LOOKING FOR OPINIONS

[NH Bob]

I'm curious about something and am posting this here as well as on the E-Trac board.
How many of you have used both the Explorers and E-Trac for extended time and what do you really feel the benefits are of one over the other.
Personally I like hunting in all metal with multi tone ferrous sounds with the SE. I also have the E-Trac which is great in modified coins mode and multi tone conductive sounds.
Realizing that they are different machines, what are your true feelings about the two?

 

[sgoss66]

My true feelings are, they are VERY VERY similar; for someone who has used an Explorer for awhile, I don't see that "upgrading" to an E-Trac is really much of an upgrade, except for some ergonomic improvements. To me, switching the numbers around and "normalizing FE values to the 12 line" was not an improvement -- FOR A PRIOR EXPLORER USER. I can see how, for a new Minelab user, that would be easier, but if you are used to an Explorer, I don't think that was really an "improvement." I think the E-Trac runs just a bit smoother, a bit less falsing, but I think I like the Explorer audio just a touch better. Overall they are both very, very similar in my opinion, and they behave VERY similarly. If you test them side by side on a buried target, the response of the two machines to that target is amazingly close, to me. Find a few buried targets with your Explorer, note how they behave/sound, and then mark them -- and then run the E-Trac over them. VERY VERY similar, from my perspective...

Just my two cents...

Steve

 

[NH Bob]

Boy you sound like a tape recording of me. I tone hunt and when I upgraded to the E-Trac several years ago. I had a problem changing my way of hunting and to this day prefer the explorer. I must admit, the E-Trac has a lot of nice things going for it. But when they converted the screen, they blew it for us old farts.

 

[Joe Diggerall]

Used pro since 2009 and etrac since sept2011.
what I like about the pro is the warble on silver and the cursor movement(hard top of screen and hard top right also the indian head pattern, the aid of the cursor.)

Got the etrac it seemed to run tighter than the pro not as much falsing. Ran the etrac for about 8 months and went back to the pro because I missed the warble. after a couple months got reading the etrac forum again and decided to go back to it.
Ran TTF for a month or so, then ran it in a modified coin. It sounded much better after running TTF. Have been using the etrac because I'm used to it.

Have found silver at 11" with both detectors, I've got a 5" 8" and pro coils.

I feel I would be satisfied if I had never gotten the etrac. The thing that makes the difference for me is the different coils.

Thought about the 3030 but not overly excited, It takes me to long to get a handle on a detector and kinda feel like I got caught up in the hype of the etrac so don't want to fall into the hype of the 3030.

 

[sgoss66]

Good post, Joe. You have mentioned some of the same ideas already stated...E-Trac a little more stable (a bit less falsing), and Explorer tones a bit better. Both with similar depth.

Interesting that this has been the consensus so far...

Steve

 

[Trashpicker]

Thanks to all of you. My first ever detector was an Explorer XS, then I went to the Explorer II. I have never used any other detector and pride myself on being very good with the Explorer. I have considered going to the e trac, but just couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money. I am still considering an SE pro because it is closer to the Explorers than the e trac. after reading all the comments from you guys that have already made the "jump" I think I will stay with the explorers and maybe find an SE later.
Thanks, Trashpicker.

 

[NH Bob]

The jump to an SE Pro from the XS is a good move and probably one you might want to consider sooner than later. The Pro is the same machine with some nice upgrades from the XS and still an Explorer.