Matt would be interested in seeing you machine. The skill of the operator is everything, sometimes you read great write ups of how much treasure, coins etc a particular machine has found & therefore must be the one to buy. But who knows, it could have been detected by a less expensive machine & with an appropriate operator maybe more could have been found!
The dilemma is with a large area to search, you know that if you lived to be 500 years old (yes I know people think I am that age) but you still wouldn't be able to search the area properly. So should one sweep rapidly over a large area & cover as much ground as possible, or meticulously do it section by section?
I usually do small sections intensely, then move of to another piece further away & repeat, trying to hit a hot spot & zoom in on that.
Sometimes I think where would a sensible operator go, then choose somewhere quite different as it less likely to have be 'done'!
Sometimes I go where it has just been 'done' to see what someone else has missed. That is very satisfying. Even if you find nothing, I keep kneeling down to look as if I have!