Whistler XTR 695 SE

I purchased a Whistler XTR695 SE Radar Detector from Amazon and I won't ever purchase one again. First the Intellicord lasted about 5 minutes then quit working. I took it apart and the red wire came loose from the circuit board. I fixed it myself and it was fine. The detector looked nice and well built but I had problems right from the start. I read all the reviews and looked at videos of it too. The display and colors you can not make out in bright sunlight. When in hot car a while the LCD text seemed to fade a little. I kept getting falsing on K and Ka bands excessively. It would quit then start up again. I returned it for a refund. Everything seemed to work good on everything else. I tried all the filter and city modes and they didn't help much. I think the pop mode had something to do with it. Any info let me know. The detector is also hard to release from the bracket. Everything was brand new too. I liked the SE detectors but I'm real leery about them now.

Turning pop off will reduce the number of false alarms.

99% of that stuff would be easily fixed if you read some of the posts here. The display issue has been mentioned here several, several times which is why some go with the 78SE better display. POP needs to be off, and nothing will fix "false" K band alerts as these are from stores using motion sensors that open the doors that are on K band, as well as newer vehicles with "blind spot avoidance" systems.

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Originally Posted by MDR

I purchased a Whistler XTR695 SE Radar Detector from Amazon and I won't ever purchase one again. First the Intellicord lasted about 5 minutes then quit working. I took it apart and the red wire came loose from the circuit board. I fixed it myself and it was fine. The detector looked nice and well built but I had problems right from the start. I read all the reviews and looked at videos of it too. The display and colors you can not make out in bright sunlight. When in hot car a while the LCD text seemed to fade a little. I kept getting falsing on K and Ka bands excessively. It would quit then start up again. I returned it for a refund. Everything seemed to work good on everything else. I tried all the filter and city modes and they didn't help much. I think the pop mode had something to do with it. Any info let me know. The detector is also hard to release from the bracket. Everything was brand new too. I liked the SE detectors but I'm real leery about them now.

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See'n you returned it, you might want to try a 78SE if Whistler didn't leave a bad taste in your mouth. It'll solve that useless 695 display in direct sunlight especially worthless if one wears sunglasses. Having said that, if the 695 can be mounted high near the visor area out of direct sunlight that might redeem that display somewhat.

As far as the intelli-cord, i got one and its worked fine after a year's use. Yeah you got a lemon intelli-cord.
As a side note I foolishly a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away bought a brand spank'n new Toyota Celica cause of all the great reviews. Worst f'n car i ever owned! Yeah i had to be the one to get a lemon.

Far as the falsing issue, there are filter modes for Ka falses and if you drive in big cities you might want to also try disabling Ka-max in the menu. As previously stated by cooljay, K falses come with the territory of ALL non-GPS RDers since automatic store door openers share the same K-band frequency as police K-band radar. Same with X-band.

And yes turn pop OFF in the menu. IMO its useless and just a RDer industry marketing gimmick. You should get better IO performance and possibly a little less falsing by turning it OFF.
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I've read that in these post about the display. But I didn't realize the display would be that bad! That's why you have a display to see it! The K and Ka alerts were also in my house! None of my other detectors ever did that! You definitely get what you pay for!

Yeah I almost went with the 690 SE or Pro 78 SE. Thanks for the info. I've got Valentine, Escort, and Cobra detectors and this was the worst of them. Cobra has alot of features but alittle short on range. Escort is good! Valentine is good too. Had some issues with that too. I love the arrows. Escort I love overall. You get what you pay for.

I have the XTR695 and it's not as bad as you are stating...especially if mounted in the correct location. I actually like the dislplay as I can set it to change colors based on the band(s) detected. If you received K & KA alerts in your house you had a defectve unit....or are trollng. Also, Whistler detectors are extremely easy to dismount...did you press the quick release button located on the side of the detector? You say that you returned the unit....so why are you asking for advice...especially when it's the worst detector you've ever owned?

I like the display too. That's one of the reasons I ordered it. I mounted low on dash in center of windshield. I pressed the release button but it took two hands (one to hold the bracket from tearing the cups and the other to pull the unit off. I know I returned it, just wondering if anybody else had problems with it. I just expected more out of it from what I was hearing about it! It wasn't for me I guess.

Display is easier to see if you change the setting to Bright
Factory default setting is Dim

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Originally Posted by MDR

I've read that in these post about the display. But I didn't realize the display would be that bad! That's why you have a display to see it! The K and Ka alerts were also in my house! None of my other detectors ever did that! You definitely get what you pay for!

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Just curious, what did you use to power it up with in the house?
Depending on the 12VDC power source you used (sure hope it wasn't a battery charger), its possible that the RDer could malfunction, act erradic or even be permanently zapped due to excessive ac ripple, under voltage, over voltage, not high enough amperage rating, little or no voltage regulation, etc.

Using an actual 12 volt car or m/c battery (with an amp or two inline quick-blow fuse) or a well regulated/filtered/proper amperage rating 12V-DC power supply or wall wart would be the best and safest way to power it up in the house.
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I just brought the pro78SE. At first, I was going to buy the xtr-695SE on amazon but after reading about the hard to see display in sunlight, I opted for the pro78SE instead since the only difference in feature is the compass.

I've got a big 12volt spotlight that has a 12 volt accessory port. (cigarette lighter port). It works good on all my other detectors.

Yeah that should of worked fine assuming the batteries were fresh. Looks like you had a defective RDer.
If you do want to try another Whistler and if a compass, ext. speaker jack and car battery voltmeter options are not needed, once more, i'd strongly recommend a xtr-78SE for its great 'readable in daylight' digital display.
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Originally Posted by MOPARado

Yeah that should of worked fine assuming the batteries were fresh. Looks like you had a defective RDer.
If you do want to try another Whistler and if a compass, ext. speaker jack and car battery voltmeter options are not needed, once more, i'd strongly recommend a xtr-78SE for its great 'readable in daylight' digital display.
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Yeah, I almost went with the 78 SE or 690SE. I'll have to see how Amazon will credit me first.