i also am done with my ice55 after spending over 750$ on it and its still a POS!
i also needed some thing "better" and had to shop and there are not many brand choices for us. when we find one we both like, and have not out grown, then we are happy with our choices. out growing a sonar is not fun either and expensive to move up the chain to have the best a brand offers and be there until that brand or another brand has more to offer than your current model/brand has now. out growing sonars isn't talked about much here, only saying it's time for a new flasher or i'll have to try that one next is mentioned.
having to replace the unit because it is not upgradeable was not appealing to me when i need to make that move up the chain. so analog flashers became an instant no go for me. i already had the best of the best in one brand. that left 3 other brands to choose from. only one brand has a dedicated ice sonar designed for ice and offers open water as an option. many newer (if not all) digitals are open water dedicated and offer ice as an option, so none of those were an option to move up to either. that cancels all the other brands except for one and then in their brand it really is only one model but three sub versions of that unit/design. the lx7 was and still is the only dedicated ice sonar that is upgradable. they are offer it as the smaller version in the lx6 and the camera version the lx9.
one key factor besides what i mentioned for my preferences is who marcum is the only brand that out thought the swim noodle syndrome and uses an d arm that makes fishing much more enjoyable! their arm system is great. if i had to pick another brand for some odd reason i would buy the after market arm and use it instead of the swim noodle.
i do hope the other brands start offering digital and upgradeable choices for those of us who out grew their sonars. marcum digital couldn't be better, but more and smarter people can bring more to the digital table than one company alone.
because there is only one choice of brand (for now), some would label me as a fan person. it's not my fault my choices are so limited. i am glad one company stepped up from the crowd tho and decided to it their way. in part, i think that move was based from another companies design they bought into and that was called showdown. being black and while (gray scale) and a limited screen meant limited options like flashers are, but not as bad. that gave them their answer on how to move forward and be ahead of the game and by far.
their customer support is the best i ever used and the people that represent are also top notch. they are similar to striker in that regard. it is a great feeling using a product you know people are there and care if you need them, unlike other brands i won't go into.
i fish next to birds., marcums and vex and never had issues like yours. marcum ir is actually changing channel's to try to find the frequency of the offending transducer. i could see a problem, maybe, if you have more than one frequency interrupting your return signals.
when you have a situation that you can't figure out with just the ir, you need to use other tactics like use narrow beam (all of you), keep you transducer up as high in the ice hole as possible (should always do that any way and get rid of the swim noodles) and use the least amount of gain possible. interference is just your sonar reading part of another sonars signal. it's an overlap. harder bottoms can repeat the signal for longer distances.
you could have the marcum lx6 digital for not much more than the lx5i (analog).
looks like you are comparing a 700$ unit to a 500$ unit also.
