Do red Luxes tend to be ringy?

I've struggled for a long time trying to get a perfect beam out of my old style KL1. It has a red Luxeon in it.

With the stock optic, it was full of rings. I spent a lot of time loosening the head and jiggling the optic. I never did get it perfect. I have a red L1, and although I got its optic pretty darn close, it still has a lot of noticable artifacts.

I tried using an IMS17 reflector. It was simply horrible. Currently, I have a McR18 reflector which is the best I've seen so far, but still not perfect.

Is there something about the red Luxes? I have an old white L1 with the optic and a low dome, and it looks a zillion times smoother than the red. I've also noticed that if you stare down the business end while it's on (sunglasses, please) you see a bull's eye pattern. There's a red dot in the center of the emitter, with a ring of red around it.

I'm tempted to try to buy a new red Lux, but I first want to know if they are all this way.

Millermods did a 2-stage mod on an Arc AAA for me. I don't know which red luxeon he used - but it has a very nice beam shape - no rings or any other unpleasant artifacts or distortion. Just a LARGE hotspot with good spill on both low and high setting. Of course, there's no optic - just a parabolic grind and polish on the Arc's reflector surface. He would probably remember which lux was used.

I haven't noticed it either, but I would bet the optics had alot to do with it.

Josh

I just modded in a R/O lux, and a Royal blue lux (both Luxeon III's) into the SmartFire CR2 lights. The Royal blue has a hotspot with weird artifacts, almost like it was shooting from behind a very rough-edged reflector. However, the led is centered and in the same place as the white lux before it, so I think it's just the nature of the beast. My R/O lux on the other hand is super smooth (much larger spread I realized), except for a small donut hole in the middle.

I have a couple of red 1 watt LED capsules for the Longbow Micra. Both have very significant artifacts, and with the admittedly limited playing around I did with them, it appears to be a result of the LED and not the optics. These are at least a couple of years old, so maybe things have improved?