About a year ago, I had the chance to have a few beers with one of the engineers from Sylvania. She was a French woman, currently living in Asia, speaking to me in English… using a level of vocabulary & terminology that I could barely follow. Pretty sure she was a spy, but either way, she taught me a lot about the science behind LED lighting. And she taught me a lot about the games that many lighting companies play – when it comes to rating lumens (light output). The spy wouldn’t name names, but she said you’d be floored at some of the ‘big name’ lighting companies, who play big games. Deceptive games.
For example, there are cold lumens & hot lumens. When you illuminate an LED, there is an instantaneous ‘burst/peak’ in light output… followed by a leveling-out. It all happened in a split-second. But the leveled-out light output is your real & realistic lumens. AKA: your ‘hot’ lumens.
The ‘cold’ lumens are fairy dust, and they’re of no relevance in the real world when it comes to functionality. Yet it’s how a lot of companies rate, market, and sell their lights.
Sylvania tests & rates their LED products after 30-minutes of continuous illumination. Which makes them real-world accurate. That’s why they outperform competitors with 2X the posted lumen ratings.
Sylvania’s Cube-X is, in my opinion, one of the best-quality & best-performing light pods available. Even salt fog tested (ASTMB117) for long-term corrosion resistance.
Sylvania makes three version of the Cube-X: 1) Spot 2) Flood 3) Wide Flood
(FLOOD Light pictured)
FYI: The “X” is a more subtle accent light at 80-lumens for on-road use. And the 4 LEDs are what create the serious & significant light output.
The SPOT Light is designed to project light far down the road/trail at a 10-degree range. 1170 effective lumens.
The FLOOD Light fills the more immediate area. It does not project as far-off as the Spot, but it’s also not as narrow of a beam… with a 20-degree range on the Flood (versus 10-degrees on the Spot). And 1350 effective lumens.
The WIDE FLOOD Light is an exaggerated version of the Flood, bringing the light output closer-in to the source, and widening the beam to 45-degrees. Also 1350 effective lumens.
