V1 vs Escort 9500ix

[bmwdave152]

I have pushed my luck far enough and have decided to get a detector. I would like to get one I can move from my bike to my car. As a newbie any opinions would be helpful, and yes I already did a search.

[Indy Dave]

What is it you want to know? I've googled your post title and came up with lots of hits. Mostly opinions. I'd not trust radartest.com, as there is a fued between Valentine and the site owner/tester.

 

Bottom line (IMO) just like the threads here on this forum about detectors - they are both good units and will serve you well.

 

have at it

[bmwdave152]

Thanks. Either would work well.

I also was looking for personal experience with these products. Given the price I want to find the one that fits me the best.

[bobbybob]

Thanks. Either would work well.

I also was looking for personal experience with these products. Given the price I want to find the one that fits me the best.

 

I've had the Escort 8500 for a couple years and like it very much. It rarely gives false alarms--when I get an alert, I slow down, and theres always a cop up ahead. I paid $149 from the Escort Ebay store for it. I have never thought to myself, "gee, I wish I'd spent $300 more for a V-1 so I'd have those neat little directional arrows". But I'm sure the V-1 is also a nice unit and works well too.

 

Edit: just realized you asked re. the 9500 Escort. Sorry I can't help you with that one.

[realshelby]

I have not tried a 9500ix Escort. I did own an 8500. Bought it because it was so much cheaper than the V1 and owners of the Escort said it was as good or better anyway. I don't own the 8500 anymore, it was sold right away. I put it in the windshield of the car with one of the V1's. No comparison in range. Not even close. Cannot trust it after that. I own 3 V1's. I still have the first one bought in 1992, it is the one on the RT. It does not have Laser. The two others are in the cages.

 

As for how expensive they are, try to buy a used one. You'll see they still fetch a big part of purchase price back and they sell very quickly. Buy the V1. Yes, the arrows are a great feature!

[azkaisr]

We just rode through Colorado with both. Whips V1 was always at lease a few seconds ahead of Brad's Escort.

 

 

[bobbybob]

To say one is more sensitive than another may be difficult to measure accurately while riding down the highway on 2 motorcycles. There are settings on the Escort such as "city" vs. "highway", and "No-Xband", etc. that will change the sensitivity (and thus the range). The V1 may also have settings that would affect it, but I can't say since I have never owned one. Then there's the positioning of the 2 "test motorcycles"--were they riding a few seconds apart? Dunno.

 

I can only relate that the Escort seems to have more range than any detector I have ever owned, and works quietly--until a "threat" actually exists. And I'm sure the V1 also does the same.

 

If money were no object, I would probably buy the Escort with the GPS feature, as it seems pretty neat. Also, the Escort will connect directly to an Autocom without having to buy another audio module to connect it, as in the V1. It also seems smaller for concealment purposes.

[SageRider]

V1.

No contest.

Directional arrows and bogey counter are priceless...

Sensitivity is still as good as or better than anything else out there.

[Heck]

V1. No contest.

Directional arrows and bogey counter are priceless...

+1

I own 3 Escorts and 2 V1s. When I find a great price on another V1 I will retire the final Escort.

Sensitivity is very comparable between the two, but the directional arrows are something you get used to very quickly. The Escort also is more susceptible to dashboard heat in hot climates. I have had to return 2 of the 3 for service for failures that were heat related according to Escort. The V1s have been so far bullet proof.

[Mike]

I've currently got a couple of Valentines, an Escort 8500 and a 9500CI (in my Subaru). The 9500CI is much the same detector as the 9500ix, though it's a remote mount setup.

 

My conclusions?

 

The Valentine is generally more sensitive across all bands, and particularly so in detecting LIDAR. In fact, it's sensitive enough that I've regularly gotten a useful LIDAR warning from the beam being bounced off of vehicles well ahead of me. The arrows are an invaluable tool in determining whether a threat is real and, if so, where and what it is that's setting off the horn.

 

However, the 9500-series' ability to filter out "false" alarms through GPS technology is a huge advancement. Truthfully, the V1 gets so noisy that you come to ignore it, perhaps to your detriment. When the 9500CI alerts, I take it as a real threat.

 

If I were buying a detector for use outside heavily-populated areas, it would be the V1--it's simply better at sniffing out threats and letting you know exactly what they are. However, if most of your driving/riding is done is populous areas the 9500-series is a better choice. It's a shame that the technologies can't be combined without stepping on someone's patent.

 

As far as the Valentines being "bulletproof," I'd agree with one major caveat--they occasionally drift off frequency, meaning that they won't pick up radar threats. The detector works . . . except that it doesn't. Your first warning may be the flashing lights in your rear view mirror.

[Jazzy]

Pretty much agree with Mike above.

 

I have a couple of 9500ix units: one blue LED one and one RED one. The odd color one was modified by Escort to the 9500ix model which was formerly their older 9500 model. At least they upgrade their stuff and allow trade-ins to their newer models too. The red one is far easier to see in daylight so it is on the bike.

 

However, I also have one of their newer Redline units that has given me 4 mile warnings on Ka-band up around the Marysville, CA rice fields on Hwy. 99. Pretty awesome range and kicks in pretty good around corners too. Naturally, it stays with the sport bike.

 

For the city, either the V1 or Redline will get chatty from door openers. Their GPS-enabled 9500ix allows that to be ignored either by you or their weekly upgradeable database along with other stuff like speed cams or red light cams. I do like the owner's firmware update ability of the 9500ix via USB which the Redline does not offer nor does the V1.

 

The V1 is getting along in age, but still has the forward and reverse arrows on it which can be helpful. Drawbacks are it drifts (Escort will say "Service Needed" if it drifts on it's power-up self-check, but that only happened on my older 8500) and sometimes the upgrades on the V1 seem to curtail performance. The extra volume interface is something you don't need with the Escort. Mike Valentine's V1 arrow patent runs out soon and I would expect Escort to be all over it with some super-duper Redline with GPS and arrows. Cost may be on the high side though when they do, but they are pretty good about their upgrade offers too.

 

The newer Escort's with voice use some Chicago DJ woman's voice to say "Ka-Band, K-band, X-Band, Laser Alert" or whatever else she says which can be heard through the internal speaker or fed through an Autocom or similar. With the voice addition, you do not need to look at the unit itself and can hide it if needed. Knowing the band used in the locale does help at times.

 

I also run an aerial detector on one sport bike (it tattles on their radar transponder) for their planes or helicopters too. Never can have too much situational awareness from those pesky meter maids.

 

It's pretty much your decision and where you ride around, city or rural, and what accessories you feed it to.

 

Jazzy

 

 

[Penforhire]

I have the 9500i and I prefer its GPS-related features to the V1's arrows but opinions do certainly vary.