V1 vs 9500CI

[Viper]

I was looking at the July 08 GOL tests and on the bottom they did the V1 vs 9500CI comparison. The 9500CI seemed to dominate the V1's range. I have a V1 myself but this sort of makes me uneasy. Am I reading the results correctly?

[V1 Dave]

Yes, but you are talking about a $1600 fixed to the vehicle vs $400 portable unit.

[Red Turbo Tegg]

You are reading them correctly. The CI will dominate it for the most part, but for 1,600.00 dollars it had better. I wouldn't be to concearned about it though, the V1 has great performance. It hasn't let you down yet has it?

[Viper]

I see. I thought the ci was a portable detector that escort bundles with a bunch of other crap.

[Stealth Stalker]

Domination is relative. In reality, even with a perfect 9500ci installation, it's range domination averages around 0.3 miles. When you're already getting two miles or more of range, you have to decide if an extra 0.3 miles is worth $1200 dollars to you or not. If you are a chronic hyperspeeder, regularly doing greater than 100mph, then it absolutely is. If you're primarily a city driver, or not likely to be doing much more than 20 over PSL on the highway, it's not, as it will only result in greater false alerts and confusion of your situational awareness. Just evaluate your driving habits and do the math.

Another caveat to the 9500ci is that it does not realise it's potential without a perfect installation. A lot of people buy it not because of it's range, but because it is concealable. And consequently, they get the installer to hide it behind the grille or bumper skin, resulting in range less than or equal to a windshield mount. That's still pretty good range, and perfectly acceptable under the circumstances. But it's not going to perform like the GOL test.

[djrams80]

I usually run my 9500ci and my V1 together. I'd say my 9500ci beats my V1 at least 95% of the time, usually by just a few seconds. They are two totally different animals and both have a completely different feel to them. It's hard to explain. Running them together gives one all available information. Arrows with spec mode is a fantastic combination.

[MEM-TEK]

Hi Viper,

Let me put you at ease. The 9500ci is a remote installed system. Yes, it does have better K and Ka band sensitivity compared to the windshield mounted V1. I loved borrowing and testing DJ's V1 against both my 9500ci and my STi. Personally, I found the V1 to be way too annoying with regards to false alerts when it was used in town or in cities. But lets look at a quick synopsis of my open road observations...

The V1 and my STi had very similar K band performance, with the V1 having a slight edge in initial alert time. Sometimes the V1 or my STi would alert to K band a second or two before my 9500ci, but usually my 9500ci would start to alert a few seconds before the V1 or STi. Usually my 9500ci would alert first by up to several seconds when encountering K band radar over a hill. This is due to the 9500ci's incredible raw K band sensitivity. Yet in this over-the-hill situation DJ's V1 usually started to alert before my STi did. So, more or less and in terms of decreasing performance and with dots respresenting real world differences in alert times for the various K band encounteres which I had:

9500ci..............V1....STi

Similar to the above, but with regards to Ka band:

9500ci........V1....STi


Yet we are talking about roughly a max of 6dB differences in sensitivity. Three dB differences in sensitivity are rather difficult to notice in real world testing since the initial alert times will differ only by a couple of seconds. It really takes a 6dB difference in sensitivity to be obvious in the real world. Amazingly, Car and Driver's engineers concluded the exact same thing over 20 years ago when they conducted their RD tests, and they went further on to say that any RD which performs within 3dB of one another essentially will perform the same in the real world.

Thus, the V1 and STi have very similar and nearly identical real world K and Ka band performance, but the 9500ci and STi-R (both have the same enhanced M3 antenna) will at times somewhat outperform the windshield mounted V1 and STi.

That is about as well as I can explain the performance differences of all of these top-of-the-line RD models. Yet my following comment is what should put you at ease:

I would happily run with any of these top-of-the-line RD models, knowing that I would be well protected by any of them.

Now, also keep in mind that no currently produced RD is a perfect design. For example, the V1 has poor off-axis 35.5 Ka sensitivity, yet its on-axis 35.5 Ka sensitivity is unparalleled and on occasion may even beat a 9500ci or an STi-R if conditions are just right. Likewise my windshield mounted STi sometimes beats my 9500ci in alerting first. So, in short, if you are using one of these top-of-the-line radar detectors, then you really can't go wrong in terms of performance since these RD models really are in a class unto themselves.

[mrcllusb]

I'm lovin my new V1.Whenever it alerts i check my speed,bogey counter and arrows in that order.I know my know falses,so when the bogey counter shows more than one,i really alert.

[<<JAZZY>>]

Is this person a forum member here?


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhCQAvV3rqA"]YouTube - Escort 9500ci FAIL vs. Off-Axis Ka 34.7[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQp4UaowCeY[/ame]

[fire65]

I hate to pay that much but will soon have the CI and my V1 together. It will replace the 8500. I am buying jammers first.