Garrett AT Max (2018) Or Minelab Vanquish 540

[phrunt]

Yup, Legend hands down.  Far better performance than the AT Max regardless of coils, the Pro-Find 20 is terrible, any pinpointer do the job of it, and I'm sure you've got a bag somewhere at home to use if you need a bag 🙂

The Legend is basically a cheap Equinox 800 with better build quality and the Equinox is the best selling detector there is, why? Because it's that good and suits your needs perfectly.  The Legend has proven itself already to be at least equal to the Equinox.

[rs2007elias]

2 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

If you are new to detecting, of the two you mentioned, I would pick the Vanquish 540. The 540 is a very easy to use, easy to listen to, easy to be successful with detector for a beginner.

If you are new to detecting, of the two you mentioned, I would not pick the Garrett AT Max. The AT Max is a handful for even the most experienced detector users.

As Phrunt said, the Legend is a Vanquish 540 with a lot more excellent features, its fully waterproof, comes with a 3 year warranty and is proven to work really well for a wide range of users with a wide range of experience.

I've got an experienced detector with me who will help me learn, and I'm a pretty quick learner. I plan on buying one and sticking to it for a lot of years, so if choosing between easy to learn and better down the line, I would 100% go better down the line. But if it is a handful and still ends up worse, then for sure I would avoid it (no fun to struggle unless it is rewarded). 

I will see if I can get a Legend within my price range 🙂 If that is possible, I will go for it! Going to California this summer, so hopefully I can find one there a bit cheaper than here. 

If not, I'm still at a bit of a loss between the AT and 540. I get the beginner friendly aspect, but I'm not way too concerned about not being able to read up on settings and figure those things out. Would the AT be better once I have a couple years of use behind me, or a constant fix for no gain?

[rs2007elias]

6 minutes ago, phrunt said:

Yup, Legend hands down.  Far better performance than the AT Max regardless of coils, the Pro-Find 20 is terrible, any pinpointer do the job of it, and I'm sure you've got a bag somewhere at home to use if you need a bag 🙂

The Legend is basically a cheap Equinox 800 with better build quality and the Equinox is the best selling detector there is, why? Because it's that good and suits your needs perfectly.  The Legend has proven itself already to be at least equal to the Equinox.

Sounds better in all regards! I will look into it. 

I see that "bigboyshobbies" has it for 499$ and "tax free". Trustworthy site? Could order one when I'm in California if that is the case. 

[Jeff McClendon]

I am not bashing the AT Max here on this forum. It is a great detector for the right persons, right targets and the right conditions. It's limitations are its single frequency operation, extremely high gain that is hard to control for some people and it is old tech which Garrett will replace soon.

The Nokta Legend, Nokta Simplex (new 15kHz version), Minelab Equinox 600 (new under warranty only, not used), Equinox 700 or the new Minelab X-terra Pro are really good options along with the Vanquish models.

[rs2007elias]

2 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

I am not bashing the AT Max here on this forum. It is a great detector for the right persons, right targets and the right conditions. It's limitations are its single frequency operation, extremely high gain that is hard to control for some people and it is old tech which Garrett will replace soon.

The Nokta Legend, Nokta Simplex (new 15kHz version), Minelab Equinox 600 (new under warranty only, not used), Equinox 700 or the new Minelab X-terra Pro are really good options along with the Vanquish models.

Alright, gotcha 🙂

I will look into the Legend. 

That ground balancing aspect, I have heard that mentioned several times. I assume it is better when it is done each startup like on the Garrett, and not some universal "middle ground" like the Vanquish?

[Jeff McClendon]

6 minutes ago, rs2007elias said:

Alright, gotcha 🙂

I will look into the Legend. 

That ground balancing aspect, I have heard that mentioned several times. I assume it is better when it is done each startup like on the Garrett, and not some universal "middle ground" like the Vanquish?

That depends. I have had areas where I detect that neither one would ground balance on. The ground conditions were too extreme for both detectors. Those same areas were no problem for the Legend, Equinox and Deus 2 because they have user initiated ground balancing like the AT Max BUT they also had simultaneous multi frequency operation which the AT Max does not have.

 

[phrunt]

Yes, Vanquish relies on it's multi frequency tech for ground balance and has no manual ground balance or tracking, in most cases it's good, some people in high minerals struggle but works very well in salt.

AT Max has ground balance however it's ground balance is limited by being single frequency.  Multi frequency detectors handle varied ground conditions and salt water a lot better which is one of the reasons the Vanquish works well in salt and the AT Max even though it has ground balance does not work as well.

The Legend has ground balance and multi frequency.

[rs2007elias]

Found Legend within my budget from multiple sources, so it is fully doable!

While a decent price, it still is a far lower % discount than the AT Max is (the Legend ends up at 50$ more, despite MSRP being 400$+ lower than that of the AT here). Still worth going for Legend instead? It will give a worse resale price here if I decide to go for another machine later on, but if it is substantially better, then I will certainly pick it over the AT Max 🙂

[phrunt]

The Legend is like a few detectors in one, it gives you 5, 10, 15, 20 and 40khz, so that's a range of detectors right there, it also gives you multi frequency.  Different frequencies provide benefits on different targets and also better depths on certain targets, 40khz is the sweet spot for small gold for example.   Then it also runs in a multi frequency mode to give you a better balance of performance from the frequency range.  The at Max is stuck at 13.6kHz.

Don't let the new price of the AT Series fool you, they're quite expensive for what you get in today's market.  Nokta is made in Turkey with lower production costs I would assume and they aim to provide customers with a lot of bang for their buck, it's shaken up the market extensively over the past few years with their dramatically low pricing compared to competitors.

[rs2007elias]

7 hours ago, phrunt said:

The Legend is like a few detectors in one, it gives you 5, 10, 15, 20 and 40khz, so that's a range of detectors right there, it also gives you multi frequency.  Different frequencies provide benefits on different targets and also better depths on certain targets, 40khz is the sweet spot for small gold for example.   Then it also runs in a multi frequency mode to give you a better balance of performance from the frequency range.  The at Max is stuck at 13.6kHz.

Don't let the new price of the AT Series fool you, they're quite expensive for what you get in today's market.  Nokta is made in Turkey with lower production costs I would assume and they aim to provide customers with a lot of bang for their buck, it's shaken up the market extensively over the past few years with their dramatically low pricing compared to competitors.

And that hasn't taken a hit on the quality - it still is a solid unit other than just tons of features? 🙂