Howdy mate.
All kinds of crazy options out there atm for sure!. a lot of pros and cons and price points etc.
So first question, do you want this system to interchange with your noble and joshua or just staying on the one boat?
With waiting for that, lets look at whats available in that 9-12" range
MFDs
Garmin 1022xs
Garmin 1222xs
Garmin 7410xsv
Garmin 7412xsv
Simrad NSS12evo3
Simrad Nss9 evo3
Lowrance HDS9 Carbon
Lowrance HDS12 Carbon
Raymarine Axiom 9rv
Raymarine Axiom12RV
Raymarine Axiom Pro 9rvx
Raymarine Axiom PRO 12rvx
Humminbird Solix10si
Humminbird Solix 12si
So.... Some of those MFDs have the advantage of using manufactures own transducers and after market Airmar transducers.. this opens them up to both cost effect shallow water solutions and then high performance or deep water transducers. For example the Garmin GT transducers such as a GT51TM medium band CHIRP with Side and DOWNVU as well as an AIRMAR B175HW transducer would offer very good shallow water performance up to the 200m mark, with the medium band 600w GARMIN GT transducer offering good mid water level, and the additional side and down VU.
That same example could be used with the Raymarine Axiom PRO rvx with the RV-100 3d/side/down/high wide transducer and then an Airmar 175hw transducer. Or the Lowrance HDS/Simrad NSS with aTOTAL SCAN transducer featuring a wide beam 60o 83 (medium) chirp frequency and high 200khz frequency + Structure scan and down scan.
Those MFDS all offer a crazy amount of additional stuff, all done rather well. Autopilot radar engine interfacing video imput etc.
The odd one out there is the Humminbird Solix range, which itself has a rather unique position. its MEGA imaging SI transducer allows for a user modulated CHIRP frequencies and MEGAHERTZ range side and down imaging, when it comes to factory built shallow water performance the Humminbird mega imaging is on another plannet. However to run additional airmar transducers an exernal sonar computer would be required, the S3000 for example. this in itself offers pros and cons.. .external sonar computers do often offer better sonar results.
So the brands on paper offer pretty much the same stuff, with a few benifits here and there. so we need to go down a layer to see which onion is right.
The big ticket item i like to enphasise to people is Usability.... if a system is too hard to operate for somebody, it really doesnt matter how good the system would be or how well it performs.
All brands are a lot better than they used to be at this . most because they saw the light with the consumer electronic market with the likes of phones and tablets and emulated a lot of it. home screens, app like icons etc. Raymarines new Axiom generation itself is built in an android platform even which does lead it to be a very stable user interface
The next thing to consider would be build quality
None of these systems are cheap and nobody would really enjoy having to replace owing to it falling apart within a few years. that iphone mentallity doesnt fly too well with marine electronics. Build quality is pretty important as a result. Simrad/HDS do come towards the lower end of this, "however this is also reflected in its price" Garmin and Humminbird are rather good. Raymarines Axiom Pro is quite high up there. Humminbrids Solix range has prob the lowest end screen on the market. with the Simrad/Lowrance/Axiom Pro IPS screens being the best.
Touch vs buttons is another interesting one
Touch is here to stay and wont go away with most brands adopting it as a standard on their higher end systems .though "hybrid" systems are still around and a good option "touch is handy for mapping, renaming etc" buttons are handy for on water adjustments. with the exception of the 74XX series from garmin and standard raymarine Axiom range they are all Hybrid systems
Last thing would be then Budget.. to get the most rounded out system for you, under that budget. < this does reflect often on what transducer selection you choose.
so budget being 5-6k..... lets work on5.5k to be middle playing field
thinking cap on----- Moose