9500i wish list ....
I was a long time owner of a V1 (8 years) until it was recently stolen.
I never thought I'd find anything better than the V1, but after much research finally decided on a 9500i.
I've only owned it for about a week now, but I'm extremely pleased!
I do miss a couple features of the V1, but the convenience features of the 9500i absolutely outweigh those and I don't regret buying the 9500i for one second.
If I had a wish list for the 9500i, it would be this:
Bluetooth interface to enable auto-muting of bluetooth capable stereos.
I currently have a Dual XHD 6425 head unit with bluetooth. My cell phone is also blue tooth capable. What's great is when a call comes in, the cell phone automatically mutes my stereo.
I've found the volume level of the 9500i to be too low even at max volume. I usually play my music loud and it would be nice if the detector could mute my stereo the same way my phone does.
For now I just listen to music at a lower volume, but this sure would be a nice feature.
On a side note, I think the 6425 is the most feature packed head unit for the money (~$100). The thief who stole my detector also got my stereo, so the 6425 was the replacement.
A "Lockout Undo" feature.
The other day I accidentally locked out an actual LEO signal by getting too trigger happy with the mute button. Oops. I turned around and drove back as quickly as I could to the same spot hoping to unlock it, but the police were already gone.
So now I'm left with a lockout of an actual signal at that location (my fault, I know, but it happened).
It would very handy to have the ability to unlock the last alert that you locked out.
Maximum volume level needs to be louder.
If I play the stereo loud, the max volume doesn't quite cut it. It's a strain to hear the alerts and voice prompts.
Better alert tones.
I'm comparing to the V1 which had, in my opinion, the best alert tones going. They were each very very distinct and instantly recognizable.
In my opinion, the X, K and KA tones on the 9500i sound too similar. I like using speed alert, so my initial warning to what band I'm receiving will always be audible. I find that I have to wait for the voice alert or the display readout to know for sure what band it is.
I realize that the longer I own the unit, the easier it will be to differentiate the tones, but I still think they sound too similar to each other.
And (to get real nitpicky) at max volume the tones tend to sound oversaturated and "mushy". The tones on the V1 sound crisp and clean at all volume levels.
Beyond this wish list, there's not much else to wish for other than very technical stuff like being able to specify which individual signal(s) to lock out when multiple signals are being detected. I think coming up with an uncomplicated way to do such a thing would be very difficult and probably not worth the effort. But it would be a cool feature.
I'm definitely sold on the 9500i. Although I miss the V1's directional arrows and rear radar detection, the convenience features and performance of the 9500i are incredible.
The #1 thing I hated about the V1 was the lack of an auto-mute. I even wrote to Mike Valentine about that and he sent a courteous reply back basically saying he was not interested in ever implementing an auto-mute feature because it would be too easy for users to miss possible threats when running the detector at low volume levels. I'd be ready to scream sometimes if I was in a shopping center and have the V1 show 8 bogeys with alarms and chirps and sounds going off rapid-fire and non stop. Enough to make you pull your hair out. And no auto-mute always meant having to manually press the volume button every time I wanted to mute an alert (which was 90% of the time).
I never thought I'd say it, but I think the V1 has been outdone overall, even if the V1's performance is a tad better. The difference in performance (IMO) is so neglible as to not be a factor.
Just my .02
Cheers,
Dean
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Originally Posted by cincyreds
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