I can really only speak for the higher end stuff, as everybody locally has those, giving me a good bit of experience on other boats, as well as the number of them I've installed on customer boats (all of my personal stuff has been bottom of the road crap), but as far as they are concerned, the H'bird has much better SI and standard sonar, hands down. The Lowrance has much better downscan technology. For me, the standard sonar and SI are the most important things (in that order), so for that reason alone, the 'Bird wins it for me.
Furthermore, I think Lowrance's not so great (but not all that bad, either), customer service has recently been worsened as they let go of Linda Colt. From what I've heard (and with getting help on my bottom of the road crap), if you reached Linda Colt, customer service was excellent. If you don't, it wasn't all that great. I can vouch for Humminbird's service. Even their prostaff guys act as if they are paid to be customer service reps, and certainly deserve to be. I've always been pleased with them.
I probably will not be owning another Lowrance product, but absolutely see myself with a 'Bird SI unit sometime soon (y'all wanna take up a collection for me :lol: ). I can't really vouch for the midrange stuff (just below SI level), but for the higher end SI stuff, 'Bird wins it, hands down. For the bottom of the road crap, I do tend to favor Lowrance (Eagle, specifically, in the under 175 buck range, they do give you good bang for the buck).
