New Sounder HD 10 Gen2, Simrad NSS8 or add standalone Furuno 627 alongside 750s

[Tangles]

Currently have the Garmin 750s, love the Garmin as a chartplotter but cant get on with it as a sounder and dont want to add a 1kw transducer as its overkill and im still not convinced investing so much into a small unit, so i went to Trymax for a play with some of the sounders there:

Boat is a CC Explorer 485 which is a walkthrough so dont want to place a sounder on the passenger side as i know some do,

Options
1: Keep Garmin as standalone plotter and add a Furuno 627, this will fit on the dash but will mean a bit of mucking around to move compass and a bit of dash fibreglass work as Garmin is bang center. A 585 just wont fit well with the Garmin on the dash, well it will but i wont see any gauges or much of the Garmin so its not an option. ( i made templates up of the various options and its interesting that the HD10 has more real estate than the Garmin and 627 combined and the NSS8 doesnt)

I played around with the Furuno 627 and though it was good, the screen size was a bit small, and i thought the Lowrance and Simrad left it behind in terms of downscan/structure scan and i fish mainly the bay, the downscan really impressed me.

2: Other option is to go to a much larger unit and sell the Garmin but that raises the issue of transferring marks and Garmin has Homeport on a Mac which is very easy.

So now considering either Simrad NSS8 or the Lowrance HDGen2 10 especially after seeing the downscan. I made a template of the HD 10 and it fits as does the NSS8. Price with both is essentially the same as far as i can see with structure scan, but holy crap the price of the Navionics Platinum for what the Garmin basically has?

Garmin HD10 has same resolution as a HD8 ie 600 x 800 so i expect the resolution isnt as good on the HD10 as the HD8 but the HD10 has real estate, but the NSS8 has touch screen and a dial to twirl for gain etc and better colour palettes which i liked ...

So
1: Keep Garmin and add Furuno 627 ( benefit is good plotter and sounder, hard install on the dash but easy on a Mac with homeport but Furuno doesnt have downscan which really impressed me and the new the bottom discrimination on it was frustrating as you couldnt use range which is part of the point?)

2: Replace the Garmin and replace it with the NSS8 ( preferred as like touch screen and sounder colour palettes but smaller real estate as a combo) or go with the HD 10 Gen2 ( close 2nd but way more real estate as a combo... )

I figure that the cost difference will be about 1k between going the Furuno 627 with the Garmin as a standalone plotter and the NSS8 and Gen 10 as a combo when done and dusted if i sell the Garmin for a gorilla but you get the benefits of downscan/structure scan.

So any thoughts?


Cheers
Mike

[wags on the water]

Mike - for the areas you intend on fishing, you would be better off saving the coin and sticking with a 600w transducer rather than the 1kw unit. As we spoke the other day about different sounders/gps units, have you considered 2 x HDS 8's. They'd almost fit side by side in the dash....????.....something else to look into....

Cheers

[Tangles]

Dont think the HD8 x two would fit, but i was very impressed with the Simrads and the Lowrance, food for thought, cant get a 600kw transducer for the Garmin i think it currently has a 500w, its the 1kw or what i have and reckon that isnt worth it

mike

[Dicktracey]

Tangles we can hook up for a run before you buy mate I have HDS10 G2 & HDS5 X 2 600w transducer, caught Bill Corteon's using sounders presentation at the tinny and tackle show his advice was under 200m stick to standard 50/200 600w tran more than good enough, cant argue mate its worked so far.
Cheers
Dick

[leelee]

Mate I can't do without my hds 8 gen2 with lss2. They are superb.

The Simrad nss8 also comes preloaded with silver navionics map so also take that into consideration.

I have a heap of good screen shots if you want to see how the Gen 2 units work when not in demo mode.

Cheers

Lee

[Muddy Toes]

My sounder has a dial thingy for gain too Mike......it's great, it gives you that feeling that your really tweaking things and changing settings like an expert when you can use a combination of dials and buttons.It's an awesome feeling.

So what did Jim and the boys recommend for you?

Have you thought about dremmeling a hole in your hull and doing a self install on a 1kw thru hull?Surely it couldn't be too hard..........

[Tangles]

Dremelling is another topic Muddy, have a few things set aside to dremel on Friday and after low tide efforts at Raby bay this morning quite happy to leave the hull alone for a few days!

I was quite taken with downscan alongside the sounder, found that was easy to interpret which is what im struggling with the Garmin as against the Furuno/Simrad/Lowrance... then i discovered i can fit a HD10 on the dash but downside is it doesnt have touch screen, i was at Trymax still punching the screen.. but Simrad dont do a 10".. the NSS8 doesnt justify the expense for me over the HD10 so im sort of leaning that way

[outta line]

hi mike what $$$$ are the nss8 selling for now.. Ive had one for almost a year and its a gr8 bit of gear..the touch screen with push buttons/knob is the way to go if your getting bounced around driving trying to operate the glass screen is also a good idea for less scratching ...i had planes of using the nss8 as fishfinder to replace my 585 and buying another unit for chartplotter. but after a bit more thought i think ill keep the 585 and selling the nss8 to get its bigger brother the nss12 for chartplotter that way i can still add to it but i will have a bigger screen
mick

[Tangles]

Outta,

i got quoted

NSS8 $2550
HDS Gen 2 8" $2150
HDS Gen2 10" $2300

Add $250 for the 50/200 transducer and $500 for Navionics Plat Card

[Dicktracey]

Tangles I deffinatly wouldn't buy anything until boat show mate most suppliers get good rebates to sell at show rates only 2 weeks away

[whiteman]

There is a Garmin 750s thread running which might be helpful. My 750/627 works really well for me as I usually fish in 20m+. I cannot tell you how impressed me and my several boat owning deckies are with the clarity of the 627. Furuno has done something very good to the screen technology since the 620. On the weekend I saw fish clearly swimming on the bottom in 65m. Can't wait to get it even deeper.

[Boat Hog]

My sounder has a dial thingy for gain too Mike......it's great, it gives you that feeling that your really tweaking things and changing settings like an expert when you can use a combination of dials and buttons.It's an awesome feeling.

That cracked me up MT! I have twin NSS8's - that's twice as many dial thingys' ... still doesn't make me feel like an expert ... must be doing something wrong.

Mike, have you seen if Grand Marlin will give you a quote - supply only - on the Simrad etc? That way when you go round to pick up (accidently towing the boat of course), he will no doubt talk you through the how best to install.

Love the Simrad NSS, particularly the touch screen, scroll back on the sounder reading and mark sructure and fish then add as a waypoint - brilliant.

Cheers,