Recovery speed is a NON-ISSUE IMO in terms of unmasking so long as you use proper sweep speed. I used to be of the opinion that recovery speed what of prime importance to unmasking having owned many machines of great speed over the years, but I'll tell you that it's not how fast a machine is, but rather how sharp the DD detection line is in my recent years experiences. The stock 10" Tornado will separate left/right wise better than any stock coil I've ever owned on a machine, and that includes fast machines. A machine can't separate what the coil can't see separately. The laws of physics that govern detection fields are that the first (meaning most shallow) metal object in ANY part of the field is what the machine is only able to see. No amount of "fast" can change that. So, so long as you aren't sweeping the coil like you are killing snakes, recovery speed is a non-issue. Scroll down the page and you'll see a video I just posted where I compare 4 coils on coins masked by nails in various ways. You tell me how you can possibly separate those coins from those nails any better than a good quality coil did, no matter how fast the machine is.
And besides all that, I can tell you that the Iron Mask ON feature of the Sovereign has seemingly unique abilities to pull non-ferrous (like coins) signals out of ferrous ones (iron) like no other I've used. When two targets are at the same depth and overlapping, that is when it is possible for say a coin and a nail to be washed in the detection field at the same time. That is where the Sovereign shines, because it will try it's hardest to pull any non-iron (non-ferrous) signals out of that mixed signal. Detection fields can tell you the ferrous/non-ferrous traits of a mixed signal, and far as I know only Minelab can gleam that info from the field's mixed signals (read their spec sheets on their website). But if the trash (say a nail) is shallower than the coin (for example), then the detection field only sees the nail if it's the first thing the field hits, even if it's way off to the side of the coil while the deeper coin is right in the center of the coil. That's where a sharp DD line matters, and that is where the stock coil (or even more so the 12x10) will shine, where no amount of "fast" will do any better.
If you are one who has to sweep fast, then for sure you need a fast machine, but I find I prefer sweeping slow at "dead" sites. Not only that, but I've found a slow machine seems to get a better look at deep targets and hit harder. So don't be concerned with the Sovereign's recovery speed unless you are one who has to sweep fast. If you are, then any Minelab is not the machine for you...
