Menu
What's new
Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!

Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

Minelab Sovereign Evolution

C

Cal_Cobra

Active member
I'm looking at adding a Minelab Sovereign to my arsenal so I could wet salt beach hunt and wanted to make a list of the chronological changes as the Sovereign evolved so I'd know what machines included which features when shopping for a second hand Sovereign. Below is a list I compiled from field tests, and I wanted to see if anyone had any other changes to include I may have missed.


Minelab Sovereign Evolution:

Minelab Sovereign:
Released ~ 1990
17 freq BBS
MSRP $729 w/2-year warranty

Minelab Sovereign SOVEREIGN XS-2 PRO:
Released ~ 1998
Added numeric readout ID meter
Slightly better depth, but mostly deeper and weaker signals are now much more pronounced and repeatable than with the original Sovereign.
MSRP $850 w/2-year warranty

Minelab Sovereign SOVEREIGN XS-2a Pro:
Released ~ 2000
Tone ID Selector Switch (toggles from monotone to variable tones)
Digital meter is the same one that came with the XS-2 Pro
No longer includes as standard (but are optional) the hipmount bag, rechargeable battery pack and the charger.
MSRP $760 w/2-year warranty

Minelab Sovereign Elite:
Released ~ 2003
The control housing has been redesigned and easily snaps onto either of the two new mounting clips on the shaft. The housing can be mounted in any of three positions
 
After the original Sovereign and around 1993 or so (not sure of the year) they made the Sovereign XS which some will say is one of the best Sovereign made. I feel it is the detector that got Minelab where they are now in the hobby market.




Sovereign XS The XS was the next Sovereign. The big difference between this XS & the original is the lack of the iron mask switch. It is always in iron mask mode. It also uses the plug in battery & came with the same 8" Coinsearch coil as the original. At some point during the XS production a RF shield was added to help keep the unit from picking up unwanted interference.
 
Thank you for the post Rick, I've updated the list with the XS info:

Minelab Sovereign Evolution:

Minelab Sovereign:
Released ~ 1990
17 freq BBS
MSRP $729 w/2-year warranty

Minelab Sovereign XS:
Released ?
Removed the iron mask switch.
Plug in battery pack
Came with 8" Coinsearch searchcoil stock

Minelab Sovereign XS-2 Pro:
Released ~ 1998
Added numeric readout ID meter to "Pro" Version
Slightly better depth, but mostly deeper and weaker signals are now much more pronounced and repeatable than with the original Sovereign.
MSRP $850 w/2-year warranty

Minelab Sovereign XS-2a Pro:
Released ~ 2000
Tone ID Selector Switch (toggles from monotone to variable tones)
Digital meter is the same one that came with the XS-2 Pro
No longer includes as standard (but are optional) the hipmount bag, rechargeable battery pack and the charger.
MSRP $760 w/2-year warranty

Minelab Sovereign Elite:
Released ~ 2003
The control housing has been redesigned and easily snaps onto either of the two new mounting clips on the shaft. The housing can be mounted in any of three positions
 
Although I've owned all models, the original reigned King until the GT arrived. Why? Features. They took the best of the original Sov and added the best of the new. In early 1992, after experimenting with many options, I began modifying my own Sovereign. We have since added our mods to hundred's of Sovereigns around the world since late 1992. I still receive Sovereign's that were "supposedly" modified by my company. Many times I have never touched them. Our process remains a well guarded company secret, and many of you have attested to how much better your Sovereign performed after receiving our mods. I consider the Sovereign to be a "one man Army" when it comes to versatility, performance and ability. Their are few rivals in the metal detector industry that can accomplish what a GT can do: Beach (salt and fresh water), black sand, gold prospect, relic, coin, jewelry, cache and industrial applications. I still think it suffers from the lack of balance and is over weight, but maybe one day we'll see a new Sov in an XTerra package :) The Sov still holds my personal record for depth of detection, and it's ability in dense iron (ferrous) trash is legendary.
Good hunting,
David@Dixie Metal Detectors
 
That's interesting that you mention "it's ability in dense iron (ferrous) trash is legendary." There was just a discussion here about that very subject and it appeared to be the contrary.

Any tricks or tips you can share for successful iron hunting with the Sovereign ?

BTW - My Sov was modified by you (modified the tones, and reportedly increased depth)
 
A question please ---
David, can you give us an idea as to what the modifications cost, and are they also available for the GT?

GRB
 
The best site that I have found dedicated to the Sovereign is the one below. It has page after page of information including history and all you need to know about mods. I bought an elite in March. I highly recommend checking it out.

http://www.geocities.com/sovereignmods/index.html

geo

cities

Replace the garbage in the beginning of the link, after the three "w" with the two words above linked as one word as the domain name and you will get there. Why won't this site allow us to put in links without changing them so that they are unreadable? No wonder why I don't use this site much.

Ken
 
The "noise cancel interference switch" you mentioned was fist on the Elite and it carried over to the GT. But it's not a "niose cancel" switch persay...although it could be viewed that way.

The Quattro and the Explorer's feature a "Noise Cancel" function. When invoked, they run through a routine where the machine looks for transmissions from any sources other than the detector. If any are found operating on one of the 28 frequencies they operate on, the detector circuitry adjusts that frequency slightly, thereby eliminating the interference.

The Sovereigns don't do that. The Elite and the GT have a "Band Selector Switch" marked Band 1 and Band 2. In band 1 the 17 frequencies are the same as what a previous model Sovereign would have been. In band 2, all 17 frequencies are adjusted slightly. This is a great feature if two Sovereign users are hunting together because it allows them to operate in close proximity with no interference. Likewise if an Excalibur hunter and an Elite/GT hunter are together, switching to Band 2 will be required. And if anohter brand of detector is on the same frequency of one of the Sovereign's 17 and causing problems, switching to the other band will usually solve it.
 
You have it backwards Mike.
Band 2 is the standard Sov band. Band 1 is shifted.
Switching between bands seldom helps with interference except from other Sovs. Band 1 causes a noticeable shift in target ID on mid range targets as well from what the standard readings are.

HH
 
You know, I was thinking as I posted it that I might have had it backwards, but couldn't remember for sure. I knew if I did that one of you Sovereign experts would catch it and set me straight! :thumbup:
 
Well, I been having a bad week and needed to take it out on somebody.

I have the 2a and GT and they tear each other up bad when running on the same band. Pretty easy to tell which band is which when doing that comparison.

Score anything on the beach lately??

HH
 
Actually, the detecting scene here is bleak this time of year on the beach. I typically spend my time between the end of Ocoiber and the end of May in farm fields and old home sites. And I've done pretty well there this Fall/Winter with a number of nice coin and relic finds. But I'm VERY ready to be hitting the low tides at the beach in a BIG way real soon here. Usually the last weekend in May...around Memorial Day Weekend...is when I find my first gold. From then on, it's usually a "sure thing" until at least the end of September or October.

The last really GREAT thing I pulled from the beach was a rather late-season diamond ring that my wife wears proudly on her right ring-finger. Here's the post...

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?26,607430,607430#msg-607430
 
Very nice one Mike.
Does your wife wear just 1 ring , or does she do the "Ringo Starr" thing with a whole bunch of them??

HH
 
She has a few that she wears from time to time but she always wears the two best ones I ever found, on on the left ring finger and one on the right.

This was from the summer before last...she wears it on the left ring finger.
[attachment 87953 BadassRing.jpg]

This was from last summer...right ring finger.
[attachment 87954 Noel3.jpg]

This was from 3 summers ago...she wears that on special occasions.
[attachment 87955 22ring.jpg]

There are others, but those are the best ones.
 
Very nice Mike !!

You get to pay for your detector and make the wife happy both at the same time. We should all be so lucky!!

HH
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top