I too am optimistic about the AT Gold. Only having one in hand will tell how it is going to do though. The features sure sound good. I hope its sensitivity is better than the competition on high conductive targets. TYPICALLY the high kHz machines are much better at low conductors and not so hot on high conductors. That's my only concern for the machine as of now. As a shallow to mid water jewelry machine it should be incredible. As a relic machine...not exactly sure. The all metal is great. If you hunt mostly Civil War relics, most of them fall within the mid-high conductive range, which the 5-10 kHz range seems to favor. Buttons and small brass should do well on the high kHz range because they are low conductors. This is REALLY evident with a machine like the V3 where you can select three frequencies or individual frequencies of 2 kHz, 7.5 kHz, or 22 kHz. You really get an idea of which works the best via signal strength on the particular targets you seek. In all my testing and real world hunts, I found the kHz number to be of big importance for what you were looking for. In some cases, the 18-22 kHz range had significant depth loss on mid-high conductive targets when compared to the lower frequency machines.
Case in point: .58 cal minie ball at 7". 10" DD coil. Single freq at 7.5 kHz gave good signal and was detectable holding coil several more inches above ground. Single freq of 22 kHz, same gain settings and filter setting...bullet was barely detected. A silver dime at 7" proved even more drastic...wasn't detected at all in 22 kHz mode. But the show changed big time when dealing with small low conductive targets. In some cases I tested, small gold jewelry wasn't even detected at the low freq settings but the high freq could nail it several inches away.
Even still, Garrett is several steps ahead of all other competition detectors with the AT series.
