Simrad nss12 vs hds10 & furuno 295 combo...

[hooknpull]

Hey guys after spending Easter in my new 632f signature I bought second hand, I have decided I'm going to change my sounder gps combo earlier than I wanted to. My plans was to update later on in the year but my standard horizon is not very user friendly.. I am split between getting a Simrad nss12 with bsm2, structure scan and chirp transducer or buy a hds10 combo with structure scan and a Furuno 295 with 2kw transducer. If anyone could take the time to help me in making my decision it would be greatly appreciated. I'll also have to take a few photos of my rig and write a report on how much of a great boat I have cheers
Aaron

[sig632f]

you do have an awesome boat aaron. not biased at all.

[hooknpull]

Haha! I am very pleased with the boat! Fished the easter classic at coffs and I couldn't ask for a better performing boat.. I might have to change my avatar just like you :p

[hooknpull]

What sounder gps do you have on yours sig?

[team_mongo]

what depth are you fishing?
What are you fishing for? Eg Reef edge, pelagics, bottom bashing...

[No Fear]

Hi Aaron,

I have been using the Hds gear for about 6 years and value for money and ease of use, it is certainly a great unit. However I have just put the Simrad gear with BSM-2 and 1KW transducer and the results we got on the shelf over the weekend was really impressive. I am sure Grand Marlin will eventually put a post up about the results, but in my eyes, it was certainly money well spent. We were picking bottom up quite easy in 300+ meters and you could almost see every individual fish in the bait schools we found 10-30m off the top.
Like most things, you get what you pay for. I am still playing with settings but it is easy to use and the 12" is a big screen.
If you have the dollars, go SIMRAD, but the lowrance unit is a great value for money combo.

[hooknpull]

No fear! Just the kind of feed back I want to hear! Cheers mate thanks heaps for your time.... I will be fishing anywhere from 15m-1000m with electric reels maybe.. Who knows.. I have been told Simrad is not the best with some of their old equipment but I think they have hit the nail on the head with the new chirp technology..

[team_mongo]

Hook,

Was very impressed with the NSS12. Very easy to use. Easy to read display. We didn't use it in really deep water, but it definitely performed very well. When we used it, the side scan didn't appear that useful, but that would probably improve with more experience.

TM

[hooknpull]

Thanks mongo! Simrad 2- lowrance 0... Now I'm getting somewhere....

[sig632f]

g,day aaron, mine is heading next week to pete aka grand marlin for a couple of simrad nss8's with the chirp etc. looking forward to spending the next 6 months learning how to use it and who knows might even catch fish for a change.

[hooknpull]

Awesome sig! Why did you get the 2 nss8's and not the 12? What other features are you getting? Like bsm2 structure scan? Stuff like that.. Cheers
Aaron

[No Fear]

Aaron,

Hopefully Pete will jump in, but I think the difference with the 12 and the 8 is that the BSM-2 software is built into the 8, whereas you need to buy the actual unit for the 12. This is obviously an additional charge.
The first thing I said to Pete when I seen some of the readings that we were getting was that I was glad I got the bigger screen only so I could see all the minor detail that the transducer was showing. For example, you could see individual baitfish in a baitball in 30m, and individual fish in 100m. Once again it is all driven by what you can afford.

[sig632f]

g'day aaron, yep bsm2 structure scan. the reason i'm going the 8's is the current northstar combo in the dash is an 8 and for me this size suits and will be gps/fuel management/radar.(future) the other nss8 will be for sounder. regards, tony.

[Grand_Marlin]

G'day Hooknpull,
Without doubt, the Simrad NSS with the BSM 2 and Chirp Transducer is the most impressive thing I have ever seen on the water.
As No Fear said it punched down to 375m on auto gain and showed everything on high frequency!
This was trolling at 8 knots.
This was also our first play with the unit in deeper water.
I have no doubt that when we play with the unit in low frequency and manual mode in the deeper water we will return some spectacular results.
While we were in the deep water we found bait schools ranging typically from 0 to 30m and down to 100m. There was some surface clutter on the full depth screen but the chirp broadband sounder still showed the bait in between the clutter.
I changed the range to 0 - 100m and was blown away by the results. All surface clutter disappeared, the screen was crystal clear, and you could see every detail of the bait schools - shape, varying density and we could easily define when the predators were amongst the bait schools. In this case we are pretty sure they were individual large sharks.

We later called in at Nathan's secret spot in 100m on deep tempest.
There was a small to medium sized very dense bait ball 10m off the bottom with six individual predators that showed up in perfect fish arches beside the ball. We couldn't get to the bottom because of the tide & current ripping through but I would call the predators either Amberjack or Kingies.
The most impressive thing for me was the clarity and definition. If you will, liken it to the difference between an older crt colour tv screen and a hd plasma.
Just amazing.

You may notice that whilst I sell and install these units I have not until now commented in depth on their performance because as I always do, wanted to see it with my own eyes before I make final judgement.
I had two concerns with chirp.
1. Because of the power and depth capabilities, would it be crap in shallow water? Answer is no, it is still awesome in shallow water a well. Coming out of the cabbage tree creek entrance the chirp showed the dredging holes and bait hanging on the top edge in 3 -9m with every bit a much precision as it did in 100m

2. Is the price of chirp justifiable over a standard 1kw transducer?
If you compare the chirp 1kw to the standard 1kw transducer coupled to a NSS 12, the price difference is around $2800 more. (note I haven't compared 600w transducers as they're not available as chirp yet)
The standard 1kw transducer is still a very, very impressive unit and will continue to suit a lot of people.
Whilst it is more expensive, The chirp is easily twice a good and does command the extra $$$
My advice after seeing the Simrad / chirp in action... Save up some $$$ and go for it... It is that good.

From Nathan's question. The NSS 7 and 8 have built in BSM 1 sounder module. The NSS 12 has nothing built in. It is designed and priced to allow you to choose the sounder module you require. The BSM 1 will run a standard 1kw transducer but it will not run chirp. You must add the BSM 2 to run chirp.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Pete
(Valet Boat Services)

[Grand_Marlin]

We took some screen shots in the deeper water but I didn't have a micro sim card to download them.
Coming soon!

Cheers

Pete