Garmin has continued to push the frontiers of Panoptix LiveScope and sonar technology, making it available to the general public and a select group of professional users.
Garmin has created the Echomap Plus 93sv, a fishfinder and Chartplotter with incredible quality. Therefore, Garmin has built its reputation as one of the earliest and most dependable land-based GPS systems accessible for the general public.
With its remarkable variety of capabilities, this amazing quality fishfinder and Chartplotter combination from Garmin is their flagship product for the high-end consumer market.
The Echomap Plus 93sv is one of the best high-end marine sonars on the market, but it has an array of features that set it apart from the competition in terms of both comfort and convenience as well as quality.
Sonar Features
A fishfinder’s most important function is its ability to show you exactly where the fish are and images of structure. However, having a good SONAR system is just half of the puzzle when it comes to finding fish. The Echomap Plus 93sv is a high-end fishfinder that will do beyond that.
You would expect it to have decent beam coverage. Low and mid-level fishfinders are limited to providing simply a single-beam sonar or a narrow and broad beam that is oriented underneath the boat from the sonar source.
Everything you need is included in the Echomap Plus 93sv. While some competitors have a main sonar resolution of only 15 degrees, the bird’s-eye beams extend from 15 to 45 degrees for better photographic image structure. They may provide a level of detail equivalent to many competitors’ primary sonar resolutions.
Moreover, the Panoptix LiveScope and SideVu function are included in this fishfinder. Echomap Plus 93sv provides a true to life view from the bottom and the side of the boat, allowing you to discover fish swimming that would normally be scared if you had to drive over them.
The SideVu feature is essentially a wide-angle beam complemented by the overhead beams.
Other sonar capabilities we find useful are:
- Rewinding and recording using Sonar: This function allows you to record sonar returns so that you may later review them.
- Symbols of fish: By using fish symbols instead of fish arches, this feature makes it simpler for fish separation.
- Alarm for user-defined depth: When the fish finder finds a fish or reaches a specific depth, you may set a depth and fish alarm to warn you.
- Bottom Lock: It enables you to zoom in on the seabed and locate species that remain near the bottom of the water column.
- A log and graph of water temperature.
Navigation Features
Detailed maps are included with this fish finder as well. It comes preloaded with LakeVu g3 charts, which cover over 17,000 body of water.
Bridges, marinas, authorized fishing zones, and more may be seen on these maps. Additionally, the HD charts provide a wealth of additional valuable information.
If you’re looking for a fish finder that updates your boat’s location five times per second, this one is for you. As a consequence, you’ll be able to see your boat’s accurate real-time location display with pinpoint accuracy.
In addition, the device contains a single microSD card slot that may be used to store additional maps if desired. When it comes to coastal waters fishing, you may choose to get the Bluechart G3 coastal charts.
The QuickDraw function lets you build your own map of the lakebed if a lake is not included in the charts.
This mapping feature creates maps with one-foot contours by combining GPS and sonar return data. Using this function, you may design custom fishing maps and maps that are always up-to-date.
Waypoints, tracks, and routes may all be saved using GPS. A variety of destinations may be saved as well as the best paths to get there.
SailAssist, another function of the GPS, is also available. You can use the wind to your advantage with this feature. Laylines, increased wind rise, heading, and course-over-ground lines are all shown in this feature.
Frequency
Echomap Plus 93sv is one of the few all-purpose GPS Fishfinder that can be used for shallow trolling and deep-sea fishing.
The Echomap Plus 93sv employs such a broad spectrum of frequencies. To a large extent, the frequency range of a fishfinder determines whether or not it is a useful tool for any particular sort of fishing.
The Echomap Plus 93sv has four distinct sonar frequency settings. As an option, you may utilize the CHIRP sonar for most general fishing settings, which provides an extraordinarily clear images of structure using a variety of frequencies piled on top of each other. Most of the time, it is sharper than Garmin Ultra 106sv.
This works well in rivers and lakes with a maximum depth of 1000 feet or less. Furthermore, the Garmin CHIRP (traditional sonar) has three distinct depth labels: shallow, mid-depth, and deep .
Naturally, a transducer that can tailor its frequency to a particular frequency range based on the environment and the kind of fish you’re targeting is required for fishing at a professional or near-professional level.
There’s no shortage of classic sonar options with the Echomap Plus. It has four frequency selections: 50, 77, 83, and 200 kHz.
This is where the Echomap Plus shines once again. Only the 192 kHz frequency is lacking from the most popular ranges, but the 200 kHz frequency more than makes up for it.
However, it’s the ClearVu, and SideVu features of the Echomap Plus 93sv are the things that set it apart when it comes to sonar performance. For the claimed “photographic” clarity, these sophisticated sonar technologies are what you’ll need exactly.
These technologies give very detailed photos below and alongside your ship at a distance of 450 feet or so.
Power
When it comes to the transducer’s SONAR technology, the range and depth of the picture it provides are determined by its continually employed power rating, not by the beam and frequency it casts or reads, respectively. The Echomap Plus 93sv again stands out as a top performer, this time with a maximum output power of 500W RMS.
The Echomap Plus 93sv could cast the 50 kHz frequency required for deep-sea fishing an incredible 2000 feet with this amount of power. To put it in perspective, it’s more than a third of a mile long. While utilized more often in shallow waters, the 200 kHz high-frequency beam still has a range of 500 feet. The Echomap Plus 93sv leaves no room for the fish to hide.
Display
The Echomap Plus 93sv has a variety of excellent features, but this is by far the finest. You won’t be able to find an all-in-one GPS Fishfinder that has a bigger display size than this one.
Most all-in-one fishfinder screens on the market are smaller than the Echomap Plus 93sv at 9″ diagonally. As far as huge displays go, having a multi-part fishfinding and navigation system coupled to a dedicated monitor is the only way you’ll get one.
You don’t have to worry about adjusting the active screen’s brightness since the Echomap Plus 93sv’s display has adaptable brightness technology. The bright, sunlight-readable displays will increase brighter to counter the sunshine that might otherwise wipe out the detailed image in a brighter environment.
The Echomap Plus 93sv will fade sometimes but still employ a backlit display so that you can see the fish, but they cannot see you at night.
Suppose you’re used to using touchscreens. The Echomap Plus 93sv takes things a step further by making its display panel a touchscreen.
This display will enable you to browse Garmin’s menus at a pace that can’t even be completed with a regular button panel.
Improved Fishing Charts
The Echomap Plus 93sv is a great combination fishfinder (with chartplotter included), but it’s not as outstanding as some of its rivals.
A limited number of products can compete with the Echomap Plus 93sv, whether they are from Raymarine, Lowrance or Hummingbird. However, it is not unheard of for flagship models to include more detailed mapping feature and tracking capabilities.
Echomap Plus 93sv, on the other hand, is no slouch in this respect, including comprehensive chart layer for coastal waterways, rivers in the US/Canada, and abroad, non-detailed, global map.
With the Echomap Plus 93sv, you can easily connect it into a bigger system with the concise charts plotting technology. On top of that, you may store up to 5,000 individual waypoints on 100 different routes.
Pros and Cons of the Garmin Echomap Plus 93sv
Pros
- The custom screen homepage.
- Keyed-assist touchscreen.
- Range of assistive features you will like.
- The ability to display two different images side by side.
- Recording and rewinding feature.
- Built-in sonar capabilities: CHIRP traditional sonar, ClearVu, and SideVü scanning sonars.
- Panoptix LiveScope is included.
- Other important sonar functions are also available.
- It has detailed charts about tidal and temperature data.
- It comes with pre-installed LakeVu g3 maps.
- Upgrades are made possible with the inclusion of a micro SD card port.
- Quickdraw Contours included.
- Detailed image output.
- Depth range shading.
- Depth contours and depth finders.
- There’s also an NMEA 0183 port, in case you need it.
- Compatible with NMEA 2000.
Cons
- There is no specific model manual available with the purchase. Because of this, you’ll get a lot of material that isn’t relevant to the subject matter of this course.
Final thoughts
Even though the product doesn’t have the most sophisticated features in every category, the overwhelming majority of anglers, even professionals, should be able to get by just fine with this GPS Fishfinder. If you’re not searching for the greatest onboard Chartplotter, the best raw fishfinder on the market is this.
Its onboard chart plotting restrictions are not really a problem considering that the Echomap Plus 93sv seamlessly converts into a better navigation system with AIS, DSC VHF and FUSION-Link compatibility.
If you want a top-of-the-line fish finder, there are few better options than Garmin’s ClearVu and SideVu sonars, as well as an impressively wide touchscreen display type.
