All the Sovereigns are said to be super deep, but some say the Elite and then still yet the GT are a bit deeper, but even if you can just buy an older model at a cheaper price you'll be going beyond where no man has gone before for the most part. Far as recovery speed. All the same- slow, and that's true of the FBS Minelabs too.
I used to be a fast recovery speed guy and not too long ago you couldn't tell me that a slow machine will separate (thus unmask) as well as a fast machine, but now I've changed my tune on that. I believe now it all comes down to how sharp the coil's DD line is. The stock 10" Tornado is an excellent coil and will separate left/right wise a coin right up against a piece of junk, but the 12x10 is even sharper so it makes it even more "effortless".
Far as recovery speed, a machine can't see what a coil can't see separately. So long as you are using a sharp coil and keep your sweep speed slow, you'll unmask stuff long since missed by other machines, fast or not IMO.
And, the added perk is that I believe a slow machine will "suck up" and "soak up" a deep target better from my experience owning many machines over the years. Gives you more time to hover over and take a good deep look at a deep one, where as a faster machine will keep trying to reset and cut the target short. You'll bang hard on the deep ones when the machine isn't trying to cut the music short, so to speak.
And, the audio on the Sovereign is so long and robust that it really makes you take notice of the deep stuff, or stuff being masked in junk. That dragged out high tone hit will stick it's thumb in your eye (or should I say ear) and make you pay attention.
Far as hunt by tone, this is the machine for that. It's audio is long and detailed like the best of the old analog machines, but yet with the numerous tone alerts of a Minelab. Best of both worlds, and not only unique among Minelab machines, but also unqiue among other machines out there. Some have the longer drawn out audio of the Sovereign, but not the numerous tones of a Minelab. It's like a Minelab had a baby with another detector among the best of the analog past with long drawn out detailed audio.
It's audio isn't overly processed and sanitized. Many hunt with the Sovereign without a meter and prefer ear alone. That said, I still like a meter, for splitting hairs on stuff my ears aren't good enough to tell me that are too close in conductivity. The Sovereign's 180 meter is super high in resolution from foil to copper pennies. Read in the ID Meter sticky for more on that, or the recent thread about pennies in this forum where I re-hash some of what makes the ID meter on the Sovereign special. And for a slow machine, it's ID is very "instant" because it's only sending out a voltage scale to the meter and not sending it through layers of software processing. What you hear you instantly see.
Far as being use to swinging fast, so was I. Used a lot of machines over the years and my biggest favorites were the Whites for a long time. But once you get used to swinging slow you start to really like it. I now feel I can "sniff around" at pounded out sites better by not having to swing the coil like I'm killing snakes. Think of it as trying to paint a door really fast versus taking your time with the brush. Which one is probably not going to miss any spots?
Far as coils, since you said you are a fan of 7 to 9" ones, then you'd probably love the Tornado 8" coil, which is only 7 & 1/4" in actual size. Many prefer it as their everyday coil. It'll separate excellent in trashy areas, yet some say they have punched coins about a foot deep with it or so. Blows my mind, because the best of my non-Minelabs could bearly muster about 7.5" on a dime in my soil using an 8 or 10" coil. Many also prefer the 10" Tornado. I prefer the 12x10, as it's a bit of a step up in all respects (separation, stability, depth, etc). The SEFs are in particular known for handling rough ground or heavy iron among BBS and FBS users, so since you asked about that you might think of that one. You won't "feel" like you are using a coil that big. The separation of this thing left/right wise feels better than any smaller coil I've ever owned on any machine.
Far as iron goes, you are going to have to get used to it all nulling out on you. No way to hear it unless you flip to pin point or all metal. That was the hardest for me to get used to, because I always prefered to hunt with iron accepted and map out a site in my head by what I hear the iron doing. But, I'm finding I'm digging more coins masked by iron with my GT than any prior machine. Iron Mask on the Sovereign IMO is doing it's hardest to ignore the ferrour part of a mixed signal, but at the same time it's hardest to sound off to any non-ferrous signal mixed in with it.
So when both a nail and a coin are at the same depth, and so close to each other that it's possible both are being washed in the field at the same time, that is when Iron Mask on the Sovereign does it's magic, because it IS possible to identify ferrous and non-ferrous qualities to a mixed signal. A detection field can't see past the first shallower metal object and see something deeper, but when they are so close and at the same depth that they are probably overlapping, that's when they are "one" and the field can tell you that there are ferrous/non-ferrous qualities to that signal that it sees as a single entity.
One only has to look at the ferrous/non-ferrous 2D displays of the FBS units to know a field can tell you that about a mixed "one" signal, but rather than trying to quantify and put a # on the ferrous aspect, I think BBS is just ignoring it and trying to speak out about the non-ferrous qualities. That's my theory anyway, right or wrong, because all I can say is it will shock you when you dig a coin with a bunch of iron in the hole with it.
Now for the bad news...This machine was unlike any other I've owned, and that includes my FBS units. It's a different beast in many ways, but then again that's why this beast probably makes some kills that other machines hadn't at my sites. It works in it's own unique way. The long drawn out audio was the hardest to get used to. Coin sized targets sounded like pop cans to me in size. Screw caps gave me fits until I learned how they made a warble from one direction. What I'm saying is don't expect to just walk into this machine and rely on your other machines to show you how to use it. It takes time and patience, and many don't seem to stick it out to learn it's rich language.
Not saying it's a hard machine to learn more than others, just that it's very different than others. If you do stick it out and get over the learning curve you'll go from hating this machine to loving it like no other. It's like the first time you tasted beer. I bet you hated that taste, but once you aquired a taste for it over time nothing else will replace a cold one when your thirsty on a hot summer day, or in the case of the Sovereign wanting to detect a "dead" pounded out site on that hot summer day. You'll grab your Sovereign and be glad you aquired a taste for it...
PS- On your remark about bad ground. Welcome to my world. Well, I don't have the most mineralized soil at every site, but then again I don't exactly have good neutral soil at every site either. It spans the spectrum for me, but I can say that the Sovereign has gotten deeper in my soil for me than I've ever seen, and that's even using the stock 10" Tornado. BBS is smooth like butter in the worst of grounds. PM a guy named Jack Flynn (Flyn?, Flynne?) and see what he has to say about how well BBS is doing in his rough soil for him. For me, I'm just shocked that even my little S-5 5.5" Sun Ray coil is punching deeper than my non-Minelabs using 8 or 10" coils. That one just made my jaw drop. I dug a silver dime at around 7" that hit so hard I bet it could have been 9" or maybe even more and I would have had no problem getting it. This was at a site that until my Minelabs my other units using 8 or 10" coils couldn't muster but about 7.5" on a silver dime (and that was only about two of the best of the machines I owned over the years).
