Morimoto sealed7 2.0

Sajk

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I was about to purchase JW Evo 2 then I noticed they released a new model. I also came across the Sealed7 2.0 which looks likes a viable alternative to the JWs. Does anyone have a view on the Morimoto Sealed7 2.0 product.

Thanks
 

-Virgil-

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The JW Speaker is a legitimate headlamp. It is engineered, designed, manufactured (in the USA), and certified in accordance with the many technical and safety requirements that apply to headlamps. It performs very well and is very durable. None of that can be said of anything sold under the "Morimoto" brand, which is a line of headlamp-shaped toys for kids with a 3-minute attention span, who treat headlamps as fashion toys.

There are other legitimate 7 inch LED headlamps on the market, but the "Morimoto" thing is not among them.
 

Sajk

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The JW Speaker is a legitimate headlamp. It is engineered, designed, manufactured (in the USA), and certified in accordance with the many technical and safety requirements that apply to headlamps. It performs very well and is very durable. None of that can be said of anything sold under the "Morimoto" brand, which is a line of headlamp-shaped toys for kids with a 3-minute attention span, who treat headlamps as fashion toys.

There are other legitimate 7 inch LED headlamps on the market, but the "Morimoto" thing is not among them.

Thank you for your reply. It is appreciated and valued.

I get you on the JW Speaker.

I was directed to this forum as I was told that it had a tradition of using empirical evidence as a basis for opinion. I have made mistakes before by making decisions based on internet opinion and I am trying not to do the same again.

Country of manufacture is no guarantee of quality. I have had automotive products that were poor in execution of both design & manufacture from many countries including but not limited to Italy (especially) Germany, France, China & U.S.A. My iPhone however is an excellent product and it was built in China.

What I am looking for is some actual evidence (even if it is only experiential) that the Morimoto Sealed7 v2.0 is a bad, good or just middling product and that the Speaker product warrants the price premium of nearly 100%.
 

Sajk

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Jun 18, 2017
Messages
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The JW Speaker is a legitimate headlamp. It is engineered, designed, manufactured (in the USA), and certified in accordance with the many technical and safety requirements that apply to headlamps. It performs very well and is very durable. None of that can be said of anything sold under the "Morimoto" brand, which is a line of headlamp-shaped toys for kids with a 3-minute attention span, who treat headlamps as fashion toys.

There are other legitimate 7 inch LED headlamps on the market, but the "Morimoto" thing is not among them.

Oh and I forgot to mention that I had to register again because I screwed up my password and on request to reset it the site sent me a reset request but did not send the new password email. I tried 3 times and I have reported this to Greta. That's why the user is different.
 

Hilldweller

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Morimoto, like the radiator company Mishimoto, is a Chinese company that cuts corners and turns out products with a Japanese-sounding name to imply a measure of quality.
Morimoto doesn't bother with the expensive/burdensome/required testing, assaying, certification process that legitimate lighting companies do ----- and they pass along that savings and risk to the consumer.

One of the companies that I do services for makes electronic test and measurement equipment. Auto manufacturers use the equipment to be POSITIVE that none of their electronics interferes in an unwanted way with other electronic systems (or those on other vehicles). This is part of the testing and assaying process that is necessary for all of our safety.
Would you want to turn on your headlight and have the trunk pop open on the car next to you? Have your radio turn off?
Vehicles are becoming more and more complex, more radio waves around, radar for backing up & lane changes, etc. It's vitally important that everything electronic is compliant with safety standards.

Here's a magazine I get: http://www.automotivetestingtechnologyinternational.com/
Take a look at the ezine for an idea of what's going on in the auto world of electronics.
 

Hilldweller

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Some safe options: JW Speaker 8700, 8700J & J2 for Jeep JKs. Trucklite Phase 7 also sold as GE. Peterson 701C also sold as a KC product. Quadratec has an LED headlight made for them that is legal and popular.
MOPAR also has one that's pretty good and is optional on their newer JKs. I like the JW Speaker better subjectively; I haven't put a meter in front of the MOPAR units yet.
 
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Greta

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Oh and I forgot to mention that I had to register again because I screwed up my password and on request to reset it the site sent me a reset request but did not send the new password email. I tried 3 times and I have reported this to Greta. That's why the user is different.

I have merged your two accounts. I apologize for not answering your email immediately - It hit my inbox at 9:30PM last night and sometimes I actually do sleep... :sleepy::sleepy::ironic:
 

Sajk

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Joined
Jun 18, 2017
Messages
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Morimoto, like the radiator company Mishimoto, is a Chinese company that cuts corners and turns out products with a Japanese-sounding name to imply a measure of quality.
Morimoto doesn't bother with the expensive/burdensome/required testing, assaying, certification process that legitimate lighting companies do ----- and they pass along that savings and risk to the consumer.

One of the companies that I do services for makes electronic test and measurement equipment. Auto manufacturers use the equipment to be POSITIVE that none of their electronics interferes in an unwanted way with other electronic systems (or those on other vehicles). This is part of the testing and assaying process that is necessary for all of our safety.
Would you want to turn on your headlight and have the trunk pop open on the car next to you? Have your radio turn off?
Vehicles are becoming more and more complex, more radio waves around, radar for backing up & lane changes, etc. It's vitally important that everything electronic is compliant with safety standards.

Here's a magazine I get: http://www.automotivetestingtechnologyinternational.com/
Take a look at the ezine for an idea of what's going on in the auto world of electronics.

Thanks I will take a look. I guess that explains why I read about Mishimoto radiators cracking & failing in JK's all over the world.
 

-Virgil-

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Morimoto, like the radiator company Mishimoto, is a Chinese company that cuts corners and turns out products with a Japanese-sounding name to imply a measure of quality.

It doesn't even rise to that level. Morimoto isn't a company, it's a brand name made up by a guy in the United States and slapped on Chinese knockoff headlights and components, "HID kits", and other such toys. The name was deliberately picked, as you say, to sound Japanese because consumers associate Japanese = high quality (and Chinese = low quality, which is why "Morimoto" and not "Ming Shang Jiabao"). It's almost exactly the same ploy as "Ümnitza" and "Höen" using phony German names on comparably illegitimate products for exactly the same reason.

Morimoto doesn't bother with the expensive/burdensome/required testing, assaying, certification process that legitimate lighting companies do ----- and they pass along that savings and risk to the consumer.

To the tune of multiple millions of dollars in revenue. So long, suckers! Er...check local laws before ordering, heh heh heh.

One of the companies that I do services for makes electronic test and measurement equipment. Auto manufacturers use the equipment to be POSITIVE that none of their electronics interferes in an unwanted way with other electronic systems (or those on other vehicles). This is part of the testing and assaying process that is necessary for all of our safety.
Would you want to turn on your headlight and have the trunk pop open on the car next to you? Have your radio turn off?

...have your car's critical safety systems or those of cars around you suddenly behave in an unpredictable manner as described in the links in the right column of the first page of this document...
 

Hilldweller

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....

...have your car's critical safety systems or those of cars around you suddenly behave in an unpredictable manner as described in the links in the right column of the first page of this document...
DS was just telling me about that Panda thing last week; glad you linked it.

When I had unlimited access to portable spectrum analyzers I would always check what was being emitted by all of the lights I tested. I can tell you from experience that the JW Speaker products I run are "clean" and compliant. You have to think of both the transmitted and conducted spurious emissions. There's so much room to muck things up.
Think of how important this will be with self-driving cars looming on the horizon...
 

-Virgil-

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I was directed to this forum as I was told that it had a tradition of using empirical evidence as a basis for opinion.

That's really the only way to do it.

What I am looking for is some actual evidence (even if it is only experiential)

Well, there is no such thing as "experiential evidence" or "anecdotal evidence". Personal experience (an anecdote) is not evidence...not even if you get five people telling their story, or ten, or fifteen, etc. In today's internet age, it's easy to make the mistake of thinking whatever popular viewpoint (internet "reviews", etc) you find count as "research" or "evidence". They don't.

There is considerable expertise on this board, where some frequent posters have the training and knowledge and access to the special equipment and facilities needed to genuinely assess items of vehicle lighting equipment. The high cost of the facilities and equipment means only an independently wealthy individual (I am not!) could afford to own it. Most such equipment is owned by companies or research bodies. Its use can be arranged -- anyone can send a headlamp or other piece of equipment to a place like Calcoast-ITL or Sapphire Technical Solutions for testing, all it takes is willingness and ability to pay for the testing services. But most parties who do pay for the testing services prefer to keep ahold of the results as private, purchased information not for free publication. But sometimes it's possible and allowable to talk about the results publicly in general (without publishing them in detail). That's what you often find on this board. It's frustrating for everyone that we can't have a big database of formal test results, but building one would require someone to spend an enormous amount of money. It puts people like you in the unfortunate position of wanting to say "Prove it!", and people like me (and Alaric, and Hilldweller, and XeRay, and others) in the unfortunate position of having to say "Sorry, I am not able to show you the documents", but it's a whole lot better than ignorant and misinformed mumbo-jumbo such as can be found on many other internet forums where these kinds of matters are discussed. It does mean you have to decide whether to believe an uncomfortable, boring, disappointing truth or a temptingly comfortable, exciting pack of marketing hyperbole. You'll find support here for the former, and support all over the internet for the latter; the decision is really up to you.

The JW Speaker is not the only good 7" lamp. The Peterson is good. The Truck-Lite is good. They are both commercial-quality lamps designed, engineered, built, tested, and certified to the long list of safety, performance, and durability requirements that apply to headlamps. And they're both made in the United States. Which I mention because some people have a preference, for a variety of reasons, for US-made products or for products not made in China. I don't mention it because US manufacture guarantees a quality product (it doesn't) or because everything made in China is junk (it's not), but products designed and made in China still have a large and deserved reputational gap in everything from quality and durability to legitimacy of claimed BOM and test results. Your Apple iPhone example isn't apposite -- it's Apples to watermelons -- but that's just about where that discussion needs to end on this board; this is not the place to discuss or quarrel about global trade politics.
 

Alaric Darconville

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Personal experience (an anecdote) is not evidence...not even if you get five people telling their story, or ten, or fifteen, etc. In today's internet age, it's easy to make the mistake of thinking whatever popular viewpoint (internet "reviews", etc) you find count as "research" or "evidence". They don't.
Like has been said before: The singular of "data" is not "anecdote".

What I am looking for is some actual evidence (even if it is only experiential) that the Morimoto Sealed7 v2.0 is a bad, good or just middling product and that the Speaker product warrants the price premium of nearly 100%.
We all know that you "get what you pay for", but that also means you DON'T get what you don't pay for. Sure, the manufacturing costs here (particularly labor) are higher than in many other countries, but you're also paying for the high-quality design and engineering.

As far as Morimoto, even TheRetroFit Source says:
They actually failed to pass FMVSS108 testing only because the measured lux at certain points throughout their beam pattern exceeded the maximum allowed!
That is to say, "they generated excessive glare".

They speak of the reflector in headlamps being chromed:
In referring to the size of headlights, we're really referring to the dimensions of the chromed free-form reflector, where the projector will install.
It's not chrome. It's vacuum-deposited aluminum. If they don't know one metal from another, how do they know one headlamp from another?

And if you're having moisture problems with your Morimoto projectors (and you will. And aim problems, and glare problems, and not being able to see worth a dang problems) you can buy silica gel packs to install:
Product Details

Helfpul: Even a drop of moisture can fog up a headlight lens when mixed with heat. By adding some silica packs in the underbelly of your headlight housings though, you can help prevent that mess before it happens. These 10 gram packets can absorb any ambient water vapor within 2 hours, and will stay dry even at maximum saturation.

Recommended: Sold in pairs, we recommend one pair per headlight for the best results. One near the housing caps, one on the bottom of the headlight.
You know what keeps the headlamp from fogging? Proper ventilation of the lamp.

To borrow a -Virgil- analogy: How glowing of a review, and how much marketing material, could convince you that you want to run these new square Tamirumoto tires on your car? Wouldn't you rather have round tires? I'm sure I could write some pretty amazing ad copy for a square tire, and get 20 people to write amazing reviews for them, but really-- you don't want "Morimoto" lamps and you don't want square tires.

it's Apples to watermelons
I see what you did there!
 
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-Virgil-

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As far as Morimoto, even TheRetroFit Source says "They actually failed to pass FMVSS108 testing only because the measured lux at certain points throughout their beam pattern exceeded the maximum allowed!"

That is to say, "they generated excessive glare".

That is to say, "They actually failed to pass FMVSS108 testing only because they don't produce a safe, effective, correct distribution of light!". In other words: these are not headlamps. They are headlight-shaped toys.
 

Sajk

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Thanks for the information. I appreciate it. I invited TRS to comment on this feedback. They did not reply......
 
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