Lowrance Elite-7 Hdi / Elite-7 Hdi Chirp

[bulldog_savoy6]

I have an opportunity to purchase an Elite-7 HDI at a great price but since reading several different posts in this forum I'm now debating to spend the extra money and get the Elite-7 HDI CHIRP. The difference in cost is quite large. I know there is different options for both effecting the price but is the CHIRP at face valve worth the difference? I fish in the North East, fresh water only and my depths are 5-100 feet max, mostly around 20 feet. The water clarity is great, the bottoms are mostly very fine sediment or what i call Muck. Your views would be greatly appreciated, Thanks   

[Bdjr1]

I just went thru the same thing & just finally went with the HDS-7 Touch No Transducer & went with the HDI Transducer, Lowrance has lowered the price by $200

[Sam]

The CHIRP technology was developed by the Navy many years ago and then Raymarine started using the CHIRP technology in its saltwater systems.

 

Raymarine expanded its production into the freshwater marketplace and Hummingbird, Lowrance and Garmin have followed suit.

 

If you get the opportunity to view the Raymarine CHIRP electronics you will see how beautiful the picture is on the sonar unit.  And I mean beautiful.

 

You can see all sorts of stuff underwater and it is very easy to pick out the fish.

 

Now the price --- Raymarine is expensive.  If you don't want to invest that much into a CHIRP system check out the other three manufacturers.

 

CHIRP is going to become the new standard in sonar units so we all might as well start saving our pennies to upgrade in the future to a CHIRP unit.

[bulldog_savoy6]

Thanks Everybody,

I'm purchasing the Lowrance HDS-7 Gen 2 Touch with no Transducer (I'm going to use my current HDI Trans, which is compatible with the HDS). I have spent allot of time researching this and it gave me the most options. It seem to me that the HDI sys has run its coarse and Lowrance seems to see the HDS Gen series the future. I like that the fact i can pick and choose which upgrades i like and purchase them later down the road, as my techn and abilities get better. Now i know there are pros & cons to each side of the conversation, but i'm a man that likes allot of options when getting a new piece of equipment, and the HDS-7 Gen 2 gives me those and future ones down the road. I would like to personally thank Wayne on his inputs, which are straight forward.