Cobra XRS 9530 Radar Detector

Driver’s Experience Test

The second detector tested for my “Low Priced Radar Detector Review” is the Cobra XRS 9530.

The XRS 9530 retails for around $149.95 and is advertised as a 12 band radar detector. Cobra’s marketing of their multi bands can sometimes be misleading to consumers as there are only three radar bands and one laser band currently in use in the USA. However Cobra has a tendency to split up the laser band into four segments and add the additional strobe alert, safety alert system, vg2 alert and  spectre alert to these four bands leading a unknowledgeable consumer to believe that the Cobra units detect more radar then competitors models, which is completely false.

We installed the Cobra unit, programmed it to highway mode and added an additional 200 miles to our normal 85 mile route, as we were heading out to Tombstone Arizona for the weekend.

The first thing that struck me about the Cobra unit was on how quite the unit was. Days earlier I had taken the Whistler XTR-185 and I had logged over 15 false alerts on the same roadway. Knowing that even high end radar detectors with much better filtering capabilities would had at least alerted once on this same path, I became a little concerned.

On Interstate 10, just outside of Avondale I received my first K band alert. Ahead approximately 1800 feet, I observed an Arizona Department of Transportation speed trailer.  From my experience I knew that a high ended radar detector would have alerted to this trailer at least four times the distance of the Cobra unit if not more.

Another thing that I found unusual in this encounter and also later encounters, that after the threat passed the detector seemed to be still locked on the same radar detector signal long after it should have had diminished.

While in the Phoenix area on I-10 the detector began picking up numerous X band alerts. As X band is not used in Arizona, I switched modes to city. While in this mode the Cobra detector delays the audio reporting of X band signals until they reach level three while still displaying the alert on the display.

Again I noticed that the detector seemed to be locked on previous X band alerts on the display, much longer then I would expect.

Just outside of Tucson Arizona I noticed a Pima County Sheriff’s Office unit that was parked off the side of the highway with the nose pointed in my direction of travel. Standing outside of the car, I observed the deputy taking measurements. The Cobra unit did not alert to the deputies Ka dash mounted hand held radar gun until I was well inside the deputies kill zone of 1300 feet.

My next encounter was just outside of Tombstone, when the unit alerted to a Ka alert as I crested over a hill right into the path of parked Tombstone Town Marshall.

My overall experience with the Cobra XTR 9530 was poor. No, the detector did not disturb me with false alerts; however when I needed to be alerted the detector just didn’t stand up and do its job. My rule of thumb has been that a detector should have at least seven times the range of the police radar gun to be effective.

In the two encounters with what I fell were both constant on Ka band, the detector did not alert until I was well within the “kill zone” of the officer.

Radar Roy’s Rating – One Badge: