I would disagree that Raymarine offers the best price. I've found Garmin to offer the best value overall. For the money (factoring in chart costs) I found their plotters are the best as well as their radar solutions. Garmin crams in a ton of features for the price, and some of their features are freebies while others charge. Plus, there's a large user community for Garmin products that can tinker/hack and "community enhance" their offerings by virtue of the fact that their GPS units are fairly ubiquitous.
However, Raymarine seems to offer the most complete offerings END TO END. This includes some very niche type products (in the grand scheme of things) such as the Man Overboard wrist bracelets and even an AIS offering. Plus they are the one with the largest service and installation resource footprint...nearly everyone works on Raymarine.
I guess what I'm trying to say is use Garmin to save money/bang for the buck, but use Raymarine if you like EVERYTHING to be one brand/network.
However, Raymarine seems to offer the most complete offerings END TO END. This includes some very niche type products (in the grand scheme of things) such as the Man Overboard wrist bracelets and even an AIS offering. Plus they are the one with the largest service and installation resource footprint...nearly everyone works on Raymarine.
I guess what I'm trying to say is use Garmin to save money/bang for the buck, but use Raymarine if you like EVERYTHING to be one brand/network.
