Humminbird 798ci HD SI

[skaggst]

Thinking about getting one of these since I found a great deal on one online....was wondering if anyone has used it and if it worked as advertised.

 

[alldodge]

From what I have looked into, the unit is as advertised. That being said it does not use the latest technology which is CHIRP. Do you need CHIRP I don't know, only you can decide. I have been looking at hummingbird, Lowrance and Garmin for sidescan/down vu. Garmin uses the latest technology and both will give a decent picture of the bottom but Garmin will be better. I'm looking for something which can identify items on the bottom so I can SCBA down and pick them up in fresh water. If your fresh water fishing and that's what you want it for then it should work, just how much more do you want.

 

[dingbat]

CHIRP is the new "not quite the truth" marketing gimmick being used in the recreational sounder market.

While "real" CHIRP is far superior to anything else on the market, it's expense. CHIRP transducers alone start at $1.5K and go up from there. A decent head unit and transducer can easily go upwards of $3-4K.

 

[alldodge]

CHIRP is the new "not quite the truth" marketing gimmick being used in the recreational sounder market.

While "real" CHIRP is far superior to anything else on the market, it's expense. CHIRP transducers alone start at $1.5K and go up from there. A decent head unit and transducer can easily go upwards of $3-4K.

Sorry I paraphrased from your previous discussion of CHIRP/non-CHIRP. In short would you say that the Garmin 7xx series side view/Down Vu using CHIRP is better or the same as the Hummingbird HD SI

 

[metriccrescentwrench]

I've got a 798 and it works perfectly well. The only thing I'd suggest is getting the XHS 9 HDSI 180 T transducer - contact Humminbird and they'll have you send in your stock transducer plus a little $$$ and they'll send you the HDSI transducer (that's the one that's on the pricier units, provides a bit better resolution).