I've been gone for a bit--particularly after the ground froze--but back with an update for at least the time being. First (chronologically last) off is that i picked up a new (used) detector with the cash from a side-job building and staining a decorative bridge: a Minelab Sovereign XS-2
Thoughts on it so far off the top of my head:
Pros:
- Tone ID! I love the way it seems to "sing" over good targets. I'd not had tone ID before and that in and of itself is a huge improvement.
- Having a meter! I built a homemade one from a digital multimeter. (The meter linked-to on dlclark's Sov Mods site doesn't resolve but there's another, very similar (and cheaper!--I bought 4) meter at that harborfreight site that works just fine.)
- Finding more. When the ground has been at least partially thawed, I've gone back over my front yard 3 or 4 times and already found a lot I'd missed before including a few wheats and a St. Joseph's medallion. I think that's a result of both the non-cone-shaped pattern of the double-D coil and a combination of the tone ID and iron-masking, since I've been able to hear some little high blips peek out from near iron objects. So from that I suspect, like I've read elsewhere, that I'll have decent success still when hitting sites that have already been hit pretty hard.
- I read that I'll get good depth if going slow but I haven't been able to test that very well yet with the frozen soil I've been digging in. I'm excited about seeing that in action as the ground thaws over the next week.
Cons:
- Still trying to figure out the balance issues with it since I've yet to find a set-up that feels comfortable. I currently have the housing mounted under the armrest--I've tried hip-mounting and may go back to that--but, without a remote pinpoint switch, that makes it a bit of a pain to toggle the disc/all-metal switch, and it still doesn't balance quite right. I also may test out a counterweight extension out the end of the arm to see if that helps a bit. (Might be a place to put a stand as well--to make the weight a useful weight.)
- One thing that bugs me is that the discrimination and the meter reading both seem to cut out where coins start and I get no further information about what I'm reading above that point. In a reply on another thread someone said they can hear some variation in the tone ID above that point but I sure can't yet. That can be pretty frustrating, particularly when so many unwanted objects will read just below that point. Sure would be nice to see/hear something like a silver coin clearly sing out higher-pitched than some of the junk objects that read/sound just around that cut-off point. (I'm still hoping to find a mod for that but have had no luck finding one so far.)
- I'm getting some bad interference in my front yard where there are a lot of wires around but, from some testing I suspect that's either the non-shielded wiring I have running to my meter or something about the coil or wiring itself. (If I unplug the wire from the control box, the interference goes away.) I wonder if the freq. switch that's on the GT would resolve that issue.
- I'm also getting unbalanced sound in my headphones, which is a bit irritating, but I suspect that's a product of this particular detector so shouldn't reflect on the entire line.
All I can think of at the moment, although I'm sure there is--and will be--more.
Overall, I have no regrets at all at having picked up a Sov (although I kind of wish I could have afforded an Explorer). I think I'm going to quite enjoy this machine. The only other detector--that I've read more about since--that may have been somewhat comparable for the (used) price range is the Fisher CZ-5. (But from what I'm seeing on eBay, they're a bit rarer and, likely consequently, reselling for a bit more.
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