kinda scares me that the 440 only has 10 reviews on amazon. Have you heard anything about the Nokta Simplex+?
Hi Michael,
Amazon reviews are the LAST place I would go for information about a detector. The vast majority of the "metal detectors" sales that are sold on Amazon are complete junk and are pirated Chinese (nothing against China by the way meant by this comment) versions of barely entry level US detectors. Reviews by at least intermediate level detector users are what you need to be reading. Not reviews by complete beginners.
Listen to the reviews on the metal detecting forums. If you type metal detecting forums into your browser you will likely see this forum and three more at the top of the list. You can trust these forums for honest opinions and for some brand loyal rants too. Buy your new detector from a US detector dealer or at least a reputable sporting goods store where the bill of sale will be honored for warranty registration. If you buy used, make sure to find out if the warranty is still in effect and transferable and get the original bill of sale if possible. Most are transferable except Fisher/Teknetics/Bounty Hunter FTP products.
The Vanquish and Simplex models are outstanding entry level metal detectors from outstanding manufacturers. You cannot go wrong buying one of these. They really do perform at levels way above their price points. The soon to be released Garrett Apex also looks like an amazing detector for the money=$500
You can spend less than $250 on some "new" Fisher/Teknetics/Bounty Hunter models that work very well along with the very basic Garrett Ace models. All of these are actually old tech that is still being rehashed. They do not have the advanced features of the Vanquish 540 or the Simplex+ and they will not perform above their price point by much.
You can spend around $250 on some used detectors by Whites, Fisher, Minelab and Nokta Makro like a Whites MX5, M6, Fisher F19, Fisher F44, Fisher/Teknetics Omega 8500, G2+, T2, Patriot, Minelab X-Terra 50, 70, 305, 505 or even a 705, and there are great deals on used Simplex models, Racer 2s and even some Kruzers. There are plenty more that I'm forgetting.
Tesoro detectors are really fun to use. Most do not have a numerical target ID display or more than one tone. They work great for a beginner BUT, if I was expecting to be really serious about metal detecting I would not use a Tesoro for my main detector for the majority of detecting situations.