When I was age 8 I liked Fords.
My Dad had one.
When I was age 18 I liked my Buick
When I was age 28 I liked my Pontiac GTO
When I was age 38 I liked my Fiat 124 sports car.
When I was age 48 I really like my big Oldsmobile 88
When I was age 58 I really did like my old BMW,
and my ancient Alfa Romeo Spyder.
I still have the BMW and Alfa, and two Ford vans, one Ford PU, and one Buick, 10 motorcycles, and a Ford tractor. I still have them all and I don't like any one of them any better than the other. In a year or so I'll have enough money saved to buy an 80's Ferrari 328. I'll be 64 then. Maybe I'll finally like one vehicle more than all the rest. Who knows?
I own at least 25 detectors. And I've owned twice that many. And repaired 4 times THAT many. I repaired detectors for ten years. My favorites are the ones that have consistently worked well with the fewest problems andhave given me the greatest rewards and joys.
These are:
Fishers
Bounty Hunters
Garretts
One Minelab
Teknetics
AH Pros
Gold Mountains
Wilson Neumans
White's
Tesoros
Compasses
Jetcos
And others
The ones that have been the very best and lest problem and break down the least are;
Fishers
Compasses
Tesoros
I mostly use the Fisher cz-70 because of it's nice balance, but the vlf Compass is the deepest detecting and is best for finding nuggets and tiny jewelry by far, even before I boosted it's power. An old Bounty Hunter 840 found me the most gold and coins, and the old silver Saber has found the most coins and jewelry on the beaches here, and the most silver coins too everywhere.
It's ok to show your own personal results on these forums, and at times it's ok to emote a little too, especially when people do as some of you say, to only quote what they read instead of what they experience, OR, they get tired of the complaining. And then there is the poor guy who goes out and buys one of the pieces of trash that brand-loyal people boast about. What else could he do? He has to like it after he buys it. .
Nobody gets 16" on a coin in normal ground and nobody gets that deep on a normal beach either. Read what Gary's in the UK found out when they tested the Nexus against a few other so-called (deep) detectors for depth. Only the powerhouse Nexus could find a coin down to 9" in that ground, and that ground is weak too. . Those tests will surprize you. In fact, there is still seldom more than 2" difference in depth between a $200 detector and a $1300 one, no matter what detector it is. Yes, there are some that go a tiny bit deeper and work a tiny bit better and operate a lot slower or quicker, but that's why we should always check out at least 2 of the same model before we buy.
One of the flimsiest, cheapest made (but expensive) dedicated nugget detectors I've ever seen is sitting in a pawn shop right now near me and it is supposed to be "built like a tank". It's also supposed to get real good air and soil depth too, but all we could get out of it was 9" in air on a dime. It's just another case of hype about that certain brand, and nothing more. And yes, I too have found that about 90% of people on here exaggerate a bit too much, or only reiterate what they read instead of recanting what they have experienced personally. I guess it's because they don't expect to be caught in a (shall we say fib?) in person, maybe that's why.