The Sovereign has the best audio for gold (suttle telling traits) and an expanded VDI in the lower (gold) portion of the scale that's just about as perfect in balance as it gets for ring hunting while avoiding common junk numbers. Those two facts along with it's ability to hit hard on gold (and coins) deeper than pretty much any other machine on the market are what make it king of the hill for both hunting old coins or gold rings. The MXT/M6 have a good gold ring reputation due to their VDI but they have slightly LESS resolution in that area of the scale than the Sovereign. I found the Explorer's VDI to have too much resolution and thus trying to develop a pattern of tabs versus gold was pretty much impossible. Then there are most other machines on the market which don't have enough resolution to be able to split hairs on rings versus tabs easily. The Sovereign has the best VDI for this IMHO (not too high and not too low), and it has audio that is capable enough to show a difference in how a gold ring sounds compared to a pull tab with even the exact same VDI #. Practice that, learn it, and take advantage of the awesome audio/VDI this machine is offering you to improve your ring to trash ratio.
One of the oldest "slogans" or "rules of thumb" in the world of detecting is that if you want gold rings then dig the nickel zone. I always was suspicious of that and proved it to be wrong with the Splitting Hairs On Ring VDI #'s thread by doing the research and compiling the numbers. Same deal with people saying most of the gold rings fall in the tab range. Not true either. The truth is they are spread just about evenly over a wide range of the scale from about 75 or so up to about the penny range. That's where the majority fall, and not really more heavy in one area of numbers than any other. So why this old myth about dig the nickel zone or dig the tab zone? I feel that's mainly due to most machines not having the expanded resolution in this area of the scale in order to tell the difference. In other words, a large portion of their scale is "FOIL" and so a bunch of rings fall there. Another large portion of their meter scale is "Nickle" and so they saw a lot of rings fall there. Still yet another big chunk of many machine's scales are "Tabs" and so of course many rings fall there. They aren't advanced enough to split all these target's into separate VDI numbers to really show a difference between them. But guess what? The Sovereign IS, and even if you don't like relying on VDI #s then you've also got the best audio IMHO to tell the good from the bad. Dig the round/warm/smooth/soft targets (and they'll normally have a stable VDI # that doesn't jump around). Those will be the gold rings, old buttons, and other good finds. If you do any kind of practice with junk foil, tabs, and gold rings and other good finds (like buttons) you'll quickly see the difference. Even the same VDI number in a tab won't sound as good as the gold ring that matches that number.
To ward off the "dig it all" crowd let me once again repeat my disclaimer- I'm not saying that you shouldn't dig it all on the beach or in an area that isn't large and loaded with tabs. You'd be wise to dig all signals in those situations when being able to dig them all is a realistic goal. All I'm saying is why fool yourself in a large park with thousands of tabs when you know darn well you'll never dig each and every tab out of there in 20 years. In that case, just like in Vegas, I say play the odds. Beat the other guys to most of the gold rings by avoiding the tabs.
On the other hand, sometimes there is another effective strategy in a large place like this. Locate a likely activity spot such as an open area where they might play Frisbee in that park. Pick a 60 foot square area or something right in the middle of it and dig any and all signals above iron. Not only might you recover a gold ring or two, but you might also get a few old coins that were masked by the trash above them.
Beyond all that, my other favorite way to avoid tabs and still get the gold rings is to "travel back in time". Meaning, figure out how deep the tabs go at that site (which will be round tabs if the site is old enough) and then dig each and every "tab" signal that sounds deeper than that. If they only go down say 7" then dig any tab signals that sound deeper. Not only do you improve your odds and avoid most tabs by doing that, but you might also come up with the odd coin or other good item that read that low due to masking, minerals, or orientation in the ground. You can even refine this method. Let's say only 10% of the round tabs are 7" deep. That number is low enough for me to dig any "round tab" signal at that depth because it's not like I'll be bending down and digging billions of those every five feet. Again, use your head, your eyes, and your ears in order to tilt the odds in your favor. At least to me it makes absolutely no sense at all to blindly dig each and every signal without any thought or criteria to improve your odds in the process....Unless like I said you plan to neglect your wife, work, and kids and make digging all those tabs your only goal in life.
(Disclaimer- Half the people reading this won't find it to be useful at all and the other half will think it's a dumb theory. I really don't care either way so next time hit the scroll bar much earlier and save yourself the trouble.
) Seriously, dig up that old thread on Splitting Hairs on Ring VDI numbers. Really look at those numbers and think about the possibilities. I'm not just throwing this out there for the sake of making conversation..........for once.
......Jim