The European machines are doing very well with fast recovery times and the ability to pull non-ferrous items out of thick ferrous trash. The sweet spot for the companies these days are "do-it-all" detectors running around 13 -19 kHz and selling for around $700 give or take a bit. So you have the Garrett AT Gold, Fisher Gold Bug Pro, Minelab X-Terra 705 Gold, Tesoro Lobo, White's MXT, and now Makro Racer models all aimed squarely at that sweet spot.
The hype is endless as are the legions of fans determined to defend the honor of their chosen machine. From my perspective VLF 15 kHz is old school stuff that any decent manufacturer can master easily. Put any one of them in my hands, I will go find gold. Performance of all of them in all metal mode is extremely close. The machines differ most in the coil they come with, which has the biggest impact on how they differ out of box. That, and the check list of "other features". For instance, the AT Gold is waterproof to 10 feet. That could be the key feature there. The X-Terra 705 has discrimination tone and notch options equaling much more expensive machines, that could be the key there for somebody. The Gold Bug Pro appeals more to simplicity of design.
Given then that in my opinion I can find gold about as well with each of them, my goal is simply to find the one that has the features that appeal to me personally. I used to be the biggest MXT fan around, but that was then and this is now. I do not find VLF detectors that weigh over 4 lbs to be acceptable in the 21st century. They do not need to weigh nothing, as proper balance is also very important to me. But the MXT and the Nokta FORS models do not score points with me by weighing in at 4.3 lbs (the Nokta published specs are incorrect). Do not get up in arms, defenders of the faith! Just my expression of a personal preference I have.
There is nothing wrong with any of these machines so you need to find the balance of features that appeals to you. The audio. You have to listen to the thing 8 hours a day. Does your ear like it? Or hate it? I would not own a machine based strictly on not liking the audio qualities. And coils, never forget coil options. How many, and what do they cost? Very important as coils do more to customise your detecting capability than anything else.
Sometimes to get the performance I want I have to hold my nose and use machines I think are poorly designed in some ways. I will never, ever let up on Garrett for thinking desert prospectors might have a need for a 7 pound waterproof detector. I have an ATX and have a lot of good things to say about it, but there needs to be another model made specifically for desert prospecting. Until then I will hold my nose and swing seven pounds of waterproof around in the desert.
Mid frequency VLF I have enough choices now to not have to hold my nose. I can pretty much demand what I want and get close to it. I want a certain mix of features in a simple, lightweight package. The upcoming Gold Racer in many ways might have been designed specifically for me. You can learn what I want in the way of a detector just by looking at it. But that is me, that is my preferences. The real question is - what are yours?
