Is this a good generalization?

[Anonymous]

The Explorer seems to have various collections of settings they call programs, coins, relics, etc ... Also three modes of operation, discrimination, ferrous, and all metal.
The discrimination seems to get set by learning i.e., you wave a target under the coil and then select reject or accept. There doesn't seem to be a setting by metal. You know 5 and above for all nickel and better targets. What do I need to do, wave every target I want to ever find under it . It looks that way. weird.
The programs they provide give a grid of accepted targets common to my area so I can use the stock grid and will not be forever waving things in front of my coil. still weird.
Or hunt in Ferrous mode where I get to pick the amount of ferrous I want and dig everything above that line using the display.
Actually this is what I ended up doing with the XLT (digging everything positive) cause it IDs targets so poorly.
The Exp II measures two things, conductivity and ferrous content. Coins have high conductivity and low ferrous. The display shows ferrous and conductivity. A cross hair shows up in this two D space. Coins are lower right. Depth is just signal strength. Strong is shallow and weak is deep up to 12 inches on the scale.

 

[Anonymous]

I do not waste my time with anything you mentioned. The explorer is great at discriminating. And there is no need to ID every thing you want to find by waving under the coil prior to finding it. That is what tone is for. Unlike single tone detectors the explorer has multiple tones for different items. I can identify in the ground if it is a zinc penny or a copper, a silver dime or a clad dime just by tone. Can you do this with the xlt? I really do not know I have never used it. I am happy with the explorer and would not trade it for anything. But that is my opinion.

 

[Anonymous]

on my old XLT. HOWEVER, I'm digging coins with my Explorer S at depths that my XLT never achieved.
The Explorer doesn't seem to have the range of tones that the XLT has. But I can certainly live with limited tone range.
The sites that I thought were hammered are brand new again.

 

[Anonymous]

The explorers are the best turn on and go machines ever made. In most cases the factory set smart screen is ideal with a few other setting modifications. I usually run in smartscreen, sensitivity between 24 - 30, deep on, fast off, gain 10. This has worked great for me and I have the finds to prove it. There are some sites where you may want to open up the smartscreen more to the left. Some people have found silver that read in the usually blacked out area. This can happen especially when a coin is on edge, being masked by iron or there is very high iron content in the soil. Of course if you are relic hunting then you want to run in iron mask with most of your screen opened up. You cant beat it. You dont need to wave everything you want to find over the coil in learn mode. I am not saying it wont work for you, but to me that is a waste of time. You will get many other good opinions on this. Many people perfer running in digital and it works great for them. That is one of the great things about the Explorers. There are so many good ways to set up your machine. It is only as complicated as you want to make it. The bottom line is let your ears and eyes do the work. Once you learn all the sounds then you are set
Marc

 

[Anonymous]

Steve,
I believe that you are saying:
#1 The Explorer has an adequate number of tones even if there are not as many as the XLT.
#2 Fewer tones that you can count on are better than a lot of tones that you are not sure about?
Is that about right?
By the way, I am an XLT user also.
HH,
Glenn