Vex vs. Marcum

[BoxMN]

I am cheap, so I would find a used one for half your budget. They all work nice, and I have used all brands and models together, and the only one that has an issue is older FL8's can't be used with some others too close. The rest can.

I think the FL18 is easiest to use, just so darn simple -maybe becasue it was the first I ever used with a zoom. But I now have two LX5's and don't see a need to change to anything else. And the "old style" flashers won't become obsolete, they just work so well for what they do - show bottom, show weeds, show lures, show fish. My non-hard-core fishing buddies call it my "cheater box"...

Minor thing, but the case of the Marcums is one reason I like them. Compact, cushioned, so you can just quickly close it and toss it in bucket or sled or ATV, it protects it well. I have cracked one arm so far in about ~10 years, but that was due to a buddies foot, ha!.

[Morgs]

For those of you that were nice enough to give me a straight answer, thank you.

That's all I was looking for. Some opinions of people who have put them in actions in different situations. I, also appreciate some of the questions that people asked, because I hadn't thought of some of those things while I was doing my research. That being said, I definitely could have elaborated on my first post to help keep the unnecessary answers away.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback.

[cold one sd]

I have used a Micronar FL8 which I bought used in about 1985. I bought an FL18 in 2001 and still have it. A couple years ago I bought an LX5. They have all been good. I would say the LX5 has better target separation if you think you need it. When fishing with the FL8 and LX5 near each other the LX5 was the one with interference problems which I had to clear up. Vexilar has the new FLX 28 which would be one I would be sure to check into before deciding on which unit to buy. Both Vex and Marcum have great customer service which is also important. Good luck to you.

[gwiff100]

i tell you what I was a vexilar guy all my life... I bought a lx7 for the first time and loved it last year... with that being said... I still don't know what what best answer is...

both units help find fish.... I like that the lx7 is dead quiet, but I still find myself wondering about the world of vexilar.

[cold one sd]

I would guess that the brushless data transfer system in the FLX 28 would be silent also.

[hunt3r]

my vote goes to marcum. iv used both and i like marcum better. and i think you get more options and add ons for your money with marcum. i just got a lx7 last year and its awesome ill be getting a lx9 this year to go with it. also i dont mind hole hoping with the 7 i dont understand why some people dont like it. the screen is bigger its not made of lead.

[Esox_Magnum]

Holding my LX-5 in one hand and my LX-7 in the other there was not a notacible weight difference between the 2 units....

[Lawrence Luoma]

Looks like someone should plan some sort of flasher competition. We could call it a "flasher shootout"

There already is. It's called the NAIFC, UPL and Team Extreme Tournaments. Running a Vexilar my partner and I won a lot of money last year and years past. More and More each year these tournaments are won in shallow water in the weeds. Fishing in the weeds I wouldn't use anything else. Low Power and MST technology is where it's at.

[fisherman-andy]

More and More each year these tournaments are won in shallow water in the weeds. Fishing in the weeds I wouldn't use anything else. Low Power and MST technology is where it's at.

I've used an FL18, FL20 before. But never low power mode or shallow water. In part ive never had much trouble with using a Marcum LX5 or LX6 in shallow water situations for detecting fish.

Can someone clearify for me how low power mode works? And what is MST technology? How does this compare to what other brand such as a Marcum when being used in shallow water or weedy situations? What makes low power mode superior to its competition? What are you seeing here that a Marcum LX5 or LX7 cant see while in 6-10ft of water & weeds?

Does someone have a screen shot to share of an example or differences between the flashers and their performances in shallow and weeds?

[wanderlust]

lx-7.

ive used a vex fl-8 (much prefer the Marcum graph and showdown window, with option for flasher if i want)

humm ice 55 (poor separation)

so my experience isn't too wide

I will say that i think my buddies vex (not sure 18-22?) works better on a small lake we fish that has an algae bloom. or maybe he's better at reading the clutter

[DTro]

Like mayflies to a street lamp.

[Eric_Kruger]

Drive up to Thorne bros this weekend and get hands on with all the models. Regardless of "brand" they all will increase your fish finding ability. I was a vex guy who went marcum and now am buying the new vex just for fun, never had an issue with either that wasn't anything a quick call didn't fix. Had a bird for a year and I can say I had nothing but issues with it. Even got charged for an out of warranty repair on a less than year old unit because it sat on the shelf so long before I got it.

[PurpleFloyd]

What do you like to read? Circular dial, vertical dial? Graph mode?

The LX7 has them all but has a high price. I have a Lowrance x67C which was very inexpensive at under 200 dollars new and I have grown very fond of the graph mode where you can watch the jig and have a trailing history of the jig and the fish coming and going but that is just personal preference. I bought a showdown due to the vertical display and it is a nice unit but I always go back to the color graph display of the lowrance.

[DLD24]

Are all the vex's the same way, where you can't turn the gain all the way down..I know my brothers fl-12 is like that, if your in shallow water he turns his gain all the way down, but his lure is still a huge red line...On my Marcum I can turn the gain completely down so you can't even see bottom....So if low power mode turns down the sensitivity so you can see through the weeds, couldn't you do the same with a Marcum???

[brian6715]

So if low power mode turns down the sensitivity so you can see through the weeds, couldn't you do the same with a Marcum???

I have never needed low power mode on any of my Marcum flashers. That includes fishing 4' of water that you couldn't see the bottom in. The ability to adjust the gain is essentially "low power mode"

I'm curious, has anyone with a Marcum ever not been able to use it because of lack of low power mode?

[fisherman-andy]

So if low power mode turns down the sensitivity so you can see through the weeds, couldn't you do the same with a Marcum???

[Iceboy]

An under-rated feature of the LX-7/LX-9/other electronic flashers is that they run dead silent. Once I got my LX-9 I knew there was no going back. Yeah, it does tons of other great things, but to have a dead silent flasher to go along with my silent LED lights in my portable is a beautiful thing!

I've had a Marcum LX-5 and a couple of Vexilars before- they've all worked great. A couple of years ago I brought my LX-5 to Marcum to get it updated with a software patch and they replaced my motor for FREE after I mentioned that it gotten considerably noisier in the past couple of months. And that was well out of my warranty period, so I'm a Marcum customer for life.

dan

[Rod Woten]

...Plus you need an low power cable to to do this. I dont know why they just cant built this into the unit? Starting to sound more like a gimmick to me at this point.

The FL8 needs an S-cable. LP mode is built in on all other Vexilars. No gimmicks.

-Munchy

[fisherman-andy]

...Plus you need an low power cable to to do this. I dont know why they just cant built this into the unit? Starting to sound more like a gimmick to me at this point.

[CaptainMusky]

I am interested to hear too how this low power setting is superior to lowering the gain setting.

[DLD24]

It's the same thing just vexilar made it sound fancy with LP mode...If it were different a ice team person would have came up with an explanation by now...just saying

[Lawrence Luoma]

Here is a video to help understand how M.S.T technology and the use of lower power is the way to go. Now this test was done in deep water but its the same for when in shallow water. By having a low power setting it allows you to see the separated split shots in shallower water. Even on the normal power mode in shallow water it won't show the BB's separated. Therefore, the reasoning to lower the power in the weeds. What's even better is you can separate the weeds and you know your fishing gaps within them. With that said that is why the other companies just don't work that well because their power doesn't match what the transducer can receive. It's actually over powered and causes clutter that you can only see if you matched up next to a Vex. Yes they use the software to redefine the lines so they are easier to see but it's impossible for them to show that same separation.

This is proven last year at the NAIFC Championships on Mille Lacs, a lot of other company sponsored guys where using their old FL-8's because their sponsored units wouldn't preform in the 6 fow that we all were fishing.

They wouldn't allow me to post the link so go to ice fishing today's HSOforum and look up split shot test in the web extras page.

[fisherman-andy]

Here is a video to help understand how M.S.T technology and the use of lower power is the way to go. Now this test was done in deep water but its the same for when in shallow water. By having a low power setting it allows you to see the separated split shots in shallower water. Even on the normal power mode in shallow water it won't show the BB's separated. Therefore, the reasoning to lower the power in the weeds. What's even better is you can separate the weeds and you know your fishing gaps within them. With that said that is why the other companies just don't work that well because their power doesn't match what the transducer can receive. It's actually over powered and causes clutter that you can only see if you matched up next to a Vex. Yes they use the software to redefine the lines so they are easier to see but it's impossible for them to show that same separation.

This is proven last year at the NAIFC Championships on Mille Lacs, a lot of other company sponsored guys where using their old FL-8's because their sponsored units wouldn't preform in the 6 fow that we all were fishing.

They wouldn't allow me to post the link so go to ice fishing today's HSOforum and look up split shot test in the web extras page.

Are you talking about the BB split shot test video posted by Vexilar? Its interesting how the video mentions these other units "inferior" in the video. Are they inferior?

1. It says to use units of equal age and condition

- not all units are of equal technology, clearly this test used a FL22 which at the time is newer. LX5 and Humminbird Ice 55 are older units.

2. Get into at least 45 fow

- again how does this affect shallow water performance if you arent getting the correct results unless in deeper water as pointed out in the video? What happens when you go shallower? 30, 20, 10 fow?

3. Suspend all transducers below the ice line

- Marcum doesnt need to be suspended below the ice line

4. Use to BB split shot sinkers that are at least 2.5" apart

- depending on the flasher/sonar unit, settings & features, arent most flasher/sonar units able to distinguish at least 2.5" of separation?

5. Suspend 5fow off bottom and use the zoom features

- some units may not have this feature

6. 1" target separation on FL22

- clearly this test cant be perform on older Vexilar units. However the LX5 or LX7 has a target separation of less then 1". How did this pan out?

What does all this have to do with LP mode again in shallow weeds?

[Lawrence Luoma]

It is all about fine-tuning sonar performance at this point for a specific purpose and Vexilar has designed their systems for such fishing situations…

Vexilar cuts output power to widen the spectrum of gain control to give the anglers a easy way to set gain levels for their needs to get a superior sonar display, but it is even more than just about gain levels.

Other Sonar Brands have gain settings ranging of 0 to 10… in all power settings, shallow and deep it does not change…

Vexilar’s Superior receiver and transmitter technology along with the world’s best transducers all work hand in hand to provide a far cleaner signal for the Vexilar owner to work with, In the Low Power setting alone Vexilar DOUBLES the easy at which you can use the gain control to fine-tune your display for a proper visual display. They all work together, it is not just cutting output power, it is the entire system that makes it so superior, they is why all the competition has tried for over ten years to copy it and have failed.

It is not about limiting the information due to a low resolution gain control system and not having shallow enough ranges to give you something to see in the first place! That is why only Vexilar offers 0-10 foot ranges on their displays with 525 lines of resolution! It is about reducing power so the YOU can control the returning signal when you have cabbage or Milfoil. You as an angler need that level of flexibility to control the single to benefit you… you don’t need some engineer deciding for you what you will and will not see…

When you consider Vexilar sonar receivers are more sensitive and our 525 lines of resolution show you more information than any other brand, it is clear for weed fishing performance nothing tops a Vexilar.

[fisherman-andy]

It is all about fine-tuning sonar performance at this point for a specific purpose and Vexilar has designed their systems for such fishing situations…

Vexilar cuts output power to widen the spectrum of gain control to give the anglers a easy way to set gain levels for their needs to get a superior sonar display, but it is even more than just about gain levels.

Other Sonar Brands have gain settings ranging of 0 to 10… in all power settings, shallow and deep it does not change…

Vexilar’s Superior receiver and transmitter technology along with the world’s best transducers all work hand in hand to provide a far cleaner signal for the Vexilar owner to work with, In the Low Power setting alone Vexilar DOUBLES the easy at which you can use the gain control to fine-tune your display for a proper visual display. They all work together, it is not just cutting output power, it is the entire system that makes it so superior, they is why all the competition has tried for over ten years to copy it and have failed.

It is not about limiting the information due to a low resolution gain control system and not having shallow enough ranges to give you something to see in the first place! That is why only Vexilar offers 0-10 foot ranges on their displays with 525 lines of resolution! It is about reducing power so the YOU can control the returning signal when you have cabbage or Milfoil. You as an angler need that level of flexibility to control the single to benefit you… you don’t need some engineer deciding for you what you will and will not see…

When you consider Vexilar sonar receivers are more sensitive and our 525 lines of resolution show you more information than any other brand, it is clear for weed fishing performance nothing tops a Vexilar.

With all that in mind.. let me ask then. Have you used a Marcum LX5 or LX7 in shallow weeds and how does it compare to the Vexilar in LP mode? What makes it superior here?

Plus anyone who have ran the split shot test and used LP mode care to share their experiences with what they found?