Ok, I just purchased my long-desired Valentine V1 and then came across this article at radartest.com and got an instant case of buyer's remorse.

What I want to know is: is this website worth a damn and have things really change since this was last discussed?

Has anyone used either the Beltronics BEL Pro Rx65 or the Passport 8500 X50 as well as the Valentine who can confirm or rebut the radartest.com article?

I'd love all of your lead-footed inputs!

-Zeke

ps: by way of comparison I have a circa 1994 Bel wireless (I use it wired) and no tickets & 1 warning in the last 240,000 miles (average speeds about 78-82 mph on rural NH highways).

I haven't used any of those, but I have used the Whistler (Don't remember the model) and it works great (*knock on wood).

I was going to point you to a link but then I realized that it's the same link that you posted! That site has been around forever... I dont know if it's updated much.

The radartest.com site is interesting, a worthwhile read even aside from the test results. I searched ng's for it and found some comments that people thought the author was biased against V1. The other interesting link I located was to a 2002 Car & Driver article which ranked V1 at the head of the class (93/100).

Have Valentine's competitors really improved that much in 2 years?

-Zeke

Less than 2 years... I read that radartest.com site AT LEAST a year ago. Car and Driver is pretty reliable.

The date on the article is July 7, 2004. I suppose it could be incorrect, but why would it be?

Thanks, that's good to know. That gets to a pet peeve of mine (or to (mis)quoteCarlin: "I don't have pet peeves, I have major f*cking psychotic hatreds."):

If you post a review of something on the web, put a date on it! There's little more irritating than reading something is the cat's meow only to find out later that it was the cat's meow 18 months ago and since then the nes-pas-plus-ultra-gold version has come out which blows the doors of what you just read about. A date saves the reader from wasting their time.

Rant over. Much better now, thank you.

In all I have to say that I'm pretty excited to try the V1 out next to my current detector.

-Zeke

Edit: Half-cocked rant misplaced in this instance. radartest.com's articles are date marked.

Tony-
Oh yeah...good point.

Erm, I mean: 'Yes of course I mean metaphorically!'

-Zeke

I need more caffeine...

Maybe it was updated, I'm not sure. But I don't remember the BEL Pro RX65 being in the review I read either, so maybe it's a revisit of an older review.

..and found some comments that people thought the author was biased against V1

I, too, have read this somewhere, but I do not recall where.

I didn't study the radartest article in depth, but my brief scan of it seemed to show that their biggest complaint against the V1 was lack of "features".

How many features do you need in a radar detector, anyway? As far as I''m concerned, only two things matter: Is there radar pointed at me; and how far away/from what direction is it?

I'm not terribly worried about whether it is K-Band, or KA-band. I just want enough warning so that I can stop doing Bad Things (tm).

My V1 has proven to be nearly invincible -- I got stopped once with instant on radar, but was not ticketed.

tanstaafl.

That radartest.com article is just re-vomiting the same old (and invalid) mis-truths about the V1's ergonomics. They really do seem to prefer tiny buttons rather than a volume knob, and they obviously don't like the V1's intuitive user-interface. Their ergonomic summary at the bottom fails to include a dozen or more V1-only features that are way better than what the other detectors offer, and also does not weight the importance of specific features. The V1's arrows alone are worth more in use than all of the other features. And, yes, the V1 *does* have auto-muting, and selective band-disables, contrary to the reviewer's myths.

As for performance, hard to say. The V1 has always been WAY better than good enough. But there may be some concerns with the new POP radars. But the V1 is not a 1992 design -- the stuff inside is a 2002 redesign, not something from the (first) Bush era.

I cannot use one here anymore because of the Spectre RDD --> bloody aussies! Any compentent EE can design a great RDD, but until now they've practiced amazingly good self-restraint. Oh well.

Cheers

Seems like it should be possible to get some legal device to plant in cars which makes the Spectres useless. But then... I'm a prick.

Mark - are radar detectors illegal in Canada then? (nevermind, a quick google shows in most provinces yes, and not an insignificant fine either!)

I'm sure you've seen this Spectre RDD test page then.

Here's hoping for a redesign by Mr. Valentine to take care of this, as it seems that it is possible to build one that's immune to Spectrre RDD 2 (Bel 1850 x50). At only 100 feet detection the V1 seems pretty close to achieving that goal now.

Thanks for your opinions on the features. The arrows are really what set it apart for me. I'm sure any of the newer detectors would blow the doors off my current rig.

-Zeke

Dragging up an old-ish post...

I've had the V1 for about 2 weeks now and am very happy with it. It has much better notification of threats than my old one and the arrows are fantastic. The knob setup works quite well. I get very few falses when I use it in 'Full Logic' mode. It's really chatty without the Logic filter, dutifully reporting every door sensor within 1/2 mile. All in all it's been money well spent.

-Zeke

I meant to post in this thread a ways back but forgot. Two things make me remember why i don't regret getting the V1. First the arrows. Awesome and it's the only one that has them. And they work. Second, the remote display. All the other remote displays are attached to the cigarette lighter, while the V1's is removeable. Which allows for mounting right in the gauge cluster, which is what I did, while hardwiring the detector up by the mirror. Nice and clean.

I have a V1 remote display for sale, if anyone out there wants one !