It's a boost circuit, if it were direct drive there's no way you'd get over 40 lumens off a single CR123. IIRC the M30 gets around 160 off of a single 123, and the M30w gets 120. It's not 100% output regulated, so lower voltage batteries put out a bit less light, but it does boost down to around 1 volt. With a 3.7v lithium ion it's tossing out more light than the equivalent M60 model.
Yep, since my M60 operates direct drive on a single cr123a, and it's doing maybe 20-30?? A bit dimmer than a 30 lumen single AA energizer light from target. I guess if it's a really low Vf sample it might get like 60, but 130? Not even close. Not saying it's impossible to do on an LED but I don't think you're gonna see it from current gen XREs.
*edit: Oh, and when i called gene the other day with some questions about running the M30 in a G2, he confirmed it was a boost circuit,
Cool stuff, is it the warm or normal version? Doing the math guestimate the at 1.2*3.8v it's around 4.56 watts for the M30, and .75*6v for 4.5 watts with the m60. I'm not sure how much the Lithium ions and lithium primaries dip under load but the M30 should be a bit brighter on a fresh battery if the circuits have similar efficiency.