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  1. #1
    Experienced
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    Jan 2008
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    Washington
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    217

    Default looking for some honest opinions...

    hey guys. I got my tax return back finally... and am looking at how to spend it. I just upgraded my car from a chitty jetta to a v6 firebird... nothing too fancy but something i'll be going a little faster in. I currently have a 690 rev c... and it was saved me many times. I love how quiet it is and everything... but i'll admit i've had some pretty close calls. I was considering getting a V1 with part of my money. I just want some honest opinions from people that have used BOTH of these detectors.... the V1 will be going off a lot more considering the falses in my area and the raw sensitivity...will the detection rates outway the annoyance in your guy's opinion? pretty much is it worth the money overall to upgrade? laser isn't really a big deal here... not yet atleast.

  2. #2
    Professional
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    Jul 2007
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    S State
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    1,092

    Default Re: looking for some honest opinions...

    v1 will be great.

    690 is enough for many but if you speed a lot and need a lil more sensitivity v1 does the job. k doors are just too much with v1, u need to heavily filter k band on v1 to be sane.

    as a user of 690 and v1, 690 hands down wins on quiteness.

    sensitivity, arrows v1 wins. real world performance u will see high k sensitivity from v1 but ka will be almost same on both.

    i hate using v1 in city, i can clearly see the diff in quiteness from both. infact 690 saved my ass from k i/o at a place where v1 keeps goin off non stop and 690 just beeps twice.. i felt the more intense k i/o and was alert only to see a cop shooting i/o 1/2 a mile away.. 690 saved me if i had v1 that day i would have totally ignored the i/o in the k door noise.

  3. #3
    Experienced
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    Jan 2008
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    Washington
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    217

    Default Re: looking for some honest opinions...

    yeah see i'll have the problem with the k band cause i'm in the city a lot. A lot of the leo's still heavily use K band around here. I'm looking at the V1 mainly for the arrows, of course for the sensitivity as well, but the arrows are something i have wanted for a while.

  4. #4
    Professional
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    Jul 2007
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    S State
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    1,092

    Default Re: looking for some honest opinions...

    Quote Originally Posted by bigmack View Post
    yeah see i'll have the problem with the k band cause i'm in the city a lot. A lot of the leo's still heavily use K band around here. I'm looking at the V1 mainly for the arrows, of course for the sensitivity as well, but the arrows are something i have wanted for a while.

    order a v1, u have 30 days to return it. if it is too much noise then.. return it.

  5. #5

    Default Re: looking for some honest opinions...

    Well I was in the same boat and was torn between the V1 and Xtr 695. I picked the Xtr 695 and I could be happier with my choice. The 695 had awsome range and alot of very useful features like the LSID and RSID and its very quiet in town and in the open road depending on what filter you use. The money I saved is put aside for my upcoming Blinder laser jammer.

  6. #6
    Power User
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    Feb 2006
    Location
    MI / MA
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    3,594

    Default Re: looking for some honest opinions...

    I love both my V1 and my XTR-690 and wouldn't give up either for the world.


    The V1, yes it's chatty, but it's SAVED MY REAR on two occasions where the only alert outside of the killzone was a single dot Ka or K. That required raw sensitivity , and I am convinced with virtually any other windshield-mount detector I would've been left in a nasty situation where I had 2-5 seconds to slam on the brakes before entering the killzone. I do have to say, despite the V1's chattiness, I've never had an issue discerning friend from foe. It takes your first week or so to get used to its mannerisms, but you can interpret its alerts pretty definitively, and program it to be as quiet as the XTR-695 if need be. The arrows are also an extremely powerful tool to reduce the amount of hunting-around-your-mirrors in locating the source of a threat.


    The XTR-695, you cannot beat it for performance-for-the-dollar. For 99% of situations you're going to run into, it'll give as good protection as the V1, and one can argue for the rare situation where that's not the case you can be pretty screwed either way. Mike B and the Whistler team are fantastic in standing behind their products, and now the RSID/LSID feature is also fantastic at making a good guess on the nature of the source (police? crap detector? which department / what kind of cruiser?)

    Personally, in the city it's a dead even tossup between which detector to get, and if money is a concern then the Whistler HANDS DOWN.

    On the highway, IMO the V1 does have value-added if you get it, particularly for the arrows for dealing with long-range attacks and also extreme-sensitivity over the hill type encounters that are such a favorite on the highways.

    It's definitely a difficult choice to make.

  7. #7
    Lead Foot
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    USA
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    392

    Default Re: looking for some honest opinions...

    I have the V1 and the XTR695. I have seen a few situations on the highway where the V1 received an alert and the XTR695 didn't alert until the LEO was seen. Once was on an S curve in the freeway where the V1 alerted before the S curve and the XTR695 didn't alert until the Leo was seen just as we exited the 2nd curve. Another was this last weekend where the V1 picked up a KA I/O at 3-4 miles and the XTR695 never alerted. There was only 1 I/O shot as the LEO had just pulled over the car he shot as we went by and the V1 caught it. IMO the V1 is excellent for open highway and I wouldn't use anything else. The Arrow's are a must have. On the highway they really help you once you learn how to use them. I don't think a V1 in the city would be all that great. For the city the XTR695 works really well. Buy them both! You only live once.

  8. #8
    Experienced
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    Jan 2008
    Location
    Washington
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    217

    Default Re: looking for some honest opinions...

    thank you for your guy's opinions so far. i've never really looked into the V1 before so i'm curious how easy it is to program it to be fairly quiet like jdong said. i had a case the other day where i got nailed with I/O in a pack of cars, i just happened to be speeding past them all so i would have been screwed if i hadnt made a few quick turns. times like those make me wish i had a V1 because i probably would have picked up an ealier alert from someone else and not been the target. do all of you honestly believe the Ka performance is fairly close on both detectors? Not putting down whistler at all, because they have amazing products, but i just find it hard to believe that the V1 wouldn't blow the 690 out of the water on overall performace based on the price difference...??

  9. #9
    Power User
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    Feb 2006
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    MI / MA
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    Default Re: looking for some honest opinions...

    Quote Originally Posted by bigmack View Post
    thank you for your guy's opinions so far. i've never really looked into the V1 before so i'm curious how easy it is to program it to be fairly quiet like jdong said.
    As much as I love Whistler, want to make your V1 like a Whistler on K band? Just mute all alerts under 4 dots and put it in big-L so your detector pretends to be deaf to them. That's about comparable to Whistler sensitivity on K band. It'll still provide good warning, but not INSANE sensitivity.

    i had a case the other day where i got nailed with I/O in a pack of cars, i just happened to be speeding past them all so i would have been screwed if i hadnt made a few quick turns. times like those make me wish i had a V1 because i probably would have picked up an ealier alert from someone else and not been the target. do all of you honestly believe the Ka performance is fairly close on both detectors? Not putting down whistler at all, because they have amazing products, but i just find it hard to believe that the V1 wouldn't blow the 690 out of the water on overall performace based on the price difference...??
    No, I don't believe Ka performance is "close" in terms of saving yourself from an IO attack. For that, the significant extra sensitivity of the V1 does come in very crucial. If the only alert you are going to get is an IO shot 2 miles ahead, the V1 might see it but the XTR-690 definitely won't.

    Is this putting down Whistler? Absolutely not. We're comparing a $400 detector to a $200 one. It better damn well perform better if you're shoving that much money at it. Whistlers perform spectacularly in real world and represent great value and ample protection. For us to be sitting here today seriously discussing V1 vs Whistler performance, the Whistler team should be proud of their work! However in terms of comparative performance the V1 will outshine it on every band. This is a moot point for 90% of encounters which tend to be constant-on in nature, where I could care less if the alert comes at 3.5 miles or 1 mile, but for the hard-to-detect encounters, sheer sensitivity is what saves you.

  10. #10
    Professional
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    Mar 2009
    Location
    west coast of the ___American Corporatocracy___ X-band is alive-deadly-expensive
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    1,267

    Default Re: looking for some honest opinions...

    I haven't had a Whistler in years, but . . . I love my V-1 !!

    Been a 'loyal operator' for over 10 years and I WAY miss the arrows when I've used any other unit.
    like, our 9500i. The 9500 has to be one of the neatest toys I've ever owned and I feel very fortunate that we are able to have both. Together they make a nice tool kit

    But, in the words of Mike Valentine "Situational Awareness"

    Between the arrows, the audio clarity AND the consistant/linear progressive strength indicator, you really can tell a Speed Signal from a door opener. Even amongst a cluster of falses.

 

 

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