Looking around for an LED conversion for a friend with a 6-cell diving light, I did find this review of the tle-6ex:
http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/terralux.htm
which doesn't seem terribly flattering.
i've done both the these upgrades. they both really WOWed me! i don't consider myself too easily WOWed in most cases.
I have a 4D MagLED (not the Mag upgrade for an incand. 4D). The 4D MagLED is bright, but the 4D TLE-6EX (and a 6D TLE-6EX - have both) simply BLOW the MagLED out of the water, IMO. There is no comparison to either of the TLE-6EX upgrades i've done. The difference is rather startling. Mostly it's the overall light output of the SSC P4 vs. the MagLED. It's much smoother transition from spot-2-spill and the spill is so much brighter that it just makes the 4D MagLED appear anemic by comparison.
Perhaps this is a case of "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Maybe my eye can't see the Lux Numbers difference in the little spot of the MagLED (which might be brighter? don't know. it is bright, but then so is the spot of the TLE-6EX), but the OVERALL appearance and brightness of the TLE-6EX (in both the 4D and 6D incarnations) puts the 4D MagLED to shame, IMO.
My impression is that it's like AAA-ball vs. the Majors.
Another's perception might be different. i should say that, from my backpacking days, i'm more of a "spill guy" than a "throw guy". i want enough light to throw out there for my purposes, after that i want it to be a BIG SPOT AND LARGE BRIGHT SPILL AREA. it doesn't help me to have a tiny spot that necessitates that i "chicken walk" - bobbing my head about like a chicken looking for blazes indicating turns in the trail due to the limited field of view caused by the tiny/small spot with a small and/or dim spill area. Another's uses of a light might be different and so having EXTRA THROW available, beyond what they might really think that they need, might be their PRIMARY consideration.
Likewise the TLE-5EX running on 2xAA NiMh blows away both the 2xAA MiniMagLED *AND* the 3xAA MiniMagLED (both MML's also running on NiMh) in terms of overall brightness and comparative beauty of the beam pattern, IMO.
It's really like night and day, IMO, even when comparing the 2xAA TLE-5EX with the 3xAA MML.
Now, the AuroraHotWire kit for the 2xAA MiniMag is brighter (with slight yellow in the light - it is, after all, an incandescent upgrade) and THROWS WAY FURTHER than the TLE-5EX, but you're looking at only around 30min burntime instead of ~3+ hrs on the TLE-5EX.
IMO, i'm glad to have both upgrades, i.e. both the TLE-5EX and AuroraHotWire (everything you need to do this upgrade is available at Lighthound.com), as well as the 4D TLE-6EX upgrade for the "Big Boys".
I should add that normally i don't run the full-size MagLite or the Mini for 30+ minutes continuously, like i would do for a headlamp (or now a hat- or head- mounted Fenix) when backpacking. however, i have now run the TLE-5EX in a MiniMagLite straight through until the light is dimming quite noticeably (hours later). I've done this a couple of times now with NO REST at 30 or 60 min. intervals (as is my usual practice thanks to a suggestion some years ago from a Caver) to allow the batts to cool (just did this yesterday evening and night). So, these shorter "runs"/use of the full-sized MagLite may make my results atypical of how another might use their Mag (i.e., hours on end with no rest).
Perhaps due to the shorter runs on the 4D and 6D, i haven't had any h/w (hardware) failures yet. Also, with perhaps 20-30 hrs (multiple battery changes of course; 20 is a real "low-ball" guesstimate here; it's certainly has more than 20hrs of actual use at this point in time) on the MiniMag TLE-5EX, i haven't had any h/w failures on it.
YMMV.
