searching for a 3000K 90 CRI LED fixture this time

Sort of like that other thread, but I am looking for some 3000K LED lighting. Or at least I think 3000K because I tried some 3500K lighting and it looked a bit too "harsh". (Maybe if I add more lumens it will look better...) I have a tall sloped ceiling in my living room, and I plan to hang these somehow off the beams. The room is very brown and wooden looking.

I see that Cree has some high CRI tube lighting like the T8 replacement tubes, and LS4 series, but those start at 3500K.
Hollywood lights has some also, but they start at 3700K

I might consider some other form factors if it isn't too much work to wire and install them.

The main reason I wanted to upgrade was that I am currently running some 80+CRI fluorescent T8 tubes at 3000K, and I noticed that it made one of my blue ink colors look kind of a faded purple compared to outside sunlight. And it also decreases the amount of green visible in one of my cerulean blue inks.

At lower color temperatures (<4000K) LED generally has much better light quality than fluorescent, in my opinion.

Also, in terms of color rendering, regular tricolor fluorescent tubes can make blue colors look kind of dull. This is in stark contrast to LED that makes blue colors look very bright and saturated. However, on the other hand, typical LED lighting does a poor job rendering the subtle color difference between cerulean and indigo hues of blue.

Anders Hoveland said:

At lower color temperatures (<4000K) LED generally has much better light quality than fluorescent, in my opinion.

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Hmmm, when I said that 3500K looked too "harsh", that was with a 80 CRI fluorescent tube. Do you suppose a 90 CRI LED at 3500K would look "less harsh"?

beanbag said:

Hmmm, when I said that 3500K looked too "harsh", that was with a 80 CRI fluorescent tube. Do you suppose a 90 CRI LED at 3500K would look "less harsh"?

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It may, but it likely has a lot more to do with light levels.

What was the environment you were using it in?

Some is personal preference or frankly just getting used to it.

I remember my wife "hating" those 5000K high CRI fluorescent lights into the kitchen (this was many years ago) when I put them in. The only thing she hated more was when I put the 3000K's back. After getting used to the high CRI higher CCT, she found she preferred it. There is a lot to be said for having good color gamut and being able to differentiate all colors. Right now we have 4000K high CRI and we both really like it. It's about 300 lux.

Higher CCT is generally not pleasant for many at low lighting levels.

SemiMan said:

It may, but it likely has a lot more to do with light levels.

What was the environment you were using it in?

Some is personal preference or frankly just getting used to it.

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I do know about the effect how lower cct looks better at low levels.
I have a large living room in my apt with high and sloped ceiling, and the walls and carpet are brown. My desk is in one corner, and I am mainly interested in keeping that area well lit, without having the rest of the room look too dark and creepy. (which is what will happen if some of the light doesn't illuminate the ceiling.)

Right how I have 2x 3000k tubes above the desk. Initially I put in some 3500K, and it looked harsh, although it looked ok in my white kitchen. It didn't bother me until recently when I noticed that papers and whites on my desk have a kind of yellow tint to them.

Thanks for the mention of Yuji in that other thread about the Dreamscape lighting. That makes searching a lot easier.

For the Yuji, the violet emitters have a higher CRI, but less lumens and cost almost twice as much, so I think not really worth it.
The blue emitter PCBs come out to about 80 lumen per $. This is comparable to the Cree T8 tubes, which are approx 2000 lumen at $25 per tube.
On one hand, according to specs, the Yujis are a little bit better, with R9 in the 70's while the Cree has R9 in the 50's. On the other hand, the Yuji require more labor to mount + diffuser, as well as a power supply.
Phillips... well screw them, it has just been too frustrating for me to figure out how to buy their products like the Fortimo strips.