As far as the meters go, try all of them and you'll settle on the one you like best. I tried the others and wound up using the default one, it was easier to read at a glance. But its easy to change them if you want to experiment. I've had the 8500 and now have the S2, I just leave them in auto mode, seems to work fine. Don't know how it works but I always get plenty of warning. The trick with any radar detector is when you drive the same route everyday you know where the false signals are, and I don't care what kind of detector you have they all give false warnings. When you're in a new area, just be more cautious.
