....

 

I have a quick questions regarding the videos on jammertest.com. What is the tuning fork used for?

 

It is so you can make sure that the radar gun is calibrated and accurate. Different tuning forks make a different mph appear on the radar gun to test it.

 

Sean you should have said something when we were at Best Buy.

 

it totally slipped my mind. Im looking for a few electronic things. I need a dvd headunit that will work with the bose so i can use the microvision monitor. also a radar detector. Ohh and those leather seats, do you have any pictures of them? Thanks rog..

 

I swear I love radar detector posts. Escort vs. Valentine is always the outcome. I decided to buy the V1 while a coworker of mine purchased the X50. The V1's built quality and materials are far superior. The X50 gets "VERY" hot during use. The X50 is larger than the V1 in overall dimensions. The V1 fits very nicely up high in the windshield and has an available remote display which is crucial for those of us that live in VA. I've had police beside, behind with no problems. I even had an officer recently who pulled me over Easter morning at 3:30am stating that he clocked me at 45mph going around a corner. He said that he continued to clock me going too fast on the highway. Funny thing was, my V1 was on and it never produced any beeps even though the officer was behind me. Immediately after I left I picked a VA State Trooper up almost 2.5 miles away. I asked my brother who is an officer in Washington, DC why the officer would blatently lie and his response was, "you were the only car on the road and you were going through a small town. The officer was probably very bored and very tired and wanted something to wake him up. He was probably hoping to find something out of the ordinary". The V1 can be very stealthy. The officer was looking in my car, shining his light and never saw the detector. I was scared to death that another officer would come by and the officer would here the radar detector go off. Once he shined the light on my car, I was unable to reach up and turn it off. Here is what I found during my own testing in a real world environment. I work in Vienna, VA which is cluttered with cops running radar.

The V1 picked up K and KA radar around corners about 1-2 seconds faster than the X50. The V1 picked up K band about 1 second faster with the radar source straight ahead. The X50 seemed to pick up KA band about 1 second faster on both the highway and rural areas. While coming back from testing, the V1 started chirping on KA band with the arrows facing the rear. It had between a 4-5 second head start before the X50 started warning us. The V1 is far superior in rear detection. The X50 is far superior in false alarms. While the V1 isn't annoying by any means, the X50 was fantastic. In overall detection the V1 was definately superior in real world testing, especially driving through twisty roads.

I always here people that didn't purchase a V1 because of it's price, knock the arrows. The arrows make this product fun as hell and always alerts you as to what direction the radar source is coming from making it easy to find the source. While you will definately have ample time to slow down with the X50, you always find yourself stressing to find the radar source.

 

All of this is very well put and I totally agree. I've had a few different detecters over the years and the V-1 always stands out in my mind. Once you use it and get used to the arrows, nothing else compares. My V-1 was stolen out of my previous car a couple of years ago and I have missed it every since. I finally got around to saving for another one and ordered one this past monday. I can't wait until I get it, and yes, it is well worth the price. Just my 2 cents.

 

As luck would have it, I passe a couple state troopers today during the morning crawl. One of them pulled off the median so I immediately turned my V1 off. He pulled up next to me and I pulled over. Expired inspection sticker. He was looking in the car as I searched for my registration and never noticed the V1. My placement is perfect and the remote display is covered from those looking down by my radios down angled panel. I have the remote display just under the radio in the 2nd din, surrounded by pleather. I can't believe I forgot to get the car inspected. This is a first.

 

Virus,

Just curious, do you have any pics of where your detector is located? I just like to see where people hide their detectors. Thanks!

andy

 

If anyone could explain how to post pics I would be happy to post them here. Alternatively, I could email them to you. Tell me what resolution would be best for your email account since 5mp can produce quite large file sizes.

 

Nobody said that the Bel and Escort units are total crap. They are awesome detectors. The V1 is able to pick up some things that the Bel and Escort units aren't, like the Z35 Pop radar gun and LA Laser guns running in stealth mode. Mike Valentine already admitted that the V1 will only pick up the Z35 20% of the time at best. Jammertest.com should have the V1's encounter with this within the next 2 weeks. Almost every test or review site tests the detectors under perfect conditions. Especially speedzones.com and radartest.com and radarbusters.com. Car and driver is the only test I've ever read that does real world scenarios. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. All three detectors, the Bel RX65, Valentine 1 and Escort X50 are great detectors. The X50 is basically the budget/stripped down model of the Bel RX65. The RX65 has much better shielding compared to the X50 as seen in the Spectre testing. Some see the V1 as being overpriced and old looking compared to the trendy readouts of the newest detectors. I would love to have a text readout on the V1, but it's really not necessary at all. The sounds are very distinct. I truly love Craig Petersons reviews on radartest.com. Everyone should be away of the problems that Valentine and Peterson have had for over a decade. He made a statement that Valentine 1 makes up only .6% of all radar detector sales. What he doesn't point out is what percent the Bel RX65 or Escort X50 percentages are. I'm sure they are slightly higher because they are sold in retail establishments, but my guess is it's not much higher than the V1 sales. In comparison, you could say that the Chevrolet Corvette only makes up .1% of all automobile sales. It's a very misleading statement designed to hurt or make the V1 look bad. It's called a fallacy. You can't win an argument based on facts so you mislead. Last year, speedzones.com and many other reviews only big gripe about the V1 is the fact that it didn't have ka POP detection. Now that the V1 has the best ka POP detection available, I wonder what they will pick on next.

 

i kinda wish i wasnt a poor college kid so i could afford a nice detector. if i did decide to buy one i would obviously want to invest in a good one so that i would be completely protected. but then i start to think, why not just drive under control and safely. i feel like even if i DID have a detector i would be too afraid to drive over 80 on the highway and that i would somehow still get caught, so maybe i should spend the 300-400 bucks on something else...

 

no radar detecter is fool proof...always drive cautiously.

 

thats exactly why i dont think i would ever want a detector, because i will always want to drive cautiously anyway so why pay for something i wouldnt always need. then again there could be those few times at a stoplight where i meet eyes with the person next to me.... AND I HAVE TO RACE THEM

 

I generally don't speed very much because I have the kiddies and wife with me and you can't speed in rush hour. I wanted mine for piece of mind and have found that I like to know when I'm being monitored.

 

just as an fyi

we drove to NYC this weekend and my friend who is trying to buy a radar, had my V1 and another dudes x50 side by side the whole way there and back

the CLEAR winner was the v1, it picked up laser signals over the hill and far away, both times the x50 just sat there and didnt do anything, the x50 did pickup Ka about half a second quicker then the v1, but half a second i can live with

he is getting a v1,
the x50 is pretty though, if you are going for looks get the x50

 

I don't think you can pick up laser signals.. once you get a laser signal, you're cooked! Perhaps it was false signals? Did the Escort go off as well?

 

Bel RX55 here. Supposedly the same as RX65 without the Euro bands I believe.

Anyways, I'll give mine a 4. I like it and also appreciate the fact that it was about $170 I believe.

 

Adrew is correct, there is no way the V1 can pick up Laser over a hill. The X50 seems to pick up KA a tad faster in my testing as well.

 

The following site performed "real world" tests:
http://www.laserveil.com/en/ultimate.../introduction/

What you responded to was sarcasm at the highest level. I, nor anyone else, doubts the V1 is a great detector. It does have weaknesses, just like the other two. All three are very good and will give adequate notification if you "speed carefully". Hopefully, the next version of the V1 will have the best of the current version, plus, filtering and such of the prior version which has been shown or mentioned as better.

 

I couldn't agree with you more. The X50 and RX55's filtering is definately better than the current V1. I'm just suprised the new V1 isn't as good with false alerts as the older V1.

 

Laser SHIFTERS (not jammers) work flawlessly. The only disadvantage is that the cops' gun will show an error code most of the time, which may make them pull you over.

However, laser shifters are LEGAL because they are not governed by the FCC. Laser is an optical beam, nothing the FCC has jurisdiction over.

 

Good info, but slightly incorrect. Let me add to it. The FCC doesn't have juristiction over Laser Shifters, jammers, etc. However, it may be illegal on the state level depending on the laws of each state. Virginia for example, quickly passed legislature to make Laser Shifters, Jammer, etc. illegal to use within the state.

 

Thanks for the clarification Virus ... good catch.

 

Always trying to take freedom away from us. I hate my lovely Commonwealth.

 

Valentine 1
$400
5 Stars

Wired into the Mirror.. thats hidden with the tint on the top of the windshield = beautiful thing.

 

I thought the FCC _could_ be involved with jammers that transmit a signal to jam radar. The reason they don't get involved with detectors and shifters is because they are collectors and don't actually transmit.

 

Not exactly. The FCC gets involved because they regulate the airwaves. Lidar is not an airwave, it's an optical technology.

RADAR on the other hand (not LIDAR), the FCC has full jurisdiction over, and to my knowledge RADAR jammers are illegal.

 

Which is why I specifically stated "with jammers that transmit a signal to jam radar".

 

I guess I should have said, Laser Jammer