DFX vs EXP SE

[Magicman]

Thanks for the reviews. This is what I have been looking for a real comparison.

 

[mattockman]

n/t

 

[DFXer]

Bazooka,
I believe the issue with the camlock system is the tolerances of the bonded frame (handle). Some shaft insertion slots may be tight and some may be loose because the frame halves appear to be poorly bonded. I just checked mine and the two halves aren't pushed together so the slot that the shaft goes into is too wide. Others may be tight.

Another post reader is also questioning the strength of the bonded joint on his machine.

I put 2 inches of plastic tape on either side of the shaft and it tightened up.

Paul

 

[killroy320]

I just wanted to add my 2 cents here. I posted here several years ago when I got the first shipment of the explorer xs to the US. I had to sell my detector several years ago and dropped off the scene for a while. I will be getting a new SE in a few days and I will be hunting with my father who uses my old XLT, as well as some of his co-workers who are new to the hobby and use the ACE-250. I am trying to convince my father to split the cost for a new DFX and plan on selling my XLT to offset some of the cost of the DFX. What I am planning to do is document our hunts for this forum so people can see head-to-head action with 3-4 machines. I really liked my XLT but after reading this forum I was convinced to go with Minelab. On 4 separate occasions. I was able to walk behind my father who was using the Whites and pull out 4 large pennies that the XLT never saw. Seeing this confirmed my choice with Minelab detectors. I will be taking a camera, notepad and tape measure to documents our hunt. I still really love the whites design over the explorer, but I have seen what the explorer can do against the XLT. I am sure many people are tired of the rivalry between machines, but there will be always be newbies with a fist full of cash with questions on which detector to go with.

 

[jim cluster]

Ford or Chev? It's the same for a person that will use a detector & it's the best. It's the time one puts into the detector makes it a better machine. I got the SE and was always a White's man, never even considered another brand. It was the best company no matter what happened as a outcome. The SE seems to be performing like no other machine I've owned, the leaning curve is right up there also, it'll take a while to get a handle on the machine. In one month of owning it, I've got 500 coins, and the some jewelry. It's not much compared to others on the forms, but learning the new technology after 16 yrs out of detecting I'm happy. I figure it comes down to putting in your time on the machine. Going over the same spot with the same machine will produce finds when a person thinks it's hunted out. It really comes down to how consistent are the swings? This my two cents worth only.

 

[Southwind]

In 1991 I upgraded to a new Whites Eagle Spectrum and it opened a whole new world of detecting for me. It was the first detector I owned that could go deeper than 6". It brought new life to a city park I had hunted for years. After 13 years that park pretty much dried out for my Eagle Spectrum. It had gotten me down to the 9-10" depth and in 2005 I felt maybe another upgrade would make this park start producing again. I knew the coins were there If I could get a detector that could find them.

I bought a Whites XLT and used it for a year, but found it wasn't getting me any more coins than with my Eagle Spectrum. In 2006 I upgraded to the Whites DFX and the park started producing again, but I know there are coins deeper yet to be had. I'm in the process of purchasing a new SE in hopes it will give me that extra depth I'm looking for, but to be honest, that SE has some mighty big shoes to fill from my DFX.

 

[digitrich]

n/t

 

[NH Bob]

n/t

 

[jim cluster]

Southwind, The Whites Eagle was the last detector I owned before I bought the SE,( 16 yrs later) I really thought the Eagle was a great machine. Today I was getting dimes in black sandy loam soil, I never measured the depth but the gator digging tool was flush with the turf. I was happy to be in the middle of a multi soccer field, I was a little nervous with the dirt piles coming out. I can't wait to return to some parks in Toronto to test the depths, today the oldest coin was in the late 70's.

 

[jabbo]

n/t

 

[bazooka]

I'm not sure what causes it, but I have noticed that when I swing, I can hear what sounds like two pieces of plastic rubbing together somewhere near the arm cuff. It doesn't sound good, almost like it's being stressed. But everything looks ok so far. I do agree that the DFX is a more rugged and structurally well-designed machine but so far everything is holding together with no real problems.

 

[LS hunter]

I had a DFX and sold it now i have the garrett 1500 imaging, with out dough that whites makes a much better detector than most in quality!!
THE menu on the DFX drove me nuts too,THE shaft on the garrett did move a little,BUT most of all the GARRETT gets more depth than the DFX,
BUT like you i had to put tape on the shaft of the garrett,all in all the DFX is a very good detecotor but hard to learn!!!! THANKS

 

[digitrich]

Paul, you maybe changing some of your views in the near future after you get to really know your new SE. Some of your comments such as the DFX has sharper audio maybe indeed an incorrect gain setting on your SE, if you have the machine in fast, it will also chop your signals. As for mineralized soil, take them both to a black sand beach and walk into and out of the surf and more than likely your DFX will be in the car and you will be using the SE. When I first got my SE, I was finding deeper stuff with my cheesy Bounty Hunter Put a couple hundred hours on the SE, learn to use all metal, hunt in manual sensitivity pushed to nearly unstable, learn when and how to use fast, deep, and long; and then come back and make this same comparison. I would enjoy an experienced SE user who also was experienced with the DFX give a genuine comparison as maybe there is a specific situation that I could use a DFX and pull something the SE can't, and that is Always interesting to me. Thanks for your post and keep us up to date as you do some more comparing. I personally would use a broom stick with greasy pubic hair stuck to it if I thought I would find more stuff, I don't have brand loyalty, I have finds loyalty. The only reason these guys love their Explorers so much is they haven't found anything better.

 

[sangamon]

[quote digitrich]I personally would use a broom stick with greasy pubic hair stuck to it if I thought I would find more stuff:[/quote]

............................................................................

 

[Southwind]

I would enjoy an experienced SE user who also was experienced with the DFX give a genuine comparison as maybe there is a specific situation that I could use a DFX and pull something the SE can't, and that is Always interesting to me.

I've seen several posted by users of both who say that both have their places to use. In a nut shell it was the DFX for bigger areas, due to a faster sweep speed, and the SE for smaller areas where you want to go slow and get deep.

I'm getting my SE this weekend and will be comparing the two. I think a lot has to do with the area you are in because here in southwest Kansas I recovery coins at 9-10" all the time. I've seen it posted that thats about what the SE will get as well. I guess only time will tell.

One think I do know is there must be a reason why after all this time these two are still battling the number one spot. That tells me neither win hands down.

 

[DFXer]

Digitrich,

I've been building up the hours on the SE and things are working out well. I experiment on a college athletic field rich in targets and I dig a lot. I'm finding coins quite deep so the news is very positive.

I hunt in both all metal and discrimination with a variety of settings to get a better feel for the audio.

Today I was relic hunting at an old streamside saw mill site but the iron trash overwhelmed me no matter what I tried. I was plagued by the threshold loss and I felt that the coil was too big. What would be a good setup for such an iron infested site assuming I'm stuck with the stock coil?

Paul

 

[digitrich]

Stuck with the too big a coil in heavy trash? Lower your gain to at least 6 because that will eliminate allot of the iron falsing high. Hunt in all metal- no discrimination is an absolute must otherwise you will never get passed the nulling out. Hunting in that situation you would be much better off in AUTO sensitivity set at about 27 because in manual sensitivity allot of your rusted deep nails are going to false silver and drive you nuts especially if the soil is moist and horribly if it's wet. Turn fast on and deep off. Hunt in ferrous tones, in all metal and only dig the high repeating tones, ignore the low iron grunts, will become much easier to do after about 20 hours of ignoring the iron. Swing your coil Slowly, when you get a high tone stop and investigate; see if it will repeat swinging north to south and east to west with short fast sweeps about 3 inches across. If it does, dig it. Do not bother using pinpoint with a collocated target (ex. nail and coin) because the pinpoint will latch onto the stronger signal which will almost always be the rusted iron. And good Lord man get a smaller coil, that ten is a monster. The good news though is that if you get good at picking through trash with a way too large coil you will find coins that others can't with a smaller coil because they maybe deeper than their smaller coils range and when you do finally use a little coil; you will already be a pro at "wiggling" through the trash and have awesome separation results. I have found some of my best coins with a too large coil in dense trash that way, it's not easy, but if you get good at it, you can go into just about any heavily worked spot and still pull decent finds. If you want to get real happy, you can also try audio long to help with the trash separation, but that's harder to get used to than all metal. Eventually you will "grow" into that, just takes time.

 

[digitrich]

Your quote: "I've seen several posted by users of both who say that both have their places to use. In a nut shell it was the DFX for bigger areas, due to a faster sweep speed, and the SE for smaller areas where you want to go slow and get deep."

If that were the case (bigger areas), I would just use a larger coil on the SE with Doc's swingy thingy which only works with the Explorer arm cuff strap attached and takes some adjusting, but works all the same. I can swing the largest coil all day that way in corn stalks. The only time I need to swing slowly is in dense trash, and heck my so called "blazing fast" F75 has to be swung nearly as slow as the SE in dense trash and it won't ID as well or as deep as my SE. The largest concern I have if I put down one machine that so called works better in a certain situation is even in an area with light trash, how does a guy know there isn't a collocated, find of a lifetime, target next to that one and only nail in the center of that field and as soon as he puts down that one machine, IF it indeed does ID deeper and get better separation then the machine he picks up then he just lost a find of a lifetime. This is the reason 95% of the time I hunt with my SE with fast on and deep off. So for people, including myself that are looking for a deeper, faster, Explorer, they and I, will have to wait for a discriminating Pulse Induction unit which is slow coming and all though they go much deeper than an Explorer, there is no guarantee if they will indeed ID or discriminate at those depths.

 

[DFXer]

Digitrich,
Thanks for the reply. What you say makes a lot of sense and I'll be using those settings next week at the same sawmill to check out the difference.

One other issue:

Last week after a day of rain I went to a local beach where the iron mineralization is normally brutal. If you dig down about four inches the ground turns dark red to black. In the past I've always had problems with the DFX there and I would be lucky to detect a dime at 3 inches.

I started detecting in the woods leading up to the beach and everything was fine. When I reached the beach the SE went unstable and there was nothing I could do to stabilize it (sens at 16). There were pools of standing water around so the ground was 100% saturated. I thought that the coil failed but as I got back to the woods the SE was fine.

Two days later I went back and the standing water was gone and the SE worked but was quite sensitive and falsed a lot. For some reason the moisture in combination with the iron oxide proved to be too much. The detection depth was way down.

I then wet to an athletic field with pools of standing water but the SE was fine and it detected really deep. The difference was that this ground was farm land loam over a foot deep. This was also the same land where the DFX went deep.

Comments!!!

Thanks,
Paul

 

[digitrich]

On beaches I use the stock coil, I turn my gain down to 5 or 6 and leave it in auto sensitivity as regardless of where I set my manual sens in those situations, it still doesn't really stabilize and falses horribly. Always noise cancel. When you noise cancel, you are changing the harmonics of the frequencies the detector detects at, and in some areas if you are detecting at frequencies in line with the "noise" frequencies you won't be able to detect. Most of your falsing will occur when the coil is bumped and also at the same time is over iron, the coil is extremely sensitive. But even with my gain at 5 and in auto sens., I have dug small targets at 14 inches or better in the surf with both my SE's. If your beach is so mineralized that turning down the gain and auto sens. doesn't settle it down and give you decent depth, then you will have to use a smaller coil. When I was in Florida this winter, I had to use my Sun Ray 8 on a beach because the ten was just "seeing" to much of the mineralization to settle down. I have larger coils that I thought would produce better and they didn't. A too large coil in a heavily mineralized soil sometimes will not produce the depth of a smaller coil, because like electrical interference interferes with your detection depth, so does the mineralization or moisture content of the soil. There is a moisture G - spot to the SE where the soil just has the perfect amount of moisture content for the mineralization present that you can get off the charts depth and then on other days leave you wondering if the machine is broken. Hunting the exact same area in drought times, damp and wet times will produce some really different and intriguing results. In areas with high electrical interference, hunting at night will give you nearly twice as much depth in some cases because the load on the power lines interfering with your machine is much less at that time (doesn't work on 100 degree August nights-air conditioners). When it comes to beach hunting, it's not hard to ignore any falsing because it seldom repeats itself when you swing back over a second time. People complain about falsing and they are so off base, the reason a machine falses is because it is running very hot (sensitive), that falsing proves you are pushing the machine to it's extreme depth in that soil. There is a fine line between "hot" and too much that changes according to lots of stuff: moisture content, mineralization, electrical interference, small iron, silent masking ETC, ETC. In extremely wet and difficult areas, I have always found letting the machine run my sensitivity in auto seems to produce the best results. But it is important to realize when your machine is falsing... IT'S NOT. It is simply so sensitive that it is now reporting slight changes in the soil mineralization of the soil and or something in that soil is given the machine a signal that looks like a bonafide target. But if the machine wasn't that sensitive, you wouldn't be able to pick that Seated Liberty Dime out between 2 rusted nails at 8 and 9 inches or better. Learning how to ignore iron grunts will let you hunt in all metal, learning to ignore "falses" will let you run the machine at it's peak edge, learning how to "pick" through the trash with coil control in short sweeps or "wiggles" and using audio long will pull out targets others can't, didn't and probably won't ever hear; Doing all of these things and purchasing different size and different type coils for different situations, well don't hunt anywhere near my spots, you now know to much and I would have to sneak up behind you and show you just how heavy an Explorer is.