Minelab Explorer XS
Street Price $800
Number of Reviews: 24
on 3 pages.
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This Detector is out of production and has been replaced with Explorer 2.
Simple and Deep
Ray B. in UK -
Amazing detector (XS=eXtra Sensitivity), it have the best discrimination quality of the market, with the Coiltek Platypus 8x12 coil is unbeatable. VSOP grade... :))
Sep 10, 2009
7 Yes
0 No
Minelab explorer xs
kev ,cambridgeshire uk in uk -Easy machine to programme so simple, and those that cant I fail to see how, deep machine and if you use an explorer don't moan about the weight just make or buy a bungee harness job done. Look at the screen tells ya most things to the left and a high pitch squeal don't dig to the top right on screen and a lovely flutey sound deffo dig and anything to the bottom right dig, and if ya wanna dig every signal feel free, superb machine moaners that don't like the machine ie cant understand it takes time to put a good programme in, and its then the same as any other detector, all in all pound for pound all explorers are brilliant.
Sep 02, 2009
8 Yes
1 No
Oldie but goldie...
Sergei in Russia, Novgorod -Outstanding performance, bargain price. Better than mk2! I have had many good finds. Slower is the rule for thorough searching....
May 28, 2009
8 Yes
0 No
Great machine
andy in uk -Hi all,
Andy.from uk.
XS.really good machine, found a lot of good finds,
only had it a month, I find if you slow down it finds loads..very happy with it..
Apr 09, 2009
6 Yes
0 No
8 years on Explorer XS
Steve in Oklahoma, and Colorado -I have been using my Minelab Explorer XS for 8-9 years now. I bought one when they first came out. My first detector. I knew nothing about detecting and struggled to learn what whas going on. I often equate it to the average American trying to learn Japanese. If you spend a couple hours, or even a few days, trying to learn it you may miss out on a great opportunity. Stick with it and you become a translator. If you learn to interpret the signals, or language, of the Minelab Explorer you will always know it. It will become a rich source of information that speaks to you. I often hunt with other detectorists and they always want to know about my machine. If anyone has ever said a bad word about my machine it was BEFORE the hunt. After the hunt they usually want to know how much it cost, and where I bought it. If you go in with a half-way attitude this is not the machine for you. If you want the best machine out there, and are willing to learn. Buy the Minelab.
Mar 19, 2009
8 Yes
2 No
Mike at a newengland beach
mike in new england -Let me begin by saying if your not gonna use this at the beach I would not buy it. I think a lot of you crybabys are using this detector on land trips while still usable and good depth this machine is clearly meant for SALTwater beach hunting. Let me tell you about my first summer out with this machine[about 3 months
and now 20 gold pieces latter 40 silver pieces of jewerly later and about 400.00 dollars in coins later I am mighty impressed not to be too modest about the 3 diamond rings worth in excess of 10,000$ and only twice did the detector go out on a drained battery pack WOW IS ALL I CAN SAY Things I liked were
1] battery pack having a car charger and being nimh so you can charge all you want and not kill it.
2]28 freq!!!YOU WONT MISS LOL
3]backlight
4]built like a tank!!!!!!!!!
things I disliked
1] a little heavy
2]headphone jack
see you rookies at the beach!!!!!!!!!!!
Oct 02, 2008
13 Yes
26 No
Close encounter`s but a long way out
Terrymet 2000 in N/e UK -
Although I've not had my Minlab Xs very long I've got to say (It dose my head in) I've done my very best to make head way with it but I'm no further forward with it now than the day I got it. My Sovereign Xs yielded more without the (Close Encounters backing track) Its going!!!!!
Sep 16, 2008
5 Yes
7 No
Deep But Misses A Lot
Michigan Hunter in Southern Michigan -
The Minelab Explorer XS is a very well made detector.
It is able to reach great depths on coins if they are not too masked by iron. Iron near a deep coin greatly changes the tone of the coin and it can sound like iron or be totally blanked out.
The display can be dead accurate on coins out away from masking trash. But in real world hunting the display is basically worthless unless you're hunting a site mostly free of iron.
What most Explorer users are doing is looking for solid signals at least one way. If the signal locks on, has a decent sound, and repeats well, they dig the target. It's about 30% skill and 70% luck.
Falsing is a tremendous problem with the Explorer at high trash sites due to it's sensitivity. To make it stable one must set it lower on GAIN and Sensitity but this makes it no deeper than most other top of the line brands.
The Explorer is a very slow machine and if you move a bit too fast it will miss loads of good targets. Hunting at a nail's pace is a must.
But it is true that the Explorer has the potential of great depth and under the right conditions it will find what most of the others will miss.
It is my opinion that this machine is way over rated and over priced (as in a new SE). The XS is an older out of production machine but all the Explorers up to the SE get the same depth.
I'm selling my XS because while it is a good machine there are much better machines out there for what it will sell for.
Sep 01, 2008
12 Yes
2 No
Explorer XS - A Good Secondhand Choice
Charles in London UK -I have used an Explorer XS for almost 4 years and have generally found it to be a good machine.
Firstly the bad points: It is heavy, it is hard to learn, the small headphone socket has to be converted to a large one with an adapter and these are always dreadful, pinpoint is poor, iron can sound like copper.
Now the good points: If tuned properly it can provide a lot of target information, it is capable of finding very small, and also large deep targets with just the one coil, build quality is good (I abuse mine disgracefully and generally it takes it), it can be tuned heavily if so desired.
I hunt UK farm sites only, using the XS with a standard Explorer II 10" coil (more on that in a minute) - some are very quiet, some are heavily mineralised. The XS is capable of hunting down very small Roman coins (right down to minims weighing just 0.2 grams), small hammered pennies and (so far), has found me 2 gold celtic quarter staters both of about 1.5 grams in weight. It seems to excel at winkling out small objects which give a characteristically low 'blap', though a slow swing speed is a must in such circumstances. It is chattery in iron soil, and I also find that with low discrimination 'blingy' iron can sound remarkably like a large copper coin. The coin gives a cleaner signal if 'scrubbed' but the similarity must result in lost targets (I don't scrub all targets all the time!)
By way of demonstration I recently detected a Roman site under moderate Winter wheat (March), found 15 Roman 'grots' then bumped into a bloke with a Minelab X Terra 70. He had not found a thing. I demonstrated the presence of the grots by finding 3 within a couple of yards of where we stood. He changed coils (7.5KHz which isn't ideal for grot shooting I do agree), detected until 11pm and got just one 'grot'. The XS would have picked up perhaps a dozen in that time. So the multi-frequency works. - I have found 30 + grots in a day on heavily mineralised Roman sites several times by slowly scrubbing the ground with the XS and listing for that low 'blap blap'.
Other informational 'nuggets': My original XS coil failed after 3 years. Too much abuse. The XS workings suffer in very heavy rain. If the circuits get slightly damp the screen fails but the detector keeps on working (!). I once got muddy water into it, took the case off, washed the board in distilled water, gave it a few days to dry out, then got right back on detecting with it. The default settings should never be used when hunting for grots or small hammered coins - just descrim out the top left hand corner of the screen. Only use Audio 3 mode in the quietest of conditions - it turns the coil into a dustbin lid and the noise will be deafening in trashy soil.
In all the XS is a powerful, very tuneable multi-frequency unit capable of winkling out the small coins found on UK farmland sites. It isn't perfect but at £300 - £400 is a very good secondhand buy indeed.
May 04, 2007
47 Yes
1 No
the best
chas in england -i have been detecing for over 25 years and had all the top detecors that have been made.i had the explorer xs when it fist came out and could not get on with it at all so i sold it and went to the whites xlt which is a great detector and later the dfx which is not as good as the xlt.i had the chance to buy a used explorer about nine months ago and thought i would give it another go.i got some programs of the net for uk ground conditions and went over some of my sites,mostly i search roman and medevile sites.the results were outstanding,i was finding roman ae3s and minims on sites where the finds had almost gone with the other detectors i had used there,and on medevile sites hammered coins are coming up again.when set up right the explorer xs is unbeatable and is the most sensitive detector out there.
Sep 03, 2006
14 Yes
1 No