mind. I therefore don’t see the Ace Apex being the best choice for more advanced users. Having said that, I do believe that the Apex performs at least as well as the Garrett AT Pro. I don’t have a ton of experience on the AT Max, so I don’t want to compare the AT Max to the Ace Apex. I will definitely keep the Ace Apex in my arsenal of metal detectors because as a coin shooter, I like to scrutinize my sites with as many different types of detectors and programs / settings as possible. I will also keep the Ace Apex around for that friend or relative who might be interested in joining me on a hunt, but doesn’t have a lot of experience with metal detecting. The Ace Apex would be perfect for putting into the hands of a property owner who just granted you permission to detect on their land, it’s just that simple to use! The build quality, ease of use, and sub $500 price point makes it very easy for me to recommend the Garrett Ace Apex to beginners. The Garrett Ace Apex is currently available to purchase, there aren’t any supply issues that I am aware of.

Be sure to check out this video on YouTube for a field review and target separation example of the Garrett Ace Apex.