Originally Posted By: GenSan
I drive roughly 30,000 miles annually throughout the east coast, south, and midwest both for work and leisure. Doing so in the past I have averaged 2 speeding tickets per year and they were blatant speed traps not over zealous speeding. Since I prefer not to be victimized I almost always drive with a radar detector nowadays.
So far I am pleased with the performance of the Escort 360 max and my average in speeding tickets has dropped to zero this past year so I can't complain.
I went with a Max 360 as well. I've used it for a few weeks now, including on a 7-hour drive to the Gulf Coast and back. I think it's a very good (possibly the best) all-around radar detector. It was expensive ($650) but it has lots of features. I really like how it automatically locks out stationary false K-band signals from door openers, etc. I also love the arrows. This being my first radar detector, I think I'd feel pretty blind without the arrows. The arrows helps in a lot of situations, especially when I pass a cop on the highway going the opposite direction but never see him. Without the arrows pointing first forward, then briefly to the side, then behind me, I wouldn't know if it was a hint of a signal from a cop shooting radar somewhere down the road. With the arrows, it lets me know that the threat has passed.
K-band falsing from vehicle anti-collision systems does happen but mostly from GM & Honda, the worst offenders. And with the benefit of the signal strength meter, you can usually differentiate a false from a legit threat (not even sure if they use K in Tennessee; I know that the large urban areas as well as THP are almost exclusively Ka-band). I have yet to run into a cop running K.
From what I've read, the Valentine is probably a little better at K filtering but you have to run the phone app alongside it to have the features of the Max 360, and I don't want to have to do that. Comparing range, the two are comparable in most situations with the Max 360 coming out on top in some situations and the Valentine winning others.
With the Escort Live! app that reports live police radar in your area via your phone (you can run the app in the background), the Defender database that reports red light and speed cams and known speed traps, and running Waze, you have a pretty powerful set of countermeasures.
