...... in Ben's video the first target was a deep IHP that bounced all over, mostly from 18 to 35. So the deeper coin did not show the correct target ID at depth. I agree it isn't hype, but I'm not sure I agree that the NOX provides accurate target ID all the way to the depth limit of the machine........
That Indian Head Cent wasn't even that deep. He even says it in the video. But, the Equinox isn't the only machine that struggles to repeat numbers within a few digits in response to a medium depth Indian Head Cent. (Is it indeed "struggling" or is it simply reporting the actual variations in conductivity? That depends on what it was designed to do: Alert you to coins or inform you about the conductivity of metal that's in the ground. We'll get back to that in a second.)
Until you get another detector out for comparison,
whose to say the repeating high tone wouldn't have been pretty good, even though it was bouncing? At the end of the day, it was clear and repeatable enough to get the user's attention. Right?
So, let's try to look past the 5 tone audio and the precise numbers for a minute. Imagine it was a three tone machine (low-medium-high) with no VDI. Minimal iron discrim. Old school! I would have dug those coins all day. No brainer.
But, with the extra audio info from 5 tone bins, we get a signal repeating mostly in the mid twenties but throwing an occasional 18-20 and an occasional low 30s. It's hitting three different tones! That sounds "jumpy", and even worse if a few of those number have been notched out.
So, it sounds worse than it really is if you are only paying attention to tone pitch. Not seeing the forest for the trees. Clues like signal size and depth, consistent pinpoint shape and audio. Hints of iron. Age of property. Prior evidence of other deep coins or relics.
So, are the bouncing high numbers a bug or a feature? Is the Equinox failing to "lock onto" some singular true conductivity? Is it failing to go "DING DING" when it sees a coin? Or, is it designed to show the very real variations in conductivity that are coming off of a tarnished, sideways, 9 inch deep coin that's been in the ground before any of us were born? (Hint: There is no "coin mode" on an equinox or even coin target IDs listed on the screen or in the manual.)
Variation would be a red flag for a single shallow target, but we depend on that ability to show variation across multiple adjacent shallow to medium targets. Why expect this variation to stop when it detects a deep target. Do we want the the detector to report the data, or interpret it for us?
What's cool with the Nox 800 is that we don't have to imagine turning it into that 3 tone machine. We can easily customize the tone bins. I've done it to hunt for deep coins and focus more on tone quality and repeatability rather than being misled by jumpy pitches.