Elite 7 with chirp

[power dive]

Anyone running these? Thinking about buying one.

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[GAMBLER]

I purchased one this spring as my backup unit.  It seems good. 

[power dive]

Its a toss up elite7 or the proven furno 1870 probably can't go wrong with ether

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[chinook266]

I can't speak specifically for the Elite 7 with chirp but I have run a chirp sonar side by side with a traditional. I have a Furuno 585 with an Airmar p66 transducer and a Garmin GPSMAP 741xs with an Airmar TM150M chirp transducer. I used them both together on lake O for the first time this past week. I have to say I got a better picture with the Furuno. The Furuno was showing marks that were not on the Garmin. There were times in 100 fow where both screens were showing a large bait ball on the bottom but the Furuno was showing arches around it while the Garmin did not. Some of this may have been due to settings which I'll have to play around with next time I'm out. It also could be transducer location. The p66 with the Furuno is located on the starboard side of the transom while the TM150M is on the port side between the kicker and main motor. I was using the kicker which was giving some interference with the Garmin and I was unable to increase the gain too high without getting a lot of interference. After looking at the specs for both transducers again, the p66 has a larger beamwidth at 50 kHz of 45 vs 26-17 for the TM150M, and twice the power at 600W vs 300W.

 

So long story short, I don't believe the 'affordable' chirp units out now are that much of an upgrade over traditional sonar. I may change my mind after using it a bit more but was a bit underwhelmed the first time out. If anyone is interested I can try to take some pics with my phone of the 2 units side by side next time I get out.

[Sk8man]

Sounds as though you came up with the probable answer to your situation (transducer difference and placement. As far as everything I have read and deciphered the main difference between a CHIRP and non CHIRP unit ( e.g. the Elite7's) Is that is"cleans up" or adds to  the signal a bit at the mid range giving it a little better target separation (e.g. between a fish and bait for example), higher definition (resolution) of the target, and cleans up some of the signal so there is less "static" looking stuff on the screen (provided someone isn't using a similar unit nearby ). I currently have the non-CHIRP HDI model and it seems to perform the tasks acceptably without CHIRP (defined arches and separation from bait at least when used on the 200khz mode. The 83 khz may be a little different situation when running deep.

Edited June 17, 2015 by Sk8man

[power dive]

I went with the 1870 with the p66.

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