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LED Headlights: Which Would You Choose?

LED Headlights: Which Would You Choose?


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    25

danbfree

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#81
I have been swapping all my old headlights to Philips Xtreme Ultinons. They're really pretty good, and mimic the halogen really well.
I had changed out my street triples H4 OE bulbs for some Sylvania's, and the second ride to work the low beam filament broke on one bulb. I looked to see how much hid retro fit would run and decided I didn't want to spend 600+ on a professional job. Ended up running across these, I believe in a 675 forum, and have been incredibly happy with them. It's kind of reassuring to me too have a brand name on it, figured they would have more to lose reputation wise. Who knows. Anyways, installed some in my wife's Colorado reflectors next, and they really did wonders. Installed some next for my low beams in the ST. After a lot of struggling with it. Thought the glare cap would have to come off because I couldn't quite get it in there. So took that off, still wouldn't fit with the passive heat sink in back. Ended up needing to shave off part of the rubber boot ring to get it to actually go in all the way and lock in. Glare cap fits with it. Rubber boots fit with it as well, just bulges a little where the heat sink is. Accurate spread, good cutoff, but nowhere near as clean as projectors. I think I will end up spending the cash to retrofit hid projectors on this car and move these down to the fog lights, but this works well in the interim
A great site to see halogen, LED and HID bulbs tested in both reflector and projector housings is bulbfacts.com... In my LED thread we have found the TechMax, Hikari Ultra, Katana and others to have a very clean cutoff in reflector housings and aren't too bright to overwhelm them with kaleidoscope effect either, as sadly the very brightest ones do that in our crappy housings. The Philips you mention do test really high, especially as a fog light bulb, but I expect the H11's to be excellent as a low beam too as they are indeed designed for reflector housings. The warning about off-road use only are just a legal CYA thing, as long as they have a clean cutoff without excessive glare and can project 50-100 feet down the road then they meet DOT spec. And yes, fitment issues are common, sometimes a bit of trimming of the rear housing opening is required... and with reflectors, we'll always have the two hot spots from the main beams themselves, all you can ask for is a clean cutoff with little glare, good projection, and without stray or distorted lighting. May I ask, is it the Philips Gen 2 in H11 that you are describing the fitment on?
 


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danbfree

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#83
Not sure on generation, but here's the listing on eBay
That's different packaging than I've seen but likely that's first gen and that's fine... Second Gen has an even better cutoff but isn't quite as bright either... Do you get very clean output in the road with just minor reflector reflections or do you see some actual sharply angled stuff which I can the Kaleidoscope effect? I'll have to look into those further on eBay!
 


TyphoonFiST

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#84
Not for $220 that's for dam sure...I'd roll Xenon depot again over those Philips Leds.... at least they have the Luxeon Phillips LED chips. Anywho....if you do bite...let us know how they work.


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Von

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#85
That's the packaging I've gotten the last 3 sets I've bought. 2 h11's and a set of H4. I don't believe I have any comparison shots or anything, but I've installed in my wife's 18 Colorado zr2 with projector housings, my 12 street triple with reflector housing and the 18 ST, they closely follow halogen spread, just much brighter. The Xtreme Ultinon stuff I believe is primarily marketed towards EU and China/Japan

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Von

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#86
Not reflector housing, but I did bother to do a side by side of halogen and LED in the wife's truck. Obviously it's going to be different with reflector housings but I can honestly say I'm happy, and more importantly, the wife's happy with the light output, and it doesn't throw light everywhere. $200 is steep, but I figure that's the cost of doing it right. I'll try to post up a link of the forum I had seen them discussed

Edit: this is a review for a truck, in H4, a different bulb, but H4 was the first I had purchased this LED light in

https://www.tundratalk.net/forums/t...-treme-ultinon-led-headlight-bulb-review.html


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TyphoonFiST

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#87
Check out xenon depot if you like Boutique Bulbs....they aren't cheap but around $125-150 per set. I have had multiple sets from Xenondepot. Great bulb....great customer service. But I found the Techmax and they are great and so are the Maxgtrs....for a fraction of the price. Now I'm on the longevity test for both....I run the Maxgtrs as fogs and the Techmax as main headlights.




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Last edited:

Von

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#88
That's different packaging than I've seen but likely that's first gen and that's fine... Second Gen has an even better cutoff but isn't quite as bright either... Do you get very clean output in the road with just minor reflector reflections or do you see some actual sharply angled stuff which I can the Kaleidoscope effect? I'll have to look into those further on eBay!
There's a few angles that are pronounced. I'll take some pictures tonight's if I can remember [emoji106][emoji106]

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danbfree

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#89
Check out xenon depot if you like Boutique Bulbs....they aren't cheap but around $125-150 per set. I have had multiple sets from Xenondepot. Great bulb....great customer service. But I found the Techmax and they are great and so are the Maxgtrs....for a fraction of the price. Now I'm on the longevity test for both....I run the Maxgtrs as fogs and the Techmax as main headlights.
Yep, the TechMax are just the brand name they use in the states for the AliExpress MaxGTRS, they appear identical... I forget who found the MaxGTRS first, as they came before TechMax, and with so much junk out there it's amazing we got so far so quick with actual safe and non-glaring LED headlights for reflectors... Oh boy, got into it on Reddit over using LED's in reflectors last night, I'm afraid to check my inbox there today, but I feel that strongly that these people who insist that it's 100% impossible to get LED's to work properly in reflectors are just plain wrong... I tried to show example after example and link to reviews and videos, these people are among the most stubborn I've ever seen!
 


TyphoonFiST

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#90
Yep, the TechMax are just the brand name they use in the states for the AliExpress MaxGTRS, they appear identical... I forget who found the MaxGTRS first, as they came before TechMax, and with so much junk out there it's amazing we got so far so quick with actual safe and non-glaring LED headlights for reflectors... Oh boy, got into it on Reddit over using LED's in reflectors last night, I'm afraid to check my inbox there today, but I feel that strongly that these people who insist that it's 100% impossible to get LED's to work properly in reflectors are just plain wrong... I tried to show example after example and link to reviews and videos, these people are among the most stubborn I've ever seen!
Yeah ...tell them to...frig off Eh!




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Last edited:

Von

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#91
That's different packaging than I've seen but likely that's first gen and that's fine... Second Gen has an even better cutoff but isn't quite as bright either... Do you get very clean output in the road with just minor reflector reflections or do you see some actual sharply angled stuff which I can the Kaleidoscope effect? I'll have to look into those further on eBay!
Granted it's a hotel parking lot but here are some shots


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Boone
#92
I just got the hikari leds, did most people have to adjust the aim after they installed them? They seem to be close to where the stock bulbs were and nobody has flashed theyre beams at me yet. Also which direction do you turn the little adjustment knob to aim them down? The manual doesnt specify clockwise or counter clockwise aims up or down.
 


danbfree

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#94
I just got the hikari leds, did most people have to adjust the aim after they installed them? They seem to be close to where the stock bulbs were and nobody has flashed theyre beams at me yet. Also which direction do you turn the little adjustment knob to aim them down? The manual doesnt specify clockwise or counter clockwise aims up or down.
The Hikari have a perfect cutoff from what I remember, you shouldn't have to adjust them but I have adjusted mine a number of times and your just use a wall or garage door and turn the screw and watch and switch directions if you need to. It goes pretty slow but will be obvious as you compare it to the other... I welcome you guys still looking to check out our stickied thread for LED finds and discussion.
 


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Toronto
#95
Those look great, nice and white without excessive blue and a great cutoff. Nice find!
Those are horrible looking actually. The hotspot is in the middle of the damn beam so all he will get is foreground light and a pattern looking like a couple of flashlights with improper gradient and then also lose his distance. or set the hotspot correctly and have most of the beam aimed up in the air.
 


Von

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#96
I don't blind other drivers and get better visibility than halogen. They seem to work fine to me. Good enough to take a canyon road to work at 3 am anyways :)

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danbfree

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#97
Those are horrible looking actually. The hotspot is in the middle of the damn beam so all he will get is foreground light and a pattern looking like a couple of flashlights with improper gradient and then also lose his distance. or set the hotspot correctly and have most of the beam aimed up in the air.
Uhm, you know we are stuck with no factory option for projectors in North America, right? For the shitty reflectors we are stuck with, they are a HUGE improvement over the halogen bulbs as long as the cutoff is clean, which more and more LED's have a proper design to do. Not everyone has $800 US to drop on projectors and show them off in an avatar picture. So, essentially you are simply making comments on everyone stuck with reflectors, which all have the same hot spots, so what you're saying isn't helpful nor applicable to the discussion here. You can see he gets plenty of throw distance and there is no glare above cutoff to blind people. Bottom-line: huge improvement for reflectors, end of story.
 


ROCKYFiestta

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#99
lol dunno why it rotated the pics sorry
[giggle]

upper left is just the fogs on their own
upper right is both fogs and techmax lights
bttm left is just the techmax only and
last one is just fogs any input on the aim I feel they are to low but let me know on that

sorry about the neck strain it may cause you lol
 


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Uhm, you know we are stuck with no factory option for projectors in North America, right? For the shitty reflectors we are stuck with, they are a HUGE improvement over the halogen bulbs as long as the cutoff is clean, which more and more LED's have a proper design to do. Not everyone has $800 US to drop on projectors and show them off in an avatar picture. So, essentially you are simply making comments on everyone stuck with reflectors, which all have the same hot spots, so what you're saying isn't helpful nor applicable to the discussion here. You can see he gets plenty of throw distance and there is no glare above cutoff to blind people. Bottom-line: huge improvement for reflectors, end of story.
Why so defensive? Just because I have retrofitted projectors? I chose to improve these "shitty" reflectors, but do you know what? I did an h9 and it was actually really good. That is the best upgrade before a retrofit on these because it FACTUALLY maintains the correct oem beam.

There still isn't ANY led that has a proper design to mimic the halogen filament correctly. All of these bulbs could work if they build a reflector around them, but they don't, and they will never be as good overall because of that fact.


Note the actual hotspot in the red square




Now. Note all of the light above that square. This is the glare. The hotspot should be right at the cutoff with minimal bleed above it. These are just facts that you can't get around. Because the hotspot is so low you can never aim them correctly because if you use the cutoff to aim youose all of your intensity and they are a huge reduction is usable light. These are facts.

 




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