They are close as depth is concerned if you are talking a XS or a XS 2 is concerned. The XS2a has a toggle switch for a single tone which I feel defeats the purpose of the Sovereign and it ability to coin hunt with its tones. It can be turned on or off and I know of no one that uses single tone myself. This was not put on the GT, but with the GT we now have a iron mask switch which will help some learn the Sovereign better as with it off iron will null more and you wont get those false signals off iron as much. The XS on up has the iron mask on all the time and where I use my GT all the time too with it on, this way i get those coins that are beside some iron easier. With the GT we now have auto tracking for the all metal mode or it can be locked too which only the original Sovereign had. I myself don't need this as I hunt in disc so I have the tone ID for coin hunting which you do not have in all metal. All metal on the GT is used more for prospecting I feel, so now the GT can be used for more types of detecting.
Another thing on the GT we now have a toggle switch that is not on other Sovereigns for silent search mode which to me i never thought I would use, but have seen where it has its purpose. Before the control box had to be opened and a jumper changed and then put back together on the other Sovereign. Now we can change to silent search and back to threshold with just a flick of the switch. The reason I don't like silent search is i can not hear those first slight tone change or waver in the threshold to let me know there is a deep target there, so I use it mostly. Now where I found I love this silent search is in some clean area like farm Fields where targets are far and few.As you know the Sovereign keeps the threshold the tone of the last target until it sees the next. It seems like the last target is mostly iron, so the threshold is that low tone (growl) of iron and this is where the silent search is great as you don't have to listen to it. Now when I start hitting targets i will switch back to the threshold tones so I can hear any slight changes and also the nulling to know if i am going to fast.
Another thing about the GT is the new straight shaft that make it easier to balance the detector as the hand grip is adjustable so it can be moved for the best balance and when you change coils.
Both the XS2 pro and the GT are great detector and will do well for you, I find the GT seems to be a little more sensitive and will lock on to some of the deeper targets better for me with the Sun Ray 180 meter as it has been rare I can not get a good 179-180 on a deep coins no matter how deep it has been. I also know I seem to get more false signals off of iron with the GT until I found that on some of these iffy one I just had to check the signal from several different angles.
Both are good and both will do well, but even if the XS2Pro was $200 less I would get the GT myself for the straight shaft and the silent search.
Rick
