Quattro vs. Explorer

[Shenandoah Digger]

Trying to decide between the Quattro and the Explorer. Would appreciate info on similiarities and differences, and weight and depth differences. Thanks. Appreciate your help.

 

[Larry (The Palm Bay Pirate)]

Hey digger,

only used the Explorer a few time before I decided to buy a Quattro..Love the push a button and hunt feature..much shorter learning curve than the Explorer

 

[jimdoc]

I have the Quattro.If I had the money for the Explorer I would
have gone for that instead. If the little bit of price difference
doesn't matter to you I would go for the Explorer for the extra features like iron mask, etc.....

 

[Ratman]

Quattro has 28 frequencies same as Explorer . Weight is no different between the two . Depth is the same they both use the same coil . In my opinion the Quattro is a simplified Explorer less all the bells and whistles . Quattro does have a slower recovery speed from target to target . This is why you must go very slow with Quattro . If money isn't the factor then go with Explorer .

 

[Bobbie]

It is a nice machine for the price with a few less bells and whistles than the Explorer. It takes time to get used to, neither one of them are a turn on and go machine. I have put a larger coil on mine so it does go deeper and the recovery time has sped up a bit. You might want to look at the Sov. GT which is the land version of the Excal. Minelab makes excellent equipment.

 

[nugget71]

n/t

 

[howlow666]

Hey hey, I have a Quattro and think its a great detector. I looked at the two very hard befor getting the Quattro. They are really nothing alike besides looks and the coil. The software is nothing alike iether. I have also heard that the explorer has a somewhat slow recovery time, due to the fact that the two machines measure both ferrous content, and conductivity at the same time. Most only look at the conductivity. The explorer is by far the better machine, but if you are looking for great features without the heavy price tag get the quattro. The Quattro can be set up to give you both ferrous and conductive response at the same time like the explorer. And if you can, try to get a 5" coil for the trashy places.Hope this helps, and good luck with whatever you get. L8R

HOWLOW

 

[Golden]

I've got both detectors. But I'm really partial to the Quattro. I've found that sometimes you walk over targets, thinking it's rubbish, with the Explorer 2, then you walk over the same spot with the Quattro, and it tells you it's a fairdinkum target worth digging for. And it is. With the Explorer 2, you can finely discriminate against certain targets, more so than with the Quattro, but you have to be careful of the fact that, some of the good targets also fall into the same criteria that you've discriminated against, especially with relic hunting. A big NO NO for me, I don't use ANY discrimination with relic hunting, or I will definitely loose targets. Anyway, at the end of the day, the Quattro often comes off in front with the amount of relics found on the goldfields here, up against the Explorer 2, when used by another person, at the same time, in the same area. But I would honestly have to say, the Explorer 2 seems to hear targets on the beach, that my Quattro couldn't pick up. Still, having said just some of the differences, both machines are fantastic and well worth considering as a hard going and no nonsense detector. All depends on how far you want to go in the nuances of either machine, and what you want to achieve in the hobby of detecting. As for me, yeh, the Quattro definitely does it for me, and has paid for itself more than twice on the price I paid for it here in Australia, which was about $1,650.00. But any detector will do very well in the hands of a master, so whatever you buy, put the time and effort involved in learning your detector properly, and don't give up!
Golden

 

[beachguy777]

I like that answer Nuggett. It's just a personal preference, isn't it.

 

[nugget71]

n/t

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Hi all.
I hope you don't mind me butting in on this thread, but after this past week end, I've found myself asking the same question.
One of the key concerns for me though, is the difference in recovery speed. I know that they are both a bit on the slow side, but I was wondering if there is much difference in the recovery speed between the two? I mostly hunt on lawns looking for shallow coins, mostly $1 and $2 coins. Would the main reason you are saying to go slow, mostly to reduce the chance of masking? I will only be concerned about deeper coins, if I don't have to worry about making a bit of a mess of the ground.
Also; last night I was reading about the Explorers ability to be able to tell if a target is round, by the flute like signal you get. I assume that this is the same for the Quattro. My question is though,can you get any difference in signal between a screw cap and a coin? (and I'm not talking about the numbers, just the audio.
Thanks.
Mick Evans.

 

[pinpointa]

Hi Mick in Dubbo,
Well using the quattro for 2 years and 4 months i think i had it quite well worked out but putting the quattro and explorer toghether they both get to the point with some crew caps that you can not tell the difference between $1 and $2 coins. Over the years i have kept stacks of different screw caps ,pull tabs,and heeps of different pieces of junk just to put the next detector through its paces. I had the sovereign for 10 years and that was a top detector but the quattro is quite a move away from the sovereign. It is a bit slow in recovery if you are using a tight pattern in discrimination but what i found was to use all metal have discrimination up to 7 open board through to 40 blocked out. and just remember at what numbers your coins come in at.A brass key falls right on one or two dollar coin but you can tell the difference by crossing it in two different directions you will get a signal one way only on the length of the key but double signal the round end of the key. If you have a open pattern in discrimination you can sweep a little faster. I have sold my quattro and now using the exterra 70 and the features of this detector is very impressive and a lot more stable than the quattro Using all brands of detectors since 1979 imho this would be the most versatile detector that i have used.
Regards Pinpointa down under in oz.

 

[Golden]

Hi guys. This is turning out to be a very interesting post! One of the reasons we go slow with the sweep speed is that it takes the computer a bit of time to reset, and id you have targets in close proximity to each other, then so you don't mask over targets, by carrying the signals from one to another, or avoid the nulling, you sweep very slowly, particularly in trashy ground. This is especially true in relic hunting when you're likely to come across lots of iron rubbish from house sites. I'm speaking from my experience on some of the goldfields here in Australia, and your goldfileds might be a bit different. But where I go, the scrub is dense, there's a lot of undergrowth, and often raking the ground is required before detecting, or you miss targets. In other areas, the ground is relatively clean, but there's so much building rubbish buried, like iron, aluminium, etc, that a small coil, and slow sweep speed to allow the computer time to reset itself is important. I don't know enough about the Explorer to say you can distinguish between round objects, etc. With the Quattro, you can roughly tell the size of an object buried, by coming at the target from different angles with the coil, till your mind's eye gets an idea of the size of the object. To a great degree I have found that when coin hunting, I can tell it's a coin using both the signal and the "size" I've determined from my moving my coil over it. But to go by coil alone, I don't think you can be definite each time. but it is an interesting thought to pursue a bit more, I reckon. You gave me something to think about a little more.
I was thinking Mick, that if you're going for certain relics, then a little discrimination is handy. I don't discriminate anything out because I personally go for everything. I might mention that a lot of our relics here fall into the negative number readings, with a different range of signals from deep, low tones to medium and mellow tones, stuff like buttons, some of the coins, trinkets, buckles. Sometimes the relics also will jump from a postive reading, immediately to a negative one. There is some inconsistancy with the readings, but I found by picking up on the very first initial signal of the target, it's usually the signal and numeric reading I go for as being the 'true' signal of that particular target I'm hunting for. Just one of the nuances of the Quattro I learned over time.
I thought I'd post of photo of one of the relics I found of which it's signal gave me a negative number reading of between -7 and-8. It was found in damp soil conditions, amongst a heap of rubbish. It's something I would have walked away from if I'd ruled out these readings in discriminating. So depending on where you go, maybe try leaving out a discrimination pattern alltogether, and see what you pick up, and dig negative number readings with low or mellow tones.
Angela

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Thanks for the info Pinpointa and Golden.
Golden, if you are interested in what I was reading, the link is
http://detectorgear.com/ I found it in a request on the Explorer forum a couple of nights back requesting tips for the Explorer. The thread will still be on the first, or at least the second page of the forum. Something else the author wrote was that, if a target was not round, then the signal would have a flat sound. I thought that the Quattro and the Explorer shared the same audio system.
I guess at the end of the day, it's not going to make much difference as to which detector that I choose to use, but once you hit trashy ground with them, they need to be swung sloooowly, but can be moved a lot faster in clear ground.
Cheers.
Mick Evans.

 

[Golden]

n/t

 

[nugget71]

n/t