The merging of V-Flex and BBS.

[JASONSPAZ1]

If a new Sovereign is on the Horizon, making it light weight is such an obvious priority. Also the whole philosophy behind V-Flex is making analog circuits more stable and efficient. Well we all know that the current BBS machines are one of the last in the Minelab lineup to be of analog in nature. The merging of both technologies seems obvious and logical. It would be cool if it was called the Sovereign 6. I think a new Sovereign would be the 6th iteration. I could be wrong as I may have missed one of the XS models. Anyway the Sovereign 6 sounds cool.

HH
Jason

 

[Rick(ND)]

The original Sovereign, then the XS was the next one which was the one I learned on back in 1996, then came the XS2 which too was excellent, the the next one was the XS2a that to me wasn't as good and had that toggle switch for single tones. Then came the Elite where they changed the position of the control and confused us the had used the older ones. Last has been the GT which is the most powerful of them all and you can do more with this model and they put the controls back to the the XS series. If a new one does come out it will be the 7Th one and wonder if plans are for a new model or discontinued the Sovereign completely. If a new one comes out and I say if I hope it will have a built in meter and lighten up a little, but for what is in the control box that is needed it may be hard to get it much lighter.

Rick

 

[deepdiger60]

Speaking of older Sovereign models i was looking at a XS2A on Bay with a BBS 1000 coil is that the same coil as the Tornado 10" ? the whole package looks like a pretty good deal so far . Jim
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MINELAB-SOVEREIGN-XS-2A-PRO-MINT-CONDITION?item=380432076278&cmd=ViewItem&_trksid=p5197.m7&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D4%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8012677899764664819

 

[Critterhunter]

That's the old BBS version of the 10" coil, which is real heavy and from what I hear doesn't perform as well as the newer 10" Tornado, which I think they also call the "Slim Line". Same deal with the 8" BBS coil versus the new 8" Tornado. Much lighter and from what others say a better performer.

The Sovereign is a digital machine, it's just that it comes with analog style controls. However, V-Flex is an analog to digital converter found in the coil and the control box on the Xterras. From the gist of the technical description about it it sounds more like it's used to talk with the control box about what frequency the coil is using than anything else. The Sov/Excal do have a circuit in the coil, but it's used as a pre-amp to boost the signal before it has a chance to pick up any distortion or noise when traveling up the coil cable to the control box.

If they do come out with a new Sovereign I'd like to see it have the meter still removable for water hunting, but then again I guess that wouldn't matter if it's a meter/box unit that is still small enough in arrangement to hip or chest mount for water hunting. If the meter is removable they should at least include it in the box so you don't have to buy it extra. I think the fact that they discontinued the DigiSearch meter either means they are going to discontinue the Sovereign, or come out with a new one that includes the meter. Has to be one of those two things. What I'd really like to see would be a waterproof Sovereign with a built in meter so that it's perfect for land or water, just like the AT Pro. They could then discontinue the Excal as they'd be killing two birds with one stone.

There isn't much in the GT's control box to make it heavy, other than the face plate that has the pots and switches. Where the real weight comes from is the heavy shaft and arm cup, not to mention those Sub A rechargeable batteries when not using the regular AA holder.

 

[Rick(ND)]

The BBS coil is different then the new Tornado coils. The 10 inch BBS coil didn't seem to have the depth that the older 8 inch coinsearch coil and think the 10 inch BBS coil were the least favorite of the Minelab coils.My second Sovereign the XS2 came with the 10 inch BBS coil and hunted with the guy I sold my XS with the 8 inch coinsearch coil and he was kicking my butt with finds so we compared signals and seen that with the 8 inch coinsearch coil got a better signal and deeper than the 10 inch BBS coil did. I bought a used 8 inch coinsearch and put it on and my finds went though the roof. This was the setup I used to pick all those real deep coins with in that old park I was challenged to find 1 old coin in a area, got over 70 older Wheaties and silver in with some IH too. This is where I also learned to go real slow and listen close to threshold changes of coins that were around 12 inches deep.

Rick

 

[Critterhunter]

You keep intriguing me with talk about an 8" coil getting 12" on a coin. Was that ground mineralized at all? I have a sneaky suspicion that an 8" coil might get better depth than say a 10" coil in some grounds due to the ground matrix that a larger coil is soaking in washing the target signal out.