In my 34 years of detecting the Sovereign is one of the best I have ever used, but it is not for everyone. With the Sovereign you have to go slower and listen to the tone ID of the target and if you have a meter it will help with the close tones to tell one from another. This detector is made to go slow and easy with and when you get one of the tones to just go over that area only to see if it is good or bad by keeping the tones as solid as possible.
There is a Sovereign forum too on this site where it is best you ask questions as we are very helpful. Just click on the Forum index and it will take you to the index and look for the BBS forum.
Quick set up tips is to run the disc mode with no or very little disc, notch turned all the way counter clockwise so it is off, set the toggle for multi tones on the XS2a, the sensitivity all the way counter clockwise until it click so it is in auto so the threshold will be stable until you learn the tones better. Set the threshold to a slight hum and swing the coil real slow listening to the tones. You will hear the threshold coming and going and a lot of nulling too, but you want the repeatable tones you can try to keep steady while swinging the coil back and forth across the target. Swing the coil over some test coins to see that the copper penny, silver coins and clad all sound the same and read the same on the meter, but the new zinc pennies made after 1982 and the IH pennies may sound the same, but will read a little lower on the meter. Nickles will have a tone that is lower sounding and smother compared to the pull tabs.
Once you get to know this detector you will do great, but it take patience and practice and a little time with it.
Rick
