Everyone has an opinion about certain machines. I have a conquistador and I absolutely love it. My very first target, the first day I took it out was a civil war .56 caliber bullet. I also found an 1882 indian head penny around 6 plus inches down. The place I found these 2 items was I thought searched out by me with my garrett 250. I could not believe that I found those two items that day. I also found several other civil war rounds out there the following week. I live in middle Tennessee and the soil here has alot of clay in it also. Sometimes there may be a problem someone has with their machine and they do not know it and they just assume the particular model is junk. These same people also may not know how to use a detector correctly. I would buy that conquistador in a heart beat if it is still available. Tesoro makes a good quality machine. If you took a look on ebay you will notice that you hardly ever see a conquistador or the eldorado, which had a ground balance otherwise the same a conquistador, and when you do see those used tesoros that go up on an auction, they sell for all the money. This goes for the other older machines also, like bandito and silver saber 2, etc. This tells me one thing, the people who have these machines, hold on to them because they are good units, not because they only find a penny 4 inches in the ground. I dug a clad penny with my conquistador I know over 10 inches down because, I almost gave up digging. The conquistador is a great unit for relic and coinshooting. I do not know how it performs on the beach though since I have never taken it there but, I am sure it might do fine.