Too Much info Can Confused Us

[Buried Crap NJ]

Let me start with I am confused. I have 38 yrs detecting and 2 of those years with Minelabs. I own a Excalibur II and GT. I understand detecting well. I have had the Excal 2 years I Hunt a lot with Excal in almetal. I have the GT just about 6 months and Have hunted it in discriminate both dirt and beach. ( about 120 hrs) I have great numerous finds! I read everything posted (which may be the confusing issue) I have a 180 meter and it has helped the learning curve tremendously for me.
Now GT only I have always questioned the tones claimed. I have always complained of scratchy sounds.I have purchased three different headsets black widow, gray ghost original, Sunray. To alleviate this issue. I have 5 other brands of headsets, none have help me with what I call scratchy tones. Yes I can tell a good tone from foil trash (I thing) I dug 200 coins and 2 gold rings in one day!
Today I entered into the All metal area of the GT this involved ground balancing, ya right there was no change in any tone/sound from turn on to the pump to the ground never any sound changed? (I hate any detector that needs to be balanced!) I took it to the yard and really nothing just constant dragged out ,rough weak scratchy tone when passed over something? I knew there was a 180 tone so I found it in disc. and tried it in all metal barely a noise? I checked a area for no tones and placed coins and trash items apart everyone sounded the same dragged out rough, weak scratchy tone did I say weak?? None I would have dug? They all sound like the blip you get from a tiny piece of metal.The meter reads 503 all the time. Which makes me ask does the meter work in all metal? There are 20 target in my yard I would dig in disc. I passed the coil over a coke can on the ground and it sound like a 1950's wifi movie with bad sounding ray guns?
I went to bench testing in a garage with fluorescent lighting and all kinds of electrical noise! I tried several coins and the meter read 124 at all times (could be the lights) coins make a noise at 2 inches that's it . I know about BBS and air test! In all metal PP there is a nice sharp narrow blip that would be useful to pinpoint with (as it should be) bench tested.
I have felt since I received the detector there was a problem with it. I always do! (nothing to compare it too!)
I welcome your comments and I am going to get with a few fellow hunters soon to determine if its me or they feel I have an machine issue. Thanks steve

 

[Neil]

Steve

1. the sovs meter doesnt work in all metal mode, its for disc mode only.

2. pinpoint mode adjusts to the ground as does the disc mode. Any time you are at the beach you can test this out. I say that because you know going from dry sand to wet sand will make most detectors go crazy and they have to be balanced out to the wet sand, and you will see that both in disc mode and all metal pinpoint the sov flows smoothly from one to the other. So there is some sort of process going on. Minelab calls it digital filtering, others call it something else, the name really doesnt matter, it does what it does and it does it well right?
you say you hunt your excal alot in all metal so you know its labeled pinpoint on the excal. Its the same mode as the pinpoint on the GT and if you hunt it you will see that. Same reactions to targets, same same same.
minelab seems to have confused alot of people adding their "world famous" lol, ground tracking all metal mode to the GT. So you see, the GT has two functional all metal modes. Minelab will verify this if you call them but you should be able to see it yourself from usage. Personally Im not to fond of the all metal tracking/fixed mode but thats me and others may prefer it.

3. Im off one day this weekend, not sure which until Friday when Im told, and if you want to compare GT sounds (yours versus mine) I will gladly meet you and we can use the same headphones so there is no doubt. This GT I have is like the 3rd one and they have all been the same, so if yours sounds the same or doesnt, either way you will have your answer.
I can also bring along my Sov Elite which has the same tones to it as well.

one note on the pinpoint mode, you can effectively run the sens much higher and not be penalized with poor performance, as happens in the disc mode.

hope this helps and yes I have to agree, sometimes theres just to much info posted, to much talk and testing, and time spent reading here could be time actually learning to use the sov, in the field, where it counts.
Neil

 

[Rick(ND)]

This is where it is nice to have someone close that knows their Sovereign well and I feel you are the man to do this if you can get together.
Also as you say there is way too much air testing and test one right after another with different conclusions, but very little actual hunting for actual in the ground test of actual targets. Like I always say you will learn more from actual use of it than any test you can do and you will learn something new each time out, so make it simple to begin with to learn it then learn as you go. One other thing I tell many is not to take the Sovereign to the toughest area to detect until you know it, but take it to a place where there is a lot of new coins and trash to help learn it. Don't be in a hurry to dig the deepest target until you know what to listen for as it will all come to you with Experience with the detector.
I just wish I was rich so I could travel all over and help those that are having a problem with the Sovereigns as I would love to help those I can, but I know there are many like Neil that knows their Sovereigns well too that can and will help those I am not able to.

One thing I would love to see on this forum is more actual finds and more questions from those learning the Sovereigns and their progress with it and less air testing and buried coin in your test gardens as in the real world it is those we find in actual hunts is where it counts, never found a good coin floating in the air, mine have been actual deep targets deep in the ground, so this is where I want to do my test.

Sorry I get carried away, but there is too much info that is meaningless to confuse those that are trying to learn their Sovereigns.



Good luck Neil and thanks for offering to help those that are having a problem, your next finds will be better because of it.

Rick

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

Neil, Thanks I had forgot you offered this a couple of months ago. I'll take you up on it. Let me know when we can meeet up or If your working nights I can stop by. I am off today I am heading to the beach now for 3:30 low tide. Steve

 

[Tony in FL]

Interesting. . . I have not used a GT but I guess I was under the impression that it operated and sounded very much like an Excalibur. Of course I expected the tones to be slightly different, perhaps shifted a bit lower or higher, but generally with the same response characteristics. Are you saying this is not the case?

 

[dbsmokey]

Interesting. . . I have not used a GT but I guess I was under the impression that it operated and sounded very much like an Excalibur. Of course I expected the tones to be slightly different, perhaps shifted a bit lower or higher, but generally with the same response characteristics. Are you saying this is not the case?

I have both a Sovereign GT and an Excal 800 (yellow headphones). I find the tones of the two to be VERY similar. The GT has a bit more robust and stereo sound to it, but similar items will sound VERY similar between the two machines.

 

[kered]

I have both too, very little difference between them in disc or all metal pinpoint(not the tracking all metal) I also have the XS2aPro. If you took off the notch, dual band, silent threshold, and iron mask on/off they are almost the same machine, the fixed headphones on the Excal will probably be why there is a slight difference or maybe the tone pot on the GT has been moved

 

[Tony in FL]

Thanks dbsmonkey and kered. I really like my Excal and sooner or later I may get a GT to give me the option of swapping headphones / coils and using a meter, particularly if the experience I have on the Excal is more or less directly applicable to the Sov GT. Although I just added a Dual Field to my arsenal last week, so that may keep me busy for a while.

 

[Neil]

Hey Tony they should all be very similiar like the guys are telling you(Sovs and Excals). Headphones can vary the pitch a bit and also it seems like coils have a little to do also as some give a broader response which might enhance the tones to some ears.
Id like to hear how you do with your dual field, please post it up once youve got a few hunts in. Ive got one, and I like the audio, but I havent seen super depth with it and also I dont care for the coil on it, kinda wiggles on the end of the rod because of its size and where the lower rod is mounted to it. Ive read a stabilizer helps, I might make one of those for mine.