sovereign/or x-terra 70

[comcat]

hiya guys,,have asked the same question on the xterra site,,,,whats the best overall the sov g,t, or the x-terra 70??? need your input guys,,,,rgds ,comcat

 

[Barry]

G'day comcat
Bought my first detector about 6 months ago --an ETrac Cannot compare it with other makes of machines but for my hobby of coins it does the job and then some.
Decided I needed a second detector and had my mind made up to purchase an X Terra70. The dealer who I purchased the E Trac from was kind enough to loan me an X Terra70 for a few days to play with. Was not much impressed with it's performance against the E trac ( probably an unfair comparison but a comparison non-the-less)
Ultimately decided to go with a Sov GT. My problem now is that when I go detecting, which machine do I take,the Sov GT or the E Trac, as in my opinion one is as good as the other. The moral of this story is that the E Trac and the Sov Gt are very similar in performance ( on coins), the X Terra 70 does not even come close. Go the Sov GT.
Barry

 

[Neil]

n/t

 

[Rick(ND)]

n/t

 

[labeachbum]

And if you ever take the GT to a salt water beach, bring your biggest scoop because you will be digging dimes, nickels, Quarters, Jewelry at 20+ inch's

 

[Willee - Texas]

n/t

 

[maria8forever]

hiya guys,,have asked the same question on the xterra site,,,,whats the best overall the sov g,t, or the x-terra 70??? need your input guys,,,,rgds ,comcat

comcat,you are starting to upset me,will you please just pick a detector to use and hunt for whatever it is you are looking for.It seems you are not looking for anything in the ground,but to pick detectorist brains for the best metal detector,and there is no such thing as a best metal detector,some may have a little better dept than others,some lighter,some that play a better note than others(output tone),some digital,some still analog etc.....you will never find out what the best detector is,because there is no such thing.There are however very good detectorist!.Happy birthday to the greatest country on the planet earth! How about this,if there is one i will bet it is made in America!.

 

[Art (NWOH)]

Get something that has the kind of features that you want and go out and use it.

HH

 

[Ron from Michigan]

n/t

 

[plugger]

n/t

 

[plugger]

n/t

 

[comcat]

yeah barry,,,came to the same conclusion after a test,,,,,the multi freq,type machines take a lot of beating,,,if they can be beat thet is,,,rgds ,,,comcat

 

[comcat]

hey there,,,maria8forever,,,slow down,,,,,THIS IS A FORUM,, i use a g,t, on the beach and inland ,,,,love it,,,i also use a tesoro on the same ground,,,love that too,,,but i did not ask the question for myself alone,,, (although i am sure i would benefit from the information ),,,,rather, that i wanted your opinion for the benefit of other people who have asked me the same question,,and who read this forum,,,but i didnt have the answer as i have never owned one,,,,this is for future reference,,,and is it not better to ask questions on a forum like this than to buy a new product that is not compareable to the machine that i and others already use ??,,,and posing questions like this is also pretty much, to stimulate some sort of ,,RAPPORT,, with you guys,,,(as daft as it may seem to some) ,,,,interesting questions and answers,,,,thats why people read and contribute to forums such as this,,,and questions,,no matter how diverse, are usually answered honestly ,but in an oppinionated way (thankfully),,and for that reason alone i will pose all sorts of seemingly,,,,daft,..annoying,,,and awkward questions,regularly,,,and without appology,,,keep yore tongue out,,,rock n roll,,,,comcat

 

[daveniowa]

Actually, I liked that question Comcast. Thank you

My question ~ wouldn't it be worth spending the extra $200 for the Safari? I mean, you might want to purchase the extra meter and you'd be in the same price range. If your not going to be at the beach, would it make more sense to go with the more powerful Safari? I've never used the Sov or the Safari but it sounds like the depth is similar; however, it sounds like the Sov. is harder to disseminate junk from treats. I'd appreciate any input.

 

[Critterhunter]

Ultimately decided to go with a Sov GT. My problem now is that when I go detecting, which machine do I take,the Sov GT or the E Trac, as in my opinion one is as good as the other. The moral of this story is that the E Trac and the Sov Gt are very similar in performance ( on coins), the X Terra 70 does not even come close. Go the Sov GT.
Barry

You're not the first person who has said this. I've read plenty of posts from guys who have owned all three (Etrac, Explorer, GT) and say the performance difference between all three is a very gray area. Some even say the Sovereign seems to run smoother and at higher sensitivity (resulting in more depth) on both the beach and at some land sites. I can at least say that has proven true for me compared to the Explorers I've owned. The GT for sure gives more solid and less jumpy ID locks on good targets where the Explorer seemed to have trouble making up it's mind where it wanted to finally rest a target on the ID screen. That's why you hear a lot of Explorer guys say trust the audio and not the visual ID. I'd say the GT has a more solid ID lock than just about any machine I've ever owned, at least for sure with this high of a resolution scale (180) on targets. The higher the resolution the more finicky a machine can be about target placement, often proving to be more hassle than benefit when trying to decipher jumpy bad targets from good targets that are being jumpy.

A friend of mine like me has owned most of the machines on the market, or at least the better performing ones, and he tried the top XTerra model for a while. He had several coils for it but kept complaining that the machine would give good "coin" ID's to foil and other junk at depth, more so than the odd target that will do that to any machine. He tried and tried to develop an ear for the difference in these versus coins but could not find any distinctive tone or VDI response that would tip him off to many of them. I was seriously looking into one of those machines until I saw his frustration in the field with it, and also the lack of a large 3khz coil to max out depth on copper/silver turned me off to buying one. I'm still waiting for somebody to come out with a 12" low frequency coil for that machine. I bet it will be very popular among old coin shooters and might get to some impressive depths.

 

[Critterhunter]

My question ~ wouldn't it be worth spending the extra $200 for the Safari? I mean, you might want to purchase the extra meter and you'd be in the same price range. If your not going to be at the beach, would it make more sense to go with the more powerful Safari? I've never used the Sov or the Safari but it sounds like the depth is similar; however, it sounds like the Sov. is harder to disseminate junk from treats. I'd appreciate any input.

"More powerful" is very subjective. I'd at least say I've never heard the Safari or Quatro described in those terms compared to the Sovereign. That same friend of mine owned both (or at least the Quatro that I remember) and I played around with it in the field as well as watched over his shoulder as he used it. If you think the Sovereign has recovery speed issues wait until you see how much more of a hassle it is waiting for the screen on one of those to process targets. In a very real sense the VDI screen on the Sovereign is much more "instant" than even machines with a fast recovery speed. Often due to the VDI being far detached from the audio due to software processing and lag it almost feels like you are hunting with two different machines (one for the audio and one for the VDI) that are about a second out of phase of each other. My feeling is that if I'm going to go the computer route I'd rather spring for a used Explorer at about the price or cheaper than a new Safari to gain the added features it offers. Or, buy a used GT at a much cheaper price. Remember, BBS and FBS machines are two different beasts. If anything, one will out do the other in certain specific situations for reasons that can't always be nailed down and understood.

As for the Sovereign being harder to disseminate junk from treats, that's also the first time I've heard that said about it. Many people think the Sovereign has more telling audio and VDI than any machine they've ever owned, and I'll again say that's been true for me. Many good targets should sound good with no warbly sound, harsh, tinny, bouncing, scratchy, or other such clues to the target being trash or at least not uniform in shape. A jumpy VDI is also a very good indicator that the Sovereign doesn't think the target is "dig worthy". One example of this would be a guy's thread in which he stated that he often finds cuff links, buttons, and other good items based purely on the fact that they sound good/smooth and the target ID is not moving around. That's a very powerful tool when trying to find keepers that aren't coins and thus are not going to read in the 180 range. They may be much further down the scale and out there in no man's land as far as a common VDI number, but this solid number and good smooth audio is the Sovereign telling you that it's something worth investigating.

 

[Rick(ND)]

One of the things I really like is the fact that the meter is reading what you are hearing, plus with the tones you can work the signal more to get a better ID on the Sovereigns. On the FBS detectors like the Safari,Quattro and the Explorers which are great too, but you don't have that type of ID the Sovereign will give. One drawbacks which some don't like is it puts all the copper, clad and silver coins in the same number and tone, but once you really get to know your Sovereigns you have a idea what it is before you dig. I also agree on gold rings and other good items the tones do sound a little more smoother that that of trash on the Sovereigns, but haven't seen this with my Explorers.

 

[Critterhunter]

Very true. My experience as well. Ya know, I keep saying I'm going to do it....I'm going to grab about 4 or 5 rings and 4 or 5 tabs with a matching VDI # for each tab to each ring (meaning one ring and one tab with the same VDI #, and so on for the others). Then I'm going to throw one of each into identical film canistors and randomly mix them up and place them on the ground. I plan to try to sweep each target and see if I can tell the difference in audio between the rings and the tabs, just flipping the canistor upside down to see what I had written on the bottom to ID them. I bet with enough practice even a ring with the same VDI # as a tab will show you a softer, smoother, less harsh, less "bangy" audio. That could prove one heck of a weapon in a sea of trash without any discrimination or notch running at all.