rs2007elias

I am now a proud owner of a Nokta Legend 😄

Ok, so a little change. The AT Max had 3x coils (regular, sniper and large one), as well as 3x headphones (including Amphibian Grey Ghost. Still a better buy to go for the Legend base kit with no extras?

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

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 🙂

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?

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.

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?

Well, here would be the prices: 450$ Garrett AT Max with 1 extra coil and 2 pairs of headphones 500$ Vanquish 540 with Pro Find 20 and bag 500$ Legend with no accessories nor headphones, single coil So matching prices, those are my options.

I didn't mean feature wise, I ment which is the better option

The salt level is quite low in my water, near freshwater. The fish living in it also can live in freshwater, that is how low the salt content is 🙂 Wasn't planning on submerging it, but having it waterproof like the AT Max could be a plus incase it gets splashed or worst case - dropped. Equinox and Deus 2 seem way to expensive for me. Nokta Legend is doable, but pushing the highside so would be no accessories.

Wow, fantastic writeup! Thanks a bunches! Warranty is not a huuuuge deal for me, I'm very technical and good at repairing stuff. Feel like I got a good chance of repairing anything that would break on it 🙂 The 50$ I save on the AT Max should cover any repairs, so lets call that break even with the warranty. Overall, it feels like they are similar, but the AT Max is perhaps a bit more robust of a system? I live on an island with brackish water, so likely a lot of my searching will be near water/in shallow water. With above considered, which would you go for? From my p.o.v it looks like a tossup, but not really sure which of the features you mentioned are a priority and which aren't.

Looking at grabbing one of the two (see title). Price difference is negligible (within 50 bucks of eachother). Leaning towards the AT Max (from 2018, but good shape) as it seems to usually fetch a higher price, so can likely resell it close to what I buy it for. Which would not be the case with the Vanquish. Thoughts? 🙂