Have you ever thought how long it takes to get rid of that novice title? I don't know I have done a heck of allot of things in my life but have never gotten to the expert field in anything. Maybe I kind of like that. You know what they say, advise is only worth as much as you are charging for it and heck I give away quite a bit. I have been playing with detectors for about 20 years now, and I am still really a novice. I mean I could turn one on and find a nickel or two but this hobby has changed quite a bit in 20 years. Did you ever think that a nice pair of headphones would cost about as much as a Garrett ACE150? I mean do I need Killer B's or will my free pair of headphones that came with my machine from 15 years ago still work OK? Yeah I still have them along with two other new pairs that have come with other machines I have bought. Is this what keeps me at the novice stage I don't know but I will ponder the thought. I do subscribe to all the MD magazines out there and just today I was rereading my owners manual for the umpteenth time. I also checked out my literature from all the major players that I seem to accumulate at the start of every year. Hey you never know when the bug hits to upgrade, I always say it's better to be safe then sorry. So as I sit here today (My day off BTW) lurking at every detecting web site know to man I figured out that I really am an expert at being a novice, cheers......