Comparaison between HB & Lowrance

[Wallyandre (Andre)]

From a post on another site (very good and objective)
The cone angle.
Both are specified as 20/60 degree cones. But Humminbird's specification is at -10db while Lowrance is at -3db. This means that Lowrance's 20 degree cone is wider than Humminbird's 20 degree cone. In shallow water a wide cone can be advantageous to a tight cone. In deep water (100') a tight cone can be advantageous to a wide cone.

Ping Speed.
On Humminbird it is automatic being set internally in the software. On Lowrance it is either automatic or manual. Having the ability to manually adjust the ping speed can eliminate interference from a nearby boat and sometimes can allow you to run two units at the same frequency without interference. Humminbird pings both 200 and 83 all the time. In water less than 60 ft it doesn't matter much. In deeper water it matters a lot particularly if you idle around an area to see what fish are there. By setting a Lowrance unit to a single frequency and max ping speed your boat speed can be faster than with a Humminbird and still see the fish clearly.
The automatic ping rate on the Humminbird is a touch on the fast side. This gives you a quick screen response. However, at 150 ft, it makes it's own interference. There is only about one month of the year that I'm concerned about what I see at 150 ft, but at that time of year, it's a bummer with the Humminbird.

Frequency Selection.
On Lowrance the frequency selection you make is what you get. You select 200, you get 200 only. You select 83, you get 83 only. Select both, you get both. On Humminbird you are only selecting what to look at on the screen. The transducer is still pinging both frequencies all the time. That's significant in two situations.
1. Where you want to run two units at the same time. With Lowrance you can select 200 on one unit and 83 on the other unit and run both without interference. With Humminbird to avoid interference in this situation requires you to be in water quite shallow so the cones do not overlap.
2. Deep water. The Lowrance will perform better in deep water setting it to a single frequency with max ping speed. The Humminbird cannot match this performance since both frequencies are pinging all the time. My experience, somewhat subjective, is that it is ping200, ping200, ping83, ping200, ping200, ping83. I say this because the Humminbird 83 kHz in water deeper than 60 ft is a poor performer. The Lowrance does well. It's not because of the name Lowrance, it's how the frequency is implemented; single frequency with max ping speed. In water shallower than 60 feet the ping rate of both brands. both frequencies on automatic is fast enough that the visual difference is negligible.

[digitroll (ron)]

Very informative Andre! I am really impressed with the Lowrance when comparing apples to apples with 60'-120' from June to December view vs. Hummingbird.

Thanks for educating us!

[Gecha (Gerry)]

Glad to hear Lowrance has better coverage than HB. Very satisfied with my HDS and LMS I am using now.

[mrwalleye]

I have a HDS 9 touch and HDS 7 touch and love them both. Lowrance makes great products. Nice to see the breakdown comparison.

[Shake-n-Bake]

Interesting. I noticed interference with my HB 958 while in deep water out of Fairhaven Lake Ontario a few times and could not figure it out. It does not happen all the time though. Odd that it would be intermittent.