I received my AQ 1-1/2 weeks ago and have been out with it twice so far, my first hunt was last week Sunday for a combined 5.5 hours between 2 batteries (I purchased an extra battery). I hunted at a beach where I detected the previous weekend with my TDI BH so didn't expect much as far as finds but just wanted to get a feel for the new detector, I hunted in the water from shoreline to chest deep with the AQ in all metal mode and presets on the rest of the knobs except for the pulse delay which I tried out from 7 - 11.5. Running with the pulse delay at 7 was a bit noisy especially when swinging the coil away from the shoreline into deeper water but was actually quite stable with minimal falsing on the return swing toward shore, increasing the pulse delay resulted in as expected less falsing/chatter, I ended up at 10 microseconds. I was able to find a bit of change, fishing lead, tent spikes and a stainless steel ring I estimate was dug in the 10" range.
My second hunt was yesterday in Waikiki in the bigger of the 2 ponds for those familiar with Waikiki, again strictly in the water and in all metal mode but was able to run the pulse delay at the marked preset 8 with minimal falsing, found some change, pull tabs and a titanium ring. My battery lasted 2 hours 40 minutes which was 10 minutes longer than its first run last weekend, I opted not to swap batteries to hunt longer as the tide was really coming up and ended up calling it a day. As mentioned I also detect with a TDI BH and find the AQ to be very similar so far in performance and audio but again have only 8 hours of detecting time with the AQ water hunting, I have yet to try any dry/wet sand hunting and modes other than all metal. In the pic are the SS and titanium rings, hopefully some precious metals are right around the corner.:)
Physical observations - The AQ seems well built quality wise and feels well balanced, I find it easy to swing in the water even with its 12" coil. I'm 6'1" tall and am okay so far with the stock rod length fully extended - I can see where hunting the wet/dry sand a longer rod would give a wider swath while hunting. Others have mentioned the arm strap being short, the strap that came with my AQ seems fine too me. I also secured the headphone cable to the top of the detector shaft with a small Velcro strap as a strain relief as suggested by OBN and others.