A quick note, for now...

I spent a total of 5 hours yesterday with the STi and a new Redline. I have them both mounted at the top of my windshield, one to the left and one to the right of the rvm. They are 10 inches apart. I drive an 07 GMC pick em up 4wd. Ran them separately against a Ka band speed sign to determine the first alert spot. After doing this I decided to run them at the same time as there was no interference noted as far as where they each first alerted. Here are a few observations:
> I need a video cam!:mad:
> The STi alerted first to the Ka sign by one alert tone. Negligible, but I thought the Redline would alert first by a fair margin.:dontknow:
> Next was a K band sign. Again the STi alerted first by approx. 5 seconds. The Redline also dropped the signal very briefly, while driving towards the sign.
> Driving back towards the K band sign, now a forward facing situation, The STi and the Redline alerted at the same time.
> Driving back towards the Ka band sign, again a forward facing situation, the Redline alerted first by 5 seconds.

After this little experiment, I encountered no less than 18 Ka band equipped enforcers, all of which were constant on with one exception. The STi alerted first in 75% of these encounters. Only by an alert tone or two but still first. In the one I/O encounter, again the STi alerted first by an alert tone. The leo was 1.2 miles down the road behind a hill in the median.
This was by no means a scientific test by any facet of the imagination and I'm not stating it as such. What I will state is I absolutely am not getting a Redline. The unit looks like a Korean copy of the STi. The paint sucks and so does that friggin lip! As far as overall build quality goes, the V1 and the STi rule period. I will try mounting the Redline low and center to see how bad the glare is. My initial impression is that the Redline is a hacked copy of the STi with a "methed up" ramp up to give the illusion of better sensitivity. Bottom line so far, it's not better than the STi or the V1. I'm also fairly certain that manufacturers variance is a play here but come on. I know this is quick and dirty but I gotta go to work. I'll post more later. Oh, I'm definitely keeping my STi!

Interesting, considering that (from a hardware perspective) the STi and Redline are pretty much the exact same detector.

The main differences are the firmware and the shell. I think the Redline firmware isn't quite up to par yet, and after a few updates the Redline's performance should match, or possibly surpass, the STi's. :)

The Escort Redline marketing team:

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/4113/hype.png

I wonder when Escort will offer firmware updates for the Redline?

Well, another long day and still another unimpressed escort user. I had a total of 4 leo encounters today. Both units were neck and neck detection wise with one notable exception. I was westbound on Rt.17 near Elmira, N.Y. There is a long, flat straightaway right before the speed changes from 65 to 55 mph. The STi alerted to 35.500 slowly and continued for 6 "tones" before the Redline came excitedly to life. It was an Oneida County Sheriff in a Charger, rolling eastbound. Total distance until we "met" was 1.1 miles.
I took the time today, to look the Redline over. I am taking back some of what I said about the paint. It is a rubberized paint and it actually seems to be of high quality. I also noticed that the three buttons seem very solid with the way they actuate. I still don't and never will, like the lip.
I still can't help but feel that folks are getting "jobbed" with the better than the V1 (STi) claims. That is however, just my opinion.

Have you tried swapping the locations of the STi and Redline in your car, to see if that makes any difference?

Yes sir. Today I had the STi low and center on the windshield. The Redline was top left of rvm.:eek::confused:

When running 2 top performers together you are going to find a couple things I would look out for.

1. Most of your constant on encounters, both will alert within 1 second of one another. This I feel is due to terrain blocking the signal, as in Leo's signal is blocked. Examples of this would be Leo coming around a curve 1.2 miles away, or leo comes over a rise 2 miles away and both detectors see the signal at the same time. When I get encounter with the leo rolling towards me I always count the distance back from the point I meet the leo, and 99% of the time find the leo came over a hill, or around a curve at the same time I started getting the first alerts.

2. in instant on when they alert at almost the same time, the one alerting first is normally due to a quicker alert processor. The V1 always beats my STI by about 1/2 to a whole second.

3. Since the top dogs are so close on performance, you may have to run them a long time to establish a winner. It took me about 3000 miles to start seeing a clear winner between the V1 and the STI.

I hope this makes since, I am only trying to help you with your comparison. thank you for sharing your testing results with us.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KaPro

I spent a total of 5 hours yesterday with the STi and a new Redline. I have them both mounted at the top of my windshield, one to the left and one to the right of the rvm. They are 10 inches apart. I drive an 07 GMC pick em up 4wd. Ran them separately against a Ka band speed sign to determine the first alert spot. After doing this I decided to run them at the same time as there was no interference noted as far as where they each first alerted. Here are a few observations:
> I need a video cam!:mad:
> The STi alerted first to the Ka sign by one alert tone. Negligible, but I thought the Redline would alert first by a fair margin.:dontknow:
> Next was a K band sign. Again the STi alerted first by approx. 5 seconds. The Redline also dropped the signal very briefly, while driving towards the sign.
> Driving back towards the K band sign, now a forward facing situation, The STi and the Redline alerted at the same time.
> Driving back towards the Ka band sign, again a forward facing situation, the Redline alerted first by 5 seconds.

After this little experiment, I encountered no less than 18 Ka band equipped enforcers, all of which were constant on with one exception. The STi alerted first in 75% of these encounters. Only by an alert tone or two but still first. In the one I/O encounter, again the STi alerted first by an alert tone. The leo was 1.2 miles down the road behind a hill in the median.
This was by no means a scientific test by any facet of the imagination and I'm not stating it as such. What I will state is I absolutely am not getting a Redline. The unit looks like a Korean copy of the STi. The paint sucks and so does that friggin lip! As far as overall build quality goes, the V1 and the STi rule period. I will try mounting the Redline low and center to see how bad the glare is. My initial impression is that the Redline is a hacked copy of the STi with a "methed up" ramp up to give the illusion of better sensitivity. Bottom line so far, it's not better than the STi or the V1. I'm also fairly certain that manufacturers variance is a play here but come on. I know this is quick and dirty but I gotta go to work. I'll post more later. Oh, I'm definitely keeping my STi!

---

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX7wtNOkuHo&feature=related]YouTube - Nelson[/ame]

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KaPro

Well, another long day and still another unimpressed escort user. I had a total of 4 leo encounters today. Both units were neck and neck detection wise with one notable exception. I was westbound on Rt.17 near Elmira, N.Y. There is a long, flat straightaway right before the speed changes from 65 to 55 mph. The STi alerted to 35.500 slowly and continued for 6 "tones" before the Redline came excitedly to life. It was an Oneida County Sheriff in a Charger, rolling eastbound. Total distance until we "met" was 1.1 miles.
I took the time today, to look the Redline over. I am taking back some of what I said about the paint. It is a rubberized paint and it actually seems to be of high quality. I also noticed that the three buttons seem very solid with the way they actuate. I still don't and never will, like the lip.
I still can't help but feel that folks are getting "jobbed" with the better than the V1 (STi) claims. That is however, just my opinion.

---

Do you have the ramp up fix on your STi??

Yes I do have the ramp up fix. Remember that these observations are just me driving around doing my job. One thing I am sure of is the Redline ain't all that in the Northeast terrain.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KaPro

Yes I do have the ramp up fix. Remember that these observations are just me driving around doing my job. One thing I am sure of is the Redline ain't all that in the Northeast terrain.

---

Thanks for the real world testing, I find these type test very helpful...thanks again.

I wonder what happened here? His STi has to be defective

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlEB5X6fgfk&feature=channel_page"]YouTube - Escort Redline Beltronics STi Driver versus Facing Instant-on (IO) K-band[/ame]

Yes, I can tell you the Redline WILL NOT outperform a working STi on that level, they are very close when it comes to K-band detection.

It may have a slight-edge if any... but certainly nothing like in that video. His STi was not working properly.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AirMoore

Yes, I can tell you the Redline WILL NOT outperform a working STi on that level, they are very close when it comes to K-band detection.

It may have a slight-edge if any... but certainly nothing like in that video. His STi was not working properly.

---

Yeah my Sti will do better than that against K band, their has to be something wrong.

After using this unit for a few days I have come to the conclusion that the Redline is a solid C/O performer. Did some runs past a K band sign today and with this sign, the Redline more than held it's own. Also, I was a little harsh in my opinion of the build quality. The paint is nice and the construction is solid. As for the lip....... not my cup of tea. Also, again, it's not the dragon slayer we were hoping for. Time will tell.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Daz

I wonder what happened here? His STi has to be defective

YouTube - Escort Redline Beltronics STi Driver versus Facing Instant-on (IO) K-band

---

This clearly looks like an example of interference.

I didn't know that two stealth detectors interfered with each other. :confused:

Up until now it was my thought that they would be ok since they are spectre proof. They still emit emissions that can effect each other . In my experience some units work ok together and some dont.


I have only seen this about 3 times. But when they interfere one will filter the signal until almost point blank range, and then alert in instant on fashion. The STI in the video could be defective and thats causing it to act that way, but it sure looks like interference to me.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KaPro

I didn't know that two stealth detectors interfered with each other. :confused:

---

Are we 100% positive that the Redline is stealth? Maybe it is leaking so bad that the STi is too busy filtering out the signals. I would like to see some testing of the Redline with the Spectre.

Michael

Escort says it's undetectable.:confused: Completely undetectable.

How well does the Redline perform w/ a regular BelEscort window mount? Does it bounce a lot? Curious.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Freebird

Up until now it was my thought that they would be ok since they are spectre proof. They still emit emissions that can effect each other . In my experience some units work ok together and some dont.

---

But if they emit something that can interfere with another RD, that means they emit something a future RDD can pick up.

AFAIK when Belscort designed the STi they made it completely stealth, as in no detectable emissions whatsoever, at microwave frequencies anyway. Some have said it emits in lower frequencies but these shouldn't be able to positively identify a RD, nor should they interfere with other RDs.

If another RD can pick up something from the M3 platform that affects its performance, so can a RDD. Granted, it may only be very close range emissions, and placing the STi and Redline further apart would be a solution.

P.S. I should be getting my Redline on Monday. I'll test it against my VG-2 as well as my other RDs (V1 w/Ka false guard off, and my Unidung which makes a better RDD than a RD :D ) If going horn-to-horn doesn't cause any of my other RDs to go off, it's a pretty good sign that it's stealth enough to peacefully coexist alongside another M3 platform stealth RD.

Someone who owns radar guns and two or more M3-platform RDs should do a controlled test (GOL)...

If that is a Veil Guy video, this would be the 2nd one running the STI and the Redline that I have seen the STI do that. Once on k-band and once on ka band. It could be a bad STI but..

In the other time I saw this it was a Ci unit acting just like the STI when run with a Whistler se unit. We know the Ci and the Whistler were both good units. It was obvious the Whistler was interfering with the CI with the same symptoms in that encounter. The CI was silent until almost point blank range with the gun then alerting in instant on fashion.

That STI/Redline encounter is very similar making me think it is interference. I guess the only way to know for sure would be test the STI by itself to see if it is defective, or see how other STI's work with the Redline. Hopefully the STI is defective and they can be safely run together.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KaPro

Escort says it's undetectable.:confused: Completely undetectable.

---

They also said it was a V1 killer. Well, at least the Escort Rep on here did. :p

^^yea, it's not.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cips

They also said it was a V1 killer. Well, at least the Escort Rep on here did. :p

---

Ouch. :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KaPro

The unit looks like a Korean copy of the STi.

The paint sucks and so does that friggin lip!

My initial impression is that the Redline is a hacked copy of the STi with a "methed up" ramp up to give the illusion of better sensitivity.

---

I cracked up reading that stuff ... :D:D Gold!

It would surprise me not one bit if the Redline turnes out to be just a reboxed STI. Can you even see the display if the Redline is mounted high, or does the lip totally obscure it?

Again with the Redline losing the signal for a bit ... that's not good.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by proudNMAmember

I wonder when Escort will offer firmware updates for the Redline?

---

More likely they will call it the Redline X50 and say it's an all new detector.

Proud,
The Redline is very steady on the mount. Very little bounce.

Now for the Redline...... It may have paid for itself today. My wifes subie had the low tire pressure light on and I took a "quick" run into town to get air. I was on Rt. 26 which is a 55 mph zone and I was cough cough 20 over.:o Suddenly the Redline spews out 3 Ka tones at 35.505. I hammered the brakes and 3/4 mile later I spot the Vestal cruiser sitting off the side of the road facing me. He lit me up again at 500'. Anyway, I was very impressed with the I/O 35.5 alert range. The ergonomics are still more than I can deal with. Oh yea, you can see the display up high over the swollen lip. I'm still keepin my STi BUT it seems the Redline is a solid performer overall. I have no idea about Q/T performance though.:rolleyes:

Please report how it performs against C/O 35.5, if you encounter any. Wanna see something...

Either way, thanks for posting your findings/impressions :)

^^^^ I will do that.... The leo (dept. as a whole) that lit me up yesterday has always been a C/O user. Now they got a Stalker 2 and some younger faces and the I/O usage is increasing. I'm not sure which is worse the Stalker 2 or the eagles as far as I/O/ goes.:confused: EDIT***** upstatedoc and Airmoore are two of the best people I have met. It was an honor to meet both of them!