JETSWU87 Posted November 20, 2017 Posted November 20, 2017 I'm going to be purchasing one of these units here soon (maybe as soon as Friday if I can snag the BF special at BPS) I have an Motorguide XI5 on the boat already which has me interested in the Lowrance, however I'm not sure how much I would use them together. I played with both units at BPS for a short while and the touch screen on the Lowrance is cool, but on the water rocking around with a wet hand? No telling. I've read on a few forums the horror of dealing with Lowrance customer service if there's a problem with a unit, anyone care to share a recent story? Then you have the Garmin with the CV transducer drama, anyone have one of these without the GT transducer? (CV Transducer doesn't have a true down scan element) Currently all I have is a Garmin 53dv(non gps) on the boat, and we'll other than water temp and depth I find it pretty useless on the water's I fish which are all 25ft or less. Garmin 93CV Pros Pricing ($600) Ease of Quickdraw (none of my lakes are HD on their mapping) Cons: Questionable downview more button pressing to navigate. Lowrance 9 TI pros Links with my Xi5 True total scan Touch screen? Maybe a pro 9 TI Cons Price ($400 more not on sale) questionable customer support opinion of owners that have experience with these units? Thanks in advanced! Quote
Super User NHBull Posted November 21, 2017 Super User Posted November 21, 2017 I have owned both Garmin and lowrance and we’re in the same situation upgrading as you and I went with 93’s........in 2 days they will be even cheaper than what I paid Quote
JETSWU87 Posted November 21, 2017 Author Posted November 21, 2017 12 hours ago, NHBull said: I have owned both Garmin and lowrance and we’re in the same situation upgrading as you and I went with 93’s........in 2 days they will be even cheaper than what I paid Thanks for your reply, have you had the boat on the water with the 93cv? Impressions? What Lowrance unit did you have before? Quote
Global Moderator 12poundbass Posted November 21, 2017 Global Moderator Posted November 21, 2017 47 minutes ago, JETSWU87 said: Thanks for your reply, have you had the boat on the water with the 93cv? Impressions? What Lowrance unit did you have before? I've played with the 73sv Echomap unit in store and I thinks it's a great unit. Your lake may not be HD but you could use Quickdraw to fix that. Quote
JETSWU87 Posted November 21, 2017 Author Posted November 21, 2017 3 minutes ago, 12poundbass said: I've played with the 73sv Echomap unit in store and I thinks it's a great unit. Your lake may not be HD but you could use Quickdraw to fix that. The quickdraw is one of the main features drawing me towards the garmin. I have 6 lakes within 30minutes of me here that don't have quality mapping. Looking at the videos of the garmin in use the quickdraw looks ridiculously simple. Quote
Scarborough817 Posted November 21, 2017 Posted November 21, 2017 6 hours ago, JETSWU87 said: The quickdraw is one of the main features drawing me towards the garmin. I have 6 lakes within 30minutes of me here that don't have quality mapping. Looking at the videos of the garmin in use the quickdraw looks ridiculously simple. this is pushing me towards garmin as well (striker plus 5cv) also seeing that they bought navionics you may be able to upload the maps so they can add them into the navionics card as well. Quote
Global Moderator 12poundbass Posted November 21, 2017 Global Moderator Posted November 21, 2017 34 minutes ago, Scarborough817 said: this is pushing me towards garmin as well (striker plus 5cv) also seeing that they bought navionics you may be able to upload the maps so they can add them into the navionics card as well. No SV? Quote
Scarborough817 Posted November 21, 2017 Posted November 21, 2017 4 minutes ago, 12poundbass said: No SV? up here its a little pricy if i want the sv i have to go with the 7sv and that will run me at least $650cad Quote
Global Moderator 12poundbass Posted November 21, 2017 Global Moderator Posted November 21, 2017 1 hour ago, Scarborough817 said: up here its a little pricy if i want the sv i have to go with the 7sv and that will run me at least $650cad Holy crap!!! Quote
Scarborough817 Posted November 22, 2017 Posted November 22, 2017 53 minutes ago, 12poundbass said: Holy crap!!! So I'm going with the 5 instead which is only 400 Quote
JETSWU87 Posted November 22, 2017 Author Posted November 22, 2017 I did some significant reading last night about the CV52 vs the GT52 transducer drama...holy cow, so much to digest. http://www.***/showthread.php?t=827658 After that's all said and done it has me gun shy on the garmin. Quote
Global Moderator 12poundbass Posted November 22, 2017 Global Moderator Posted November 22, 2017 13 minutes ago, JETSWU87 said: I did some significant reading last night about the CV52 vs the GT52 transducer drama...holy cow, so much to digest. http://www.***/showthread.php?t=827658 After that's all said and done it has me gun shy on the garmin. Don't let that drama get to you. Honestly at first I was too but then I started reading more and researching more and I saw through all the B.S. and the butt hurt people. I'm guessing by your link and the fact that it's blocked that you probably read the same thing I did on the same forum? Quote
JETSWU87 Posted November 22, 2017 Author Posted November 22, 2017 It's not the guy who rants and raves on every single forum... That was the *** thread where they did some side by side testing. What setup do you have? What do you think of it? Any screen shots? 1 Quote
Global Moderator 12poundbass Posted November 22, 2017 Global Moderator Posted November 22, 2017 4 minutes ago, JETSWU87 said: It's not the guy who rants and raves on every single forum... That was the *** thread where they did some side by side testing. What setup do you have? What do you think of it? Any screen shots? I don't currently have any. I've just been doing my research on "down seeing" sonar and "side seeing" sonar. In general terms that's what I call them because each brand has their own name. I will say I was dead set on Humminbird at first. Then I found the Striker units and loved the price. Then the Echomap units were found and I'm sold. Each unit has their positive and negative. I read about side by side comparisons as well. I watched a video Lowrance put out (maybe you did too) where they did a side by side with a Garmin unit. Basically IMO it was a smear campaign. If seen the same where the Garmin unit picks up things the Lowrance unit doesn't. The same can probably be said for a Humminbird and Raymarine unit. The whole lawsuit deal is irrelevant to me. I don't care about what was done, some people who rant and rave on the forum we're both referring to have nothing better to do. Besides I believe it was dismissed and all that came from it was the name change from "downvu" to "clearvu". Like I said before no matter what brand you buy you're going to get a great unit. Each brand has something the other doesn't. For me Garmin is the route I'm going to go. It's in my budget, I getting mapping where I'd have to cough up I've $100 if I got another unit. I only have to spend $20 to link two units together to share waypoints. Again over $100 with another unit. So like a lot of us it comes down to money. As far as the imaging goes, @slonezp set me strait, I don't need a pretty picture. I can see rocks, wood and others. I don't need to see the fish turd on the third largest rock. Don't read too much into what this guy says or that. You can't go wrong. The best thing to do is keep reading and keep an opened mind. The more informed you are the more comfortable you'll be with your decision. Sorry it's so long. 1 Quote
Global Moderator 12poundbass Posted November 22, 2017 Global Moderator Posted November 22, 2017 May I ask what was it that you read that's making you rethink things a little? Quote
JETSWU87 Posted November 22, 2017 Author Posted November 22, 2017 I'll PM you as the it doesn't seem this board allows you to link to other sites. haha forum drama?! Quote
Comfortably Numb Posted November 30, 2017 Posted November 30, 2017 If Di is important to you than get a HB Helix. Garmin with either CV or GT transducers is pretty poor. Quote
JETSWU87 Posted December 6, 2017 Author Posted December 6, 2017 Well a lot has changed since this post. To update: I purchased the 93SV at basspro on black Friday, after going out 3 times with it I'm not happy with the image quality on the unit. Pros: 2d sonar is nice quickdraw mapping for free is cool built in mapping (but my lakes lake any real detail) Easy install Menu system is simple Price Cons: SI quality is ok, but looks not near as quality as the competition DI quality leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion Not a ton of adjustment available as the menu system is so simple No favorite buttons for quick switching of combos On the fly adjustments to sonar not as simple as comp. Needless to say I removed the unit from my boat last night and am returning it to basspro. I will be purchasing a Hummingbird Helix 10 SI (HDSI) that is on clearance right now for as low as $825. Still doesn't link up with my xi5 but the image quality on these units looks far and above anything else. Below are a few screen shots of the SI/DI of the same tree in the water. Picture below is the same brush...and than another example of a SI shot with a school of fish. Quote
Comfortably Numb Posted December 13, 2017 Posted December 13, 2017 No body believed me LOL. The Helix should be great Quote
Global Moderator 12poundbass Posted December 13, 2017 Global Moderator Posted December 13, 2017 2 hours ago, Comfortably Numb said: No body believed me LOL. The Helix should be great He's getting the HDSI transducer.....it should be better, it's apples and oranges. Quote
bugbee77 Posted December 28, 2017 Posted December 28, 2017 The 'bird is an awesome unit, but for anyone reading this considering an Echomap they can produce better images than what was posted above. 1 Quote
simek3ru Posted January 1, 2018 Posted January 1, 2018 I was pretty set on the Garmin Striker Plus 9sv, but after reading this, I am a bit skeptical. This unit comes with the CV52HW-TM Transducer that you guys say is pretty poor. Should I have reservations? Or are there plenty of people happy with the Garmin units? Quote
Global Moderator 12poundbass Posted January 1, 2018 Global Moderator Posted January 1, 2018 11 minutes ago, simek3ru said: I was pretty set on the Garmin Striker Plus 9sv, but after reading this, I am a bit skeptical. This unit comes with the CV52HW-TM Transducer that you guys say is pretty poor. Should I have reservations? Or are there plenty of people happy with the Garmin units? Go to a store that has them and check them out. Only you can make the final decision. Quote
Super User NHBull Posted January 1, 2018 Super User Posted January 1, 2018 1 hour ago, simek3ru said: I was pretty set on the Garmin Striker Plus 9sv, but after reading this, I am a bit skeptical. This unit comes with the CV52HW-TM Transducer that you guys say is pretty poor. Should I have reservations? Or are there plenty of people happy with the Garmin units? Love mine and the price was right! Quote
Comfortably Numb Posted January 6, 2018 Posted January 6, 2018 As I said if Di and Si are important to you, dont get a Garmin. On 12/27/2017 at 7:20 PM, bugbee77 said: The 'bird is an awesome unit, but for anyone reading this considering an Echomap they can produce better images than what was posted above. Show me some. I had the top of the line 7608 and GT50 transducer and my images were identical to the ones shown. Grainy and blurry. Quote
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