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Originally Posted by calgarygringo
There is some cool stuff out there in that price range by all 3 majors right now. There are a few good slightly used pieces available too. I believed walleyedude has one or 2 Lowrances available. If he doesn't chime in pm him as he takes good care of his stuff and just replaces often. On Facebook there is a couple of the more expensive units there in that price range too walleyedudes being one I saw there.
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Unfortunately, I sold my units last week.
My suggestion would be the Lowrance Elite 9 TI if you want to buy a new unit. In my opinion, Lowrance has the best 2D sonar, and if your primary concern is marking fish and detail on standard sonar, the Elite series is excellent. Touch screen, high resolution, bright, and very user friendly. It also has the ability to do all that other stuff - map cards/chips, trolling motor control, WIFI, etc... should you ever want it in the future. The version with a TotalScan transducer (Side imaging and Down imaging) is about $1350, and there's a $100 rebate available until the end of May. If you decide to go with the Elite 9, send me a PM, I'll give you some options on transducer upgrades that might be worth it to you and keep you under $1500.
The other option, which is equally good or better in my opinion, is to do what Calgarygringo is suggesting, and look around for a good used unit. A HDS Gen3 9" unit or even a Carbon 9" unit or HDS Gen3 12" unit might be in your budget or right on the edge of it if you shop around and find the right deal. The biggest advantage is the ability to network the HDS units together via ethernet, so if that's not something you're ever likely to do, then the Elite TI units are very close in performance.