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Hi looking at replacing a current paired system of Lowrance GPS and a Furuno 620 to a new Garmin ECHOMAP 95sv. And am concerned I might be going backwards in performance ? I know the Garmins screen resolution is great but it’s actual sonar performance?
Sadly budget won’t stretch to the Ecomap 10 ultra with bigger GT54 transducer and that transducer won’t fit the 95sv so that option is not there.
keen to know if anyone has changed themselves ?
A lot of variables here not mentioned. Where you fish, bay, offshore, rivers? why your changing, current performance of your existing set up, or what you are trying to achieve thats better than what you already have.
I run 2 / 7412xsv's one for GPS the other for sounder. It has true chirp and has a thru hull 1kw transducer.
I upgraded from an old 12inch Northstar and a JRC sounder, but before that had a Furuno 620.
The issue I was solving was, slow refresh rate on GPS, no available upgrades as Northstar were brought out, in general the unit was falling apart and the JRC although I loved and still love it for it's bottom discrimination mode I struggled to see the screen as they weren't daylight viewable like the more modern units of today.
Bang for buck in offshore sounders I still reckon Furuno 588 is the go, though thats not comparing it to two Garmin 7412's with true chirp and a 1kw thru hull. Plus you would still need a seperate GPS.
I think the single best function of the new units are network ability. Also being able to scroll back through the sounder page and place a mark exactly on top of something you noticed a while ago and then decided bugger it i'll have a look at that on my way home and just scroll back and mark it. Other benefits are the GPS refresh rates which are much quicker in the new units, rarely encountering stuck GPS screens.
I fish offshore only so side view to me isn't that important, or at least I haven't learnt to use it properly. But if you looking for structure along the rivers edge often then maybe it's important. Rarely a day offshore would be calm enough for side imaging.
The biggest issue I have with the 95 is screen size and trying to do everything on one screen. For example to bottom lock 20metres from the bottom its back through the menu tab, whereas an individual sounder such as the Furuno you can program the function key to do it.
As far as performance I'd say you will be fine up to 60m after that the 620 might out perform it, but I can't confirm this is true as my mate who owns one only fishes the bay and he loves it.
The difference with the other brands is you usually need to purchase at least the 1 kilowatt transducer to get the performance from them that the Furuno is capable of getting from a $150 transom mount as far as offshore goes IMO. That and the ease of operation that comes from being stand alone and not being menu driven for basic controls as Almako mentioned.
I've come from a 588/garmin 750 setup in the old rig (600w on the 588) to pair of 7410's in the new rig with pair of 1kw through hulls, one in wide angle. I was furuno man all the way but in in going to full house type setup i couldn't swallow the furuno bill on the new build so went to the garmin. Its probab;y an unfair comparison given the trannies i'm running but i'm really happy witht he performance to date, I also find the garmin system really easy to use and i think the chirp combines with a great display really gives good picture, backtracking on the sonar very handy when sounding at 18 or 20 knots. The old 588 was a great unit and never let me down for the 10 years i had it, value for money i recon a 588 with a 1kw would be hard to beat if it were only fish finding you wanted to do. For complete networked packages its hard to go past paired networked set i recon, also easier to expand the system from newer generation mfd versus a 588.
Scott