Posted: 12/7/2007 3:00:10 AM EDT
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Any folks here familiar with the choices in these? Seems as if a single ticket could cost as much as one so worth having. I know nothing about the legality, how they work, wherre they would be in the car, etc. Pointers are welcomed. |
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I'm using a Whister 1788 which is both corded and battery operated. If sensitivity is your thing, this is it. Its has amazing sensitivity which some may find a really good thing and some others a bad thing. On the interstate this thing will pick up a signal miles before you get there so a little harder to know exactly when and where type of thing. It has all the options and all the options are programmable. I like this feature since you can program it to prevent panic driving until you get use to the sounds of what is what. Not much you can do about pop or laser other than say, "Well I just got painted." It has the only VG I know that works which is shut your detector down. Anything short of that then something will detect it. This too can be turned off if you don't care. It gives you a VG alert then bleeps to let you know when its operating normal again. I really like the battery saver feature. It turns itself off after a while to prevent battery drain on your car. While driving it gives you an alert warning so all you have to do is hit a button and it will stay on. This thing is so sensitive, I don't window mount it but dash mount it with velcro. The only complaint I guess I have is its a big sucker as radar detectors go, but then there's a reason for that. It uses standard AA rechargeable batteries. When the batteries are charged, it has a good long life. In all, I'm pretty pleased with it and got use to the learning curve one trip which is pretty fast for a radar detector. Now all that being said and having used radar detectors for over 20 years, I don't feel slighted using my old less sensitive Cobra either. The new unit simply gives me a more relaxed trip since I have more time to react to situations. The biggest one being the idiot that goes "OMG, there's a cop!" then tries to cause an accident by slowing radically and changing lanes. Tj |
for radar sensitivity, I think the passport wins. For saving your ass, the V1 will win. Bogey counter and direction indicator are more valuable that an extra 200 ft. Valentine 1 and your done. TXL |
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The Valentine 1 seems to win in magazine tests but the Passport 9500i wins for being the best modern detector. if you want a 1970s style buzzbox with a counter and LED display and some arrows, go with the V1. If you want a modern version of the V1, get the 9500i. It has GPS capabilities and can allow you to ignore false alerts from stationary objects (grocery stores, Wal-Marts, etc...) so they will never trigger the detector. The V1 will report every "threat". Laser is another issue altogether. |
Actually that's not true, you have several modes you can run the V1 in to lessen false alerts in the city. Also, another good thing about the V1....it's upgradable. If they come out with a newer version V1, you can send in your old one and have the new electronics dropped in for a fraction of the cost of a whole new one. |
You might want to be careful with that. Some cops use radar detectors to find those stationary objects you mentioned, and then they set up radar there. JMO. Laser is another issue altogether. They make laser jammers now. They are supposed to be pretty effective. -dan |
| My findings were that the V1 would alert before the passport sometimes and the passport would alert before the V1 sometimes. The thing that bothered me the most was the V1 would fail to notify at all sometimes. One instance the Passport was going off and the V1 had nothing. I thought the Passport was in error until about 15 seconds later a cop drove by going in the opposite direction. The V1 never did go off and the 8500 was going off like crazy as he approached. This was in the middle of nowhere Colorado side roads, so I don't think there was any interference from other things and it was not an area that I normally got an alarm. Also, I had the passport settings such that it showed the seperate bars for mutiple signals, so it wasn't hard to figure out if there was an extra signal in an area I drove regularly. I don't think most people realize you can change the settings to get this display on the 8500. |
No it's not a problem. The setting on the 9500 is smart enough to allow you to manually ignore a specific false alert. For example, the Wal-Mart on the corner is broadcasting at XYZ GHz at location X,Y,Z on the earth. The 9500 will ignore that specific false alert. The next time a LEO camps out there, the 9500 will report the new threat and not the Wal-Mart. The V1's filtering is still not as effective as the manual filtering capability of the 9500. |
I have the 9500i, I also have a dying 8500, I borrowed(for testing) my BIL's V1 before I bought the 9500i. I am EXTREMELY happy with the 9500i. They just came out with the blue LED version. It even picks up the 'new' Ku band. BTW, the 9500i has a usb port for future updates, no need to send it in to the factory. It too has a bogey counter per band. ByteTheBullet (-: |
Yup. |
You know I honestly don't think the V1 warrants its price. Its simply not three times better than some other options on the market, however that there is a damn nice feature and worth some extra dollars. Most of us run the same routes a lot and there's always this one door that is the exception. I have one here my city (I use them to judge sensitivity on units) and one about 250 miles from here along I64 that are almost guaranteed to set anything off. I figure those two doors will stop a pacemaker!  Tj |
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The Valentine 1, is a fantastic device. It let me confidently push the edge when I needed to make good travel time, and it let me know when I needed to sit back and chill with the other traffic. I had it on my BMW 330xi. When I passed, I often was going way too fast quicker than I realized. It helped me in passing slower traffic, without fear of a fast car costing me points & money. I traded that BMW yesterday for a Honda Ridgeline, so the "fast" part during passing is not as much a concern. I do not know if I will use it in the Ridgeline as I will no longer travel regularly for business with my new job. In any case, it is worth every penny! |
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Thanks guys. Okay, I'm getting a pattern here. Escort and Valentine seem to be the main guys. BTW, I might throw a monkey wrench into things. I want it INSTALLED not sitting on the dash or a windshield mount. Is that possible? Expensive? I just don't want wires and stuff in the car for the next X years I own it. |
I don't know about the others, but the V1 does have a remote display available for it, I use it in my truck, but don't use it in my vette. The V1 still has to be mounted in the visor area, as the sensors are in the unit of course. But, you can hard wire the power to say the dimming mirror power, or light power. Then a cable can be hidden and you can run it anywhere you want the hidden display to be mounted. Any good stereo shop could hide the cable easily if you're not comfortable with rmoving panels. With the hidden display, the lights on the unit itself will stay off, so no one behind you will see them. https://store.valentine1.com/store/products/20110.htm And here is the info on the upgradablility of the V1: www.valentine1.com/upgrades/ |