Humminbird Mega 2 VS Garmin LVS34

[GEEBASS2000]

Question for the anglers that have used both the Humminbird Mega 2 and the Garmin LVS34, what one do you feel provides the best forward sonar images? I know of one angler that tried both and said it was a close call but he stuck with the LVS34 just because he had more time with it. Curious what others think that have USED both, I know that there are not many anglers that have used both yet, but now that we are a few events into the tournament season I'm sure several of you have used both by now.

[22RangerZ520R]

There are a couple head to head videos on YT. Humminbird has definitely closed the gap in ffs and is no longer in 3rd place imo...

Good luck with your decision.

[GEEBASS2000]

Over the weekend I heard from two other anglers now that say the same thing "the gap has closed a lot", however I'm yet to find any angler that has now used both say that mega live 2 is better than LVS34. I have a strong feeling that this year all 3 major brands are going to be close in forward sonar image quality and target detection, it will probably come down to personal preference and no longer any clear winner.

[lpugh]

I am a Lowrance guy, and I think the mega 2 has left Garmin and Lowrance 20 laps down, in the past i have not cared for HB, the mega 2 is impressive, I may have part with few thousand and make the upgrade if I don't see Lowrance come up with something comparable very soon.

[wildkat7]

Best way to describe by what I've seen....nobody that I know of left Garmin to go to Humminbird/Lowrance. But I know of many have done the opposite.

[catdude28]

Best way to describe by what I've seen....nobody that I know of left Garmin to go to Humminbird/Lowrance. But I know of many have done the opposite.

The Mega Live 2 was just released in December of 2024

[GEEBASS2000]

Best way to describe by what I've seen....nobody that I know of left Garmin to go to Humminbird/Lowrance. But I know of many have done the opposite.

This is what I'm finding, so far a small sample of guys that have used both on the same boat side by side. They all say Mega2 looks great, but yet none have wanted to swap out their Garmin for the Mega 2. I honestly have a strong feeling that all 3 major brands are close now.

[Phoenix Jim]

Best way to describe by what I've seen....nobody that I know of left Garmin to go to Humminbird/Lowrance. But I know of many have done the opposite.

it just came out

[Capw]

This is what I'm finding, so far a small sample of guys that have used both on the same boat side by side. They all say Mega2 looks great, but yet none have wanted to swap out their Garmin for the Mega 2. I honestly have a strong feeling that all 3 major brands are close now.

If you're swapping out either brand for another for a slight improvement, you're wasting money.

[Wayne P.]

Here's a head to head matchup-ML2 vs LVS34

[townsend266]

If you're swapping out either brand for another for a slight improvement, you're wasting money.

Unless you have megalive 1, that would be more than a “slight” improvement

[DAC244]

I think if you don’t have FFS and it’s between Humminbird and Garmin I would have to choose Humminbird just because not having the black box.

[bayouXpress]

the issue for me with HB is i have helix models. So that would cause me to swap them out. I think at this point they are not that big of a difference to swap out an entire setup. So i'm keeping my garmin setup

[Drakestar]

My comparison was posted here: https://www.bbcboards.net/showthread...8#post13827848

I'd revise it a bit since then and say they're both equally good. I don't expect anybody who has a LVS34 to go to ML2 instead. It's not worth it. But if you like the Humminbird ecosystem (IMO it beats Garmin in a couple of areas like mapping and networking/connectivity, plus no black box), ML2 is the perfect choice because you're no longer missing out in the FFS department. I'd rather have all of my fish finders on Humminbird than all of them on Garmin.

[Rumour2u]

Garmin will be updated soon and re-open the gap.

Doesn’t humminbird networking still require you to update everything separately compared to garmin updating everything at the same time?

[WVBullet]

I’ve been a fan of HB since the paper graph days. They have slacked over the past decade even though their 2D has an impressive imagine and granted, Mega 2 has brought Mega Live back into the competition. But, I still say Garmin has the edge over HB. The Garmin pin point detail is sharper and more defined than Mega 2.

[Drakestar]

I’ve been a fan of HB since the paper graph days. They have slacked over the past decade even though their 2D has an impressive imagine and granted, Mega 2 has brought Mega Live back into the competition. But, I still say Garmin has the edge over HB. The Garmin pin point detail is sharper and more defined than Mega 2.

I agree that LVS34 still has slightly better target separation. That can be seen in the comparison video that Wayne posted above. Hopefully future HM firmware upgrades can fix that, but it depends on whether the actual transducer data is missing the detail, or whether the processing just doesn't present the data as well yet as it could.

If you watch the same video, you'll notice that ML2 has a wider cone: Fish appear earlier and disappear later than LiveScope. So that evens out in my mind, and allows anglers to play to their preference. I feel like I could go either way (target separation helps with bottom-hugging fish in rocks, wider cone helps when scanning).

[Wayne P.]

I agree that LVS34 still has slightly better target separation. That can be seen in the comparison video that Wayne posted above. Hopefully future HM firmware upgrades can fix that, but it depends on whether the actual transducer data is missing the detail, or whether the processing just doesn't present the data as well yet as it could.

If you watch the same video, you'll notice that ML2 has a wider cone: Fish appear earlier and disappear later than LiveScope. So that evens out in my mind, and allows anglers to play to their preference. I feel like I could go either way (target separation helps with bottom-hugging fish in rocks, wider cone helps when scanning).

Garmin's spec coverage for Forward is 20 degrees X 135 degrees
Humminbird's spec coverage for Forward is 20 degrees X 120 degrees

[Drakestar]

Garmin's spec coverage for Forward is 20 degrees X 135 degrees
Humminbird's spec coverage for Forward is 20 degrees X 120 degrees

I'm just going off the actual comparison video that you posted above, not the specs alone:

Watching the fish in the middle appear at 4:26 (shows on ML2 first).
Watching both dock pilings still display on ML2 at 4:40 while LVS only shows one. (Could be occlusion, but ML2 also shows one remaining piling when they've already disappeared on LVS34).
Watching another fish in the middle appear on ML2 first at 4:41, and then disappear later than LVS at 4:46.
Watching pilings appear & disappear at 4:48 and 4:51.

It's not the world and I don't mean to nitpick or manufacture support for ML2, but IMO it's there regardless of what the actual specs say. Two thoughts:
* I was considering that maybe both transducers are not aimed in precisely the same direction (so that objects would appear first on one screen, but then also disappear first on that one). But I don't think that's the case.
* It could be different contrast settings, of course, but to my eye, the ML2 picture is only a running bit hotter than LVS: those two visible pilings vs one visible piling at 4:48 don't feel contrast-dependent.

Happy to have people argue the other way, though! And conversely, if we want to argue that LVS has better target separation there are several examples: e.g. the middle fish near the bottom at 4:41 (ML2 looks blurrier, and thus the detachment from the bottom isn't as clear as on LVS34).

[KandKKustomz]

There are a couple head to head videos on YT. Humminbird has definitely closed the gap in ffs and is no longer in 3rd place imo...

Good luck with your decision.

no longer third I agree they actually skipped past third and were like 10th out of 3 However def 2nd now. In forward the lvs34 is the clear winner down 34., perspective ... dialed in correctly w the right settings still going 34 however out of the box in perspective ML2 yes have run both