These things happen and sometimes for the good too as new models will come out. The Sovereign line of detectors I feel where ahead of their times back in the 90s and only those that wanted to learn how to use them could see what they will do. Minelab has made several different model of the Sovereign over the years and they were all good with a few a little better than others, but the GT to me was the best one they made, but any one will do the job better than most detectors out there. The same goes for the Explorers as many different models and all were very good in the right hands and many like them over the Sovereign while other like me like our Sovereigns as we know them well and see what they can and will do. One of my hunting buddies bought a new Explorer XS when they came out and got a Sovereign latter on, but hardly uses the Sovereign as he really knows his Explorer well and he been averaging 300-400 silver coins a year. He tried other Explorers and even a E-Trac, but the XS works the best for him only because he knows it well like many of us with the Sovereigns, so it is going to be sad to see the Sovereign go along with the Explorers. Most of those that have one of them and love them will probably keep them now until they don't work, but some will just take the next step and go to the next level in detectors and learn them and may see once they learn them they will probably do more than what they have been using.
It is hard to let go of something that works good and comfortable but it has to be done or I would still be using my Compass Relic Mag 7 auto detector which go me more silver in one year then any of the others I had used. Went to the Teknetic 8500B and hated it, that is until I learned it and see this detector was really ahead of its time. Myself I expect with the dropping of the Sovereigns and the Explorers some new and better detectors will show up from Minelab and with the Sovereign so popular and so many thing that can be done to them I expect in the future possibly a detector that will look like a CTX that is well balanced and rain proof with a built in meter that will bring the BBS to the next level, can only hope they do.
Myself I do like the E-Trac over the Explorers and I do have a CTX 3030 too which I am still learning when I have been able to get out to detect and one of the main concerns on the CTX 3030 is the price and understanding which setting to use where.
Bottom line is I really do hope with the dropping of 2 great detectors of Minelab they will work to create 2 even better ones like a CTX using BBS with wireless headphones and a wireless pin pointing probe as I feel it would be one of Minelab best sellers for us that like the Sovereigns and the BBS.
Both the Sovereign and the Explorers will go down as one of the best detectors ever made and were ahead of their time, if there was a Hall of Fame for detectors both of these would be in there and feel with these 2 detectors the Sovereign and the Explorer has made Minelab what they are to day.
Rick
