AlphaRex Headlight.

fuck these are pricy, yo can we get a fact check on these. worth 1000 big ones?

 

Well there was no need to delete the whole thread. Even mistakes are still helpful for others to learn from without incurring the cost of learning on their own.

To be clear, there is nothing fundamentally wrong from an engineering standpoint with manufacturing lights in China. Toyota's OEM LED fogs made by Valeo are made in China. Valeo is a well known major OEM supplier lighting manufacture. As such, you can be assured Valeo's products will meet the SAE pattern requirements of the spec, their business as an OEM supplier with the worlds largest automotive manufactures depends on it. Unfortunately China is also rampant with non-reputable manufactures and is well known for falsifying SAE compliance claims. Recall that SAE compliance is a self certification process, aka it is an honor system, the government does not issue any compliance certification. Meaning you must trust the credibility of the manufacture to have done their own SAE compliance testing. There is no better place to find fraudulent products than Alibaba. AlphaRex's 3rd Gen lights seem directly sourced from Alibaba, even with the AlphaRex logos blurred out. Being sold in China there is no recourse or mandate that the products actually meet the spec, so they don't need to invest in the proper engineering R&D, testing, compliance check and just stamp it as SAE compliant because it doesn't really matter for their target audience and allows them to sell for substantially cheaper. This is a well understood problem in the lighting community.

The OP is correct, I have not personally tested the AlphaRex lights. But there are so many red flags in others online reviews, unfortunately most are all done by amateurs that do not understand what to look for causing them to draw the wrong conclusions, propagating misinformation.

Here is one, AlphaRex left vs Morimoto right:


Everyone says wow AlphaRex is so much brighter! If you understand how a headlight is supposed to work, you know that foreground light is supposed to be minimized and that maximum beam intensity is supposed to be at the cut off horizon for maximum distance projection. The pattern should have a very smooth uniform light pattern that minimizes foreground light and increases in intensity to the pattern cut off. AlphaRex quite literally has this completely backward, there is no way this is an SAE compliant product. Excessive foreground light will draw your eyes down from the horizon, it will restrict your distance night vision and enable you to outrun your headlights. It is more difficult to see beyond the excessive short range bright spot. Brighter isn't better unless it is brighter in the right place in the pattern. And this is what I constantly reiterate, people see the foreground light and say wow it is bright, not realizing that isn't how a headlight is supposed to work, there is so much more to headlight design.

Another AlphaRex right vs Morimoto left.


Look at each beam pattern and see where your eyes are drawn.

In the AlphaRex product your eyes are drawn immediately infront of the vehicle, while in the Morimotos they are not, they should be drawn off to the headlight horizon. It is very clear that Morimoto understood how to properly engineer a headlight pattern and AlphaRex made a pathetic attempt to build a headlight by using a short range flood pattern. Again, see my previous post, I've never given a good review to a Morimoto product.

The OPs own output photo shows the exact same pattern performance seen in the online reviews. Massive foreground light, which indicates an improperly designed headlight. While the OP claimed the lights had not yet been adequately aimed in this photo, the hot spot should be at the top edge of the beam pattern regardless of the aiming. That is clearly not the case just like all the other online reviews.



Unfortunately the online reviews seem to always say that the AlphaRex are so much brighter, swaying people to buy in that direction. These people lack the education and lighting background to understand they are doing far more harm than good, because they do not understand how these products are supposed to work. Automotive lighting is a funny subject where human judgement is inherently flawed. I do not mean to berate the OP, but again it is very clear AlphaRex is not a legitimate lighting product.

 

Very well worded! I have seen the trend of foreground light being mistaken as "brighter" for quite some time now (think PNP LED). Science is a b*tch sometimes. LOL

I'm curious how the Alphrex compare to OEM with OEM bulbs and/or Philips Racing Vision bulbs. I know how both perform personally and with stats given by Mr. Crashnburn80. But until someone is able to lend a pair of Alphrex to him to test, we won't know for sure. I see the appeal to the Alphrex as I personally do like the looks of them and if an individual is replacing headlights that are sun faded it would likely be an upgrade. But are they worth $1k?? I don't think they are. Especially knowing OEM Blacked out headlights are less than that including the "Ultimate Headlight Upgrade" that crashnburn80 is known for. On top of that if a persons lenses just need reconditioned you could do a threaded shaft retrofit for a 1/3 of the price (i.e. D2S 5.0, G5-BRT threaded shaft, Morimoto MLED 2.0 or Profile Bi-LED 2.0) of the Alphrex and get better output than the Alphrex, Morimoto or Ultimate Headlight Upgrade.

 

Is this the black or alpha black version? I'm considering these but the projector with halogen bulb.

 

Nova black

 

when I start up the truck they do a cool knight rider light show- the kids love that me too- that has to be worth a few of my $'s spent

 

Great for city driving! Hell... people in the city don't even turn their lights on...

 

Well spoken @crashnburn80 . The stereotype and blanket statement of "ALL things made-in-China is JUNK" is untrue and borderline dangerous.

Some lazy and unscrupulous designers/engineers are making junk that's coming out of China...... not everything made in China is junk.

 

yeah I source machined parts from china and you'd be surprised at the quality of the work they do nowadays. their customer service is also 100x better than some of my state side vendors.

 

Were the Alpha Rex headlights easy to install? Also, how is the water proofing when it comes to rain or even car washes? My current headlight housings are crap and I'm in the market for some new headlights.

 

Install was simple enough just , have not had any water on them beyond a car wash. I am enjoying the refreshed look they give the front end.

 

@Xx Ares xX any updates on 2.5 Gen??

 

Looks like they are be announced tomorrow

 

they have posted 1 set yesterday lol

 

Pure sex right there

 

got to love their business model:
but a $30 unit from China, slap their name on it, mark it up 200%, resell it

 

Isn’t that pretty much everything?

 

$50ish direct form China

 

The difference is they don’t make them. Vland is the brand that makes and sells the headlights. AlphaRex just buys in bulk, relabels the product and sells them for way more when you could also buy them direct from alibaba out of China yourself.

 

Gotcha. I read the review in previous post. The housing aesthetics are great. The performance is sub par. And what happened to the OP