Dan,
I still have and use the Explorer XS II also, but the Sovereigns are just something about them that are hard to put down once you know them. I have a new GT plus I just was out with a XS today that was my first Sovereign I sold to a guy when I got a XS2 Pro, he has got over 700 silver coins with it,but now wants me to sell it as he has a Explorer he is doing great with. Being I have been using the GT more and using my 8 inch coinsearch coil on it I felt it would be a good time to try this XS with the 8 inch coinsearch coil on it to see if I could see a difference in what I am used to with the GT.
I notice the XS seems to run smoother and not as many nulling as I get with the GT at the same sensitivity setting which to me means the GT is more sensitive. I also notice the XS didnt false as much as my GT which means also the GT is a bit more sensitive to iron and it will give a good signal on iron more, but I notice once you check it in pinpoint you will see the target will move or null once you find the center of the target. The area I tied this in is a school parking lot I used the GT at the other day with the Patriot meter on it. I notice I dug more smaller piece of alum cans with the GT than I did with the XS today, so I feel this too says the GT is more sensitive as both were using a 8 coinsearch coil.
I notice the GT is not as easy to use and understand as the XS is,but that is to be expected if it is more sensitive. I also have had to run my GT in auto more often at some sites or turn down the sensitivity to the 1 or 2 o'clock postion than I ever did with any of my Sovereigns.
When I got the GT I thought I would never use the silent search option as I like a threshold, but found this does work good in some area where targets are far and few. A example was a farm feild that was a old ballfeild I detected where there is iron and some coins left. Now there is more nails than coins or other good targets so the threshold would go into a null than that low growl untill the next target which may be a while. Now this low growl can get anoying, so I tried the silent search and I didnt have to listen to this all the time, so this was great as any target I went over I could hear, but not that tone after I went over the target.When I notice alot of differnt targets i would switch back to threshold to hear any small changes.
I never tried running the GT with the iron mask off as most of my areas I have more nails and want to hear the coins in with it, dont want to cover up the coins with the null of iron and maybe why iron will false more.
On the freq switch I find runing in freq 2 the numbers on my SunRay meter is more accruate on nickles to what I am used to with the other Sovereign. In freq 1 the nickles would read higher, so I run freq 2. I do notice freq 1 will quiet the detector down a bit and not so erradic in some areas I have been when I tried it. I dont know if it was electrical interference or iron nulling, but it did run better.
Now if you knew your Sovereign you had before you may have a little problem the first time using the GT,but after you see the couple of little quirks on iron and the digging smaller items I think you will have no problem.
My next thing I need to do is go hunting with one of my guys that know the Explorer well and do some signal comparing, maybe I will be surprised and maybe they will.
I feel The GT does have some more advanced technology than the other Sovereigns as Minelab has been working on the Sovereign series for over 15 years and I am sure they are not just repackaging the same detector in differnt housing, just trying to improve them.
Rick
