My neighbor just bought a HDS 10 gen 2 for $1500. The smaller screens are proba ly much cheaper. I think he said Cabelas was dumping them for the new touch screen models
HDS with structure scan is awesome - but there is a learning curve. The real question is what advantage(s) do the HDS (with structure scan ) offer over the Elite with downscan imaging (which I believe is not an extra cost option on that unit). I don't have the answer to that question. Then the next question is whether you need that/those advantage(s) for your boating/fishing application.
We have the Lowrance Elite DSI and love it. Great mapping built into the unit and unbelievable detail, extremely easy to use. We purchased ours at a great price at West Marine last June. You can go to the Lowrance website and down load the simulators to check out the units.
I'm not as quick to say yes the HDS is worth the extra money. The elite series is more like the older Lowrance stuff before they came out with the HDS. Simple, effective, not alot of bells and whistles.
I had the Elite 5 before this new DSI series came out and thought it was the best deal for the money.
If you know you don't want structure scan then i would certainly play around with the simulators and give the Elite series a hard look.
Played around with the Elite 7 HDI @ BPS and it has a ton of features for a $700 unit. It had broadband sonar just like the HDS series. One cool feature is the down scan overlay overtop of the broadband sounder.
I bought the HDS 7 back in August and LOVE it!!! It is the best fish finder I have ever had and I could not imagine anything being any better. I would highly suggest you purchase through BOE Marine. I searched and searched everywhere and they hands down have the best prices and service around. They can answer every and all questions tht you have from installation to setup.
You will not go wrong with the HDS 7! If you have any questions feel free to PM me.
I have an HDS-7, which I got last Spring. The quality of the picture and ect. is awesome. The Structure Scan is really neat, although I have not learned to master that yet. One thing that I do like is that it is easy to tune for different situations. The mapping is really good. It is next to a high end Furuno unit from 2005 with about the same size screen, just having 2 screens to work with is nice. I have not had the chance to use it a ton since I have only had it for less than one season, but I will say that it is a quality product.
The screen on the 7 is small. Go bigger if you can.
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