I've had my CTX3030 for only a little over a month. Up to that point I have only held a Minelab and I went from a good detector (AT Pro, Tesoro) to a serious MD overnight practically, so I don't have Etrac experience to compare it to.
I would say that the first three hunts I kind of hated the detector because I was overwhelmed. After about 9 hours into it, I started to get much better at pinpointing and getting used to the sounds. I love the CTX because the numbers are very accurate and I can fairly accurately judge my targets based upon the readings on whether it is a penny, silver or aluminium. I have also noticed that I will still find good targets right next to or below nails and junk. I also have a AT Pro and the CTX runs much quieter in my opinion. Where I used to cover an entire yard in a few minutes with the AT Pro, I can work for hours in a small area and pull a lot more coins. No doubt my finds have increased. I agree that the CTX is expensive, but you get so much more detector in the process. I am still learning my CTX and I experiment with the settings, which has also caused me to find more coins/targets in areas where I had detected many times over. I may not be "sold" on Minelab, but I definitely respect it a lot more.