Originally Posted by dalparadise

Surprisingly, your question isn't as simple as it seems. both detectors you list are excellent -- the best in the business. Both provide excellent protection. Both are expensive and reliable. Either is a great choice.

I've used both and prefer my current Passport 8500 X50 to the V1. The 9500 Passport adds GPS anti-falsing for added protection, but I don't feel this feature is necessary or worth the extra expense.

The difference between the Escort and Valentine comes down to skill of the user. The V1 is actually more sensitive, which, depending on your ability to use it, may make it the WORSE choice. It simply has too many false alarms -- to the point where many begin to ignore the alarms and negate its advanced warning.

The passport, on the other hand is at least $100 cheaper and offers only marginally lower performance with regard to warning time in a real radar situation. We're talking about a second or two at highway speeds. However, when you get a K or Ka hit on a Passport, you can be sure it is real. I have been amazed at my unit's ability to filter out the noise and to offer that all important first "skip" hit of a radar source that is still a mile out of full range of true measure, but provides a quick, advanced warning. This is the only way to defeat instant-on radar every time and requires pretty astute user recognition and response.

In the V1 situation, I found I could not really trust that "skip" hit to be real and lost that measure of advanced warning. The directional arrows were great, though, and do work to cancel out some of the V1's shortcomings, with respect to twitchy falsing.

X-band is rarely used anymore, except in a few backwoods towns. Many turn X-band sensitivity completely off on their detectors. I do not. The 8500 is so good at anti-falsing and gives such a great lead time on this band, I leave it on and track the signals. When you see a gradually increasing signal strength that steadily builds, it's probably real and not a grocery store door, or something like that.

Neither detector offers protection against a well employed line-of-sight LASER. You'll need a jammer to defeat those. I have been effectively warned in traffic by the LASER detector in the Passport, but out in the open as the only target, I would have been toast. Staying out of the fast lane when possible, watching for brake lights in front of you when cresting a hill, checking for warning flashes from oncoming traffic or just going the speed limit are your best defenses if you don't have a jammer.

A good detector user learns to recognize the different types of signals, the way they trip the meters, the nuances of bounces and how a detector registers them. For me, the Passport is much easier to interpret and is less prone to false alarms. Even so, it's no "set-it-and-forget-it" situation. You must actively use a detector for it to be really effective. That's why many more casual users prefer the V1's arrows.

Good luck.