I went with the Raymarine a-Series because, like many on here, I was DONE with the Lowrance lack of customer service. As has been mentioned, when something fails and you finally get someone from customer service, they try to up-sell you even when your unit is only 3-4 years old.

I like my a-Series (7" screen) and it has CHIRP which I like a lot but it is limited in utility to 200' or less. That limitation makes it sorta saltwater useful (good for finding clouds of shrimp on bottom) but it really shines in shallow water fishing where the detail is so much greater.

I spent $1200 on it at the Boat Show. Would I buy one again? Maybe, maybe not. I admit to being intrigued by the new Garmins and has been mentioned already, the bigger the screen, the better. The ability to have a split screen when bottom fishing for example is great when you can track your course on the GPS map to see where the boat is drifting while watching the depth on the sounder. It is WAY easier to do this on a bigger screen than on a smaller one, especially when you are jigging in the stern.