It depends on how mineralized the beach is, that you're on. All beaches vary by season, erosion, etc...... This is true for both east and west coast. I've seen where beaches can even vary depending on whether you're at the cut's edge, verses further out towards the water. Or can vary by just a few dozen yards north or south, depending on if you're in a scallop, gully wash, or other such sluice type formations.
Generally, the blacker/darker the sand, the more mineralized it is. I have seen some blackened mineralized sand that is so bad that no Explorer (or any discriminator for that matter) will work. In those extreme conditions, you need a pulse to cut it. But that is very rare, and I've only seen that in certain gully-wash creek outlets, on just a few select beaches here. In most other cases, if the minerals increase to where you start getting non-repeatable chatter, you just turn the sens. down till it quiets down. Or in worse cases, go to auto-sens. Your depth may drop to as little as 3" on a coin, in these nasty conditions though.
I had a particular beach where I had to raise my coil up, and drop the sens. so low, that I was probably only getting 3" on a coin. But that drawback was far outweighed by the plusses in that case. I'd have gone crazy without a discriminator d/t nails left all over after storm erosion on this stretch with commercial/industrial history. And depth was not an issue anyhow, as mother nature's erosion had arranged everything w/in the top few inches anyhow.
I have heard of a guy, on a particular east coast beach after serious storm erosion, who was trying to use an XLT. No matter what settings he used, he could scarsley pick up a coin on top of the sand. But pulse guys around him were effortlessly getting targets. So depending on your particular beach, and the type hunting you do, is your answer. Might pay to have both around