I've had both the RL70CRC and the E80. And had no problems with either. No
question that the E series is much more advanced. However, you can buy NOS
RLCRC's on ebay for $1000, and used ones for less. And more of the older
raydomes that will work with the RL series but not with the C/E series are
showing up on ebay for the $600 range. Both are field upgradable (however,
you must order the upgrades for the RL series form Raymarine on a Cmap-chip,
while you can download the C-series upgrades to a CF card). They both offer
MARPA, and enable you to overlay the radar on top of the chart. However,
the C series has the advantage of being able to display up to 4 separate
windows simultaneously, including a very sophisticated fish-finder/bottom
charter. If you step up to the E-series, you can blow an additional $500 on
a Platinum Navionics chart which also gives you aerial overlays and 3-D
rendering. You can also get additional modules to have weather overlays
from satellite radio, and AIS signals. You can also add remote cameras on
your boat and monitor goings-on -- or hook it up to your DVD player and
watch a movie from the helm or nav station. But ultimately, I think all of
this becomes a major distraction, and if you dont know how to navigate using
your compass, paper charts, a depth sounder, and traditional radar. The
real question is not "will my electronics fail?", it's "when will they
fail?"
"CarverCraver" wrote in message
oups.com...
Other than network capability using hsb^2, what are the differences
between these two displays? Pricing seems comparable.