I guess since it is electronics it goes under here. Well I got my Valentine 1 yesterday, I played with it and went around known cop hotspots. While it did pick up everyone with excellent range and accuracy. It picked up every Walgreens, store, bank, hospital and even my cell phone. When my cell phone loses its signal the Valentine went off. When I passed the hospital it went off at full strength to almost a mile away from the hospital. In that mile is a cop hot spot and it did show a "double alert" that is had picked up another source but this thing is entirely too sensitive IHMO for big city and major suburb driving (Chicago area) I am sure it is great on the highway but not for the city. I am returning it to them today and just ordered me a BEL RX65 which is the exact same thing as the Passport 8500 x50 only with voice alerts and better instant on protection, which we definitely need for Illinois highway patrol. I will let you guys knowh how that goes.

 

Did you try the different logic modes to filter out some of the false alarms?

 

The valentine1 is the best radar detector no matter what anyone says.

You should have kept it, when you drive the same way every day, you will begin to filter out the known drugstores and banks in the back of your mind, and you will just focus on the real cop alerts. Thats what the arrows and bogey-count are for.

The valentine does a great job of filtering when in Advanced Logic mode. I admit its not 100% perfect, but no detector out there is.

The valentine is very sensitive yes, but that is a good thing!

<font color=green>-Rambo</font color=green>
G35c-6MT-DG/Willow/HyperGround/BorlaExhaust/350Z-intake/AVIC-N1-double-din

 

Yes sensitivity is a good thing and it was in advanced logic mode, but in a city like Chicago, it is just too much going on

 

The Passport 8500 is known to have better logic at filtering out false positives if that's a deciding factor.

 

Rambo,

I agreed...its da best out there. Yeah their is problem at time when come to sensitivity. Again, almost all the radar out there have the problem too.

What i really like about the valentine 1 is how many signal it pickup and the direction wise. It's important to know where the source of radar is coming. Well...this radar save my **** 5 times already. I'll said it pay for itself already.

g35mt

 

Heres an excerpt from Radartest.com
<snip>
We also tested it against the MPH BEE III radar in POP mode and found that the Valentine One was unable to spot the brief bursts of Ka band. The BEL PRO RX65 and Escort 8500 X50 detected POP 90 percent and 75 percent of the time, respectively, maybe not perfect but plenty good enough, particularly for those who live in areas where the lethal BEE can be found.

The Valentine One is a highly sensitive radar detector--good enough that we declared it the winner of our 2000 Automobile magazine shootout--but it's no longer top dog. The world has changed since it was designed in 1991. The Apple IIsi also was hot stuff that year but Apple knew better than to continue peddling the same box. They replaced it with smaller, faster, user-friendlier models packed with advanced features. But the V1, with growing gaps evident in its performance envelope--not to mention a minimalist feature set, quirky ergonomics and stiff price tag--seems locked in a time warp and the competition has clearly passed it by.
<snip>

The V-1 was a heck of radar back in the day, but it is very outdated.
How they can justify $399 for it is amazing! 10 different publications rate the Escort or Bel above the V-1.
Personally I have owned a 2 V-1's and they are great detectors, but fall way short against the current Escort's and Bel's. The last V-1 I had falsed so much I almost chucked it out the window. You can't go wrong with a 8500, its better and will leave extra $$$ in your pocket for more mods!

[Click here]

 

If you want the best, go Valentine One.
http://www.caranddriver.com/article....&page_number=1

 

Did you happen to read the date on the Car and Driver article? It is dated 2002!
Anytime someone says anything bad about the V-1 all its users act like someone just kicked their dog.
Facts are facts READ ALL these REVIEWS.
http://www.escortradar.com/reviews.htm
I owned two V-1's myself, and I liked them. However, hands down the 8500 performs better.

 

I have the 8500 X-50 and love it. It has very minimal false alarms and has excellant warning abilities. It also has numerous settings that you can change to adapt to your particular area. Example: In city mode I have mine set to block out ALL X-Band activity. I haven't seen a dept. use X-Band in a VERY long time.

One more thing on the Valentine. I actually looked at this detector before purchasing the x-50. FYI....look at ALL the reviews before making a decision. Remember....the major magazines (car & driver, etc.) are money driven by ads in their magazine. As a society we have a tendency to give better accolades to those who contribute the most. The NON major magazine reviews are the best source, as they are as close to unbiased as you can get.

Hope this helps..........but then again......it's just my opinion!!!

Marc

 

I got my Bel RX 65 on Friday so I was able to test both detectors this weekend. While the Valentine 1 did pick up singnals about 1-2 secs faster it had NUMEROUS more false alarms than the Bel did. I also ran accross a suspected pop radar and the valentine did even make a noise but the Bel gave me 3 solid beeps so I was able to get atleast my foot off the accelerator. I havent had a chance to test the passport though word is its the exact same as the Bel, rather the Bel was made exactly like the Passport, I beleieve it since they use all the same components and wiring kits and everything. I am so confident in the Bel that I even went on and hardwired it.