Northstar 657 or 660

[Andrew Goldsworthy]

Hi Guys

Am a first timer, but have taken a lot of interest in questions/answers posted.

Currently consdering a Northstar 657 or 660 GPS/,Fish finder. Other than producers blurb can't find any worthwhile reviews/comparisons.

Any imput re reliability, useability, fish definition, pros cons etc etc would be hugely useful.

I would be using a t/m transducer and fishing mostly 30 to 150 metres.

Any help greatly appreciated

[Broomey]

Hi Andrew,

Don't know if this will help you much, I have both Northstar tracker and Fish Finder, in our Boat and hav'nt had any probs at all, exactly the same menu set up as Navman {Northstar, Navmans poor brother!!!but does the same job for less cost}, We have found both units very reliable, user friendly, fish definition can be set in 3 different views.Will be able to get to the depths that you are talking.

Used Navman/Northstar, in our previous boat as well, so did'nt have any hesitation putting there gear in the new rig.

I;m sure others on here will probably say Navman /Northstar probably not the best set ups, but we hav'nt had any problems with them, and once you know your way around the menus we found them easy to use, and thats what we wanted.

Good luck, and hope this may of been off some help for you!!.:-/


Broomey

[Taroona]

I don't have a 657 but the comments are relevant to the 657.

I bought the 557 as I only wanted the chart plotter. If you look around at the tech details of the various models on the market you will find that it is one of the very few which are reasonably priced with a display that has 640x480 pixels in a 5" screen size.

The more pixels you have in the display the better the clarity of the information displayed.

I went to the Snactuary Cove boat show where all the manaufacturers had working models on their stands. I found that no matter what price you paid all the functions seemed to be almost identical, but the big difference was the pixels.

As for my 557 always worked never had a problem so far and easy to operate and I would imagine that the sounder function on the one you are looking at would be just as easy to operate

Les

[Andrew Goldsworthy]

Broomey and Les,

Thanks for the heads up. might go with the 660 as it has the larger screen (7inches) and 800 vertical by 480 pixel count. The reliability factor was the main concern

Regards
Andrew