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From what i'm told in America. We sell SL1s on our website, but better get in line, national shortage on them. We have a few units in stock in our warehouse but only a FEW.
I'm not giving you a hard time for the heck of it chief. If you come into a thread about budget bulbs just to shill your higher priced option, it's going to irritate a few people. You make claims that your bulbs are a much higher quality option, but the fact is they are produced in the same Chinese factory that most likely makes any number of other bulbs that can be found on Alibaba.
If you are going to make claims that your Crystalux bulbs are a much higher quality option, prove it! Tell us what makes them better. What makes them worth 3X the cost? Your service is worth something and I know you'll take better care of your customers than the cheap brands, but is that alone truly worth $80 to most people? If you're confident in your bulb's performance, then you should also submit a pair of your bulbs to Bulb Facts for testing. If they perform well, then you'll get even more business!
KP Texan, Diode Dynamics has their production facility in St Louis. Not sure where the actual LED chips are produced but they have a lot of info on their website and Facebook, including some video and explanations of production, assembly. and testing (seems they test individual bulbs for function before packaging).
I have no connection just interested. They were not in production when I purchased my SuperNova V.3 bulbs. KM
PS: Just noticed in the above post by Adam, SuperNova G4, in mis-named or mis-typed, and should be V.4. Makes some difference when looking for info. km
Last edited by 2017bluetruck; 02-05-2019 at 10:24 AM.
You can like what i say, you can hate what I say, but don't think I feed BS to people, because it's the last thing I'd do. I don't make up numbers, doctor photos or spread false info. Any tests I do or data I have ANYBODY can do.
Thank you for the response. I mean that sincerely, and appreciate the information. After doing a bit more digging into your supplier and looking at other information on the G11 bulb you're selling, I'm pretty well convinced it's one of the top options on the market right now. Heck, I may eventually decide to buy a set from you! In addition to offering a good product, I also very much like the fact that you are based in the US and offer good support.
After being devoutly anti-LED based on an experience I had with my previous 4Runner's projectors and another top-tier LED, I've come to learn a lot about drop in LEDs and their performance advantages lately. The technology has been changing so rapidly that I've decided to just get a feel for it by staying in the more budget friendly range of $30-$50 for now, but I will likely opt to step it up in the future.
Lets not forget there is more to a bulbs quality, than brightness. Longevity/life span and warranty length come to mind. Thats why Diode Dynamics gets my vote. USA made and a 3 year warranty. Nobody else can touch that. Of course this is if you think $125 bulbs are better than $30 bulbs.
Bragging rights about Auto LED bulbs are over the top. I meet trucks with LED headlights that need a good 357 Magnum fix.
I am fine with better electronics cutting the power requirements but not LED or other technology used in automotive headlights that look like they belong on a tugboat with a 5 mile range. I saw my first transistor as an AT in the Navy in 1974 so my geek streak is deep and long. I had no plans to go with LED headlights until I learned there were great LED options for many vehicles in the $50-$100 range today to retrofit from halogen to LED.
My son sent me the link to the Spyder projection headlights for our 2010 F150 and the reviews talked about the H7's that ship with them being OK or about equal with the OEM brightness so I was thinking of going with upgraded halogens but was told the brighter the shorter their life. I did not know the prices of LED's had collapsed (news shows huge over capacity in the LED manufacturing industry) so quality LED's were not that much higher than high end halogen options.
I liked CHEE's history story and their NC roots so I decided to go with high powered XHP70 CREE based LED bulbs. From years in the computer hardware building industry I learned cooling fan dependability could be more important than the brand of the processor. I had no clue the better quality LED headlight bulbs had cooling fans built in.
Lack of brightness with LED headlights have been well addressed by now unless you are going with $19 options which may be just fine for some applications. The issue that I see today has little to do with the LED bulbs themselves as much as the type of reflector system in the headlight itself at were designed for halogen bulbs for years. A tech from Spyder explained the reason for them saying no HID or LED bulb usage was more for legal reasons because for beam control the reflector housing design needs to factor in the bulb technology that is going to be used. Ours shipped with preinstalled Au-lite H7 12v 55w DOT approved halogen bulbs so their butts are legally covered.
Our Akarui option that I selected came in at $70 for the complete plug and play set. They won Editor's pick by 10CarBest Auto LED bulbs 2019 review The box states designed in Japan and made in China. Time will tell their value.
Yes I understand the nature of selling and that the technology of LED bulbs are just a small part of the factors that most of us need to be looking at. Those of us with deep geek streaks are not buying life time solutions but understand the light law that in time LED bulbs with become 10x better at 1/10th of the price of today. If we go with $50 options today that are 200%+ better than our halogen options in a couple years we will be able to buy today's $300 bulb options for another $50 expense I expect.
If not upgrading OEM headlight assemblies themselves designed for halogen bulb technology I see no reason for most geeks to pay more than $50 - $75 for retrofit LED auto bulbs. Hand holding by bulb sellers is a need that is about to come to an end just like it did 30 year ago by PC computer makers. LED bulbs are now a commodity and not a specialty item. Personally I had prefer to make 4 $50 learning mistakes over time than one $200 misstep up front. 30 years ago most all geeks knew their car engine cubic inches and the speed of their computer processor. Who even cares about these numbers today. LED headlight lumens concerns will go the same route.
The real question is does my headlights enable both the driver I am meeting and myself to see better at night. If I am in a head on crash because I blinded the other driver with my zillion lumen headlights it is still a Lose-Lose situation.
I've done shootouts with any bulb recommended to us to try out. From the really cheap/junk bulbs that people love to buy to the bulbs that are real good quality. We've beat out every single bulb EXCEPT ONE in a shootout. That bulb that provide more lux is the Super Nova G4's. They put out about 2600 lux in our test when our bulbs did about 2500 lux. Their LED Driver puts out more power which is how they sneaked past us.
Otherwise not one bulb has outperformed our new G11 Series yet.
Could you share the results of the shootout? I would think you have some sort of spreadsheet/record of the results. I do not see any information of this on your website. I would be interested in seeing how the G9/G11 compare to the Sinoparcel or Hikari LED bulbs recommended in this thread since they are all using Z ES LEDs.
I went with the Sinoparcel LEDs. Braided type H11 for lows and 9005 for fogs. Then I installed the mini-9005 for the highs to give the extra light output. I used the 83mm extended boot on the lows and reused the OEM boot for the highs. Below are the results. Pretty impressive. I have been running for over two weeks. We have been having a lot of fog and rain. Haven't been flashed a single time. I have a 2" leveling kit on so I had already made adjustments while still running the halogen bulbs. Halogen - low beam Fogs only Lows - no fog lights Lows and Fogs Highs and Fogs (Bambi Mode via Forscan)
I went with the Sinoparcel LEDs. Braided type H11 for lows and 9005 for fogs. Then I installed the mini-9005 for the highs to give the extra light output. I used the 83mm extended boot on the lows and reused the OEM boot for the highs. Below are the results. Pretty impressive. I have been running for over two weeks. We have been having a lot of fog and rain. Haven't been flashed a single time. I have a 2" leveling kit on so I had already made adjustments while still running the halogen bulbs.
Highs and Fogs (Bambi Mode via Forscan)
Actually that's Highs, lows and fogs with Bambi mode. Without Bambi mode you get highs and lows only as fogs turn off when high beams are on. Chevy turns off the lows and fogs when highbeams are on for some stupid reason. I could not see dogs or small critters in front of me with high beams on so I had to use a diode to make the lows stay on when I used high beams.
02-05-2019, 09:19 AM
