What makes the higher-priced MarCum flashers worth the money?

[twodogs02]

What tipped the scale for me was moving away from the round dial, a much bigger screen (LX-7), graphing and the ability to upgrade the unit.  The upgrades are free and give you improved and sometimes new (5 color mode) features but it all boils down to what is important to you relative to the price you wish to pay.

[tjacob]

As one who has owned Lowrance, Vexilar and Marcum units and had minimal problems with all of them. I would say you'll love the VX 1. It's a great entry unit. All brands have great entry units, so test them and compare.
 I had battery life issues with my Lowrance, Noise issues with the Vexilar and transducer issues with Marcum. At some point after you learn what your unit will do compared to a more advanced unit you will look to upgrade. Once you figure out what you expect from your sonar, go from there.
I'm currently running two Marcums (LX-5 and LX-6). May have to do some changing again as they don't seem to want to play well together in shallow water. I do love my LX 6 though so it's a keeper. I like the display where you can have sonar, flasher and zoom all on the same screen. Super handy. It's really quiet and display is crisp. Target separation and upgradable are also plus's.  Plan to use it open water this summer as well.
Didn't mean to leave out Hummingbird, but never operated one.

[pikeaddict]

I'm currently running two Marcums (LX-5 and LX-6). May have to do some changing again as they don't seem to want to play well together in shallow water. I do love my LX 6 though so it's a keeper. I like the display where you can have sonar, flasher and zoom all on the same screen. Super handy. It's really quiet and display is crisp. Target separation and upgradable are also plus's.  Plan to use it open water this summer as well.

X2

[hamms]

I have lx7 and like it much more then the traditional flasher. Quiet and reliable. I also have lowrance hds5 it's awesome on the ice as well. Tune it in and you don't have a huge blob. Never had interference with either and I fish with them next to each other all the time when someone else is with.

[hamms]

Funny when I look for x67 or x 67c all I find is no longer available and or discontinued. But always got to have Lowrance or Vexilar guys chiming in on a Marcum thread.

They are Elite units now.

[Icepuppy]

Nothing, my $250 X67c will see and catch the same fish.  To each their own.

Sorry but the X67C isn't even in the ballpark of other high end units and for the price that is to be expected. It is what it is but the op is asking about high end units which the X67c is not. It's 800w, even the marcum lx3 has 2000w (4800w for the lx7). The X67c has a 320 x 240 display, lx7 has an 800 x 600 display. As far as target separation it's not even mentioned in the user manual. LX7 has a 1/2" separation. Also display speed, not mentioned, lx7 is 0.02 seconds (20 milliseconds). I'm sure it's a good unit but not comparable to high end units. If you don't need it, that's different.

[hamms]

Yeah but how cool is it to spend a fraction of the price and catch the same fish... Now I enjoy the "High End" lx7 a lot but no way would I buy a unit for that much money again without having gps on it. I used to get caught up with the specs on each unit. I'll tell you my lowrance will mark any bottom hugging fish just as well. Only bring it up cause 699 bucks is a lot for a unit. Look at the options available.

[evobassfish]

Lowrance is above all when marking bottom hugging fish but the target separtion is not the greatest.

[hamms]

X2  separation compared to the 7 isn't there but typically I fish above a school and get the aggressive fish to come up. Fun to try different units.

[Icepuppy]

Yeah but how cool is it to spend a fraction of the price and catch the same fish... Now I enjoy the "High End" lx7 a lot but no way would I buy a unit for that much money again without having gps on it. I used to get caught up with the specs on each unit. I'll tell you my lowrance will mark any bottom hugging fish just as well. Only bring it up cause 699 bucks is a lot for a unit. Look at the options available.

Yeah but the op was asking about high end features. The screen resolution is a big factor in this. I fished for quite a few years with no fish finder and caught plenty of fish, how's that for cheap. You get what you pay for in my opinion, with most fishing gear. Nothing wrong with cheaper gear and lots of cheaper options out there but high end it is not. My lx5 had better separation and a faster display than my 7 but the 7s screen is beautiful, you can show multiple screens at the same time, graph, zoom etc. It tells you the cone visibility based on depth and a whole host of other features.

[Icepuppy]

And here we have it, a real world test. The x67c did poorly (previous years test) as did the FL, read for yourselves.


http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=308319.0

[desmobob]

Thanks for all the replies.

I had a great time using my VX-1P this winter.  Until last weekend, when I turned on the zoom feature and the right side of the display showed the bottom at 3 o'clock instead of at 6 o'clock.  The left side of the display was fine.

I got an almost instant e-mail reply from Marcum customer service and a return authorization.  I'm going to take it out one more time before I send it in to make absolutely sure it wasn't due to a low battery (but I had only run the machine about seven hours from full charge).

Tight lines,
Bob

[desmobob]

Well, I finally got around to sending in my VX-1P (I waited until the ice fishing season was over, as it still was pretty much functional).  Marcum turned it around in a couple of days.

They probably were able to get it back so quickly because they didn't fix it.  The repair ticket stated "no defect found."

Great. 

Tight lines,
Bob

[3300]

i have the lx-7 and nothing compares, other than the lx-6 or lx-9 period. you get what you pay for. the 7 can have the 500$ camera with dvr added any time so its like the lx-9.

Well, I finally got around to sending in my VX-1P (I waited until the ice fishing season was over, as it still was pretty much functional).  Marcum turned it around in a couple of days.

They probably were able to get it back so quickly because they didn't fix it.  The repair ticket stated "no defect found."

Great. 

Tight lines,
Bob

so is it still broke do you know? how do they test whats wrong with it? will they tell you if you call them?

thats not good news at all! humminbird did that to me one time and i was done with them from there out. if marcum starts that BS i will move on to lowrance next time i need to buy. theres only 4 companies to choose from.

[desmobob]

This March, the unit started acting up.  When I put it in zoom mode, instead of the right side of the screen showing the entire water column from 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock, it only used half the right side of the screen, showing the water column from 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock.  I tried it again the next weekend; same thing.  When I brought it home that time, I used another charger to charge the battery, to make sure it wasn't a faulty charger or low battery causing the problem.  It still did it when I took it out the next time.  I sent it in after that.

The repair ticket says they did a 30-minute run test and 'ducer test and found no defects.  I'll take the unit out this weekend in my boat and try it again.  If it's still not right, I'll be giving them a call.  I'll also take some photos of the screen while it's in zoom mode.

Tight lines,
Bob

[Agronomist_at_IA]

There is no need for 3 cone angles. My marcum has 2 cone angles and rarely do I ever switch to the other. What cone angles are offered on the tri-beam ducer? The only way I see it helpful is when fishing next to another unit and you're experiencing interference where you have 2 different frequency to choose from to help with the crosstalk of signals. Other than that? Its just a gimmick at least for ice fishing

If you've never used three different cone angles, you must not fish in a flip over shack.