want to buy sovereign but what?

[stasys]

hello all sovereign users. i am explorer person and reached with explorer limits, now think maybe I need to try sovereign? ,but what sovereign? I use my explorer without discrimination so I would use sovereign too. with what sovereign possible to detect without discrimination, separate iron from targets by sound? need cheapest and just control panel with coil or not. what I should look for? thanks Stasys

 

[Marc(NB)]

if you reached the limit with your explorer,your wasting your money on a sov.The sov is no slouch and the exp. is a very good machine,a lot deeper than the sov.

 

[goodmore]

I am not sure about the above post saying the explorer is a lot deeper. But maybe some. Anyways The best part of the Sovereign for me is the rejection of the iron. Plus every Sovereign I have owned is deeper in the discrimination mode. Hunting in discrimination mode with the dial turned all the way down is a wonderful way to hunt. Hunting in all metal defeats the purpose of the Sovereign in my opinion. But in any case your question is which model? Some of the early models do not have tone ID. That is one important feature for me. I also like the newer tornado coils. That is two features I would look for.

 

[Neil]

stasys if you use the sov with no disc then your giving up the tones. the tones on the sov are only in the disc mode. there is a slight variation in pitch in all metal mode but it is very slight.

your not gaining any advantage over the explorer by going with a sov. if you still end up getting one, the XS model is the simplest, has the least amount of toggles that is, but actually all the sovs are fairly simple to operate. and in case you werent sure, the sov and explorer coils are not interchangeable so you would have to get both control box and coil at minimum.

 

[Neil]

I am not sure about the above post saying the explorer is a lot deeper. But maybe some. Anyways The best part of the Sovereign for me is the rejection of the iron. Plus every Sovereign I have owned is deeper in the discrimination mode. Hunting in discrimination mode with the dial turned all the way down is a wonderful way to hunt. Hunting in all metal defeats the purpose of the Sovereign in my opinion. But in any case your question is which model? Some of the early models do not have tone ID. That is one important feature for me. I also like the newer tornado coils. That is two features I would look for.

goodmore, all the sovs have tone ID in disc mode. two models(maybe three) had a toggle to switch from variable to fixed tone, but they still all have the variable tone feature. unless youve seen/had one Ive not seen yet

one of the purposes of the sov or any of minelabs multi freq detectors, is the ground cancelling ability, and that is in use in the all metal mode. whether its deeper than the disc mode seems to be an area issue as some say it disc is deeper, some say all metal. we can only comment on what we ourselves experience after time in the field.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

The Sovereign hates iron,and will always reject this metal in the lowest setting in discriminate mode.All metal won't give any tone or meter ID.If you want to try one out find a deal on an earlier model,IMHO stay away from the Original for coin hunting it has an appetite for hot rocks.Try to find one with a meter or pick one up as an option.The best detector to ID in all metal is the Teknetics T2.The Sovereign will be a lot different than the Explorer,plus and minus points for both of these Minelabs. I like the Sovereign better, more honest with targets and ergonomics better with a straight shaft.Even with the S rod the weight can be improved by hip mounting or binocular harness.

 

[dbsmokey]

The Sovereign does not deal with EMI as well as the Explorer. Also, if you have buddies who use an explorer, you cannot hunt within 150 feet of those buddies because it will cause so much interference with your Sovereign hunting will be impossible.

 

[Neil]

The Sovereign does not deal with EMI as well as the Explorer. Also, if you have buddies who use an explorer, you cannot hunt within 150 feet of those buddies because it will cause so much interference with your Sovereign hunting will be impossible.

that noise cancel on the explorer/etrac is a great feature

 

[dbsmokey]

The Sovereign does not deal with EMI as well as the Explorer. Also, if you have buddies who use an explorer, you cannot hunt within 150 feet of those buddies because it will cause so much interference with your Sovereign hunting will be impossible.

that noise cancel on the explorer/etrac is a great feature

Agreed. Noise cancel is the one feature that makes me wish I had bought an etrac instead. Maybe someday....

 

[Rick(ND)]

All the Sovereigns are great, but some I do like better than others. For the money you can find a used XS or XS2 and are 2 of my favorites as these are some very good detectors. Didn't care for the original as much as the others, the XS2a and Elite are great too, but for me the XS, XS2 and the new GT are my favorites of the Sovereigns. On another classified on a different site I seen a XS that really looks nice for $315 and if I had the extra money i would have bought it already.
Some like me love the Sovereigns over the Explorers as we like the tones better and it keeps the tones longer so is is easier to hear for many of us. I find the Sovereigns will ID better and if using a meter will show in digital number what the coil is seeing at that time unlike the Explorers that will show the ID after the threshold comes back. A experience Explorer user will have a slight advantage over a experience Sovereign user on some coins while I feel a experience Sovereign user will dig less trash and more good targets. The Sovereigns are more of a turn on and go detector and they do hate iron and do love nickles and gold.
The Sovereign is a bit different so you may love it or hate it over the Explorer, but if you get a Sovereign have the patience and don't give up and learn it well and you will see why many will not give up their Sovereigns

 

[stasys]

Thanks all for answers, Rick I did contacted owner of xs for 315$ but I am from Europe Lithuania and I am last for diner hear . What I dont like on my explorer that sensitivity changing is to slow, I have to push buttons and wait few seconds to see what I did, with close eyes I cant be sure what sensitivity is on. what I see on sovereign I can quickly change it up and down I think its should be advantage, but I I never used sovereign so cant be sure if I think right about sovereigns. about sound I have to listen what sounds have sovereign, but explorer I use usually in normal in special places audio 1, maybe I will go this spring for audio 2 or 3 but its leaving some bubble to the end. about coils I know that for explorer and sover. they are different, but why not to try change cable on sover. coil? maybe this will help for EMI? I have 8sover. coil and saw it has thin 5? wires, maybe its possible to use two coax or three? like explorer use? explore I use with extension cable so now its similar to sovereign. Thanks Stasys

 

[Critterhunter]

I've had three Explorers and in *my soil* the GT is deeper then my Explorers were. I've dug nice coins out of sites with my Sovereign that I had gridded the tar out of with the Explorer, and I'm talking using the Explorer just about every which way you can think (going by sound only, manual, auto, deep on, etc). Some of these coins I'm just shocked I missed with the Explorer. They never got the depth in my soil that others claimed. About 8 to 9" on a silver dime if conditions were perfect. I pop coins that deep and deeper on my GT on a regular basis, and I'm talking even with the stock 10" coil and not just the 12x10. The 10" Tornado on the GT is MUCH better IMO than any of the various 10" coils for the Explorers ever were. It pinpoints better, falses less, separates better, and goes deeper for me on the GT. My Explorers were much more picky about sensitivity settings and did not give nearly as solid ID on targets at depth. One of my main tools for determining if a target is worth digging is how solid the ID is. On my Explorers it could be all over the place on a good target, so using that as a tool to figure out targets was out. That's also one of the reasons I feel the Sovereign is a much better gold ring machine (stability of the ID= Good Target), not to mention the richer/longer/more telling audio of the Sovereign where as the audio on the Explorer was more processed and sterilized to me. Then there's the balance thing. Even a stock GT will wear your shoulder out a lot less than an Explorer from my experience with them. My 7 or 8 hour hunts were out of the question with the Explorer. It killed my shoulder/arm. A stock GT is better balanced, but a Sovereign is also much easier to lighten up if you want.

 

[Critterhunter]

Oh, and as far as interference from an Explorer goes. I can hunt with my GT within about ten feet of a friend's Explorer with no interference issues. I use band 2 all the time as it's said to match older ID charts better from other Sovereigns that couldn't change bands. I really haven't found the GT to have any more interference issues from things like power lines than any other detector I've ever owned. Some older Sovereigns did not have any shielding in them so that might be a factor for some.