I have used the V1 for years and recently paid to have mine upgraded to latest technology. Given that I live in New Orleans and firmly believe that voodoo is a force to be reckoned with, I will not tempt the high voodoo priestess by saying anything stupid like "I have never gotten a ticket with the V1"; however, the V1 has performed as advertised.

I think that the directional arrows are a distinguishing feature of the V1 and cannot imagine going with another unit that lacks them. They tell you where to look so that you can react to an alert in fashion best for the situation. Mine has saved me from a radar unit approaching from the rear on several occassions. Without the arrows, I would have been cooked.

As far as falsing is concerned, I also leave mine on 'L' and do not find them to be overly obtrusive. Arrows also help with assessing false alarms. For example, an alert that shows side arrows first is clearly a door opener or some other spurious signal off to the side.

Finally, with regard to muting, I did a permanent install in my 550 and have easy access to the button. Even without that, I would not want a unit that auto-muted.

Permanent install is illustrated in the DIY section.

 

Stick with the V1 i had it since 94 and never had a problem with it. My friend decided to sell the V1 and get the X50 and he returned it after a week. He's now back using V1. I personally think V1 is the best out there.

 

I see you already know about the additional custom programming you can do with the Valentine since you posted a link to the page telling you how to do it.

Why not use those instructions to program automute and possibly tweak some settings to your liking?

In my experiences, if you use advanced logic mode (large "L") you don't have to deal with any more false alarms than other brands and for me, the arrows and bogey counter are indispensible!

V1 rules!!

 

Thanks to everyone for the comments. I'm going to try the X50 and compare- I do like the directionals of the V1, but the false alarm rate and the lack of auto mute are detractions for me. Iceman316, just wondering why your friend initially switched from the V1 to the X50- something must have bothered him about the V1? And what didn't he like about the X50 to cause him to switch back to the V1?

For those interested, here's a review that I found very useful:

http://www.speedzones.com/

 

See http://www.radardetector.net/. This topic is discussed ad naseum. My only original input is that I own a Passport 8500 X50 purchase on eBay, surely from some knucklehead who imports them illegally from Mexico, France or some other third world country with a puppet mafia government. It works great, has saved me from numerous speeding tickets, etc. If you're concerned about getting that last millisecond of performance, go with the Valentine One and take some steroids.....

 

I purchased my X50 with the blue LED from escortradar.com directly. It worked great in the one day that I've used it so far. I used the X50 side by side the Valentine One for several hours. The X50 appears to have less false alarms, and the automuting feature is great. The sensitivity of the unit for the one real hit that I noted was equal compared to the V1 (they both chimed in together), and the stats from independent testing websites (http://www.speedzones.com/) confirm that the X50 is very sensitive. Since most "hits" are in front, I don't think I'm going to miss the directionals of the Valentine One too much. As a small point, I like the way that the X50 looks as well- sleek and modern, and the silver case matches the interior of my car much better (again, a small point). Objectively, I don't think that you can go wrong with either the X50 or the V1- it's a matter of personal taste- i.e., what features you prefer- as opposed to quality. Perhaps the same could not have been said several years ago, but the playing field seems to have been leveled by improvements made by Escort.

 

I'm glad you're happy with your purchase sc02492.

I agree that most "hits" are in front but that's exactly why I need the V1 directional information. If I have an alert and I see that it's coming from behind, I know I can most likely ignore it. If I didn't have that information, I'd be left wondering if it was going to be a hit from in front, etc. For me, once you get used to the additional information that the V1 presents to you, you can't do without it...

Also, one thing to keep in mind when testing two or more detectors "side-by-side" is that they tend to affect each other's performance when operating in close proximity to each other. That's why the magazines, etc. never test them together, always one by one.

Good luck and hope you stay ticket-free!

 

The v1 is by far the best investment that I have in my car. You can't go wrong with the v1.

 

Rudy, sorry that I completely missed your post. Yes, I've known about the programming mode on the V1 for years, and I've used it to alter setting "A". Note that "automute" in the V1 is NOT the same thing as automute in the X50. For the V1, the "automute" feature only means that subsequent (subsequent) bogeys will sound at the muted volume, but only AFTER you press the mute button for the first alarm. This isn't what I need. With the X50, the automute feature will mute the alarm without user intervention. If you prefer, the automute feature of the X50 can always be turned off.

I've had the X50 for about a week now and love it. The number of false alarms is dramatically lower than with the V1, and the sensitivity of the unit for my typical speedtraps is astounding. I guess my point is that both choices are good, but it all depends on personal preference for features like "real" automute, etc. I may be the first person to switch from the V1 to the X50 in the history of BMW ownership! But my theory is that people buy the V1 not only because it's good, but because everyone says that it's the "best," without necessarily making a fair comparison to the competition as improvements are made over the years. I think that we are stuck in a time warp. In any case, it's nice for consumers to have more than one excellent choice for radar detectors....

 

Glad you are happy with your X50 choice.

For me, I prefer the taking the tradeoff of some increased false alarms (though I don't seem to get that many using advanced logic mode) if the unit will give me the additional (and critical) information on where the threat is. I don't think I could ever give up the directional arrows now that I've been using them for so many years...