Preference for new elecctronics 2 x 7" or 1 x 9" or 10" combo

[anythingfishy1]

Hi Guys
I have a whittley sea legend and I am in need of new electronics but I have console size restraints.
I am tossing up to get 2 x Simrad GO7's or 1 9" or 10" of ( I dont now which one).
My main fishing in under the 100 metres around Moreton etc.
Your thoughts?


Cheers
Kelvin

[perko]

Check out a garmin 7410xsv. Great unit.

[Gr0wler]

Furuno is the best, I have a simrad nss12, Lowrance hds 7 gen 2 touch, humminbird something (don't use it) and a Furuno FCV585 and I'm upgrading soon and it will only be Furuno as nothing compares to furuno for offshore work.

[bannana]

It always comes down to budget but the TZT 2 is worth a look.

[Dogtoooth]

I don't like furuno's gps. I prefer Garmin for a stand alone gps, like gr0wler said you can't go past a furuno sounder for offshore work.

[scottar]

Take a look at all the brands an consider that some brands have better user interfaces than others for their GPS and some have sounders that actually work better. You may be better off with different brands for the two bits of gear. Unless your OCD won't allow you to have different looking display's of course.

[ShaneC]

Im pretty sure that there are plenty in the know that will argue that furuno is not the best. Perhaps when they catch up with the competition and develop a bit of gear capable of running high power chirp transducers they will retake their place on top of the table but until then talk is cheap and they are about four years behind a few others......

[scottar]

Chirp may well be the latest and greatest but when you do a side by side comparison specifically relative to offshore fishing in the depths that Joe Average spends most of there time the difference is markedly less than the proponents of chirp make out. Sure, the echoes are a bit more defined but you certainly don't need the definition to catch fish. Furuno have not bothered developing cheap chirp based units IMO simply because they haven't needed to. The other brands had to grab chirp with both hands and run with it because prior to chirp, their sounder performance in comparison to Furuno could arguably be classed as quite poor either in depth performance or noise immunity or both. The other thing that you find with the small Furuno colour units is that they just work - you don't have to drive the pants off the things to get a decent picture - typically the only adjustments required are range, shift - which I program to the function key and gain. All of these are then on the front of the unit and the menu does not need to be accessed at all - all day or maybe even ever again. Performance aside, Furuno has certainly made a reputation for itself as a market leader in reliability. They are not infallible but no brand is and they were certainly one of the most reliable brands I worked with.

Now, that said, furthering my earlier comments and as Dogtooth sort of stated, some of Furuno's GPS software is an absolute PITA to use in so much that is not intuitive. If you use your unit regularly this may not present an issue at all but for the average punter that may go substantial periods of time without using our boats, it can be problematic. As with all this sort of gear some punters pick it up a heap easier than others and some find brand "X" a heap more intuitive than brand "Y". One thing I always told clients who couldn't decide between brands was to have a look at the common day to day stuff - zooming, panning, marking events, entering a waypoint, naming a waypoint, setting up a goto, cancelling a goto, managing track lines and deleting waypoints just to name a few. Don't get caught up in in flashy features that in all reality you will probably only use to impress your mates in the driveway at home.

[ShaneC]

I beg to differ. For me the difference with chirp means telling the difference between bait, prawns and target fish without wasting 15 mins dropping on them to find out what the blob on the sounder is. Furuno have spruiked for years that their high performance chirp is around the corner but it never materialises. I have no doubt that if/when they finally release it it will be amazing and I will probably be in line to buy one but until then they are behind the market. VC Commodores were reliable too, did the job for most people and were easy to drive. The new ones work better though......

[scottar]

I beg to differ. For me.....

And there is the issue with the using "best" in the description of anything. You have obviously found chirp useful. Me, not so much. Personally I simply can't be bothered chasing through menus to make day to day adjustments - so much so I have just fitted a second Furuno stand alone sounder so I don't have to use the one in my GP7000F. As such the budget versions of chirp in the menu driven MFD's weren't the "best" option for me. Furuno have chirp - you just need a second mortgage to get it at the minute as they too have gone the MFD route but don't offer a budget range of MFD based gear but if your budget stretches it is good kit. IMO it may filter into the smaller unit's either when the current generation is replaced or sales start to drop but at the moment they still sell like scones at a school fete.