Soraa Vivid 2 lighting: anyone have experience with it?

I'm moving to a new place, and one of the first things I'd like to do is replace the enormous number of MR16 halogens with high CRI, high quality LEDs. The new Soraa Vivid 2 line looks promising, but I have no experience with it, and there doesn't seem to be much mention of Soraa here on CPF. Anyone have insights to offer? Comparisons with Cree or Nichia emitters? Thanks in advance.

Wow, nobody?

flashflood said:

I'm moving to a new place, and one of the first things I'd like to do is replace the enormous number of MR16 halogens with high CRI, high quality LEDs. The new Soraa Vivid 2 line looks promising, but I have no experience with it, and there doesn't seem to be much mention of Soraa here on CPF. Anyone have insights to offer? Comparisons with Cree or Nichia emitters? Thanks in advance.

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I have experience with Green Creative, and found their product to be good. This was using the MR16 replacement in 3000k CCT.

A couple of things:

- As for Soraa, I haven't tried them, but I look forward to giving their new Par30 and Par38 bulbs a try once they are finally released.

- I hate MR16s. We have those in our au pair basement apartment. They run hot, burn out quickly, and put out a small amount of light (compared to say a Br40), so it requires a fixture with 4 bulbs to get descent amount of light. That's $140 worth of Soraa bulbs (huge upfront cost) or $40 worth of halogens (that only last one year). I think I'll eventually replace the Mr16 fixtures with flushmounts with integrated leds and be done with it.

I have 30 to 40 Soraa MR16 bulbls in the house. Very happy with them. Make sure you get the ones with the high CRI. Installed them in all the heavy use areas in January. No problems so far.

I just installed 8 Soraa Vivid 2 bulbs on some new track lighting I put up in my living room/kitchen. The light looks great. I prefer the small sized MR16 track heads to the bulkier PAR30 etc. Still need to aim the lights a bit better. I bought 3000K 25 degree bulbs. Very happy with my purchase. Color temperature and light quality is great. They weren't cheap but I really like how the whole setup turned out. Going to buy a couple floodier Soraa bulbs to light up a few spots that are still dim.

I'm planning to use the Soraa MR16 in recessed cans when I remodel my bathroom in the upcoming months.

lgordon said:

I just installed 8 Soraa Vivid 2 bulbs on some new track lighting I put up in my living room/kitchen. The light looks great. I prefer the small sized MR16 track heads to the bulkier PAR30 etc. Still need to aim the lights a bit better. I bought 3000K 25 degree bulbs. Very happy with my purchase. Color temperature and light quality is great. They weren't cheap but I really like how the whole setup turned out. Going to buy a couple floodier Soraa bulbs to light up a few spots that are still dim.

I'm planning to use the Soraa MR16 in recessed cans when I remodel my bathroom in the upcoming months.

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Great to hear -- thanks! Where did you get them?

flashflood said:

Great to hear -- thanks! Where did you get them?

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I got the bulbs from www.1000bulbs.com. I've got 6 25 degree spots and 2 36 degree spots. I was originally using two 75W lightech let-75 transformers, however, even at a load of of 69W they both blew. I've got 150W transformers now (let-150) and I'm going to try a couple from Hatch.

Dimming works well with the Lutron DIVA Lutron DVELV-300P.

See this thread on Sorra Gen 2s. The gen 3's are now out. I am waiting to receive my gen 3 bulb and will post my thoughts on the thread below when done testing. The gen 2s were probably the best MR16 LED out there IMHO, but I wasn't ready to ditch halogen for them. Dimming range and impact of the high heat in recessed location on bulb components were a concern on gen 2 for me. Gen 3 has same basic light output, but lower wattage use and hopefully that means lower heat. Gen 3's seem to be priced lower than 2s. If these gen 3s address price, heat, and dimming range, my only other significant concern was warranty... but still a nice improvement. There was some talk of UV from the Soraas being harmful to body and art, but I can't confirm or deny. I suspect thats not a real issue.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...ompatibility&p=4426121&viewfull=1#post4426121

Yes I think the Soraa's are only now about to start getting some attention. The efficiency is not ground breaking but the CRI is. 5000k bulb with 95 R9? Wow. I can only imagine it looks like sunlight.

I just wanted to add that with my Hatch transformer and lutron maestro low voltage dimmer I get some buzzing with the soraa gen 2, esspecially at the middle of the dimming range. My plan is to switch to powering the bulbs with DC instead of the high frequency AC and using a separate 0-10V dimming wire and a PWM dimmer.

Also, anyone looking in this area for 3000K might now want to consider the Cree Truewhite MR16 they are much cheaper with CRI > 90.

lgordon said:

Also, anyone looking in this area for 3000K might now want to consider the Cree Truewhite MR16 they are much cheaper with CRI > 90.

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Cree Truewhite LED's are said to have an R9 of "better than 50" as compared to Soraa's 95 R9.

These days I need to see at least the R9's published by lighting companies but I prefer to see complete R1-R15 values. Xicato Artist XSM is the exemplary leader here with >95 CRI from R1-R15.

It's not Soraa, but I do have a 98CRI violet phosphor converted LED, 5000K. The light quality is excellent, like natural light. Regular blue excited LEDs do not hold a candle to it.
That being said, the light does get a little tiring on the eyes because of that violet spike in its spectrum. Nothing noticeable at first, but after 15 minutes or so it kind of starts to feel like someone is taking a rake to a chalkboard inside by eyes (I have the same problem with CFL bulbs btw).

These high CRI lamps would definitely make good spotlights for store displays.

Hoop said:

Cree Truewhite LED's are said to have an R9 of "better than 50" as compared to Soraa's 95 R9.

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The light from violet emitter white LEDs definitely has a more natural feeling. I have a Cree Truewhite LED lamp, and while it does make the background look a little more colorful, it's nothing close to my 98 CRI, in terms of light quality.

Hoop said:

5000k bulb with 95 R9? Wow. I can only imagine it looks like sunlight.

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Difficult to describe, but it does appear to be very close to natural light. In terms of color temperature, the 5000K color seems more like sunlight poking through a partially overcast cloudy day. And the color of the light seems greener than the bluish tint of a 5000K regular white LED, in a good way. I cannot tell you it is exactly like sunlight, but at the very least it is like a cross between sunlight and ceramic metal halide.

I know it sounds strange, but despite it being a 5000K color temperature, the light had more of the feeling of a super white halogen lamp than an LED lamp—or what we typically picture when we think of LED light.

I wish I would have read this thread so I could test the Cree Truewhite MR16 before committing to the Soraa Gen 3! I will post my findings on Gen 3 here:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?384586-LED-MR16-Transformer-Compatibility&p=4426121&viewfull=1#post4426121

widmark said:

I wish I would have read this thread so I could test the Cree Truewhite MR16 before committing to the Soraa Gen 3!

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If you are going for 2700-3000K, the Truewhite is okay. But if you really want high quality light and are going for a higher color temperature, Soraa would be better.

If your primary concern is efficiency, probably not a not a good idea to be using MR16. Cree sells downlights with Truewhite, and the efficiency is substantially higher.

The color of light from Truewhite might be pretty close to halogen, but the light is still going to "feel" like it's from LED. With Soraa, it's taking it to a whole new level, and it's really going to feel just like halogen.
Also, you are going to get more saturated colored reds with the Soraa than you would with Truewhite, if that matters, though Truewhite makes things look more than enough colorful for most purposes.

Thanks. I have in-ceiling fixtures forcing me into the MR16 bulb substitution route as opposed to being able to switch to some other setup. I prefer the warmer sub 3000K light too. Sounds like the Soraa is the right bulb for my application. Thanks!

I currently use Soraa Vivid AR111 lamps, 2700 & 3000K.
Excellent light, I use reflectEd floody (from white ceiling).
Powered by constant current from good power source (Seasonic PSU - cheap, stable output and 87%+ efficiency) for zero pulsations.
Will buy more, for variety CT for any time of day/night.

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Hmm, it's hot - even with big 111mm cooler.

evgeniy said:

Powered by constant current from good power source for zero pulsations.

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Do these flicker with PWM dimming?

PU Skunk said:

Do these flicker with PWM dimming?

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It has 30% flicker even without PWM dimmer, simply with AC power.
Currently I not use any dimmers.

This thread made me look into products from Soraa. I wish they had A19 size bulbs. I plan on getting a high CRI 4000k PAR30 bulb to use above the shower I use. If I like how it looks, I may end up pulling the LR6Cs out of my kitchen fixtures.