Hello all, I was hoping to hear some personal experience and suggestions regarding my preferencesfor a near-future purchase of either a new Lowrance HDS Live Pro or a comparable Simrad model....of which I'm still coming up to speed.

I've been a long-time fan and user of Lowrance since the inception of NMEA2K...and that original LMS-525C is still working fine (as a back-up) to it's replacement HDS 7 Gen3....

But I'm in need of a new model for my new-to-me '96 Kelsall 36 Suncat that needs all electronics upgraded....including the old, dead Furuno radar....

I started with the presumption of the new Lowrance HDS Pro 9, but once realizing you can't get Lowrance without their fishing-centric lakes mapping bundled, I noticed the Simrad models come with coastal mapping, not market-centered on the fishing crowd as Lowrance now seems to have taken on that identity....

Since Navico merged with Lowrance years ago, I've noted they now very much seem like their models, under the surface, on the motherboard and operating system, look like a Chevy vs Pontiac choice besides a few differentiating marketing choices to the fishing vs cruising markets, so once I realized I'd be wasting a chunk of money on that bundled fishing map card you can't NOT get with Lowrance, I thought I'd look at their Simrad brothers.

But I see a LOT of Simrad customer complaints about dead units after only a few months use, and refurb units available...as if there's a design or manufacturing defect ?

Anyone have any background on what I'd be getting myself into with Simrad instead of Lowrance...and/or Simrad model to recommend...their NSS9 or NSX9 ?

Thanks for any help,

Jeff

s/v Listen

s/v CatNapper