New here!

[Stealth Stalker]

Well, since no other detector in the world does it, and multiple people report it happening multiple times to them, I'd have to say that qualifies as a high potential.

And you highlight the problem, which is that most of the time you will never know if you locked a LEO out, because you'll never know he shot you.

[bockr]

Well, since no other detector in the world does it, and multiple people report it happening multiple times to them, I'd have to say that qualifies as a high potential.

And you highlight the problem, which is that most of the time you will never know if you locked a LEO out, because you'll never know he shot you.

You can ussually tell when you lock him out, while I drive through the high risk area with truelock I stare at the gps icon while it's locking out a cop it spins alot longer and then I turn TL off to verify. The good thing an bad thing about the 9500ix is that it's so bad off-axis that it doesn't detect as many door openers as the v1 even with truelock off, it's still very good on-axis.

[BMW Guy]

We should also ask BMW Guy where he lives (state) and if he lived in or frequently travels through Virginia or D.C. If he lives in VA, then the Beltronics STi is the only way to go. If he lives in TX, then I would recommend a STi for TX too since there are too many rumors of DSP using Spectres to nab motorists who are using radar detectors.

I live in Fort Lee, NJ about 2 miles from Manhattan on the Jersey side, so my daily drives consists of large metro city, surbs.. My commute to work is about 10 minutes on a 4 lane turnpike.

I posted the below on the V1 forums but I wanted also post here for an update on my purchase.


So last Tuesday I picked up a new Valentine one, hooked it up and was finally happy to have one of the best Radar detectors available.

As soon as I was driving around, I heard several X bands go off, ok so it picks up a fair amount of automatic doors and other radio waves.

So I read my manual and decided for driving in the city I should keep the detector on "L" mode. It didn't help filter out all the stupid alerts. In front of my house there is a wine/liquor store with automatic doors and every single time I drive past it, it goes off.
Using the detector daily and as of today, I am really getting annoyed with so many false alarms on this thing. Basically, I feel that the V1 is no better than the other cheap detectors except that it detects the alerts earlier.

When I was deciding to buy this I researched both the escort 9500ix and V1 and according to lots of people the arrows are worth getting the V1. And the other features on the passport may be good to have but the arrows trump them.
I'm not so sure about that.. having a detector that filters out automatic doors and other non threats would be a big plus for me.

So anyway here I am thinking to myself this is the reason why I never had a radar detectors in the past 10 years due to the annoyance of the beeps that I got from the cheaper $100 detectors and thinking about returning the V1 and purchasing the passport. However, I have yet to use the V1 on a highway except for my short commute that only lasts for 10 minutes on the turnpike. I have a road trip coming up from NJ to NC this Friday and thats when I guess I will find out if I want to keep the V1 or not. If the V1 goes off every few minutes due to false alerts, I think I will just unplug it and put it in the glove box until I return back home to ship it back to Valentine one in Ohio.

The reason for this post is I wanted to share my fustrations and ask you guys if there is something I am doing wrong or if the mode I selected is incorrect?
Any advice? Pretty disappointed so far.

[BMW Guy]

Welcome, fellow e60 owner!

Sweet! Your M5 must be a blast to drive

Are you from the BMW forum where djram80 posted?

I'm not so sure who that is.

I was directed here by my fellow members from BMW forums.
I'm also a forum member for Bimmerfest.com and e60forums.

[Stealth Stalker]

Yeah, the V1 sucks. You definitely got screwed.

I'll give you a hundred bucks for it, if it'll make you feel any better.

[BMW Guy]

Yeah, the V1 sucks. You definitely got screwed.

I'll give you a hundred bucks for it, if it'll make you feel any better.

Dude go else where if you got nothing to add to this post except sarcasm.

If your in love with your V1 thats great for you. You should ban yourself.

[Stealth Stalker]

I guess it helps not to live across the street from a liquor store.

[jmccam]

Yeah, the V1 sucks. You definitely got screwed.

I'll give you a hundred bucks for it, if it'll make you feel any better.

Dude go else where if you got nothing to add to this post except sarcasm.

If your in love with your V1 thats great for you. You should ban yourself.

Stealth is just razzing you, don't let him or others get to you. He just likes the V1 and it works for him. Gotta have some thick skin on this site. They have their opinions are not afraid to let you know them.

I have a 9500ix and live in the city and it works great for me. When I do any travel on the highway I am more than satisfied with the range and sensitivity of the IX. It is a great RD and has everything I want in a unit. I think you would be very happy with this unit and it would work well for your area.

[MEM-TEK]

...Using the detector daily and as of today, I am really getting annoyed with so many false alarms on this thing. Basically, I feel that the V1 is no better than the other cheap detectors except that it detects the alerts earlier...

That is my biggest complaint regarding the V1. The V1 is designed to fill a market niche for a high performance radar detector which is designed primarily for highway and open road driving. The V1's arrows are nice, but with a conventional radar detector its easy for me to tell when I have a cop behind me occasionally shooting I/O radar as he slowly approaches from behind.

What you really need is the 9500ix. Let AutoLearn automatically block out all of the falses along your daily driving routes. Once that is done, turn AutoLearn OFF and leave it off. Then, for those few locations where door openers are right next to the road (such as the liquor store), unlock those locations and then manually set lockouts when the signal strength gets to about 1/2 of full strength as you approach the door openers. You will need to do this for both directions of approach to these roadside door openers. The trick behind this method is to get those roadside door openers manually locked out at weaker signal strengths so that the 9500ix doesn't set a really huge lockout radius like it would if AutoLearn had locked out the roadside door openers. This procedure works like a charm on my 9500ci.

Yep, in short, I agree with you that the V1 has way too many false alerts for urban use.

[snoopyc4]

Keep in mind that when you lock out a area with truelock, the 9500ix won't pick up a radar signal of the same frequency coming from a LEO if he is in that area. Its a small risk but it can be deadly (I think three forum members have gotten tickets because of truelock). Still, if you do most of your driving in the city, then get the ix. The V1 is pretty much useless in the city unless there is a Ka band present. The ix has spec mode too so you can identify the Ka band frequencies that are in your area.