Garmin GT15M-TM vs Airmar TM150M

[LWINCHESTER2]

I did a comparison of these two transducers on my 7610xsv. I'll leave it to you to determine which one is best. I will throw in a couple of comments though. Absolutely remarkable that two tranducers, mounted side by side, set on the same exact frequency can be used without interference. That may not impress you, but it does me. I generally run several units of different brands at the same time and interference management is a huge issue. With the price of the GT15 about half that of the Airmar, if I used Humminbird or Lowrance I would buy this transducer and graft a different connector on it. Maybe Garmin will make a short adapter cable with Humminbird or Lowrance connectors. I know if I worked there I would sure put in a word to the higher ups for it. Very rarely am I able to make what I call apples to apples, absolutely fair comparisons. I think this qualifies.

This is set 1.

[LWINCHESTER2]

Set 2

[LWINCHESTER2]

Set 3

[bksnaz]

Thanks for your efforts. My quick take is they are pretty damn close, give the nod to the 15m in shallow water.

[Larry3215]

Nice bit of work there! That GT15 is impressive!

[TroyBoy30]

you can't beat the GT15 for the price. I find myself using 2d from it when i'm scanning more than the gt52

[BBG Marine Electronics]

I decided to put a Garmin 93sv with the GT52 on the bow of my boat and you couldn't tell much difference from my images than yours...... Brian

[LWINCHESTER2]

Troy did a pretty comprehensive comparison of the GT8HW with the Airmar TM150.
http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread.php?t=684847

The GT52 has the same 2d element as the GT8. I can remember when the consensus was that if you wanted a really 1st class transducer, your only choice was Airmar. Not any more. No question. Garmin leads the pack. I use the little GT8 for all kinds of experiments; point it forward, to the side, behind the boat. Stellar performer.

I'm not kidding about Humminbird and Lowrance and splicing cables to use Garmin transducers. Here is how I do it. I don't cut the transducer cable. I've bought transducer extension cables for them. I do the cutting and splicing in the extension cables to give me the connectors I want on each end. It don't always work. It takes some time to get the pinouts, color coding and watts going to the xd. Airmar has warned me that I'm going to fry the electronics and xd. I've been doing it for years and so far I haven't.
To use the GT15 on off-brand units the transducer setting would be for the Airmar TM150.

[SHOTGUN RUSS]

Very close in both, I would give a very narrow edge to to TM150 with more detail, the GT15 seems slightly hotter in returns and loses a little definition (could be tweaked with gain?)

[LWINCHESTER2]

I never tried to tweak either of them. The first few slides are to show that I had the same settings for each. Pretty much standard settings.

[csloftis]

Leonard, great information as always

Troy did a pretty comprehensive comparison of the GT8HW with the Airmar TM150.
http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread.php?t=684847

The GT52 has the same 2d element as the GT8. I can remember when the consensus was that if you wanted a really 1st class transducer, your only choice was Airmar. Not any more. No question. Garmin leads the pack. I use the little GT8 for all kinds of experiments; point it forward, to the side, behind the boat. Stellar performer.

I'm not kidding about Humminbird and Lowrance and splicing cables to use Garmin transducers. Here is how I do it. I don't cut the transducer cable. I've bought transducer extension cables for them. I do the cutting and splicing in the extension cables to give me the connectors I want on each end. It don't always work. It takes some time to get the pinouts, color coding and watts going to the xd. Airmar has warned me that I'm going to fry the electronics and xd. I've been doing it for years and so far I haven't.
To use the GT15 on off-brand units the transducer setting would be for the Airmar TM150.