Can't decide for sure????

Do a google search for 9500ix vs valentine 1 and you will get an incredible amount of stuff pop up. Some swear by escort, some swear by V1.

To tell you the truth, I think they both are excellent and it comes down to a coin toss. I have a speedy history and used to love the K40 in dash stuff back in the day, but prior to purchasing my passport 8500 in the fall of '02, I have never received a ticket with it on. And that's the 8500 mind you without all the new technology.

I like the size of that model so it would be natural for me to go for the 9500ix next.

Why would you want a gps/radar combo? If you want something reliable, get a dedicated radar detector and a dedicated gps. Also to the guy who rode in his friends vette...all the radar detector does is detect frequencies. If your friend has a passport and it's not going off, either it's because it's broken, or he has one of the bands turned off. Personally, I would just rather have a detector which lets me know about every threat so that I can make a determination of if I think it's a cop. I won't trust a radar detector to do that for me. I do have X band (electronic doors) turned off on mine though.

detectors will not save you
 

Let me inform all of you folks that if you're doing excessive speed, no radar detector in the world is going to help you deaccelerate to to lawful speed prior to being intermittenly zapped by a cop running lidar or radar for that matter.. Those units sample a dozen or so speeds per second and take an average faster than you can say oh ***it. The only thing you can hope for is a good reflection single from the car in front of you.

jbox, detectors can definitely save you. As for laser, you have a point. Unless you are getting a detection from a vehicle in front of you then you are screwed. But with radar you can get plenty of warning if you can interpret the radar detector correctly unless again you are the only car on the road AND he is using instant on.

So on my dash would be sitting a 4x6 GPS display and the another 2x1 radar detector, both requiring to be plugged into my cig lighter. So now I need a 12v power splitter for the power to feed both... wires everywhere.
Remember, one of my criteria was to be able to move it from vehicle to vehicle...easily. Oh I may also need to charge my cell phone too... another wire... and maybe charge the IPod.

I want an IPhone with a radar detector app!!!

umm interesting.....maybe it has to be really excessive speed as i never had a problem with that, but i do always wear my seat belt so not worried about that.....either way with all taken in to consideration V1 with gps would by great

skip the radar dectector, I carry a fresh bag of doughnuts each morning. Has saved me a couple times. when in doubt I can throw them out the window when I am being chased and the police will loose my car everytime. :dance:

on a side note, I do use a passport. I have had it for years and really like it.

Escort 9500ix at $450
Ducan Donuts (or Timmys) at $5 per dozen, 10 trips a week, ..$50 a week, 9 weeks of coverage... hmm... not counting the littering ticket.

Decisions, decisions.

Viper5, I don't think you actually know how it works.(no offense) Here are a couple of links to help clarify some of the stuff for you.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/automotive_news/4279971.html

https://www.escortradar.com/store/passport-9500ix.html

Maybe some of you misunderstood the "gps" part of it. It doesn't give you directions, it just tells detector the global position of itself in geographical relation/speed, to the radar signal being emitted. It stores them so the next time you drive by that spot it will not beep. The GPS will alert you to all the speed/redlight cameras and is updateable from your computer/laptop. As for blocking out that particular signal, each band (k,ka,x) have a wide variety of sub bands within them. it blocks those subbands and not the whole band.

Again, both units are top notch and you couldn't go wrong with each. Do your homework and try not to listen to the coolaid drinkers. I own the passport and love it. I love the fact that it only beeps when there is a cop. To me that is the deciding factor. Yes I would love the directional arrows,but not at the cost of locking out false alarms, and if anybody has owned one they will agree.


Excerpt from Popular Mechanics:
Bottom Line: Within a week, the Escort 9500ix was 50 percent less irritating than when it started, which made it 90 percent less irritating than any other detector on the market. It's a weird metric to use for a piece of electronics, but a radar detector is only valuable if it gets your attention at the right moment. The problem with most detectors is the desensitization that occurs when you are alerted over and over again at all the wrong moments, and that makes the learning feature of the Escort 9500ix a truly elegant idea.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/automotive_news/4279971.html

While I have a V1 in my SUV, I don't like having an expensive target for theft in an open/soft top car. I bought a cheap cordless radar detector for my Box (Radar hawk brand) which looks good and does the job for around here. If I lived in a big city I could see the need for a more sophisticated unit, but mine does the job for most radar and laser shots around here (not much extraneous radar pollution). No cops at all in the mountains, where the Box really gets flogged. This cheapie is expendable/not a target for thieves.

I've had 2 tickets in the past 10 years - both when I didn't have a detector, even though I use one 95% of the time.

I just pluck mine off the windshield, suction cups and all, and stick it in my armrest storage compartment. it really fits well in there and can be locked. Plus worse case I make a claim on my insurance for that and about a half other dozen things I can list.

It should also be noted that the Passport doesn't just know about red light cameras, but speed cameras as well. Does the V1 point to that?

Ooh, and another thing not mentioned... the Passport doesn't look like an old Sony portable CD player on your dash. Pick up an old copy of Motor Trend from the 90s, you'll see the same beastly looking chunk of plastic known as the Valentine.

If some one fires a gun at me, I'm not too concerned where it's coming from. I just duck. Same goes for those "helpful" arrows. If a detector goes off, slow down. I'm sure it's rewarding to have superfluous directional info, but it's still less important to me than the added benefits of a detector that does more.

Jeph, I was waiting for you to join this thread :)

1. If someone has never used a V1, that person really cannot discuss a valid opinion about having the arrows vs. not having them in a detector. Jeph, you said that when your passport goes off, you slow down regardless of the source. I do not do this. I look at the arrows and then decide if it's a threat. When I see side arrows that quickly move to a rear arrow, I speed up most of the time or resist the urge to slam on my brake. Without arrows and what Valentine calls "situational awareness", you have no choice. You must slow down and start looking through all your windows and mirrors because you have no situational awareness of the radar threat. It's really quite simple. I've been on both sides of this situation and the awareness of the directional source has dramatically changed my reaction to an alert. If you've not used both kinds of detectors on short and long trips, you can't comment on the arrows the same education as a V1 user who has used detectors with and without arrows.

2. The Passport cannot be upgraded. You must buy another one when the technology changes or purchase the upgrade option which knocks $50 or less off the price of the new one. I believe the Valentine upgrade path is part of the reason why the V1's sturdy metal enclosure has not changed through the years. When something new is invented for radar use for law enforcement and widely used, Valentine is committed to existing customers enough to upgrade their equipment for a small fee. All the others? Sell your old one to someone for a fraction of what you paid for it and shell out another $399 or more or take Escort's pitiful $50 "trade in" value of your old one.

3. The bogey counter. When I see a 2 or 3 (or even a 4!) on the big LED display, I know the noises I'm hearing and the bars I'm seeing represent more than one threat and not to speed up after I pass the first cop. This is a huge advantage combined with the arrows. It has saved me a half dozen times in complex radar traps. I pass the first cop shooting Ka and the arrows go to the back but there's an arrow forward with a new threat on the counter and the K band indicator is also lighting up. The Escorts probably show both kinds of radar on the display, but without those numbers combines with the arrows, you just don't know how many threats you should be aware of and the directional source of the radar.

If anyone is reading this thread and debating which unit to buy, BUY BOTH just before you leave on a driving trip. Return the one that you don't like under the 30 day, money-back guarantee. Buy a double socket to power them both up on your dash, and run them side by side. Then, do a second test on your own reaction to each unit. Run them alone for a day per unit to see how you react and then decide for yourself. This is the only real way to have a solid comparison of which one is best for YOU. Many V1 users swear by the arrows, upgrade path, and bogey counter. Many Escort users, especially the owners of the newer GPS models swear by them for their connectivity to satellites and the internet for speed camera updates.

Quite a debate, again I'm on the V1 side, but only because it works great for ME. I think both units have their merits. What's important to you probably depends a lot on how you use the radar detector.

I live in a more rural area. I don't care about speed cameras as there are none in my state. Even still, if the speed camera has radar on all the time, then the V1 will pick it up 2 miles away! The closest city to me only has three red light cameras and I know where each one is, so again not a concern. I also really don't have any issues with false alarms as they seldom occur.

So for me there is little benefit to the extra technology that the Passport has. I prefer to have the directional arrows so I know where the cop is when I do actually pick one up on the highway. Now if I lived in a big city with lots of red light cameras and lots of places with false alarms, then I might really want the GPS function of the Passport instead.

So... to each their own, both detectors have their merits and their uses. Obviously you have to pick which one suits you and your situation the best.

Kirk

Randall, in response to your three points:

1. Your reaction to the arrows is precisely what earned my friend a couple of tickets with his V1. He thought the arrows were showing him things they weren't, or can't. Results: busted, and he doesn't use it anymore.

2. This is wrong... the Passport can be upgraded, and without sending it back. Uses a USB cable, and both the location database and the detector software (it's a software, DSP-based unit) can be upgraded.

3. The Passport has an "Expert" mode which allows you to track and display multiple bogeys across multiple bands.

Hey, I think the V1 is a good unit, you're just propagating bad info. ;)

has anyone used the bel sti-r?

All good stuff there!

And Randall, I love you brother, but this part made me laugh...
"Jeph, you said that when your passport goes off, you slow down regardless of the source. I do not do this. I look at the arrows and then decide if it's a threat."
The beauty of the Passport is... it doesn't go off unless there is a threat! I guess if the detector doesn't block false alarms, it NEEDS the arrows (ha, crutch).

I'll say this though, if a detector could do everything as good as the Passport AND have arrows like a V1, there would be no debate here. (As long as it doesn't look like a V1.)

Haven't used that one, but I understand that's the way to go if you're state or province outlaws detectors. It's supposedly undetectable by radar detector detectors (and great at detecting radar period).

Jeph, you make a great point.

If Escort could wiggle around the arrow display and directional patents that Valentine holds and fiercely defends, AND I did not own a perfectly good detector with arrows, I'd seriously consider an Escort product. That would make for an apples-to-apples comparison.