Explorer SE Pro versus ETRAC

[backslyder]

Ok, I know I'm walking on thin ice here, because I'm only a Minelab Quatro Owner, but I'm looking to upgrade. I've read the manual and tons of reviews on the SE Pro. I'm pretty convinced that that's a great machine, but then I started reading some reviews on ETRAC and some of them had owned or used the SE Pro and liked the ETRAC better. Any comments or thoughts on these two high end machines would be appreciated. How do they compare with each other? Marc

 

[stasys]

my suggestion buy etrac, because quatro is similar to se. you will not see big leap to SE. etrac with bigger screen and few more aditions, but again is similar to your detector. I suspect allot will disagree, but its just my point. good luck Stasys

 

[dewcon4414]

Thou it may be like the quatro... the quatro isnt the machine the SE is. The SE takes time to learn, no if or buts about it, the Etrac is an out of the box look at me find stuff machine. However, once learned the SE is just as effective a machine. I have the SE, but dont intend to upgrade..... but just coming in if you havent used a ML and have the money why not go for the bells, whistles, and stability it offers.

Dew

 

[Southwind]

I've taken the E-Trac over the same areas I thought were cleaned with the SE and found a whole lot of missed deeper coins. I attribute this better depth to better stability.

Let's face it most any good detector can see a coin at 10" or more. The real trick is the detectors ability to tell the user it sees a coin at 10" or more. That is where the E-Trac does better than any detector I've used so far. When I test detectors head-to-head on the same deep coin in the field I generally start with the E-Trac because I know when it sees a deep coin. I then test the other detectors on what I'm already sure is going to be a deep coin. Pretty much all of them will see that coin but few will give me the indication that it is a deep coin and I should recover it. Most will make an occasional sound or broken tone, which technically can be said that the detector goes just as deep, but it isn't really a sound you would normally recover.

For you freaks that live in paradise where your 100+ year old parks are trash free which means you dig anything that makes a sound, these cracks peeps or pops might mean time to dig, but for me I'd leave the place looking like a minefield if I tried that. Plus I'd spend a month recovering trash just in a 10x10 area to find a few keepers. Not what I call productive. If I run mt E-Trac in manual sensitivity it snaps, pops, and cracks 20 times on every swing. I put it on Auto + 3 and it's smooth as a baby's behind and even those deep coins are easy to hear.

For me the SE was deep but very noisy and unstable. It was that and that it made my back hurt after an hour of hunting that I sold it and kept my DFX instead. I can hunt all day with the E-Trac.

 

[backslyder]

Thankyou Stasys, Dew, and Southwind for your comments. Very interesting and informative comments. I read one of the other comparrisons of these two machines that people wrote quite a while back and seemed to get some similar responses which tend to make me think at this point that maybe the etrac is more stable than the SE (according to some of these comments) and I think what southwind is saying is even the Etrac can get pretty noisy in manual sens. I know even my Quatro can get "quirky" or "noisy in a sense" if I get the sensitivity up too high. When I do that, sometimes I"m not sure if I'm getting "spurious noises and pops" that don't mean there's a target there or if it's just getting so sensitive it's picking up "more" targets. At that point, I usually turn down the sens a bit or go back to auto sensitivity. At any rate, thank you very much for your comments, backed by experience with these machines. Marc Trainor.

 

[Dennis 2]

I had a E trac ,sold it . Thought I was still missing good targets .So I bought another one.Ended up selling that one also. Iron sounded to much like a good target, and most good targets sounded pretty much the same.I Also didn't like the straightened out graph. I find that the SE and the Ex2 tells me much more. I can tell what coin I'm digging just by the sound( most of the time ). There wasn't a target that I hit with the E trac that couldn't hit with the SE. Like I said....that's just me.

 

[markg]

What does that mean, straightened out graph?

 

[Southwind]

I can tell what coin I'm digging just by the sound( most of the time ). There wasn't a target that I hit with the E trac that couldn't hit with the SE. Like I said....that's just me.

And this is a great example of why we see such different reports. The key phrase here your statement is "that's just me."

As I stated pretty much every detector I tested side by side with the E-Trac in the wild could see the deep coins the E-Trac saw, the difference was how well it conveyed that to the user. This is where the old saying "It's all about the user not the detector" has a base in truth. My 8 years experience on my DFX made it so I could tell that pop or crack of a deep coin much deeper than someone who had just started using the DFX. It would be technically correct for me to tell you the DFX can go just as deep as the E-Trac, but it would be irresponsible of me because I know the ONLY reason is because I am so familiar with the DFX. Someone with less experience would get nowhere near the same depth. So when I compare detectors I compare them on the expectations of someone brand new to that detector, not on the experience I have gained over my years with that detector.

I think a lot of people say their detector can go just as deep as any detector made, and be technically honest, but are not being fair to the person asking expectations.

 

[Dennis 2]

The 12 line etc.

 

[Hotcz70]

I've taken the E-Trac over the same areas I thought were cleaned with the SE and found a whole lot of missed deeper coins. I attribute this better depth to better stability.

I've taken my SE over areas I thought I cleaned out with the E-Trac and found a ton of missed deeper coins. I attribute this better depth to the fact that I better learned what my SE was saying to me after hunting with the E-Trac using sound alone.

When I test detectors head-to-head on the same deep coin in the field I generally start with the E-Trac because I know when it sees a deep coin. I then test the other detectors on what I'm already sure is going to be a deep coin.

When I test detectors or coils head to head I start out with the SE because I "think" I know when it sees a deep coin. I then test test the other detectors or coils to see if that particular machine or coil will "see" the coin better.

For you freaks that live in paradise where your 100+ year old parks are trash free which means you dig anything that makes a sound, these cracks peeps or pops might mean time to dig, but for me I'd leave the place looking like a minefield if I tried that. Plus I'd spend a month recovering trash just in a 10x10 area to find a few keepers. Not what I call productive. If I run mt E-Trac in manual sensitivity it snaps, pops, and cracks 20 times on every swing. I put it on Auto + 3 and it's smooth as a baby's behind and even those deep coins are easy to hear.

I have plenty of 100+ year old parks but have never encountered ANY that were trash free with my Explorers and E-Trac. Even if I did...the good targets would have disappeared at least 15 years ago. I know this for a fact because I would have gotten my share of the 10"+ deep ones with my Fisher CZ's.
"Cracks, peeps, and pops" don't tell me it's time to dig...but they do tell me to ignore that sound until I hear a sweet little warble to investigate.
If my SE does snap, crack, or pop every 20 feet...I put it in semi auto 26 to 28 and it's very smooth and allows me to better hear those deep coins.

For me the SE was deep but very noisy and unstable. It was that and that it made my back hurt after an hour of hunting that I sold it and kept my DFX instead. I can hunt all day with the E-Trac.

For me...the E-Trac was deep and smooth...but it just didn't have that "sweet, high warble" over deep previously masked silver that the Explorers do.
Will it find stuff the Explorers mis...sure it will. Will the SE find stuff the E-Trac misses...sure it will. The key to success with the Explorers is 100% sound alone...and learning the language it speaks.
That sound is what told me the Explorers are my main machine after I spent nearly 500 hours on the E-Trac.
I think the E-Trac is an awesome detector and I LOVE mine...but I personally prefer the Explorers because of the "language" they speak.

 

[Dennis 2]

Well I found the opposite. The E-Trac is pretty much a turn on and go detector. Way easier to learn then the EX. You Have to put way more time in to learn the Ex.

"As I stated pretty much every detector I tested side by side with the E-Trac in the wild could see the deep coins the E-Trac saw, the difference was how well if conveyed that to the user."

I've done the same.....And the Ex came out on top.
Now that said.... The E-trac is way easier to learn , but missed allot of the good target that the EX didn't. It's ok to disagree, my finds are just different then yours.

 

[dewcon4414]

If it hadnt been for the new Pro and SEF coils we would likely be recommending the EX II just because of the great standard coil. You can beat this dead horse all day, but it still comes down to stable with bells and whistles..... but at a price. Im a long ways from being a pro at this ive only detected for about 17 years but im not shy about hunting behind any machine. Like you said once you learn what its telling you these high end detectors can really be pushed. It really is about finding a machine that you have confidence in. If you buy the SE expect a learning curve and there is a progression. Once the tones click thats the key like Bryce said. Im sure you will enjoy which every you choose.

Dew