Lowrance have a number of variations of the their Elite Fishfinder and Fishfinder/plotter combinations:

Fishfinder DSI Models are Elite 4x DSI, Elite 5x DSI

Combo DSI Models are Elite 4 DSI, Elite 5 DSI

Fishfinder Non DSI models are Elite 4x, Elite 5x

Combo Models are Elite 4, Elite5

So which one will best suit my needs? One of the most common questions we get asked at CH Smith Marine is "should I go DSI or a non DSI?"

To be completely honest, the simplest answer is both! While DSI excels at showing you bottom structure which allows us to find Fish habitat, traditional Sonar will show schools and individual Fish more distinctly.

You also shouldn''t assume that because the DSI is more expensive it must be better. In both cases these are entry level low power units. At the end of the day, it''s going to depend on what you want to do with it.

DSI''s primary focus is to find structure on the bottom, from that we assume its presence provides habitat and Fish aggregation. This is particularly relevant in freshwater rivers and lakes. To get this ''finer'' image, DSI uses an elliptical (oval) shaped Beam, which covers a thinner cross section of the ground, meaning it covers less of the area than traditional Sonar, showing smaller items such as Fish, as small ''rice-grains''.

However, in salt water we have much bigger areas to search that have little or not as much unique structure, by comparison. In this case, we tend to focus on seeing the Fish in contrast to the bottom. Hence the Elite 4 will display schools and individual Fish more distinctly, and the shape and colour of the echo may also give some guidance as to Fish Species.

A DSI Transducer operates at 455 and 800KHz and because of this can operate alongside non DSI transducers. Traditional Transducers operate at 83/200KHz

So as we said at the beginning, ideally you want both, and to achieve that in one unit, choose the HDS range with an LSS-2 option, which is a much more powerful system.