The industry and folks with higher end machines will always talk about how much more you will find with the machine that costs $xxxx. You will hear stuff about crazy depth of this machine vs. that machine. Personally I think it's mostly BS. I believe a $300 machine will find 95-98% of the stuff a $1500 machine will find. There is some truth to a machine's capability of "telling stuff apart" from each other if in the same location. If you typically dig everything, you will miss nothing that is at a reasonable depth (up to 7" or so). If stuff is 9"+ I think most machines will miss it anyway depending on the size and metal type. The fun of the hobby IMHO is not knowing what your digging up in the first place. If a machine is ever made that tells you exactly what it is under the ground, it will ruin the hobby... Stick with what you have, learn it well, and don't worry about all the BS you hear about this one vs. that one. If you are proficient with your machine, keep it. It's about the enjoyment of being outside where EVERY dig is an adventure. Remember even bottle caps have value. They help you to pinpoint accurately and allow you get better at digging smaller and smaller holes to retrieve them. But every bottle cap might not be a bottle cap...hmmm. Last year I had a nickel signal on a machine that costs ~$300. Turned out to be a diamond ring that retails for $2-3k. I also found a coin from the 1700s with that same low cost machine. Point is, the machine was inexpensive and still produced great results.
