DD SL2 Pro LED headlight bulbs

These Diode Dynamics SL2 Pro LED headlight bulbs are legit. Nice and bright, and seem to have a very nice cutoff in the stock projector halogen lens. Should be no problem with blinding on coming traffic. They also have a nice spread and light up the sides nicely. Just thought I’d share my experience.

 

Glad you like them. After reading Crash’s immensely informative headlight bulb thread, I wound up ordering some Philips H9 bulbs and some OSRAM H11 Night Breaker +220’s for my fog lights. I can’t wait to get them installed.

@crashnburn80 have you done any testing with the DD SL2 Pros yet?

 

No, it’s been demonstrated over and over again these PnP LED products do not work correctly. In fact, as a PnP LED gets close accurately mimicking the dimensions of a halogen bulb, performance becomes even more problematic. See post #6598 with the most advanced LED on the market and following commentary from Yoshi Morimotos designer. In order for a bi-directional LED to project in a projector designed for an omnidirectional halogen light source it basically needs slop in the design to emit light where it isn’t supposed to go so that light makes it out of the projector. This in turn puts light output where it isn’t supposed to be focused on the pattern. Basically you end up with increased foreground (short range) light which gives a great impression of improvement and reduces your night distance vision, while losing the focused hot spot long range light that gives you distance (the primary focus of a headlight). So you can’t see as far while your eyes are being tricked into thinking you can see better than you do and your night vision is adversely affected. Bad combo. Cut offs have nothing to do with the LED bulbs at all, that is the projector light shield doing that. You can put any light source in the projector and still have a cut off, it doesn’t mean the light source is good.

Performance halogens like the Philips H9s or Nightbreaker 220s will easily outperform any PnP LED by devastating margins while maintaining the proper OEM patterns and not blowing out the foreground light as shown in the OPs pics.

Until LEDs can produce omni-directional light like a halogen (vs their current bi-directional light) AND be the same size as a halogen filament in size to maintain focus, there is no fix for this severe performance drawback of PnP LEDs in a halogen assembly.

 

The SL2 pros are working very well for me. The best drop in led bulb I’ve tried so far. They will hold me over until my OEM led headlights are delivered. The OEM led’s are expensive, but seems the best overall for our trucks.

 

The OEM LEDs are the best headlights available so far, they beat out anything that even performance halogens can offer. They will be a huge upgrade from your PnP LEDs.

 

Can’t wait to get them. About a week or so.

 

It was your very detailed review that was the deciding factor for me. Thanks for that.

 

And you still used crappy led pnp bulbs he proved are horrible.

 

The glare only blinds other people.

 

You cannot save those who do not want to be saved.

 

I used to have Morimoto 2stroke 3.0–based on @crashnburn80 ’s tests, these were among the best plug and play LEDs. Still, the output was only marginally better than stock H11s and I realized in time that while the bluish LED lights might look modern, I dislike the sterile lighting they provide. Now I use H9s and I’m happy. I might try some of those high performance H11s out of curiosity one day.

 

German Philips H9s still rein the best, also much cheaper than the best H11s with longer life too.

 

Like I said in my first post, they perform just fine for me. Not everyone has over $1500 for the OEM LEDS. If I thought the SL2 pros were horrible, why would I even start this thread?

 

I believe what @eurowner was asking was, why, after reading Crash’s thread & seeing his results, did you still opt to spend $200 on pnp LED bulbs when you could’ve spent $20 on a pair of Philips H9’s and had superior results? Again, glad you’re happy with them & I’m not judging. Just honestly intrigued by what nudged you in the direction you went.

 

I didn’t read Crash’s review till just recently. I’ve always wanted the OEM leds but didn’t want to spend that much money on them. I chose not to use H9 high beam bulbs because first of all they run hot, and secondly, they will probably only last a few months if used often. Not sure when used on the projector side, but wouldn’t having a high beam bulb as your low beam be like driving with your high beams on all the time? Yeah, I guess I wasted $200 on the SL2 pros since I ordered the OEM leds now, but if I didn’t I’d be pretty happy still with the SL2 pros. They are definitely much better than a stock bulb. Atleast in my opinion.

 

Not really sure how much more heat you get from 65 watts vs 55 watts but I'm guessing that an extra ten watts does not add enough to really matter. What you likely missed in reading the deep threads from Crashburn80 is that the LED drop in bulbs may be bright but they put the light in the wrong place on the road and all too often over lighting directly in front of and close to the vehicle, tricking untrained eyes into thinking they're brighter and more effective than they are. Unless and until you are trained to look at this and for this, you'll continue to be under the illusion that the drop in LED's are actually better when the opposite is true.

 

The H9 low-beam bulbs in my truck last about a year. I say "about a year" because I know it is not 2 years and it is not 2 months.I pay a whopping $35 on the pair because I buy at NAPA instead of Crapazon. Still am happy with the performance.

Since you bought $200 of two-direction-light PnP LED bulbs before learning they are not as effective as you hoped they would be, you keep defending that decision with the statement "They could be worse, they are better than H11". Your statement is correct ... they are worse.

 

Ok, I lied to everybody. The SL2’s are complete garbage. I can’t see the road at all. I completely wasted my time giving an “opinion “. It is merely just that, my opinion of a product. And yes, I am very picky.

 

I never said they are “not as effective as I hoped they’d be” They actually exceeded my expectations knowing what they are. If I didn’t want the OEM leds I’d be perfectly happy as is.

Some people just have to argue with everything. Get over it. It’s an “opinion “. Some will like, some won’t. I really don’t care.

 

Like many people over 50, astigmatism is bad. I don't need to wear glasses during the day, but I have to at night. I can tell with 100% certainty which cars have the PnP LED conversion bulbs in them, or OEM LED or OEM halogen, just based on the glares. There is no state inspection, cops don't have the time to deal with non-DOT light bulbs or broken windshield stuff, so there are plenty of them out there.

I live in an area is less urban than most of the big cities, plenty of roads don't have street lights. The glare is very profound without the ambient lighting. My wife drives a sedan, she describes it as like looking at high beams all the time.