I have V1's in all my cars. They've saved me more then once which pays for themselves.

 

Not to mention the V1 looks like a old tank on the windshield. I got the 8500 passport and love it. Great support from Escort and if it goes off, 99% of the time, the radar is up ahead anyways so the arrows were not a big deal for me.

 

I have the 9500xi and I like the feature of adding a known laser meter maid sitting spot to it's memory so it tells me when I go by there that it is the maids usual hangout.

But I do like the directional ability of the V1. If 9500 added the directional feature or V1 added the memory feature, either would be the shiznitz

 

Sure... It was posted on page 1 by another helpful member, so here it is: http://www.valentine1.com/Lab/TechReport3.asp

I have a copy of this page on Evernote, which is synched to my iPad and iPhone. What I did was look at this page on the computer, made a note of the settings that I wanted fart around with and then went to town reprogramming it.

I did not disable the K band, which I will now do. What I did was open the remote display up, and put in electrical tape that blocked the led for K as well as X band (which I did silence). So, if I hear a beep, but no band indicator, I know it's K band. I really wish the display had multi-color band indicators, but that's my hack.

But after driving in CA for 7 months and 7,000 miles, I agree with the previous poster. K band isn't really used up here in NorCal.

 

I have the escort 9500xi. I prefer it over the v1. Falses way less, has gps, and gives me plenty of range/time.

 

Here you go, three sites that actually test radar detectors; and two of them are the top in the industry for actual comprehensive indepth testing.

Funny thing is not even ONE of the sites rate the Valentine unit as a winning high end performer now...

The benefits of having directional outweighs nothing.

If we are going to compare corded portable units both the top rated redline and Bell magnum detect from all directions. I have never been shot with radar from the side before, that would tell a cop nothing, only front of back does.

I want my radar detector to give me the best possible detection time possible under as many conditions as I can get.

Now we are talking 9+ miles with some of these units for straight line detection without obstructions that will either help or hinder detection. But where the Bell and escort really work better is in hard to detect situations like rolling terrain. Now do I even mention again the V1's problem with numerous false alerts and failure issues due to heat damage.

So for a corded window mount unit the two winners are the Bell STi Magnum and the Escort Redline.

http://radartest.com/ Escort Redline #1 -- Bell Magnum #2 --Valentine not even considered a top unit anymore.

http://www.radardetector.org/

http://www.1stradardetectors.com/bes...ctor/index.php Escort Redline #1 -- Bell Magnum #2 --Valentine does not beat any of the better brands in a single category

 

Can't say that I've used the Escort radar detector, but I couldn't imagine not having the directional markers and number of bogeys that my Valentine 1 shows me. Highly satisfied V1 owner.

 

What does the Bogey counter tell you, how many automatic dooors at the grocery store are causeing your V1 to false alert; or do you really see multiple cops hitting you at one time.... Right


Well the one site I linked does not sell any brand at all. All he (Radar Roy)does is test them. But he will offer you up a 10% discount coupon to buy it from an online store that is a totally seperate company.


The other one does sell detectors (Radar test Craig) and used to recommend the V1 as a top of the line unit about 8 years ago despite not selling them then, but now he just says they have not kept up. That is quite true, although Valentine has done a better job updating their firmware & unit; it is still a weak detector amoungst the newer models offered by other companies.
Now I will go back to the fact that Valentine detectors are very well noted for failing after being left to bake in a windshield, plus they have no internal test to tell you they have failed like the redline and escort have.

Just yesterday me and two other car friends were going on a small cruise out to the mountains... One had an escort unit and the other had a V1 and me with my STi... My Buddy and I with the escort and Sti had a hit about 5 km from the actual cop.. I knew that because I seen his detector go off through his window and he slowed down too. The V1 owner was behind us and passed us like nothing happened... About 1.5 km from the cop my detector went off big time so it was full slow down and into the slow lane at just under the speed limit. My escort buddy did the same. We were both in a valley and the Valentine equiped GT3 was just about to crest the hill; he did not slow down at all. Well he crested the hill he finally had an alert but it was too late.
He did not get a ticket because he did not stop for the officer holding out his hand. The officer did not really like that so he walked right into the middle of the road and stopped me and my other friend. Well needless to say we were given the riot act and hard balled to give up who it was... All we said was I do not know politely. After he lectured us some more I politely asked him if he was done and I could leave now.

All I could say to my Valentine 1 buddy during lunch was... Yay!!!!!I want a Valentine one Yay!!!!! Yay!!!!! http://www.myspace.com/video/contributor/special-ed-i-wanna-go-to-hawaii/3303380
Why did my buddy in the other Porsche have an escort Redline, because I convinced him to buy it as well as a Blinder 905. Why did my other buddy have a V1, I do not know but he does not have one now seeing how he shot it with my shotgun after we got back to my place.

 

I don't get a lot of false alarms. Maybe it's just where I drive, but I'm typically not speeding along city streets. The Bogey meeter has worked countless times for me. Several speed traps in my area. Sorry about your story getting busted. Lucky for me Oklahoma is flat.

 

What you are talking about here is not new to me or my friends, not even in the slightest. And you did not read what I said. None of us got tickets, he did not stop for the nice police officer holding out his hand in a stop like jesture.

The only problem with that is when you go out to play the speed varies greatly and rabbits varying there speeds so drastically and just when you want them just do not exist.

My story was not about how he screwed up, it was about his detector not even working untill it was too late; where as my bell unit and my buddies escort unit gave us lots of notice; 3+ miles at first detection.

The Valentine units have an issue with detection range on one of the Ka bands that is very frequently used by police and they also have an issue with completely failing due to heat prostration.

You speak the truth about detection time and frequency scanning. The Valentine unit can be quicker. When the escort or bells settings are set up to scan all the Ka bands they can take up to 1 second to do a full frequency sweep. But turn off the full frequency sweep on those units and they are just as fast as the Valentine one plus they have the added benefit of even less false alerts and they are still way more sensitive to the actual Ka bands that cops use.

Those features should be turned off for the north american users of a bell or redline detector.

Yes the Valentive unit does not have any kind of filtering and rejection but the trade off for that is hideous amounts of false alerts for people who use them in more populated areas.

So yes a bell unit or escort unit could potentially miss an alert if set up wrong but that is a setting issue... You can not set up a Valentine to not be nagging over alerting problem.

You are right; there is no perfect system out there.

 

Right you cannot but you can turn off the unwanted frequencies that slow things down.

Things like
TSR - Traffic signal rejection
SWS - Safety warning signals
X - X is never used in any areas I frequent

Turn these things off in the settings section of the radar detector and you have a detector that scans its frequencies just about as fast as the valentine. Not perfect; but in my opinion it is better as it recieves signals at greater distance and it does not annoy you with way more false alerts.


For those that do not get how this matters here is a brief explaination.

Lets go to the hardest to fight radar encounter. That is Pop radar. That is when an officer is not running with his radar unit in a continous transmit mode. His unit is warmed up and ready to go and he presses a transmit button.
It takes about 3/10's of a second for that unit to turn on or emit the radar signal, aquire & lock in that speed and then turn off again.

That is a hard thing to fight except some of the newer more modern detectors can detect such signals at a much greater range thus giving you more warning and likely multiple warnings.

If you want even better and do not need portable get the STiR+...... That way you have even greater sensitivity then either the Sti Magnum or Escort Redline... Plus you can choose the actual frequencies you want it to detect thus eliminating even more false alerts.

 

Went with Escort. At first glance and by everyone who swears to it, V1 looked like the choice, but then reading some actual radar pros testing... the Escort range is about 3 times longer.

I like that.
And it works.
Even laying on the floor, it picks up relevant signals through bends and hills in Canyons, I was astounded.

The arrow I though I might miss... but after using the Escort feel little need for since by the rate of signal change and my own speed it's easy to figure out if it's from behind or from the front. Either way, I know what action to take...

I was actually going to go for Bel Vector 995 bc pricing and some extra features that Escort 8500 didn't have like voice, and the 995 and 8500 are actually made from the exact same electronics and the sensor performance is tested to be identical.

 

I was in this dilemma last year and opted for theEscort Passport 9500ix. In addition to all the debate on which detector detects the best and so on, this unit has automatic features such as volume adjustment in case you turn the radio up and the lights on the face will dim as it gets darker out. These are great features so you can keep your eyes on the road instead of constantly adjusting the volume and light selections. The company emails me regularly with updates, the only bad thing about this is that the software is not Mac compatible.

 

My only addition to this thread would be if you are going V1, spend the extra $40 (10%) and get the SAVVY unit which has a nice feature of turning down the volume at low speeds (you input the speed threshold).

 

I've owned a couple of V1 over the years and the main reason I've gone back is the arrow feature. Here in CO they run the two car setup a lot (or even 4 or 5 cars) where there's one cop set up then another anywhere from a few hundred feet to a mile plus later, so it's great to know when they're doing that because the detector tells you when you pass the first guy that there's another one up ahead.