Well....I'll post my two zinc cents worth......I also had my finger on the trigger for the AT Max, Garrett is a good company with good history, and I have owned three Garrett's over time, and in fact currently have the AT Pro, good machine. I then took a step back along with a deep breath and thought, just what am I buying for say $722.00 that I do not already have with the Pro?, well, a backlit screen, and wireless headphones, not a whole lot more really, a slightly different KHz perhaps, but that's about it. Detecting deeper?, you kind of have to admit that Garrett's response to GaffleBab's post was pretty generic, in fact things we all already know, and it was an honest response, but it does make "added detection depth" between the two machines a rather mute point. Now, as far as the new minelab?, for me, and speaking only for me, that for about $70 less than the Max, I would have all that the Max offers, with the addition of choosing to operate in one of three single freq's, or all three together, that's for the 600, the 800, for about $180 more than the Max, can operate in one of five, or again all five together, I like that a great deal. Everything else?, yes, backlit screen, waterproof to 10 ft. etc. So I can wait until sometime next year, again I currently use two really good detectors, the Minelab "Safari", and the "AT Pro", both of which I'll keep. I will still need to see more about the new minelab, more detailed information, user reviews etc, but time is on my side. It is possible that the 800 will be all I will ever need for my style of hunting, perhaps better than the Pro in that one in 5 freq's or multi, and better than the Safari, because of "waterproof", and would replace my X-Terra 70. Time will tell, we will see.
