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Better Buy? Sovereign Elite or GT?????

B

bluemax

New member
I'm trying to make a decision between the Sovereign Elite and the Sovereign GT and can't figure out which is the smarter buy. It appears most dealers are selling the Elite with meter for about 90-100 dollars less then the GT. If I buy the GT and add the meter which I believe runs in the neighborhood of 100 dollars the difference is now around 200 dollars? My question is whether the GT is that much better than the Sovereign?? Has anyone ever done a side by side comparison?? Any input would be appreciated.
 
Retail there is a $100 difference between the Elite and the GT, the GT comes with no meter, but has a rechargeable battery. The Elite comes with a meter, but has no rechargable battery. both have a 10 inch coil. Now if you buy a rechargeable battery and charger for the Elite it will cost you around $77 then buy the meter for the GT to make this a even comparison that will be $160 retail. Now you have a $183 difference comparining the 2 detectors, but you have a alkailine battery pack with the Elite, so figure for the GT you ad one to make it the same for another $20 giving it a $203 difference retail. I am sure the dealer can work out a better deal.
Both are great detectors and will do well, but the GT can do a few more things if you like to hunt all metal, but if you are a land hunter and coin hunter you may never ever use this . The GT has the silent search option so with a flick of a switch you can turn it on or off, never thought I would use this feature, but for some clean areas this does work nice and can switch out of it to check some deeper signals. It also has a iron mask switch that can be turned off to help learn the detector, but you can lose coins close to iron if it is off.
I feel the GT is a little more sensitive to smaller items than the Elite is, but also notice you can get fooled by iron a little more too, but easy to learn how to tell the difference once you used it for a while.
Over all I feel the GT with the straight shaft and the added features is worth the extra to me and feel Minelab has made this GT the best Sovereign they have made and sure they have done some updates to the cucuity over the Elite.For most they may not see much difference between the Elite and the GT unless you really know your Sovereign, so the call is yours which to get as they both do great.

Rick
 
Depends on what you really want.
The GT is essentially an Elite with some of the earlier options, a different all metal mode, and a straight stick.

I did some comparison to my 2a and found that discriminate mode was comparable between the two machines. The GT did seem more inclined to false on iron and hot rocks a little more. Otherwise, no notable difference in performance.

The straight stick on the GT balances much better with an improvement in weight distribution.

All metal mode is different. The tone shifts up or down as the coil passes over targets. Very nice on weaker targets, as it makes them stand out from the basic threshold tone.
Stronger targets make the tone sound like a VCO gone nutso.

Don't see any real difference in actual performance between the machines sensitivity-wise.

You also have the option of getting the Elite, and putting it on a straight stick.

You can juggle this whole thing out and decide if you want the extra options or not. Consider how you plan to use the detector before you buy.

HH


 
I would get the Sov GT. All the sovereigns are great but you really dont need the meter and you can always add one later. I think the extras on the GT
are worth the hundred buck price differance if this is your first Sov.
 
I have the GT Sov and like it.
I did not consider an elite because I wanted a detector with auto ground balance in all metal mode and noted the GT has retained most of what others liked in previous sovs , such as switch and control locations and silent or treshold search switch and iron mask switch.

But otherwise from what I understand the elite is practically the same detector if your mostly going to coin and jewelry hunt with it and you get a meter with it works good for coin and jewelry hunting and save a few bucks.

So if you relic hunt and don't care about a meter or go prospecting part time then the GT has the edge but other wise probably not so much an edge. Otherwise money wise the Elite has the edge. Of course balance wise and straight shaft makes a big difference in handling ability also.
I do know that my 's' handle advantage just like an elite is far less easy handling.
You do get something for the extra money , a little bit of extra engineering included there it seems.

HH

Dan R.
 
Why don't you build your own meter, very simple, less than 1/2 an hours work, they work just as well and costs $10.
 
Without reading any of the previous replies, I'm going to give you my opinion. I trust or know most of the guys running Sov's, and they generally give good advice; based on solid experience. However, my opinion is; the GT is the best Sovereign since the original Sov was released years ago. It has the best features of both the original AND the Elite, plus the addition of the Accu-Trak system. GT stands for Gold and Treasure. Personally, I find the addition of the Iron Mask on/off switch to be outstanding, as I always use this on original Sov's. The Accu-Trak is more geared to Gold nugget shooting, but can be very usefull in other scenario's as well. I do prefer the standard All Metal/Pinpoint mode myself, but it's there if you encounter bad ground. Meters are secondary to me. With the excellent Tone ID of Sov's, I rarely rely on any meter. The new DigiSearch GT meter ONLY operates on the GT, and is calibrated to 180 and has been very stable in the field, but I would wait until I became familar with the GT's tone ID before buying the meter. The straight shaft will also balance very well. You can save some $$ on the Elite, but it your serious about detecting, don't sell yourself short. You won't wind up turning around and buying the GT. Just my opinion. Good hunting, David @ Dixie
 
You say the new Digisearch meter operates only on the GT............

Can you tell me why??????

This could be interesting.


HH
 
Art, I heard that they changed the voltage on the GT. It went from 1.8 to 1.7 volts or something like that. It won't calibrate on the other Sovs properly. One can only guess why Minelab did this, but, I think it is probably to impede the knockoff meters like the Sun Ray & Night Hawk, etc. David can probably give a better/more correct answer.

Bill
 
That was the only thing I could think of Bill..

My 2a puts out a max of 1.7 and some spare change. Never gets to 1.8

Thought it might be just a bit too far different. Might have to check this out on a rainy day.

Someone made a post that the new meter was touchy. If that's so, then it should have a fairly wide adjustment range. Have to see.

Presently have a stock Elite meter coming my way. Been using an almost stock previous XS meter with no problems. Don't ask what "almost stock" means.

HH
 
I know the SunRay DTI 3 I have on my GT is excellent and the numbers are right on, so I feel the voltage is the same as the other Sovereigns..
I will be waiting to see what David has to say, or if was a misprint as the only difference I am aware of is they went from the 550 numbers to the 180 numbers.

Rick
 
Those plans using the multi meter is not for me as they sit too high, has to have it own battery, you have to splice into the coil cable or find some connections to add to it to make it work.
Some like them, but I feel if you go to resell it the value will drop compare to no meter at all.

Rick
 
As near as I can figure, the new meter has to be wired the same as all the others.

My slightly modified "stock" meter uses ALL six pins in the connector, and works just fine. The new one can't be powered any different than the old ones.
Can't see any reason why the new meter should not work with other Sovs, at least without some good explanation.

HH
 
Yes, they changed the gizmo, doo-dad and anaconda-moterschnay. The GT DigiSearch meter is not interchangeable with the other Sov's. I tried and all you get is 000. Can't calibrate to any other numbers. Compatible only with the GT (Gold and Treasure). I think Bill is correct; Minelab's DigiSearch will only accept the GT. I was disappointed as I wanted to try it on my original and XS Sov's. However, I tried a Sun Ray DTI II meter with good results. The Sov GT accepts it no problem. I understand the GT works with the Patriot meter as well. Good hunting, David @ Dixie
 
This is good to know so we dont order in a new GT meter to use on the older Sovereigns and Elite, just have to keep rescaling the Minelab digital meters to the 180 numbers instead of putting on the new GT meter.
I am sure glad the SunRay meters work on them all and now I wish SunRay still made a meter as they were great. I hope to try one of the Patriot meter soon and see if they can do anything the SunRays cant do.

Thanks again David for the info.

Rick
 
Got my Sunray meter to cal. on my GT also. I picked up a Patriot on a trade and have sent it back to Joe for update on the mount for GT will give it a try this fall in the UK...Geo
 
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