Not having a shop or dealers in the area it's hard to decide what new detector I want. You just have to go on opinions and videos off the net. So frustrating.. I have a tesoro silver umax, great machine but not much depth. I had a whites for some years back and loved it, but had to sell it. I also have a Garrett ace 250 but to me, it is horrible, one of the worst detectors I have ever used. I will be coin shooting and relic hunting mostly. I'm leaning towards whites since I loved the alt. I have a budget of around 600. Is the original mxt still a good machine? Any suggestion on a new or used machine would be great. I open to any brand but Garrett. Sorry I just think they are over rated. Seems everybody wanted one when they saw the Diggers t.v. show.[/QUO
Sounds like your experience with Garrett is the same as mine
one detector you might consider is the X TERRA 705 when I first started detecting i ended up purchasing two machines one was a Garrett AT PRO and the other was the X TERRA 705 the 705 is well with in your budget at under $500 rite now I have had both machines which I mentioned since 2009 or 2010 the ATP has seen vary little use but the 705 is my main machine it does have a pretty steep learning curve but it is well worth the effort it takes to learn the 705s capabilities and there are a lot.
The 705 in my opinion is one of the most under rated detectors on the market and I still feel it is one of the most under rated still to this day it is the one machine they will have to pry from my cold dead hands I have never felt the need to up grade to something better in the several years I have used it in the price range you stated I would look at the X TERRA 705 dual pack which comes with two coils which are the 10x5 18.75 KHz DD coil and it also includes a 7.5 KHz 9 or 10 inch round coil also if you do consider the 705 go to Mine Lab site and download the E book called understanding your X TERRA written by Randy Horton it is free to down load and print out it is full of all kinds of info specifically to all the X TERRA line and is well worth the read.
just my two cents
The one thing the X TERRA 705 is not and that is water proof which has never bothered me as I do not hunt in the rain or jump into a body of water with it.