Bought an axiom 9 with a realvision transducer and sold it Buggy piece of crap. The picture is a fuzzy and was useless at picking bottom. 

Recently got a runout HDS GEN 3 12 inch and am happy with it. I put a totalscan tranny on it and tried it at home in 28m and was getting surprisingly good results but I am in coral bay and it is not much good in 65m. That is not a problem as I have got a TM260.

 The sidescan is amazing ain shallow water but useless in 65m

 The Simrad GO series is worth having a look at it. Been running one on my beach launcher and been very impressed with it. I have a Totalscan transducer with it that does sideview and downscan. Good value for money

 I've posted some screenshots from my Axiom 9 Pro. Now I know the Pro has a higher resolution screen than the basic Axiom, but gruntre69 reckons the pics i've posted are actually of the results with the stock RV-100 transducer which comes with the basic Axiom. I thought i was looking at it running my B175M, but he thinks, going on what it says at the bottom of the screen, I'm using the standard transom mount, having selected the wrong sonar channel. I've a feeling he is right, as the picture broke up badly at speed, just like most transom mounts do. If so, I'd hardly call the unit useless at picking bottom--discrimination was very good, with no real time on sorting it. It was only out to just on 30 metres, for the imperially challenged, but looks good. The "bugs" referred to have been sorted apparently, the system ( Lighthouse 3.4) is really nice and intuitive to use. Worth a look, IMO.

And the sidescan on the RV-100 is good for over 60 metres. Have a look at this www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php/206957-New-boat-coming-Caribbean-Reef-Runner-6-4  if the link doesn't take you direct, it's post #12, someone with screen shots of sidescan done in 62 metres.

 I have now used Evo 3 Simrad and Axiom pro. I went with Raymarine for the promise of good 3D and side scan but so far am not overly impressed. I was using sidescan in 50m off Rotto in good conditions last week as well as 3D and I just don't think it's enough to give it a hands down win. Also the gyro stabilisation doesn't seem to be a world beater either.

I think I'd give the Simrad a slight edge at this point, however the Axiom is new and ould well improve with updates. The simrad gear is very polished at it's third generation now.

That's mi 2 bob and you wouldn't go wrong with either...

 I posted 2 pics of a Simrad GO (from my beach launcher) and Axiom (on the big boat) screenshots in a separate post for you to have a look. In fairness the Axiom screenshots were taken in very lumpy conditions whereas the Simrad was taken on a pretty calm day. Not sure I have the Axiom dialed in properly yet. 

 Good stuff,  I'll have a look. 

In the end I went week the Garmin Echomap 9"

Basically just seemed like good value for the money. 

 I would go Garmin over the other two. 

To back this up, just ordered My new boat boat with dual 16 inch Garmin XSVs. 

 The new furuno GP1871f or 1971f hands down a game changer. Unless you are looking at getting WASSP 3D and side scan offshore is useless in the West. Shallow it’s ok but anything in the depth that we want to look is pointless. Want to find ground go back to old school methods find one rock and hit it from every direction possible. I have even now resorted to doing increasingly big donuts around lumps. But I am eagerly looking to see how the new furuno 3D goes over here and whether or not it can pick up little Bonnie’s on sand and weed