The future of mechanical Marcums sonar…

Yes, digital is all the hype. However it’s obvious that not everyone is on board for the flight.

It’s not a trend, but for some it appears a mechanical flasher is still the preference over the negatives or cons that digital units may have. I have noticed Marcum users revert back the likes of the LX5 or even the competitions new product.

With that in question, do we think or does someone know if Marcum will refresh their line up of mechanical flashers or improved upon the likes and add a new age mechanical flasher that succeeds the LX5?

In my opinion mechanical will go the way of the dodo bird. And that’s for all brands. The hand writing is on the wall.

I have yet to see someone go from a digital back to mechanical, I have first hand knowledge of 6 guys switching. (don’t get me wrong, the mechanicals work fine for what they were designed for) Investing monies and engineering in the mechanical type flasher going forward, would be akin to somebody investing and trying to re-invent a better adding machine

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I have yet to see someone go from a digital back to mechanical, I have first hand knowledge of 6 guys switching. (don’t get me wrong, the mechanicals work fine for what they were designed for) Investing monies and engineering in the mechanical type flasher going forward, would be akin to somebody investing and trying to re-invent a better adding machine

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As someone that has knowledge of units sold of the various units I can tell you, without question, the digital series is very, very strong. I don’t doubt that a few have reverted back but there’s a strong move toward digital. That will not change. It will only gain more momentum.

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In my opinion mechanical will go the way of the dodo bird. And that’s fall all brands. The hand writing is on the wall.

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I definitely dont disagree James. Im a very tech savvy person so having a digital sonar like the LX7 falls in line with future for me also.

But I cant dis-regard how well the mechanical sonar units perform still. I may not have any numbers but I have a pretty good feeling that those type of sonars are still selling very well on the current market. Looking at the digital flasher round dial display of an LX7 vs that of an LX5 can anyone honestly tell me its better? Of course there a preference and added features that digital sonar like the LX7 adds on top. And seeing some users of digital Marcums revert back to a mechanical flasher or even the competition is enough for me to question why?

To be honest, I wouldnt mind a new mechanical Marcum flasher with the updated bells and whistles like 6 color, digital depth meter, better water column range etc. The competition is certainly still doing it and running away with it. Its days may be numbered, but I just dont see the mechanical sonars going away anytime soon.

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Looking at the digital flasher round dial display of an LX7 vs that of an LX5 can anyone honestly tell me its better?

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for me, absolutely for lack of a better term…. it’s alot sharper and easier to dial in (adjust)on the smallest of details !!!

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Looking at the digital flasher round dial display of an LX7 vs that of an LX5 can anyone honestly tell me its better?

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Know that I’ve spent a lot of hours looking at an LX5 and enjoyed every one of them prior to the new units coming out but now that I’ve fished the digital series I literally can’t even stand to look at the mechanical read-outs. I can say, without question, that I have a strong preference for one over the other.

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To be honest, I wouldn’t mind a new mechanical Marcum flasher with the updated bells and whistles like 6 color, digital depth meter, better water column range etc.

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Won’t happen. That would be the worst R&D dollars ever spent. I would throw rocks through their office windows if I got wind that MarCum was headed in that direction.

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The competition is certainly still doing it and running away with it.

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I have no doubt. Of course I’m sure the last guys making wired phones had a field day as competitors left the market place to put their efforts behind wireless. That party only lasts so long….

With all that in part that been said so far, can some of the mechanical users chime in? Even the competition?

What makes one stay with a mechanical flasher, or convert over and then and go back? What did you not like about the digital sonars? And would you go back to a digital sonar if the performance and features improved in the future?

I went back to a mechanical….couldnt take the 7 any longer….I was raised with a mechanical, ran the digital for two years, went back to a mechanical. I also have a good buddy who went from an lx3, to a 7, back to a bird, back to an updated 7, and is now back to his bird and a new lx3….

NOT ALL OF US LIKE DIGITAL!!!

Dont get me wrong, the 7 is an amazing machine, it did everything I expected it too, it just did them with all sorts of glitches. I had it quit working on me day 1 of a 4 day trip to LOTW, got it fixed at marcum HQ, took it out and had it blink on and of, emailed marcum, they said it had a “programming issue”, took it in to get it fixed, got it back it wouldnt find bottom in any of the ranges, changed the ducer and it worked….thats about 3 times the problems I had with any mechanical flasher before going digital…was enough to make me go back.

They should increase the dial size on the 5 and go with a flat screen. I would buy 4. 1 to use, and three to keep for after digi takes over.

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With all that in part that been said so far, can some of the mechanical users chime in? Even the competition?

What makes one stay with a mechanical flasher, or convert over and then and go back? What did you not like about the digital sonars? And would you go back to a digital sonar if the performance and features improved in the future?

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Reliability wins with me every time. I am proud to run my FL18.

I got a vx1 last year as a back up b/c it was cheeper than another 18 but dislike it. I have not ran a 3 of 5 but have been told the “marks” or your lure jumps increments rather than slides smooth like my FL. Maybe that is why so many Marcum users have gone the the screens is to avoid the jumps?

I recall when the carbed vehicles were considered “more reliable” by the older generations, when fuel injection first came out… Like anything else new, there will always be resistance to change, but that will not stop progress

Just got back from a day on the ice with my VX 1.
I’m sure digital is better. They’re also twice the price. I’d love one. But…

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I recall when the carbed vehicles were considered “more reliable” by the older generations, when fuel injection first came out… Like anything else new, there will always be resistance to change, but that will not stop progress

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G you put a nail in the coffin and not to many to the last one.

People hate change than switch when they have to and after the initial learning curve they don’t seem to mind. Not to say there won’t be the less than 1% you will never make happy because they just feel they need to complain.

Personally I really like not listening to the units whirring noise. And really like the vertical zoom screen and not having to split my dial to view zoom. I also really like that I can go into a 5 foot zoom window while fishing walleyes or expand it to what ever I need.

Gone dig and never looking back.

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I recall when the carbed vehicles were considered “more reliable” by the older generations, when fuel injection first came out… Like anything else new, there will always be resistance to change, but that will not stop progress

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I hope your not referring to me being old…Im not even 30, and am a self claimed techno geek, I try to have the latest and greatest as far as consumer electronics haha! As a techno obsessed person, I hate bugs, and unfortunately my 7 was plagued with them. im all for change, but give me a model that is consistent, what are they on now, the 4th update? at least one of which was to fix a glitch in the software that kept the bottom flashing…

If I had the money, i would love a digital unit with a 10′ touch screen and a wireless bluetooth transducer. the ability to switch and monitor gps/ and more than one hole on my screen, and real time weather updates with barometer, temp, windchill, and radar…..that would be innovative!

I wasn’t referring to anyone in particular What you are asking for… isn’t that far fetched.. I want one too !!! For the record, I have had ZERO issues with my New LX9… I did have a battery problem, but not a flasher problem, the camera works great too

I wish the new digital units came in a more compact package. I have no complaints about my LX5 and therefore I can’t justify a switch.

^ Second the size issue. Im sure digital will become the go to tech for all flashers. But everytime I see the digitall marcum I think back to the first “flat” screen TV that weighed the same as a snowmobile and cost $1,200.

I’ve got an old fl8- slt. It really works for what I need, I see my jig and I see fish, what else do I need? I’m not the one to go out and buy the latest & greatest just because I can. When my current flasher dies, I will definatly give the digital flashers a look, but not until then.

My Tandy 1000 was awesome, it had paint, and a very basic word processor which was totally cooler than mom’s typewriter. Then we got a Mac and had pong, that was sweeter than candy. But the icing on the cake was when we upgraded to a pentium 2… Command and Conquer was so much more fun than King’s Quest. Windows 95 was great, I hated windows 98 until I got used to it, that’s when I was so glad I didn’t run 95 anymore… The same thing when 2000 came out, and then xp… (Vista always sucked) but you see where I’m going. Change may be hard, and some people are just fine not changing, if that works for them it’s great… But trying to add new features to a Tandy 1000 just doesn’t make any plausible sense. Using an lx5 was easier for me at first than the 6/7, but the ability to get as many options out of the digi-units as there are outweighs any of the temporary–fixed by an update patch–cons one may experience. Right now Marcum is really the only one in the digital market, as a frontier there is nothing else to go by but your own product and it’s performance feedback. The fact that they allow you to continually update your favorite sonar for free from your own home (as they continue to improve it) is amazing! But hey, there are still a few people today that prefer a typewriter, and that is great, but personally I sorta prefer a terabyte of storage and that works for me.

I had the opportunity to watch a guy fish with an lx7. I think it is a very nice unit but I cannot afford the price tag so for now I will stick with my vexilar fl22. The only reason I think there will mechanical flashers around for a while is lower price.

Show me how this new rig works better in the weeds and I’m all in, until then I’ll stick with my vexilar.In my opinion any flasher works good with nothing in the way, put weeds into the equation and you separate the all around good fishermen from the wanna bees.

I went from an FL18 to an LX5 to the LX6

the 6 is in it’s second year running and I love it !!!

same weight as the 5 of similar other mechanicals..

programable dashboard….

can uses it year around with the chart mode..
(any can be used year around but only marcum digital has chart mode with water temp display)

I fished with a Clear Water Classic, upgraded to an FL8, which both units still work. My wife currently runs an LX5 and I run an LX6. I have no desire to return to my older units and my next unit will be a 9 and the wife will use the 6. I am keeping my old units to share with the future generations in my family so they can see technology in progress and show them on ice the differences.

Todd

I don’t disagree that mechanical flashers have their place. I still like the old green box. Caught a heck of a lot of fish with it when very few people ever thought about electronics on the ice. Mine still works to this day

Then came the H/Bird Super Sixty – WOW much better signal

Then I got a Sitex (before they were Velilar) for ice fishing because it was compact.

Then I got the Mach 1 paper graph…incredible detail

Then the BottomLine XT Nice detail until deep water. Sucked on lake MI in 200+ fow

Was offered way too much money so I sold the Sitex.

Went to buy another one and found out they were now Vexilar FL-8

Then I got a LMS-350A. That was way ahead of its time. That locator is still functioning on my brother-n-law’s boat.

Then got the H/bird 1197’s

Sold my VS625 camera and bought the LX-9

I skipped over about a half dozen other locators that I have bought/sold because they were mostly duplicates of what I had. In all these years of using locators, I haven’t seen too many companies go backwards and still maintain that product line

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I recall when the carbed vehicles were considered “more reliable” by the older generations, when fuel injection first came out… Like anything else new, there will always be resistance to change, but that will not stop progress

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Nothing personal here big G… But this Couldn’t be a more accurate comparison. Remember how AWESOME fuel injection was in the eighties? Someday digital will be the way to go for flashers, but for right now were in the “throttle body” age. Seems like issues with digital units are pretty common on this site—don’t seem to hear much about the old mechanical vexilar units. Personally, I’ll take something that works all the time, every time. Not something that works awesome, untill it needs a software upgrade. I’ve got an old school fl8 that works great for me. When it dies in another 5 or 10 years I’ll consider a digital unit, if they ever get all the bugs worked out.

I believe it is a spot on comparison…how many carbed cars do you think would have started 2 weeks ago at -20’… honestly, without the block heaters, the pans of charcoal, the blankets and heaters, the starting every 3 hours, the garages… ? Now onto the comparison, if you read what I wrote, I am not saying that the mechanical flashers are no good and junk, they served their purpose in time, from the Clearwater Classic to the LX5. It is just that the digital models are new, it does have bugs (just like the 1st fuel injection vehicles.. see what I did there ?) and they will figure them out and make the carbs obsolete That’s all !! Nobody is taking your flasher away, but quite honestly, if Vex doesn’t move forward, they will be left behind (don’t even think they are not working on a digital flasher)

Dadgummit big G, I agree with you! But I’m wont consider switching until digitals get up to speed in terms of reliability. Performance comes second for me.

BTW my 81 Toyota would start anytime. No pans of charcoal required.

…and i also agree. Unless vexilar goes digital they will get left behind. But i also think that mechanical models will be around for a while.

I like the. New features of the digital but I have no problem catching fish with my lx 5 or vex to spend the money for something that really does the same thing with a new look. Until my other units bite it I don’t see. Asking the change. I don’t understand spending to upgrade to other units like the move from fl 20 to 28 or so. If they help mKe the fish bite then great but if you can mark them it is still your job the figure what they want. Heck my old green box still works.

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…and i also agree. Unless vexilar goes digital they will get left behind. But i also think that mechanical models will be around for a while. [/quote

If it wasnt for marcum we wouldnt even have a choice on what to use. Good chance we would all still be fishing fl8