TheModMole

OK now I know the V1 following is pretty damned strong in these here parts but I wanted to pose a serious discussion on detectors... How do they all measure up? Shawn S. I know your a stout advocate of V1 ! But I searched tonight looking at countless reviews fro radartest.com, radarbusters.com etc...

So granted that everyone has their personal preference but let me give you my quick review of My radar detector....

I have the Bel Vector 985 and have been loving it for the past year. Considering I do mainly all highway and back woods driving I have nearly no false alarms.. and have sniffed out X/K/KA band up to 3 miles in advance (troopers in the median firing at 10.533Ghz which is one of the best features! Knowing what frequency your being tagged with) .... My only faults have been instant-on trigger pulses that just peg the detector at 10 and screams like a whistle !!! In city driving it does falso on occasion but not nearly as often as any of my previous detectors or those in my friends cars... Also, all the reviews ive read place it between #1 & #3 between it and the V1 & Passport 8500 . Anyone else using it ?

TheModMole

http://www.radarbusters.com/support/product-tests/5.asp

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Escort 8500
*** 5 out of 5 Rating ***


In our testing, and the testing of several major testing companies, the Escort 8500 is the leader of the pack! Combined with the superior range the Escort 8500 has on picking up radar signals, with its superior filtering capabilities, earns the Escort 8000 a five star rating. Flash upgradable by Escort.

BEL 985
*** 4.5 out of 5 ***

The BEL 985 is an excellent choice for your radar detector. The range is slightly less then the Escort 8500, but substantially greater then the range of police radar. However the filtering is not as good as the Escort 8500 model, so you will have slightly more false alerts. Flash upgradable by Beltronics

Valentine 1
*** 4.5 out of 5 ***

We do not sell the Valentine 1, however as many people consider this radar detector the bench mark of radar detectors we do test it. The Valentine 1 is an excellent unit with excellent range and filtering. The big drawback in our opinion is the price as it costs $399.00. In our testing, the Escort 8500 outperformed the Valentine 1 in range and filtering. Upgradable by Valentine.

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TheModMole

BEL 980 Shadow radar detector - Proven Number 1 by Speed Measurement Laboratories and by "EVO" British Automotive Magazine! "Phenomenal radar sensitivity, as good as or better than the Valentine One!"

lou_RENAMED

I have the Bel 980 for a year 1/2 and its great but then again I haven't used the others. I bought it for about $220 and it has help more than a couple of close calls. So far one of the best mods year to date for the car and my driving record.

TheModMole

As reviewed by Speedzones.com 2002:

TheModMole

As Rated by www.radartest.com


http://www.radartest.com/DS4HEM.html


Max. Possible Points: 50 10 15 15 5 5 100
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#2 BEL 980 49 7 15 14 5 4 94

#1 Escort 8500 50 7 15 15 5 5 97

#4 K40 SS3000 26 6 3 2 1 1 39

#3 Valentine One 44 9 6 12 3 3 77

Shotgun3131

This will start a good old war.........

Anyhow, Ive had a 985 for a while and its been decent. Not as good as I expected but not too bad anyway. One time was an over the hill, but I knew the cop was there due to traffic patterns in front of me, no way the detector would have alerted me in time. The cop was in too good of a position. Today will be the test though, a 550 mile journey back home, although I dont plan on driving fast anyway.

It is good to know.

Nashua_Night_Hawk

I don't like this new specter technology... and V1 was not the leader on all the tests... however, it ranked high on almost all the tests..

I guess... after this test... V1 could be due for another update.

TheModMole

Nashua man you wake up too damned early!!!! For that matter lots of people hear do ! No wonder you need good radar detectors ..... your still all half asleep on your way to work !!!

TheModMole

By thw way Im still trying to figure out what the differences are between the 980 & 985... ?? I have the 985 but many reviews used the older 980....

Nashua_Night_Hawk

Still there is no 100% protection from using Radar detector, I see a lot of HW distance markings... more of those on each newly done surfaces... no protection

Worse, at nights... you could be paced and folllowed for like couple miles by a cop without being noiced....

But on way to Montreal... V1 is a saver... but do not be a pack-leader or you are toast... cross a hill and BOOM ... you are tagged... ehmm I mean....screwed!

SilverBullet_RENAMED

V1 is better. I had a 8500 Passport, and the V1 of mine just picks them up sooner, and all of them are picked up instead of the 8500 missing them sometimes.

Radartest and the other sites are paid by passport to have them #1.

JasonT

Wonder if they had the latest version of the V1? Also for the tests to be really valid, they should have used the same car, with the same mounting position.

NOVAwhiteTypeS

hmm i might consider PMI travler II as a gift or as a 2ndary unit when I travel..

kensteele

I don't like those percentage numbers.

What is that? The number of LEDs that light up on the front?

You're going 100mph on a straight stretch. 1 Ka LED is just as good as 4.

You never know the algorithm these manufacturers use to light up LEDs. Some of them go up very quickly, some linger around the low end. I'm pretty sure none of them are linear. So what is better 85% or 65%? Am I misreading this?