I have an SE, an E-TRAC, and a SovereignGT and the ET is not deeper than the Sovereign, if anything... once you learn it... the Sovereign is deeper than either the Explorer or the E-TRAC. HOWEVER... with the GT unless you really hone your skills, you will not be able to tell a bronze penny from a clad dime from a clad quarter from a silver dime from a silver quarter from a half dollar... sometimes silver might read one number higher on the 180 meter... if you have it set perfectly... then again a clad quarter might jump up there too. I may be wrong on the bronze penny, it's been a while since I used it to coin hunt.
I tend to dig plenty of square nails and flattened crown bottlecaps with the GT but that's ok. There usually aren't that many bottlecaps except in spots... but in those spots where someone drank a lot of beer over a long time and tossed the caps... forget it. Some detectors can tell the difference and some Sovereign users can tell the difference, especially in AM mode. Some people can tell a good target in AM by the difference nuances in tone, I usually hunt in disc though.
All-metal mode on the Sovereign is semi-disc AM mode. It has a cutoff point somewhere around where a nickel hits... at that point the AM tone switches from "low to high" to "high to low" as you swing over the target. The AM tone when you swing a target is sort of an "ooh-ahh-ooh" or "ahh-ooh-ahh" tone according to whether the target is a higher conductive target or a lower one.
As I said in an earlier post yesterday I buried a minnieball at 11". the GT is the only macine that could hit it and it hit it as a null in the threshold, which usually indicates iron but can also indicate a very deep target. If you are relic hunting you'd want to stop, wiggle, check in AM, and DIG those sort of targets especially if you wiggle in some tone in disc... it could be anything and probably old and good. FWIW, the E-TRAC would not make a peep. I tried it in auto+3, manual 24 sens, manual 30 sens, relic pattern, ferrous/2 tone, conductive/multi-tone, and with the IM open. I was using the 11" pro coil on the ET and the 10" Tornado on the SovereignGT. It would consistently null as I passed over it. I had to set the sens at about 1:00 and swing slow to keep a threshold and everytime I stopped on the hull and wiggled the coil the TID and tone would rise, it actually got up to 173 for a moment, once.. which is the proper TID number for a minnie.
If you will put in the time with the GT it will reward you. You should give David Keith at Dixie-metal-detectors.com a call. He loves to talk Sovereign and he has used one exclusively ever since it came out. He also had some NOS (New Old Stock) 8" coinsearch coils last time I checked. He also does some modifications. He was, I think a service guy when the GT first came out or something like that and he got some proprietary information on the Sovereign which he holds close to the vest in respect to giving his word to Minelab... to keep the info private... anyway, Minelab stopped whatever they were doing and not many know how to mod certain things and David wont tell you exactly what he does. I have no point of reference because the only Sovereign I have ever used is one I bought from him that I had him do his mods to...
You cannot... cannot go wrong with a Sovereign. Did I mention that it has the most solid audio ID on jewelry of any machine I have ever used. I had an opportunity to hunt around an old farmhouse while it was being renovated. I hunted a small area around the back door, about 6x6 ft. area. First I hunted it with an F75, Tejon, Explorer SE, and E-TRAC... I didn''t get a soild signal with any of them, nothing but really iffy junk signals, non-repeaters. I had the SovereignGT with me (it was the first detector I ever bought and I couldn't sell it).. so, I decided to try it. I immediately got a good solid stable signal around 80... it was a white gold circlet with diamonds all around it. Next signal was also solid and stable, it was a silver piece about 1/4" wide x 1" long x about 1/8" thick. Next I got three coin signals and dug two 1919 cents and one 1918 cent... all from this very small area. Using the Sovereign the signals were NOT iffy in any way.... It is a very good machine and I don't use it enough. I get excited about new technology and frankly, I love detectors as much as I love detecting but if I was only into it for the detecting... and I could only have one machine, the GT would be a STRONG contender to be the keeper. You do have to sweep it a bit slower. It completely blows away the T2 and the F75LTD. I think it is way better than any Explorer. I'd have to think about deciding between it and the E-TRAC. I think the GT is deeper with the stock coils but the E-TRAC seperates and unmasks in trash better. I don't know but what the GT may handle mineralization a little better.
Another option for you to consider is a Tejon with a 5.75 widescan coil... it is DEEP and FAST and LIGHT... and works around iron better than any detecotr i've ever used. It will ignore small iron and nails but signal on round or large iron in disc, even with it set at foil. In All metal VCO it will work in the most nasty mineralized ground and signal like the PI units do, then since it has dual disc modes, you can set disc2 a little above foil and check any targets if you get a peep... dig, especially in relics like any CW site. Pennies, dimes, and quarters all read the same, they all still signal with the disc wide open. The disc tone is adjustable, as is the AM tone but it is a single tone detector using whatever tone you set it on... but a lot of people find a lot of good stuff with the Tejon partly because it is a great machine and partly because you are not relying on different tones and partly because you are not relying on a TID number... so you will dig more but somehow you will dig a good ratio of good targets to trash. The Tejon will, on most trash, break up the tone after a few passes. I don't know how it does it, but it does. There are times when it is the the best machine to use... like I said like an old homesite with lots of small iron... it rules.
So, you could get a SovereignGT then watch for a good deal on a used Tejon (with the 5.75 DD coil.. you NEED that) Tesoro has a lifetime warranty that they have honored whether you are the original owner or not. Another good, under-rated detector is the White's MXT but that is all i'll say about other machines here.
I really only brought up the Tejon because it is a great complimet machine to the SovereignGT... with those two machines you can hunt anything, anywhere!
Julien
(only joking CH)