X-Terra 30

[back2thehunt]

Please give me your honest opinion of the X-Terra 30. I've been detecting since 1987. You can usually find me lurking in the tnet forums too. Right now, I'm searching for the perfect balance of price and power. I tried the Ace 250, the Prizm IV and they both left a bad taste in my mouth for todays detectors. I am on a budget but could squeak out $400 if I play my cards right. I have heard great things about Minelab. My question is, (and I'm BEGGING you to be honest) if the X-Terra 30 is about the best you can get for around the same prices as the 'toy's' the 2 big boys (White's and Garrett) are putting out in their Ace and Prizm line.

I can't afford more, I don't want to wait for a 'deal' on eBay or wait and possibly get a "used 50" or "used Explorer". I live in Wisconsin. Summer's here for probably another 2 weeks or so (it's mid July

I need a serious machine with a good VDI, decent depth and the ability to learn what it's saying to me.

 

[frank barnett]

hi backtothehunt i just bought the x terra 70 and i like it very much. i know the 30 wont do it all but for the money you will be getting in my openion the best in its class. frank b.

 

[frank barnett]

hi i forgot to tell you i live just across the lake south of Holland mi. fill those holes and have fun. frank b.

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

I truly believe that the 30 is the best TID for the money. I bought one for my son and I use it often. I also have a 70. It won't get the depth of the 70, and of course it doesn't have the features, but it's a very good detector. If I wanted to spend around $400 and didn't care about TID, I would get a Cibola or Vaquero. But for $400 I can't think of a better TID detector.

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Hi Back2thehunt.
The 30 is a fairly solid performing detector. Rubbish targets are easy to tell from good ones on the fly. You watch the screen a lot less than you do with the Ace. The numbers are really easy to see and the tones (3 just like on the Ace) are a lot easier on the ear than the Ace The only area it has a weakness, is accurately pinpointing targets. You need to for the most part ignore the pinpointing graphics, and either pinpoint off the 12 o'clock position of the inner coil, or manually detune it over a target (hitting the pinpoint button twice more while over the target). It very similar the the Ace in a lot of ways; ie both 12 notch and 3 tones systems. The Ace is very strong in the accuracy of it's pinpoint, if you ignore the instruction manual and adapt the Ace's shallow pinpointing and deep pinpointing techniques. I'm not familiar with the Whites unit, but could you elaborate on what you didn't like about the other units, so that we can give you a better heads up on whether the X-Terra 30 would be a better choice or not; otherwise we may not be able to give you the information that you seek.
I have about the same amount of time on both the Ace 250 and the X-Terra 30 (around 250 hours on each).
Mick Evans.

 

[khouse]

I would buy a used 50. I bought a used 50 for $325.00 Then I traded it for a new 70. But the 50 was great. Way more features than the 30 and the pinpointing was spot on. Plus more coils to choose from. Just be patient and look on the forums and ebay. One will pop up within 2 weeks.

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

Gotta say I see no pinpointing problem with the 30. Mine works exactly like my 70--dead center on the stock coils.

 

[Android]

If you plan on hunting Salt water beaches or in high mineralisation, I would look into this further. The ground balance on the x30 is fixed. I have heard of people having mineralization problems with fixed GB machines.

 

[Digger]

If you don't want to wait for a "deal" on eBay or get a "used 50" or "used Explorer", the X-30 is about as good as you can get for the same price as the Ace or Prizm. (Actually, it is similarly priced to the Prizm. But the Ace is around half the price). The X-30 has good TDI, respectible depth and multiple audio tones. It is a good balance of price and power. Will it outhunt the X-50 or X-70? No, probably not. But in controlled conditions, the X-30 is just as sensitive and detects just as deep as either of the X-50 or X-70. The differences start to appear when the X-30 preset GB isn't quite right for your soil, you need more notch segments to help define targets, you want a bit more audio discrimination, you need to fine-tune the sensitivity or threshold, you want to try some of the other frequency coils, etc, etc, etc. Again, when I set the three X-Terras "side by side" on my test bench, where GB is not an issue and they all use the same 9-inch concentric at 7.5 kHz, there is very little difference in raw depth or target sensitivity. But know upfront that there are several features on the X-50 and X-70 that will improve your "odds" of success.

You didn't mention why both the Ace 250 and Prizm IV left a bad taste in your mouth.... If it was due to the factory preset GB, keep in mind that the X-30 does also. If it was due to the three tone audio of the Prizm, the X-30 will have that too. Having used the Ace and the Prizm, with all things considered, there is no doubt in my mind that the X-30 leads the pack in depth, pinpointing and sensitivity to small targets. JMHO HH Randy