What type of radar detector should I buy?

 

Around here you're going to get bombarded with recomendations for the V1. It works great, but personally I think it's fugly

What's your budget? If you can spare the cash I'd highly recommend one with GPS that can 'learn' where false alarms are and prevent an alert.

The Passport 9500ix is the standard looking version. The 9500ci is the hidden version with the laser shifters included, I absolutely LOVE mine

If you buy one, call Dennis at DoubleDmods.com to see what their price is

 

I was thinking about the 9500ix but don't you have to hook your phone up to it? How much data does it use for this? Because of this I was thinking about the 8500 series.

 

The GPS features work fine without the "Escort Live" cord or subscription. If you connect your phone it's like having live speed trap updates as you drive, but it depends on someone else in front of you also having it connected and turned on. I doubt there are many users in my area, plus it costs extra, which is why I didn't get it, so I have no idea on data usage.

The 'normal' GPS in the unit will keep track of alert locations as you drive, after a few alarms in the same place on the same frequency it will lock out that signal so you can drive locally with a silent detector (unless something new is detected).

 

You don't need to hookup your phone. I don't use the app, it seems unnecessary to me. The 9500 is freaking awesome, get it with a blendmount and mirrortap and thank me later.

 

Exactly... what is the odd you want to get a warning right when somebody else happens to be using that radar detector app. Seems super unlikely for the effort required to get it going.

 

The Valentine 1 out of the box is a good radar detector. Pair it with a compatible android phone running the app Yav1 and program it correctly and you have a great radar detector.

The Escort Redline when programmed correctly is a great radar detector for the highway.

The Escort 9500ix and 8500x50 Black are good detectors for around town and are fair for the highway.

The Escoet MAX is a good radar detector, but has some quality issues and is overpriced for what it delivers. Today Escort announced two new radar detectors the Max2 and the new Passport. The new Passport looks promising.

Forget about Escort LIVE, it doesn't work well.

 

Putting the marketing aside, the range on the 9500 is really good and more than adequate to do the job of providing early warning. I'd wager to say any longer range is useless for this purpose. Also, the GPS learning and removing of false alarms around town is a feature that makes it excellent and far beyond any of the others listed. This is the most important distibguising feature on the market IMO and it works perfectly.

 

I have a 9500ix and haven't used it in four years. I stopped using it when it failed give me an adequate warning on a highway. Luckily, I wasn't going too fast and didn't get a ticket. Around town, it is a decent radar detector. It is a good detector for those who don't drive more than +10 PSL on the highway. Although false alerts on any radar detector are annoying when you reduce false alerts through decreased sensitivity, GPS lockouts or other filtering algorithms; you do increase the risk of not detecting a true police radar signal. There are posts on escort radar's own forum of their members receiving tickets in GPS lock out areas as well as getting a radar ticket with out an alert in non-GPS lockout areas.

A radar detector is a tool and one needs to understand how to interpret the information it provides you to determine if it is a true threat or false alert. Knowing the radar bands and frequencies utilized in the areas you travel as well as how the strength of the radar signal increases,decreases or stays the same and intermittency of the signal will shortly inform you if it is a real threat. Also as you travel through an area regularly, you will learn the locations and frequencies of the false alerts. Until the US radar detector manufacturers adopt more sophisticated technology similar to that of the Stinger radar detector, YOU are the best filter to differentiate true from false alerts.

The reason why the Valentine 1 gets a lot of love on this forum as well as Porsche and BMW forums is that it is a pure detector. No bells and whistles just pure detection. Compared to Escort radar detectors the V1 gives you a better picture of what threats are around you. How many threats, are they in front, behind or to the side of you and what band. The V1 has gotten even better with the addition of v1 connection their bluetooth accessory. That combined with the android app YaV1 will also provide you with the exact frequency of the threat. Another area that the v1 is superior to Escort radar detectors is its lineal ramp up (strength meter increases linearly as you approach the radar source) compared to the exaggerated ramp up of the Escort radar detectors. The Escort radar detectors will quickly go from an low metered alert to a maximum alert and maintain that maximum alert for a prolonged period of time. Yet another positive attribute of the V1 over the Escort is that as soon as the radar signal disappears, the v1 stops alerting, the Escort keeps alerting for another 7 seconds. I could continue about other aspects of the V1, but it will get very technical.

Now I am not saying that Escort radar detectors are bad, they aren't. I own 2 Escort and 4 Beltronics (different divisions of the same company) radar detectors (9500ix, Redline, 2 STiR+, and 2 RX65 S7). The Redline has by far the best range of any radar detector available in the US including the V1. The Beltornics STiR+ used to hold the title of best range until Escort updated the Redline's firmware over a year ago. Although I do like the installed nature if the STiR+, if the Redline as it is today was available when I purchased the STiR+, I would have purchased the redline instead. The sensitivity and ability of the Redline to detect radar signals around curves, corners and over hills is unmatched. The Redline when set up correctly will alert sooner and alert you to radar signals that others won't alert you to until it is too late.

So in my cars what do I use? The Escort Redline set up with my personal preferences for raw detection alerts. I also use the V1 at the same time, with the YaV1 app. I also always use WAZE.

If you want total protection then you also should talk about laser jammers too.

 

I use all 3 and Waze is great once you totally know how it all works.

 

I'd love to see some pictures of your dual detector setup, you're crazy man. I do agree, adding laser shifters would add a lot of protection, I personally haven't gotten that far yet just because they're a pain to install. Are you using any?

Regarding missing alerts, I don't think I am going to use a couple anecdotal stories from joe schmoe on the internet to sway me away. The 9500 can discern these false alerts from legitimate threats and I've seen it work perfectly first hand.

Obviously it doesn't bother you, but as I live in a city, having two detectors beeping at me every 15 seconds at automatic doors and the like just isn't helpful information. It's the whole boy that cries wolf scenario. Like I said, to me, the GPS learning and removing of false alarms is the most important feature on the market. I've also gotten highway alerts miles in advance of threats, so range has proven to be more than adequate.

 

False alert do bother me, however I don't speed on city streets, so my radar detectors are off when I am not on the highway. I agree with your statement about the boy crying wolf. As you become more experinced with your radar detector and use the other display modes available on it, you will learn what is a real vs false alert. Use the information your radar detector can give you. In your area you can turn off X band and if you use your radar detector in spec display you will see the frequency of he radar threat.

Most k band alerts will be below 24.100 or above 24.170. Alerts from 24.100 to 24.170 should be assumed to be true threats. The growing source of k band threats is collision avoidence, and blind spot monitoring systems on newer cars. Unfortunately, because the cars are moving GPS lockout don't work for them.

I run the AntiLaser Priority Laser Jammer. Laser use is increasing in your area by FHP and local departments. Laser is very heavily used on the Tpke and I4.

 

Escort redline with inviscord and blendmount that plugs into your mirror - hasn't let me down yet and the Redline really has great long distance recognition/warning...

 

To me the most important reason I prefer the V1 is for the bogey counter and the detection arrows. Those two features together have saved my butt on more than one ocassion. I find the range excellent too. You learn how to read it properly the more you use it. They work great for me!

 

So you turn your multiple detectors on/off as you enter and exit the highway? Seems like that would be a hassle.

Thanks for the heads up, around here it has been predominantly KA band and most leave it on all the time so it's very easy for detection. I've probably only gotten laser alerts a couple of times in the area, but it gets more common as you go down south.

 

There is a killer deal on the Escort "Smart Detector" right now. It's basically the 9500ix detector, without the GPS, in a 2 piece setup. The detector section can install in front of the rear view mirror, and there's a separate display that can be mounted separately. You also have the option of connecting it to your phone (iphone or android versions) for their "live" service. A really good deal for $170. It's been discontinued, resulting in the lower price. PM me if you want info.

 

I have the V1 with Yav1 app mirrored to my Pioneer Appradio 3.

I love it. I have instant access to viewing directions as an overlay on top of anything that is going on on my screen. It's not shown here, but the overlays also show direction, frequency and strength and I can tap it to go straight to the app.

Yav1 is amazing in that it now has a feature of auto lockouts so it learns where falses are to quiet the radar down. It also allows me to set a speed where it's silent and with the Appradio 3, the app uses mock locations so I can turn off the phone's location services to conserve battery and use the built in GPS in the head unit for everything.