nathan1

THANK you SO much for doing this test, I can't wait for the results! I drive my cars quite a bit in the darkness (generally early am vs late at night) and have always found my favorite set up to be H1's running relays 55w lows, 100w highs with the highs adjusted for long open road (the advantage of the H1 vs. the H4 is separate reflectors for low and high, so you can make your lows in town friendly and the highs for high speed back road work. I find the current offerings with "modern" design characteristics just look off on these cars, would love it someone made a light that looks identical to either an H1 or H4 but truly performs better, but there is never real world testing, thanks for doing this! Also a huge shout out to John Audette, have bought many lights from him over the years and he takes great pride in his work, great guy to work with!

kos11-12

Love driving at night, I often do as I use the car for long trips.
I remember driving when it was raining at night and that was a challenge with H4s,I had to drive slowly, it was quite abarasing ....

tjb616

Looking forward to this and would love to see more photos of them installed. I've been saving for a kit with recessed Hella bi-LEDs like the offering from SC below. Not a fan of the look of the other modern offerings but these appear more subtle and if they test well, I could be convinced.

https://www.stuttgart-classica.com/b...RoC3T8QAvD_BwE

spartansix

The Stuttgart Classica setup is nice and the projectors are clearly high quality, but there's a reason no one else is using them: you need to cut out the back of your headlight buckets for them to fit.
I don't think I'll be doing that for this test!!

tjb616

That's exactly why I find them appealing. Stuffing projectors up against the lens looks terrible to me. The look a recessed projector gives in the SC kit or the Singers lights is so much better. This new offering from Audette seems to minimize that look Im avoiding. Im actually already sold based on their website. I just need to see more photos of them installed with paint matched rings to know I can live with the look.

Culina

Is it still happening tomorrow?

spartansix

Not happening tomorrow -- I've been away doing this and got distracted:




I should probably start a group chat for everyone who is interested in coming and participating.
If you'd like to take part and we haven't talked about it, send me a PM or text me if you have my number already!

ePa

195€

https://www.rosepassion.com/en/pcg63...51149-P1051149

I could try. A bit expensive side, but still peanuts in the big picture.

Greg Wolfe

You've got to be one of the coolest guys on this site. Love it.

I also have 9Eleven and they are probably my favorite mod, but I have only compared them to my old stockies.



Mr. Wolfe

spartansix

Thinking of trying to do this the night of Friday the 17th... just have to herd a few cats to make it happen!

tjb616

Selfishly I would love to see a comparison of a BiLED projector through a fluted H4 lens (the best look, IMO) vs a clear lens.

9HAUS offers both: https://www.9-haus.com/store/Classic...ens-p423763108

TJ

spartansix

If anyone has those or if any company is willing to send them to me, I'd be happy to test them.
Right now we're gonna run what we brung since none of the other brands saw this or want to play.

spartansix

Thanks to everyone who came out tonight, and sorry to HEDR's neighbors for all the noise!
Here are the initial results of what was a very interesting test session.

These results should be viewed in comparison to one another rather than to any other test as conditions and equipment might vary.
Lux readings are likely not perfect given a less-than-professional meter but should be comparable between lights.
Again, the goal was to be semi-scientific.

Bottom line up front:
The Audette Platinum Plus is a very good headlight. It was the best performer on Low Beam output and came the closest to meeting the IIHS's standard of 5 Lux for a Good Low Beam at 300 feet.
All of the testers were impressed with the light output and quality, noting a very clean cutoff, good color, and excellent beam width.

However, the Audette LED setup cannot compete with the high beams from a set of properly aimed H4s with 100/80w bulbs and relays.
The H4s with 100/80w bulbs crushed the rest of the competition on High Beam output and were the only lights to meet (and exceed) the IIHS standard of 5 Lux for a Good High Beam at 500 feet.

If you do the majority of your driving with low beams, the Audettes are hard to beat. If you drive fast at night and need high beams that reach way out there, H4s with 100/80w bulbs seem like the way to go.

Here are the complete test results. For each test the Lux value was recorded using the maximum feature on the light meter.
For the 25 foot tests, the value was set using the brightest portion of the beam.
For the 300 and 500 foot tests, the Lux value was recorded at the brightest spot 10 inches from the surface of the road (as per IIHS testing).




Best results in each category are bolded.
The Audette result for the High Beam is somewhat questionable.
While it was definitely dim at the 500ft mark, the beamshots clearly show better long distance illumination than some of the other lights that had higher readings at 500ft.
This may be due to a dark spot in the beam that covered the 500ft mark. This isn't visible in wall shots but the result is otherwise hard to explain.



The following images are the Low and High beam shots for each of the headlights. The H1s weren't tested long range because we ran out of time.
The 300 ft and 500 ft marker signs were white with numbers in red, green, and blue respectively.
All photographs were taken using a camera set to full manual mode (ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/3 sec).
In person, your eye adjusts to see better in the dark than the camera. However, these shots are useful for purposes of comparison.
















Finally, it seems useful to compare the long distance capabilities of each headlight by zooming in on the High Beam shots of each.
The mailbox at the end of the road is approximately 600 feet, the far trees in the background are 700+ ft









Overall, we learned a lot.
Here are some takeaways, in no particular order.

• LEDs are very good at throwing a lot of light, but properly set up halogens are still better at throwing that light a long way.
• However, basic H4s are not better than good LEDs.
• H5s with LEDs from Amazon are better at short range and nearly as good at long range as H4s with 55/60w bulbs. Very impressed for $40.
• If you don't want to run relays and wires, or if plug-and-play is your style LEDs might be right for you.
• H1s are so much easier to adjust than H4s, H5s or the Audette lights. I have no idea why the later lights are so much more difficult to adjust.
• In person, the Audette lights look pretty nice. Everyone complimented their inoffensive (to people who hate the LED projector bugeye) design.
• The Audette lights have an awesome cutoff, but do have a visible square in the high beam.
• Glare from the Audette high beams is like glare from any modern car... awful!
• The Audette LED lights are a real pain to install and adjust if you don't read the instructions and bend back the H5 mounting tabs in your buckets!
• Some people in attendance who came in hating LEDs actually changed their tune by the end of the night.

So will I be keeping the Audette Platinum Plus lights? I'm not sure.
The results of this test have likely convinced me to run H4s with Relays and 100/80w bulbs in my RUF, and I'll probably go for the same setup in my NA 964.

But would I recommend the Audette Platinum Plus?
Yes. If you actually drive your 964 at night, especially in traffic or somewhere that you'd use mostly low beams, they're very, very good.
Looking forward to seeing comments from others in attendance, especially subjective impressions.
I'll probably think of more things to share when it's not 1am!

Goughary

The interesting thing that i found, with the exception of how much better yellow lenses are than everything else, in every way, was that i didn't hate the Audette headlights.

I despise LED. At the core of my soul, they cause me pain and anguish.

But, these actually throw a relatively decent quality of light. They aren't painfully devoid of life like most LED. And though they are bright, they aren't obnoxious from the point of view sitting in the driver seat. What was interesting to me was they threw huge light below the cutline. And of all the 7 versions of lights we tested, these were, in my opinion, the cleanest low beam in terms of visibility.



You see how the cutline is dead clear...but it was also VERY wide - leading me to believe that at dusk for example, where we have a lot of deer around this area that are all over the sides of the road, these would be better than h4 by a mile...as low beams.

For the high beams, and this is where Dave couldn't see since he was measuring at the far end looking toward these obnoxiously glaring horribly blinding LED (there's my abject hatred poking through), the Audette bulbs turn on the center upper portion to create the high beam, and it's fairly round and centered, which is why the measurements didn't do all that well as Dave mentioned above, relative to the h4 80/100 bulbs. However, in real life, you could barely tell a difference from the driver seat, in terms of brightness and visibility. Although you could clearly see the difference in the shape of the light beam.



But, interesting that the lower portion low beam doesn't change at all. You simply have an immediate fill-in above that line in the center.

My preference, and not only because I'm a child, "that guy", and me....is for the yellow lenses. These aren't standard h4 911 lenses, which hadn't been previously stated. They are shaped and cut differently with different fluting.

But aside from that- the quality of light is softer in reflection back to the driver, which my old eyes prefer at night. When the car was being used as a mule, and was driving toward me, it was also alot easier on my eyes, and so on coming traffic might be less bothered, which is definitely not the case with LED, where they are constantly blinding.



The low beams are good, clearly yellow in the photo, not quite as apparently yellow in real life.



The high beams however, and this is where i strongly prefer, due to the round center fluting, puts two parabola out in front of the car like a 70s Hanna Barbera cartoon....which only I ever get to see, and i leaves me feeling like a child romping around through the woods at night, in full child-like racerboy mode....giggles ensue.

And for that. I prefer.

For the lights themselves, pick your poison. If you are of mind to go LED, cut those silly h5 tabs out of your bucket holes and go with these Audette. They are shockingly good...and i hate LED at my core, remember?
For the others. H4 are better than H5, and i wouldn't keep any H5 in any car. But if you go H4, grab one of Rus's relay kits if you can convince him to do another run, and swap to 80/100w halogen bulbs. They are so far and away better than the stock 55/60w, that the hassle of installing the relay is worth it.

But- and lastly. In my now humbled opinion....

White 80/100w h4 halogen vs the Audette LED, regardless of how much better the H4 tested above...in reality, from the driver seat, they are VERY close to the same in terms of visibility and quality of light. And the question for me would be if i needed a wider low beam that was better at dusk and in town driving- LED wins, but if i was out on the Mulsanne at 2am, the H4 are marginally better and throw a broader high beam and they win.

Meatball964

As mentioned above H4 80/100w or Audette LED will suffice even the most spirited nighttime 964 driver….no wrong choice here.
If I was in the habit of traveling on the Merritt Parkway at night….doing 80+ I’d want that distance/wide beam to spot the deer at the outer edge.
I too have never been a fan of LED’s but was surprised by the low beam results. The latest offerings appear to be slightly more focused (less blinding).