Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Originally Posted By: ARB1977
Are these worth it?
Absolutely not. An LED array, regardless of how many you add to the "bulb", will not and cannot be a substitute for a filament bulb. The optics are simply not the same.
I think this was true a while back, but with the current Cree (and similar) high output bulbs, I think it's possible to outperform the filament bulbs. These new bulbs put out so much many lumens in so many directions that they can overcome the directional nature of LEDs. The older SMD and Superflux style bulbs were just not bright enough to accomplish this. I agree that they're not identical in appearance to filament bulbs - they do have hot spots in some cases depending on how they're oriented in the housing - but in my opinion the hot spots are substantially brighter than the filament bulb, and the "fill" in the other areas are brighter or at least equal to the filament. In a rear facing application, where the LED bulb is facing directly out of the lens, and the side LEDs are filling the reflector, these things are amazingly effective.
Heath