Lowrance or Furuno???

[goddy100]

Fellow Ausfishers,
It is time for another sounder, as I am tired of the X-71 playing up. Trouble is, what sounder?
Do I stick with Lowrance (X-125) or go for the Furuno 4100. Both are around the same price, lowrance has a better screen but furuno is supposedly more reliable.
Opinions please on these sounders from user would be appreciated. The winner will be fitted to a 4.3m barra boat used only in esturies and dams, so not interested in something that will punch down 200m;D .

Thanks
Goddy

[seamonkey]

Goddy

I'm putting a LS4100 thru its paces now. Can't speak for the Lowrance but if you read thru the forums you won't go wrong with a Furuno in terms of reliability and build quality and it does carry some good features such as the true bottom lock.

What I have found so far that may be of interest for you is I find the shallow water performance as in less than 5m a bit iffy. It seems very sensitive and you can get a lot of noise and clutter and have to ride the gain a lot. That said I'm still playing so it may just be me. Beyond 5 metres it seems very solid. Having only a 4 gray scale you have to set the screen brightness and contrast up correctly first otherwise signals become hard to interpret.

In short so far I'm satisfied, not bowled over but its early days.

Cheers
SM

[deadbeatloser]

Fellow Ausfishers,
It is time for another sounder, as I am tired of the X-71 playing up. Trouble is, what sounder?
Do I stick with Lowrance (X-125) or go for the Furuno 4100. Both are around the same price, lowrance has a better screen but furuno is supposedly more reliable.
Opinions please on these sounders from user would be appreciated. The winner will be fitted to a 4.3m barra boat used only in esturies and dams, so not interested in something that will punch down 200m;D .

Thanks
Goddy
you can purchase a raymarine ds500x for 600 with transducer from mr boats on ebay. awesome sounder 500rms. worth a look ,i had furuno ls 4100 before the raymarine and it only cost 150 more and it is 100 times sounder for the buks. just a thought;)

[northernblue]

If the NMEA features [fuel flow etc] are important the the lowrances seem to be way ahead.
I have been told that the lowrance is a better fresh than salt water unit [as far as readings go].
I had a LMS 330c on my last boat, a good unit.
I have never used a furuno, but am asking myself the same questions re a second unit for my new boat.

[marco]

goddy , if you go the ls4100 give me a pm as i have a word file that helps with tuning them , happy to email it .
mark

[Piscatory Pursuit]

Hi Guys,
A couple of things to consider. If you are fishing shallow water then you may want to consider a single frequency unit instead of a dual frequency. Reason being is the single freq has a 20 degree cone at 200 khz which is all you use in shallow water anyway. A Dual Freq will only have a 12 to 15 degree cone at 200 khz so you get a smaller view of the bottom. The X125 is single frequency and it is it very popular in freshwater circles here in the states. I prefer Furuno but they really are engineered for saltwater.
Something to think about.
Good Luck!

[FrankFWM]

I have had an LMS330c for a few years now - gets a fair bit of use - I am very happy with it - I do use the NMEA network with fuel flow sensors etc. - it's a great feature...

I have also seen people on here say they have issues in terms of reliability however that has not been my experience at all.

Frank

[goddy100]

Thanks for the replies!!
At the moment, I am leaning towards the lowrance, mainly because of the clarity of the screen. IMO it is way better to pick out bait and the like on than the Furuno, though I have found a place to get the Furuno for about $365 which is dam cheap.

Goddy