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LED Light Units - Latest Technology
The JW Speaker 8700 LEDs we've been building into our premium headlamps for five years are excellent but these Philips Integrated Beam LED's, with the latest advanced technology, have surpassed them. We rely heavily on the technical expertise of Daniel, our Senior Lighting Consultant, and he has subjected the Philips LED's to extensive testing and found them to deliver significantly superior performance versus the Soeaker 8700's . Here 's an excerpt from his analysis:
I can finally give John a good answer to his question about what are the best 7" round LED headlamps. I have a new favourite, by a comfortable margin, and it's affordable: the Philips Integrated Beam LED.
This Philips lamp produces a very wide, well-formed and -focused beam, with a pleasingly sharp cutoff and lots of down-the-road light even with a low headlamp mount height. It can readily be aimed visually, optically, or with the old-fashioned Hoppy-type sealed beam aimer that interfaces with the three lens pips. And while it doesn't look olde-tyme, it also doesn't deface the car by looking like it came off a space ship.
Objectively these are superior to the JW Speaker 8700 LED units. It's been more than a few years since the Speakers were updated, and LEDs and associated optics have been evolving at a galloping pace. The Philips puts more light on the road, and it is focused more usefully for maximum seeing distance (= maximum safe speed at night), _even with a low headlamp mounting height_. This really is a knocked-outta-the-park product from Philips, and no, I am not being paid or otherwise induced to say that.
So we are switching to the Philips Integrated LED's. There is nothing wrong with the Speakers - technology has simply passed them. One big advantage of being a small business is that we are very nimble and can respond to technological advancement quickly as we don't have a warehouse full of old technology that we have to sell before moving forward.
Headlight Housings - Other AC LED Headlight Series
Originally the only 7" housings widely available were those used on 1960's VW's. They were virtually identical to the original Porsche sealed beam Hella housings except they included mounting for a city light which the early Porsche housings did not have. The city light was actually a nice feature in our opinion given that we were departing from originality anyway with the LED's.
However, while the production quality of the housings was adequate, it was not at a Best-in-Class level that we would have preferred. But not being a manufacturing company at that point we had to work with what was available, Until now..... Eric Linden of Auto Foreign Services to the rescue.
Platinum Plus Headlight Housing Upgrade
The modern 7" LED bulb assemblies are the perfect size to mount in the early sealed beamed headlight buckets that Porsche had Hella produce for U.S. delivery cars (these same headlight buckets were used for mounting Cibie Bi-Iode Rally headlights, an area of specialty for Audette Collection). If reproductions were ever made it must have been for a short time because these have become very difficult to find. As mentioned, Eric Linden of Auto Foreign Services to the rescue.
This ultra-high quality (Eric's wheelhouse) reproduction of the original Hella housings enable us to take the AC Platinum LED Series to a new level, AC Platinum Plus. Everything is built using the highest quality materials and things fit to precision. And the powder coated finish ensures long-term durability. A Best-in-Class® product.
Trim Rings
And the same goes for the trim rings. Most reproduction headlight trim rings are made of stamped steel and up iuntil now that's been the only kind available. Here again, the quality was adequate, but not premium. A not-quite-exactly-perfect stamped steel ring is hard to mount, because steel is hard and not very ductile, which means no flexibility in fitting them over the fender ridges. Porsche originally used trim rings made of brass, which is much more ductile, and that's what Eric Linden did, too. Together with the utterly perfect fit and finish, this makes mounting the headlamps Best-in-Class® easy
Lenses
Linden's lenses are a perfectly faithful reproduction of the originals, made of premium borosilicate clear glass. Also called "hard glass", borosilicate is much harder to break, much more resistant to thermal shock, much less prone to pitting (road rash, sandblasting), and has excellent optical properties. These new lenses have the correct SB 19-20-21 script on them, and no Hella markings.
Following Daniel Stern's recommendations Audette Collection will only be offering the Premium Plus LED highlight assemblies with clear lenses to ensure optimum performance.
Hardware
Your choice of adjustment screws:
- Chrome plated oval head slotted screws (as used originally by Porsche)
- Stainless steel oval head Phillips screws
Porsche OEM mounting screws.