I don't hate my AT pro, or AT Gold, but they sure as hell were not worth the $ paid for them... the pro died in under 11 days... and the AT Golds coil was faulty on arrival.. garrett were fantastic, and replaced/repaired them within 2 weeks.
The problem with a popular detector is that people will believe the hype and flat out bulls!@#..... I had a guy tell me he detected a silver threepence which is a 16mm coin at 17 inches.. with the AT Pro with stock coil. anyone using common sense would call LIES immediately... or the guy from my detecting club, who told me he detected a Gold Sovereign, 22mm coin at 19-20 inches with the AT Gold 8.5x11 coil..
point being, Hype becomes a lie, and people buy the lie... and get pissed off when the machine doesn't live up to the hype...
I don't know of a VLF detector that is able to punch down 20 inches and get a solid hit or any hit at all on a 22mm target.... Hell my SD2200 would have a hard time reaching down 20" and hitting that..
Its hard to filter bullshit, when thats all you hear/read