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Originally Posted by SleepTight
I've never heard anyone mention that the Bel STIR+ had any available filter settings that were different than the 9500CI. Interesting. I agree that a non-police KA band filter would be a great feature. I'm wondering why Bel would add this to a detector system that's meant to be a stripped down version of the 9500CI.  |
The reason for this is that the Bel STIR+ is an enthusiast detector, not a low cost 9500CI. It is intended for people who buy best of breed as opposed to buying a one size fits all bundle.
The 9500CI is a good one box product because it contains both radar detector and laser shifters integrated into one CPU. It is intended for people who want a simple solution not the best solution. The biggest weakness in this setup is the Escort Laser Shifters which are the weakest on the market today, and truly not effective against most guns.
The Bel STIR+ was developed for people enthusiasts. Enthusiasts want advanced settings and they want to buy the shifters from Laser Interceptor not from Escort. The average radar detector user would have no idea what to do with band segmentation. So Escort saved this feature for this enthusiast model and left it out of the 9500CI. The catch is you are paying $1200 for just a radar detector, whereas with the Escort 9500CI you get radar detector and shifters for $1500. So when your factor in the cost of shifters, the Bel ends up being more expensive.
Like I said the Escort 9500CI ends up being about $1500, whereas the Bel is $1200, plus another $2000 for a Laser Interceptor Quad HP. Laser Interceptor also has non HP models for less money. The regular LI models are still better than Blinder or Escort's shifters. I have a regular LI Quad on my Lexus paired with the 9500CI (because I found the Escort shifters to be useless).