 The ever-recurring question...how to choose a new sonar unit?
I fish primarily freshwater for striped bass with a few trips to S FL each year where I use the boat nearshore/offshore as weather permits. The boat is a 21' bay boat. My current sonar unit is acting really squirrely and since it's basically 8 year old technology I can't see putting any more $ into it to fix it at this point. An update to a new unit seems to make more sense. I have not been very happy with this producers product so I won't be buying from them again (Computrol/BottomLine). I also have a hand held Garmin GPSMap unit.
The primary type of fishing I do is focused on finding midlake structure, bait and fish in water less than 60' +/- though I run through deeper areas routinely and I want to be able to read the bottom at cruise speed. I'm not particularly set on either a mono or color unit of any particular type of screen (eg lcd, crt, tft et al) or manufacturer. I do need H2O temp data. As a matter of preference I really like the larger screens with the larger dimension being horizontal rather than vertical. This is just personal preference though as it helps me maintain perspective on what I'm seeing on the screen. How small is too small? I don't really know for sure, but probably anything smaller than 5" or so is going to be too small is my sense at the moment.
I'm totally confused on how to select a product at this point. I'd like to keep price below $500 but that's not hard and fast. If I have to I'd rather spend $600 and be very happy than spend $400 and wish I'd spent a little more. It's clear from the comments I've dug up in the archives that many folks here think highly of the RayMarine and Furuno products. I have to admit that the HDFI info at the Ray website looks impressive. Not sure that I really need that though...at the moment I'm thinking that maybe a larger mono screen that isn't as sensitive might be a better direction given my budget and the application. That however probably means going to Lowrance, and I'm very leery of doing that for all the obvious reasons. I will be using a transom mount 'ducer whatever unit I go with. I looked at the Garmin 320C info as well and admit that it would be handy to be able to connect my handheld Garmin GPS unit to the sonar...or at least I think it would right now and that's totally a secondary consideration anyway. I do have a Bass Pro in the area to go get a touchy-feely sense for many of the units (except Furuno) but their inventory here is going to be limited and I don't think I'll find the Raymarine or Furuno anywhere else in the area which could be a problem for me. I have no issue buying online, but having had no personal experience with any of the Furuno or RayMarine products it will be hard to justify taking that plunge without the opportunity to "play" with the units first hand.
As for the Lowrance issues, I've been wondering how their claims per unit sold compare to these other producers units. I realize we've all heard a lot of cautionary tales about Lowrance products but if they have more units in the field than the other producers then even with similar reliability you'd most likely hear more about problems with their products, right?
Regarding H-bird...I haven't had any of their units in many years and it could be a very different scenario now, but my experience with their gear in the past was not positive. Their selection in my price range doesn't seem to address my application very well either. I'd prob go Lowrance/Eagle before I did H-bird. If $ was no issue that might be different.
Any helpful information on best to go about making this choice...which units to focus on would be appreciated.
Tim
One thing I forgot...since my $$ yamaha fuel mgmt gauge died for no apparent reason and they won't work with me on it I have to say that I really do like the idea of being able to add a comparatively inexpensive fuel flow gauge through the Lowrance NMEA backbone..... | 
