Upgrade Simrad CE33 to Furuno 585?

[freddofrog]

Hi all

Not sure how many of you can answer this but here goes.

I'm considering upgrading my existing Simrad unit that came with boat to the Furuno 585 but wondering how much better if at all the Furuno will be over the Simrad.

The main obvious difference is screen size. The Simrad is only 320x240 (5.7") vs the 640x480 (8.4"). Both have a airmar 600W dual frequency transducer, bottom lock etc.

What do you think?

Shane

[two up]

Used to fish on a boat with a CE 33, was a very good sounder. My current boat has a 585 with M260 transducer and would say it is a definate improvement, much easier to read ( bigger screen ) and better detail (higher pixel rate, higher quality transducer ). Make sure you get the best quality transducer you can afford to get the best out of the sounder. Good luck.

Just re-read your post, if you are going to keep the 600w transducer I don't think I would spend that much for the improvement you will get. My previous comments about improvement is based on a system that due to the much higher sensitivity of a 1kw tranny inputting to a screen that is able to show that data in much higher detail.

[freddofrog]

Thanks for the feedback two up. I wasn't expecting anyone with experience with both so appreciated

I'm pretty keen to get the 585 but it sounds like the improvement will be marginal unless I get the 1kW tranny. The deepest we fish is around 110m, most often 30-50m, so I wasn't planning on getting it. At over $1k for the M260 plus $2k for the 585 its starting to get become an expensive exercise.

Depending on how you look at it, it's sad that I have to spend over $3k to get a better sounder or good that my current sounder is that good that I have to send over $3k to get something better.

hmmm...what to do....

[two up]

Shane,

The CE 33 is top of the tree, pre digital sounders, fishing the depths you fish I would be sticking with what you have got unless you have 3 grand burning a hole in your pocker.

[james1]

Is there a chance that you could upgrade your CE 33 to a 1KW transducer and just go with the better reception of the 1KW.

[freddofrog]

While I don’t exactly have $3k to burn it’s not far from it. (Redundancy package coming my way, every cloud has a silver lining ) I went down to the local Furuno dealer and he says the same thing your saying. Marginal improvement unless you get the 1kW tranny but for the type of depths I generally do, 30-50m in a 5.2KC, it’s not really worth it.

The simrad is only a 600W unit so is there much benefit to putting a 1kW on it, assuming I could in the first place?

[two up]

No .

[flyin marlin]

I have the simrad ce33 combo and after a while decided to get the furuno 620 for the main reason that the simrad couldnt split the screen whilst sounding or navigating.so now i use the simrad solely for chartplotting and the furuno for sounding.but as for the fact as a sounder which one is better? using a 600w transducer on both the quality on soundings is the same but the furuno is far better in user friendly and splitting the screens.eg dual 50/200,200/bottom zoom.

[freddofrog]

That was the plan flyin marlin, use the simrad as a plotter and furuno as sounder. This may be reason enough to get one anyway.