Equinox 800 and vdi...

On a Treasure coast beach that's why we detect with a pulse induction detector and carry a very good scoop.

I wouldn’t be too annoyed. Those vdi numbers are reporting the different compositions (Alloys, solder) of the rings. The Equinox is doing it’s job. Good luck!

Dig repeatable solid 2 way numbers. I was looking for gold yesterday in an area that people are known to drop rings. I dug 5 nickels in a 2ft circle where I know at least 5 good detectorists have been. Don’t always trust the ears with the Nox, all 5 nickels had iron halo noise but were solid 13 on VDI.

Not trying to be snarky, but why would you research a detector after you’ve purchased it. Research it before hand so you know what your getting into. For its price point, the Nox does very well. You are comparing Rings made of gold and silver so yes, numbers will run from 2-36.

Don't get discouraged. All of us want a metal detector with a VDI range of 0-200 and it will tell us exactly what we have under the coil. But that detector does not exist.

So you plan your hunt in terms of the context of your hunting site.

On the beach you pretty much dig everything since a wedding ring can be a 14 or 15 like a pop top. There are a few things you can ignore on the beach, bobby pins, other metal, foil and that can save some time.

On a public park you are probably mainly looking for silver coins. you then can safely discrim out or use tone breaks to ignore all items below 25.

If you are civil war hunting, you will typically not be looking for rings. So you will can turn off iron discrim and use tone breaks to have it sound low so it is not annoying and then use other tone breaks to bring out a higher volume and tone for lead bullets, brass and coins.

On old home sites you can do well hunting among nails once you learn to use your iron bias and recovery speed properly.

So once you know what you are looking for at what type of hunt site, the 800 will do its job very well once you learn the 800. Leaning the 800 you should just start in the standard modes and get use to the machine. But keep in mind what you are looking for and where you are looking.

You basically learn to identify common junk items and dig all other items.

I don't know if this makes any sense to you at this stage of your hobby, but I was at your stage at one time with the 800 and it was confusing for me at the time. Good luck.

Rings are such a !!!!-shoot for alloy composition, thus the wide range of VDI. I just bought a 18k gold band that tests better than 18k. I bought my wife an 18k gold band from the same source and her's tests right at 18k.
10k and 14k and white gold are garbage alloys IMHO and composition is up to whomever is mixing. All different kinds of metals get alloyed in at various compositions.
Coins are more consistent in composition so VDI works better for those. Last Saturdays multiple tot lot hunt I "dug" 8 nickles because I'm paying attention to my mid-tones and they all hit at 51 on the AT PRO.

Pahvantpiper said:

So, received my new Nox 800 yesterday and have been doing lots of reading and watching you tube videos on it. I came across one where a guy, using a bunch of rings he had found, showed that the different gold and platinum and silver rings hit nearly every vdi number from like 2 to 36.

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What you’re seeing isn’t limited to just the Equinox series - that’s true for virtually every metal detector on the market. Keep in mind, a metal detector doesn’t really detect metal, it detects conductivity - which varies strongly depending not only on the composition of an object, but also its size, shape, thickness, etc - even the soil it’s sitting it and the depth with play a role. All you have to do is look at a few gold rings and you can see why they display so widely on a VDI scale. Lady’s ring versus a man’s ring, wedding band versus class ring versus Super Bowl ring. Size and thickness is all over the map. 18k gold versus 14k, etc? What alloys were used to dilute the purity to 18 or 14k or 10k - nickel, copper, silver, and/or zinc? If the alloy was mixed, as they often are, at what proportions?

Adding in silver rings is like comparing apples and oranges - it’s a completely different metal with a very high conductivity! So, yeah, different VDI numbers, and the numbers for silver rings will vary widely for the same reasons.

Coins from the last few centuries ring up comparatively consistently because their size, thickness, and composition are fairly tightly controlled. Even still, going by VDI numbers alone will still lead to surprises on any machine. There have been plenty of times when I swore I was going to dig a quarter or dime, and out pops a piece of trash with a uniform size/shape - and that’s happened with all of the machines I’ve owned. The Equinox isn’t magic from that standpoint.

Pahvantpiper said:

What’s the point in discriminating out ANY number if you’re likely to discriminate out certain gold rings? He suggested digging EVERY target. If that’s all the better it can discriminate I should have purchased an old analog for cheap.

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As Maxxkatt noted in his post, it all depends on what you’re interested in finding. Yes, if you’re interested in finding gold rings, you need to strongly consider keeping discrimination to an absolute minimum, and be prepared to dig A LOT of trash. There are definitely some techniques and strategies that you can use to help increase your chances of finding rings, and minimize how much trash you encounter - but it involves site selection and other factors more than detector choice and set up. This forum thread is perhaps the best on here about how to maximize your ring finding potential: MDing for rings. My observations after 26 months, and 406 rings later by Skippy SH13, one of the more prolific ring finders on the forum.

Sure, buying a cheap analog machine would have also given you a genuine chance at finding gold. Probably less of a chance than the Equinox or some other new, advanced machines from other manufacturers, but still a chance.

Pahvantpiper said:

Maybe the answer is you can’t go by the numbers and have to discriminate by ear?

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Bingo. And that’s not just for gold - that goes for virtually anything you might want to hunt. Everybody develops their own strategy regarding discrimination as they gain experience and as the needs for a hunt change. Personally, I rarely use any discrimination other than the iron range - sometimes I also knock out the very low non-ferrous numbers too depending on the situation (6 and below on the Equinox, about 40 and below when I owned my Garrett Ace and AT Max. Some folks discriminate out a ton. Neither technique is right or wrong, as long as you understand the advantages and disadvantages for what you’re trying to accomplish. Bottom line, the VDI numbers are a guideline to be used to help categorize the tone qualities you are hearing.

Lots of great advice. Thank you all!!!

VIDs are far overrated. About the only thing they can do is save you time by showing you how steady the signal is and help cherry pick coins. You can do the same thing on an analog by thumbing the disc. I mainly use three settings on all my detectors, digital and analog. 1 disc out only iron. 2 disc out iron and small foil. 3 disc out everything below penny's. The old whites had two present positions on their disc, my number 2 "jewellery range" and my number 3 "coin range". Remember those that dig the most find the most (unless your limited on time). There's probably more masked targets (with bad VIDs) missed than deep targets within the range of any detector made.

Pahvantpiper said:

What’s the point in discriminating out ANY number if you’re likely to discriminate out certain gold rings?

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You can say this about any detector in any brand.

Gold hunting is part luck, part skill, part about picking good jewelry sites and a lot of knowledge about how gold behaves using your particular detector.
You can dig everything and eventually, probably, find some, but that will take a lot of time and energy.
Or, you can learn how to target what I call the higher percentage signals that sound good, repeat, don't change from different directions and appears small like jewelry...no matter where or what numbers those solid signals are.
You might miss some out there in the wild with masking and all the other issues we deal with but you will also dig way less trash and spend your energy on way more better signals per hunt that might possibly be gold.
I do it this way, have for years, and still managed to find dozens of gold targets while digging a relatively low volume of trash.
And I have done it using 2 different Tesoros and 2 different Fisher detectors.
However, the only way I am able to do this at all is after deeply learning how gold sounded and behaved compared to all the other signals I get using each detector.
Out of 3 dozen gold targets I found all but one was a surprise when I dug it up...all I was going for was the better, tighter more solid acting and sounding signals and I came across probably more than my share doing it this high percentage way but that is where that luck stuff comes in.
I use this same method to hunt for most targets and again, I might miss some of the more iffy, better, targets but my success rate at finding silver coins and jewelry plus everything else is still very high vs targets dug.
Even in massive trashed out and iron infested sites.

You just need to learn that 800 better, is all, once you do instinct also comes in and adds to the equation and helps out...a lot.
There is nothing we can do to install this instinct, it only comes with time and experience but it does come if you stick to it.
Eventually you find your threshold of how much effort you want to put into digging.
Everything, just the very best signals, mostly good signals or a combination of all of them.
We are all different, some dig it all and some like me are at the other end of the scale and so many are in between...but we all have great fun in our own way.

By the way, I have a Nox and I haven't come across any gold yet but I have learned that this thing loves nickels so much it is like part of it's mission statement.
I also know from experience that detectors that can do that are usually extra good at finding gold not only in that range but also in most others from low to high.
I have no doubt that one day I will roll my Nox coil over something gold and when I do it will somehow, someway, tell me to dig.

Pahvantpiper said:

So, received my new Nox 800 yesterday and have been doing lots of reading and watching you tube videos on it. I came across one where a guy, using a bunch of rings he had found, showed that the different gold and platinum and silver rings hit nearly every vdi number from like 2 to 36. What’s the point in discriminating out ANY number if you’re likely to discriminate out certain gold rings? He suggested digging EVERY target. If that’s all the better it can discriminate I should have purchased an old analog for cheap. Kinda annoyed.

Maybe the answer is you can’t go by the numbers and have to discriminate by ear? Anyway, thank you for letting me vent. Still trying to learn.

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this is ''dead nuts" accurate! theoretically, you could find as many, or more 'rings"
with a "tesoro" a single tone detector with no v.d.i. you will dig more, but the potential is there, and it's analog technology is "dirt balls cheap" compared to any equinox.if you learn the audio "nuances" of a tesoro,it is possible! it can be a "mind blower" but true! ..just sayin'

(h.h.!)
j.t.