Raymarine A65

[Evanw]

Anyone got one?

Anyone used one?

I know everyone loves Furuno but I'm keen to understand about the Raymarine A65 combo

[Tube_Worm]

Good reports from what I've read ! Raymarine's digital technology is very good !

[snelly1971]

Seen a couple in different boats....great quality gear but i would put my money into Furuno...

Cheers Mick

[Evanw]

So why is everyone so pro Furuno? The Raymarine has great specs, digital combo unit, 6.5" widescreen but still everyone says get a FCV620 or 585 + separate GPS

I've had 3 combos now, nothing fancy, just Lowrance and Navman but they're ok for $2000

what's better with Furuno over Raymarine?

[Piscatory Pursuit]

The case for having separate units is that if one fails, you still have the other one. Another case is you don't have to do the switching between fishfinder and gps and split screen. Both the Furuno and Raymarine have similar specifications and while there are a lot of guys on this site that love Furuno you will also find alot that love Raymarine. I currently have a Furuno 620 on my boat and I absolutely love it. Last year I had the opportunity to use a Raymarine E120 system and I was very impressed. It is tough to tell you exactly why I like the Furuno better but I think the digital processing must be better because I really like the detail I get with the Furuno.

I don't think you can go wrong either way, but I lean towards the Furuno.
Good Luck!

[Smithy]

Where I use them on the shelf, I hate all the digital auto crap. One boat I fish on has twin E120s and a 48 mile radar. You can't get better than that in Raymarine but it frustrates the crap out of me. Give me full-on hard core gear to use any day. Raymarine comes across as the type of gear you just turn on and run in auto and do ok with. I am a gadget freak and like to get the best out of my equipment therefore I want pro type brands like Furuno, Koden or JRC as far as sounders go.

[Fiji fish head]

its still very new!! i have had mine for a year and its a beauty!!!!, great colour particularly in daylight!!price is a bit steep but its worth it!!

[Deiter]

I too had a think about the combo/ separate units, the arguement against combos being that if it fails, you lose everything.

Well, I solved this by getting two combos! if one fails, i can just plug the cables required into the other! Problem solved!

So there you go Ewan, for ultimate contingency control, get two A65's

Damo

[Smithy]

Evan,

have a read of Pink Panthers review. Not real flash. I have got to say using the E120s and C120s that I have used, I have experienced the same things, simple GPS functions I am used to from Lowrance/Eagles, Navmans etc. either non existent or very hard to find and burried way down in some menu structures on the Raymarines.

[RobSee]

I'm more than happy with my a65.

Good support, and excellent sounder

[shonky1]

Read thepinkpanthers reveiw again and it dispells a lot of negatives. Ican only rave about mine

[ThePinkPanther]

Yeh Smithy, damn shame they didn't just make that extra effort to turn what is nonetheless quite a nice little piece of equipment that would have made it top seller.... when something has big price drop like this one, have to assume it was not all that well received in the market place!

Guess the little dots making up the track/plot would have cost 'em an extra couple of hundreed bucks eh?

Having said, that...... the A65 is only as good as the effort you put into mastering it and though I am not overly fussed, still keeps me off the rocks at days end!

[disorderly]

Hi Evan,

Read your post on fishnet.
Just wondering aside from screen size,how much better do you think, as an actual sounder is the raymarine combo than the garmin 178c?.
I am currently looking at a stand alone sounder to compliment my 178c combo and with all the good press on the furuno FCV 620 for around $900 I dont see many alternatives to rival it.
I'd appreciate your thoughts on this subject(knowing that you have not test driven the Furuno,neither have I)

regards

Scott.

[Evanw]

Scott

The sounder on the A65 was crystal clear, sharp and gave an amazing view of the bottom. If you have a 178C and want to use it as the GPS and get a separate sounder then I'd honestly recommend going the Furuno 620 or 585 coz the A65 is a $2295 + map option Vs the 620 at for around $900 as you've quoted.

But for me a combo means A65 and I want to combo to maximum screen size when on sounder or GPS and a split screen that's very useable - much better in a 'landscape' view than a 'portrait' view that you get on most combos, like Navman, Lowrance (LMS335) and Garmin 178C

The sounder produced a very sharp and consistent bottom lock, the unit was very easy to use, I didn't play a whole lot today when I was out but I'm confident when I get mine in a 2 or 3 weeks I really won't need the manual to get it going and doing all the right things (but I'll read it anyway coz I can). The split screen zoom was great, the fish sightings were amazing and we generally caught stuff where we saw activity. The amazing thing was sounding around a place we call 'the rock' in the Hawkesbury which is a Jewfish hole and the bottom view was so amazing we made the A65 take a 'saved image' of it, pretty amazing feature and we saw a beautiful big fish arch in the Jewfish hole, had no fresh bait and it was the end of the day for us but it was tempting to chuck a plastic down just for the hell of it.

The most impressive thing was getting a view of the same reefs we go to every outing in a very different way, clearer, sharper, much more detail and better fish visibility without clutter - all Auto and worked a dream. We were in 7m to 30m of water at 5knots to some 30knots and it never dropped a beat - tracked, showed everything all the time.

Having said all that Scott, for what you're trying to do the Furuno seems to be better value although I've noticed a few postings around at the moment with people with issues installing or using these babies so I'm not 100% convinced they're the bees knees but I'm no expert

Good luck

Evam