In Lieu of my first ticket in ten years Saturday, I'm going to have a detector installed this week ASAP. My first two choices are the K40 or the Escort 9500ci. What are your thoughts on both and why?

The 9500ci looks incredible and has some great reviews but I'd like to hear some thoughts from forum member on the install, performance or any other issues.

Thanks in advance!

 

I bought a escort 9500ix with the smartcord live set up in 2012. It hooks up to my Samsung 4G phone and tells me where the po po are in real time. The phone uses a google map that communicates with 18 different satellites and lets me know when the last time a po po use his Lidar/laser or Ka Or K band. The 9500 talks to me and the phone does also by telling me how many feet ahead the tool is. Warnings start at 1 mile and are readuced in feet in real time. It also tells me where red light cameras are located. Word of warnin!! It has a difficault time with speed cams. Although thespeed cams in San Diego were taken down it wouldnt warn me prior to their placement cause speed cams dont operate untilthe vehicle has triggered the cam and then it is too late The firmware for the 9500 I updated weekly by escort sending me email nitifications. I plug my 9500 into a usb port and the computer recognizes it thru the serial number and updates it. Then and only then is it capable of telling me where a speed cam is located. The 9500 works great in every city except Chicago. The troll that is the mayor of Chicago has installed speed cams, back to back, every 500 feet in some places along with red lite cams. This set up renders the 9500 ix useless to notify of the speed cam cause it notifies of the redlite cam first, by default. LAser jammers are useless in Chicago to combat speed cams cause of what the troll has done. Speed cams are nothing but a money grab used to rape everyone. Once a speed cam is tripped the band broadcast as a K band freq. Caution: If you go with the smartcord live set up to a smart phone you CANT use an I-phone. once you go out of the app to make a call or do something else you will be permanently locked out of getting back into the Escort live set up with the smartcord. You will have to call Escort to unlock the app. They are aware of the problem but they suggest only the use of an Android phone. I hope this helped and I wont apologize about my hatred towards the city of Chicago's gangsta tactics

 

I think the 9500ci is the way I'm going since I want it hidden and can place the control panel in the ashtray. The Excort seems to be light years ahead of the K40 in technology and the GPS feature, and constant updates are a major advantage.

I've found plenty on ebay for half of retail so I'm going to do a little more research today and then place an order.

Around here you have KA and laser. Locally I never speed as I live on the bay and theres to much traffic, plus being a runner myself I can't stand people speeding and not paying attention. On the interstate will that a different story I tend to find a fast pack and stick with them. Except this time the pack took an exit and a FHP car running KA tucked in the trees jumped out and got me. I pulled over before he even turned on his lights LOL why even waste time..

Any good detector would have caught his Instant on KA from the traffic in front of me. Now for the price of the ticket and my attorney friend, I knew I should have bought this weeks ago.

 

I have the K40 front and back w/ laser (front only) built into my 12 xk vert. We have many radar driven speed signs on the west-side of LA. So, in the city I have it set at lights only and change to low volume in the country;. I have found the k40 to do a good job. As a matter of fact I asked the installer If I should update it and he advised that he didn't think it was necessary and that he would email me if the situation changed, have heard nothing yet.

The warning lights are built-in right in front of the steering wheel and are very unobtrusive when not activated.

 

I'm still fond of my Valentine One, though it doesn't really get much exercise - it's mostly useful for telling me if a speed camera is actually 'live'. UK cops don't use radar guns at all these days, and laser is much harder to detect. But it's pretty sensitive as a detector, and has warned me of a couple of laser vans. However, my TomTom had already alerted me to the possible locations.

 

Valentine has always been heads and shoulders above all detectors but I haven't had one in years so I'd like to see it head to head with the 9500

 

Swear by my 9500ix... About the 8th detector I have owned in my life (from the original Fuzz-Buster and 23 Channel CB days to today).
My Lexus got rifled through one night and my 9500 stolen... Didn't hesitate to buy another a few days later, it is just that good....

Escort and Valentine have always jockeyed for the lead in the industry, but the second Escort introduced GPS to a detector, they left the noisy old detectors behind in a big way. My cabin is bliss until something is there...

My 2cents
Vince

 

I like my Valentine One as well. The new tech sounds nice but honestly, I don't really want to play around with my phone while I'm driving.

The Valentine has been in all of my cars for the past 7 years and I've never gotten a ticket (or even pulled over) in that time. The directional arrows are simply awesome.

Mine is wired so it turns on when I unlock the car so I never even have to think about it.

 

I don't think you have to use the phone with the 9500ix to get the GPS advantage, do you?

 

Heh, I have the Valentine, a Road Angel GPS unit (digital speedo and camera alerts) and my TomTom 940 (camera alerts, including average speed for the time-over-distance ones). Belt, braces and a piece of string

 

I have had them ALL. I currently own 5 Valentine One's
The Escort Redline is the only one the is close, but still falls short in a couple areas.
Valentine One and WAZE app on your phone and you will not ever get a ticket for speeding.

 

It uses the GPS to mark known false areas and I beleive reported speed traps. I sure don't want to be digging around for my phone.

Looks like I also have the ditch my windows phone and go back to iPhone. I'm missing out on to many apps.

 

Right, I couldn't remember. So while you're not contributing to the GPS knowledge base if you don't hook your phone up, you can still benefit from the info that comes from those who do? Or how would that be unless the device itself has GPS?

 

The 9500CI has a GPS unit as part of the installation.

 

I just spoke to my shop and they are going with the 9500CI with the controller in the ashtray. The reviews I've read about it including the front laser jammer are great. It was picking up Ka band 7000 feet away, and blocking laser to within point blank range thats pretty damn good!

Heres a great article on the 9500 vs k40 https://radartest.com/article_2.asp?articleid=100584

 

Just a heads up!

I see Costco is putting the 9500ix on sale! (till 6/22/2014)
$380 is a great price for a top of the line detector!

Peace!

 

Will front windshield tinting diminish their range or quality?

 

Not at all...
Metallic tint use to be common, and that would, but today's tints are ceramic, and have no effect on radio waves.

 

I have a 9500ix and it is definitely worth its weight in gold. I lived in Italy for four years and developed a lead foot....no speed limit or it's not enforced. So on the highway I frequently find myself leading the pack. Knock on wood, I bought my 9500ix maybe a year ago and have never been stopped since. I've had lasers pointed at me several times and each time I slow down and once it stops alerting, I speed up and that's that. Don't get me wrong, I don't use it to drive like a maniac, things can still go wrong and go wrong quickly, I just can make a little time with it. I would 100% recommend it.

 

It really does have a nice list of features - the false alarm elimination sounds awesome.

I'm still using my 7 year old V1 and I haven't had a ticket since I got it either

My biggest gripe with most radar detectors is that they always put the controls on top of the detector instead of on the front where you can see them. I mounted mine next to rear view mirror with the volume turned almost all the way down. I just glance at it when the arrows start flashing.