15 out of 16 people found this review helpful.
I bought a SECOND one a month later
Date of Review: Aug 29, 2008
The Bottom Line: Truly exceptional unit. Fantastic performance. No false alarms! Easy to use. Reasonable cost. 5 year old design!! Amazing value!
The wife got a ticket in April. I haven't had a ticket in years. They're putting in red light cameras and this motivated me to do some research. In an effort to raise additional money, many municipalities are reverting to 'other forms of tax'.
I bought a 940 in May. Actually I bought two of them. I used it for a month and then went back and bought one for the wife's car,too
I went all the 'places' mentioned by other researchers. I too, went to Speedzones, radartest, and radarbusters. I also noted that the 940 has the same circuitry as the more expensive models, The sensitivity is very similar to it's sister units costing over $300. Just the features change.
I've had a uniden and a whistler, but both of those were over 10 years ago. I don't notice the 'cheap construction' that others have mentioned. The case is metal not plastic. This unit has been out for at least 5 years. It has a different look today then the pictures of the early models. It might be upgraded. The unit feels solidly built.
It has a small but very solid windshield bracket. It doesn't have a 10 foot straight cord, it has a coiled cord. I had to buy 7' telephone 4 lead cord to mount them above the rear view mirror. I appreciate the ease of removal and set up. When I park in questionable areas, I remove the unit from the windshield. My whistler was stolen many years ago so i'm 'gun shy' about this. This unit is well designed, it's very quick to disconnect to put in glove box. It's just as easy to hook it back up. It takes less than 10 seconds each way.
THIS IS THE QUIETEST UNIT I'VE EVER USED. When it 'TALKS', you better listen. False alarms are almost unheard of. Yet the distances it responds to are amazing. Around curves, over hills, it sees a radar car LONG before you will!! The company claims to have the 'longest warning distance available' and I believe it.
I also appreciate the 'mute' button. If a cop pulls up behind you with his radar on at a red light, the light will stay lit, but this silences the speaker. The mute is only active for THIS alarm. If another threat approaches from a different direction. It will respond to IT. The mute turns itself off (resets) as soon as the threat passes.
The only thing I miss is the 'auto-off' that automatically turned off the power when you turn off the ignition. Both my other units had that.
Bottom Line,.. This is the best radar detector I've ever seen,and FAR BETTER than any I've ever owned. It's reasonably priced (150 on sale at Best Buy) If you do the research. You'll wind up with this unit.
Features:
Volume adjustable
Voice Alerts (programable)
AutoMute (programable)
Mute (auto reset)
Sensitivity - Highway/City (plus City hi/lo adjustment)
Brightness - Max, Medium, Minimum and Dark
Alerts are for
X-band
K-band
Ka-band
POP
and Laser
plus Safety Signals (where available)
Programing is very easy and intuative
When it detects a signal it has 4 unique 'chirps', 1 for each band width. It will give the appropriate 'chirp' and then 'voice alert' will call out the band detected. After 10 seconds of chirps, the volume is lowered, after 10 more seconds the volume is lowered one last time. This reduces that 'annoyance' factor. The face has a red LED signal strength indicator.
Even on Highway setting (the highest sensitivity) the false alarm rejection is supurb.
Buy Radar Detectors
