Ok guys ive deciced to bite the bullet an add a Ff to my yak looking for a compact unit. Kind of thinking either a
1- Humminbird Piranhamax 170
2-Lowrance x-4 pro
please give me your thought on these unit as its all new to me
Not familiar with the Lowrance, but I have heard good things about them. I have a Huminbird 180 PMax that I use on my boat, it has a black and white image. Haven't had any problems with it at all, I basically wanted something simple that would give me water temp, depth, and a decent description of what the bottom looks like, and wouldn't burn up a lot of amperage to run it.
This little 180 does it for me. I can run it for a half day fishing trip and it doesn't hardly use any juice at all..... nice little simple FF/DF..... If I had been looking for GPS and a color screen no doubt I'd have done something different, but for what I do with it and what I wanted it to do.. it does what I want just fine.
I heard that the 160's and 170's are very dependable too, and these little units are not too expensive either. I just boils down to how much technology you need and how much your willing to pay for it.....I like mine so far.
- dual beam 200/83 khz beams versus the lowrances single 200 khz
- 8 level grayscale over the lowrances 4 level (larger range of shades showing a greater array of sonar returns)
- 1600 PTP power over the 800 of the lowrance
- 200 RMS power over the 100 of the lowrance
- All other specifications for the units are pretty much the same.
** RMS Power (root mean square) is a function of PTP (peak to peak) power and while i dont full understand the difference of the two the RMS is a function of the PTP power. It basicly boils down to the more PTP/RMS power the stronger the sonar signal which will help in dirty (silty) and deeper water.
looking at the actual size of the units it seems the lowrance is a tiny bit more compact but overall i think its completely fair to say that the humminbird has lowrance beat for these two.
edit: i wanted to add that i have never used these two even in a store in demo mode and am only going off the specifications i read on their websites. the first hand info/reviews from people who have used them are more important than any numbers; not trying to put either unit down and im sure they are both fine choices.
I have the x4 and love it. it pick up great shows stumps way better than the humminbird i had. I havnt figured out how to get the arches instead of little fish markers but it gives u depth of the target fish. its basic but does great for the price its awesome but the guys on here will knowmore about this than I
I'm starting to get confused on lowrance models. This must be different from the Mark4? Mark4 has 2100 PTP and is dual frequent.
I decided the elite 4X was the best bang for the buck and have really been diggin it. For $169 it's hard to beat. Color definitely helps and with 320 vertical pxls it really has good detail.
Ok I found the x4 pro. The pro does have dual frequent. But still only 240 vertical pixels and 4 grayscale. 4 lvl gray scale isn't gonna show much variance.
What does the x4 cost?
I found out sat that when my elite 4x is on auto sensitivity it picks up the current swirling around and makes alot of clutter so I cut it back. Later when they cut the current off I cranked it back up. That caused a big plume of muddy water to come out of a creek and I was zig zagging in and out of the cloudy water and that also showed as "clutter". Point is they are pretty darn sensitive.
I really need another ff. I'll keep looking at the elite x4, and some of the Hummingbirds. I like what I hear about the elite x4. Is it sold at Wally World?
Here`s a link to laowrance on the X-4. http://www.lowrance.com/Products/Marine/Compact-Sonar-Fishfinders/X-4/
If you look on the left you can see all the models and click each one.
No wonder it`s hard to keep them straight! This thread is about the x-4. Then next step up is the MARK 4, then is the Elite4X.
I run 2 X-4's. One is the Pro and one the regular X-4. I love them both. They are clear as can be and have been great at picking up structure. Neither have given me any issues and my buddy uses my X-4 from time to time on his and likes it better then his Hummingturd.
Tony - I'm not familiar with either of those models, but you seemed to be doing just fine Saturday morning without the Fish Finder..... Nice meeting you out there and thanks for the mini crappie fishing lesson.
Keep your eyes peeled for an Eagle Cuda 350, IMO some of the best compacts Lowrance ever produced so I have NO IDEA why they stopped making them. They can be had for around $100 and just last week one came and went in the classifieds... Looks identical to the X4/Pro but they have 16 levels of gray, dual frequency, 240x160 pixels and GPS.
also depends on how you are going to mount the unit's tranducer. Some guys dislike the exterior suction cup style transducer mount that came with my humminbird portable that i use in my yak. while it DOES cause some drag when paddling/drifting, I like having the ability to detect changes in water temperature instantly as opposed to just the cool temperature of the kayak itself when using a transducer mounted inside the kayak. this will make your decision a little easier to narrow down. good luck.
fistmouth . was nice meeting you as well , that little area i stayed in put a few more in the yak for me, i just happened to hit that spot before an did ok last time out there i kind of use that big dead tree an the no wake bouys as my guide to where to be ,
This will be my first ever experience with a Ff so looking for it to be a "kiss" type unit
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