Woodchuck,i live in England where they had an initial following due to the fact that they were supppsed to be excellent on roman and hammered coins in trashy areas.I looked into getting one myself but the initial excitement seems to have died off and a few are now coming up for sale.To me this just gives the impression that they maybe good machines but no better than anything else out there.I would suggest this is true of all new detectors that come on the market today....first there is initial excitement about a new model.....than after people use them for a while they discover that they do not really offer any major advantages over anything else they have used.Most of todays new models offer very comparable performance....there is not a single detector on the market that stands above the rest.The best detector will be the new model that comes out.....it is out for a while....and non come up for sale second hand......this will be the detector that is worth trying.