Raymarine or Garmin?
 

I'm planning on upgrading the electronics package on my Fountain 38EC, and considering either a Raymarine eSeries MFD (e125 or e127), or Garmin 7212 MFD. Has anyone had good or bad experiences with either of systems? Any advice (either way) would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I have used a 5212 very often and I loved it, super easy to use and navigate. The raymarine ones are not as user friendly.

I bought the Raymarine e127 last fall. It did take me about 3 mos and a lot of manual time to learn it, maybe because I'm not as smart as I like to think I am but now that I know it, it is fantastic does anything huge memory Blue tooth downloads from Navionics via iPhone, stores two different chart types, controls my stereo and now that I know how to use it very easy to use! They also provide software updates on their website.

Raymarine sucks, takes a manual to use, slow response.
Garmin is easy to use. Intuitive, faster refresh. No brainer.

I have the garmin 5212. Very easy to use and install. Very flexible if you want to add other stuff later.

Stuff I have added:

Radar
AIS
Fuel flow sensors
Autopilot
Depth sounder
Water speed

All of the accessories just plug in. It just doesn't get any easier.

I like this idea with being able to control the radio too. Now, will it control equipment like HF/FM radio for two way comms or are you talking about AM/FM radio combined with HF/FM?

This is something I'm looking for right now and, so far, I haven't found the versatility of the Raymarine system with the ease of the Garmin. Has anybody else tried a different system?

Just learn the Raymarine. Once learned it is fantastic with incredible tweaks possible and 2-way interaction to your iPhone and/or iPad. The ability to link various readouts and display functions is really cool. Their website has a technical forum with questions answered constantly. Seek out a Raymarine demonstation at West Marine. Garmin is fine for the less geek oriented.

These days they all pretty much have the same features and capablity. I have all garmin and maretron equipment in my boat and one thing that is great about both companies is the customer service. One of my displays went bad and I was able to get a new replacement for less than $700 (5212). They are in Kansas and all speak english very rare these days for customer service. Maretron also has excellent cust service but the make mostly sensors and smaller displays.

Not saying Raymarine cust svc is bad no experience with them.

I think RM is a British company. I haven't needed any cust service beyond getting a few questions answered online. The West Marine guy here was a RM fan and knows their devices very well so he was a great help.

Update. Just bought 2nd Raymarine unit for my other boat. Now own the e127 and a78. Both very easy forf me to use with touch screen and pinch to zoom and recent software update is excellent. Fully recommended. The CHIRP sonar is excellent.