Jeff, my Sovereign really lacked in depth, in or out of the ground. I was impresses with its smooth behavior over conglomerate rock boulders and in pea gravel, but that's not where I normally hunt. It did better in air tests than it did in the ground, by far, and at about half the 9-10" it got in air.. Five inches was tops, and another one just like it behaved the same. I bought a 12" Excelerator coil for it but only gained about 1" in ground. It was no match at all for my old Compass GoldScanner Pro, Whites 6000, nor my CZ, or in milder dirt, especially the Tesoro Tejon. Of course as we both know though, your soil there in PA is normally a whole lot different than here. For example, a CZ3D or CZ70 would ground balance at about a setting of 5 in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, or in much of PA, but not here where it balances at around 2 1/2. It's a lot nastier here, twice the Fe, and our ocean beaches are LOADED with black sand on top of it. My best guess is that your soil did help you a lot with the depth, lucky you.
I sold mine to someone who lives in a milder soil area in the Eastern part of the USA and he was as happy as a mouse in a cheese factory. It must be the soil that makes the difference, it's all I can think of.
Larry
Soil conditions may very well Have been what helped.
When I talk of these "Amazing" depths,
I am talking a freshly Drained Lake Bed,
where the ground was pure "Glop"
( f
or lack of a real word to describe it 
)
it was the only reason I was able to dig that deep
using my hand and digger.
I also always Scrubbed the coil on the Ground.
(
I lost major depth, in areas I had to lift to swing,
I'll guess I lost 2" for every 1" of air between Coil & soil )
I also wiggled the coil allot.
Smooth slow swings , But for every anomaly in my Headphones,
I caught, I'd circle & wiggle the coil. If I still felt something was there,
I'd dig. (
sometimes I'd be so deep I'd question my self, but would
usually be surprised when I didn't give up ) I think my deepest coin find
on dry land was a dateless standing liberty some where between
10" & 12" , but can't swear to that one. I got the signal,
ended up giving up on it while digging, and years later, re checked with the Explorer
and had better luck with recovery.
My settings were Disc on Minimum & Just allowed the Iron mask to work.
the XS-2 didn't have an option to turn IM off, except to go to all metal.
it was also Wicked on Gold Jewelry

If it was there I think I found it
Sort of like the the Explorer Is sweet on silver.
May actually be Tones & my Hearing that help

but for some reason I can test gold & hear it on the explorer,
But I can't find gold with the explorer. Of course it may be as simple as I haven't swung over lost gold jewelry yet with it

(small gold jewelry doesn't actually give a tone on my explorer,
it's more a thump sound
so it is also possible my mind ignores thumps
unless I'm purposely listening for it at the moment it happens)
Sorry for the long ramble
