There's no "il" in legal

 

If you really have the tunes going, and it's anything but the stock system, the difference between the V1 and Escorts probably won't make much of a difference. But if you get the V1, you can get one of the modded remote displays, and put the display right in front of you... hopefully a red flashing light in your direct line of site will be noticeable.

Stick with the inexpensive detectors if you want - but after getting the V1, I can say without a doubt that there is a big difference between that, and even the "mid line" detectors.

Where my Escort 6800 would pick up the radar from the fixed speed display units on my daily drive to/from work, it was always as soon as I was in direct line of site. The Valentine 1 picks them up before I round the turns heading into the straightaway.

I'm not an expert on how police use radar, but I'm pretty sure that knowing that the radar's active around the corner is much better than knowing it only when I'm in that direct line of site. And that's with a 'decent' Escort. Gotta wonder how effective the cheapy ones really are... and how the cost/risk/reward ratio works out once you factor in the ticket, and increases to insurance.

Just my $0.02 - Good luck with your choice.

 

Heh I love my LAZAR, quicker than any radar detector, course if you get stopped without that device a good story goes a long way towards a warning, If you get stopped with a Escort or other device it's "sign here, press hard, and you get the third copy".



Cruizer

 

I have an Escort iX, and a passport 8500 before that. I've only been pulled over for speeding twice in the last 20 years, and I drive very fast. The only times I got caught, I was totally vegged out, and the detector was screaming at me, and the other time, I got nabbed by "instant on". Fortunately that time I got let off.

My Escorts have more than paid for themselves. I rarely drive without it.

 

Another vote for a V1 here. FWIW, I have a $15K system in my Z, and I can faintly hear the detector when music is running full boogie. So yes, if you're listening for it, you'll hear it. Also, I've never even been pulled over with my V1 running. I know where the cops are before they do.

 

With the YaV1 app for the Valentine I believe you can have the alerts play through the stereo if you're using the device running YaV1 for music as well.

I have not had time to try this out yet...it could definitely be catastrophically annoying if you can't tweak the volume...but my new speakers are more than capable of drowning out the V1 so I probably need to try it.

YaV1 does a lot of cool stuff, very little of which I have had time to fool with. I need to get the location based muting going.