I'm a Garrett fan, I used the AT series pretty much up until the equinox was released. Still use the carrot. Beginner friendly, pretty much turn on and go, interchangeable batteries (only 4 AA to boot), ergonomics are good, and most importantly, FUN TO USE! I know we all miss stuff, but I saw way too many targets be recovered right in front of my own eyes/ears that the Garrett wouldn't make a peep over, no matter what settings I tried. The AT Max was a swing and miss, not really much of a performance leap over the other AT machines to justify the extra money IMO. If they were to make something comparable to the leading models currently (Nox, legend, etc) I'd absolutely take a good hard look. It would be nice to at least have a horse named Garrett in this race though...