calli,
Thanks for the compliment in refering people to this site. I really appreciate it and you have been a great contributor here!
Wow, what a loaded question! I am going to preface this with the statement that "there is no overall Best Settings for All SI Units." I think most of the crew here will tell you the same thing. The settings used will vary depending on several factors: Bottom Composition/Hardness, Depth of Water, Target Size, Target Composition/Hardness, Boat Speed, and a few more.....
Now what I think you want from this is a list of recommended settings that anyone could use and go out and get very good results from side imaging. If I had someone who had never used the unit these are the settings I would recommend right out of the box for fist time use.
SI View Frequency: 455khz
Beam Select: 200khz only (allows for faster processing and recording)
Switchfire: Clear (doesn't really affect the SI either way!)
SI Range: 100' (Varies with depth, but at a minimum of 3 to 4 times the depth of the water you are in)
SI Sensitivity: Auto
Contrast: 10
Sharp: Off
Chart Speed: 4 (Chart speed will vary with boat speed. Most boats will idle along at 3-4mph. for every 1mph up or down, you should change the chart speed accordingly. Best images are obtained between 3-5mph. So I recommend 4.)
SI Color: Amber1 (I use Blue but Amber1 is brighter and will show a very nice contrast)
Ping Per Second: Auto (No need to ever change this. Anything other than auto will decrease the quality of images and recordings)
Remember, to obtain the best SI images, you must keep the boat on straight course and a constant speed of around 3-5mph.
Hope thats what you are looking for. I only touched on the SI settings. Of course there are many more, but none really affect the SI. Did I miss anything?
Good Luck,
Robert