Smooth or OP reflectors on Cree lights?

I bought my D-mini with a orange peel reflector. I liked it and liked the nice smooth beam. I kept hearing about the great throw abilities of the light with the smooth reflector. My smooth reflector came today, and WOW! I liked the light before, but now I love it. I respect Fastcar, and plan to buy a T5, but D-mini ROCKS! I never thought I could be that impressed by so small a light.

What do you all think. Are you running smooth or OP in your lights, and why?

When given the choice, I have so far chosen smooth. I managed to suffer some pretty bad incan artifacts for years, so the XR-E ring doesn't bother me in real use. The Rex 2.0 is in the mail, and will be my first Cree light with an OP reflector (I held back on the LP-Mini). We'll see how I like it. For low-level, up close tasks, I might prefer it. While I like the idea of a perfect beam in theory, in practice I prefer throw. If I needed a pure flood light, it would be different.

I find the rings on the Cree somewhat distracting on my single LED light with a smooth reflector. My multi-LED light eliminates the ringy-ness very well and just throws a solid wall of light. But if you need throw, you really don't have much choice but to stick with the smooth reflector. And at the longer throws, the ringy-ness in the spill beam disappears due to the distance so it's not objectionable.

Smooth as a babies butt. As Martini said, I have put up with much worse beams through the year, and the so called rings in the cree hasnt bothered me at all so far in real world use.

i didnt think rings would bother me but that was when the rings i have seen were bright rings , on the cree L1d the ring is dark so its like im losing light and its annoying

Given a choice I always choose OP.

I like a bit more light in my spill, at the expense of extreme throw. Makes the light a bit better for close to medium range tasks.

So OP for me.

op-less throw but nicer beam.

Well I just caught raging flashlightus thanks to this forum so I would say just get both

Maybe it depends on the light. If I buy a D-Mini I will go for smooth because it's all about throw. My P1D-CE is smooth and I like it that way, but I might like it better with OP. I would have to try it and see.

I bought a Fenix L2D-CE as my first Cree light. I was used to Surefires, Luxeon based Fenix lights, and the HDS EDC. I soon found I was spoiled by the nice smooth beam of my old lights, and I didn't really care much for the yellow ring and blotchy spot of the L2D.

My second Cree light was a Lumapower M3. It isn't driven as hard as the L2D, and consequently is not as bright. However, it does have an OP reflector and the beam profile is much more to my liking. I do not think I would buy another Cree light without an OP reflector.