BI-LED: MORIMOTO M LED 2.0

It's 2.0 Clock At our shop we love good old HID-powered projectors more than Kanye loves Kanye...BUT....Truth be told, The new M LED 2.0 is the best Bi-LED projector in the retrofitting world. At the same time, it's better than any Bi-xenon. Put simply it's hard not to like the new M LED 2.0. The performance unparalleled. The simplicity is sublime. The ease of installation is excellent. The instant on is awesome. The original M LED was great when it came out, but by today's standards it's no longer on the leaderboard. Now it's two-point-o time!

Output Advantage: We'll just start with the hotspot. It's brighter than a D2S 5.0 with a CBI and 50w ballast, and 10% brighter than it's closest LED based competitor. The Kuria optic clear lens and koito-esque beam shaper produce a beam pattern that's way wider than a D2S 5.0 too. Their ECE-sloped beam pattern is super sharp and colorful. You can expect up to 83,000 peak CD--that is a lot of light.

Distribution: Width and intensity are common characteristics that are easy to engineer and explain, but it's important not to downplay the importance of distribution! 80% of the optical engineering hours went into optimizing the way that every last lumen ended up on the road in the name of maximizing visibility both up ahead and off to the sides of the road. Each facet of the M LED 2.0's dual reflector bowl was carefully considered (and re-considered, and re-considered again) to ensure that the results were nothing short of perfection (both by the numbers, and subjectively). Yoshi Ishida, Morimoto's chief engineer, Yoshi Ishida, you nailed it.

Easy Install: The threaded mounting shaft has been extended to 27.2mm in length and can be removed from the projector to free up more than an inch of depth for those who don't need/want it. It comes with a CNC machined lock ring and an optional tool for easy-tightening. H4 alignment-adapter comes standard, but it's easy to setup in any other fog light too. The active-cooling fan is sunk into the heat sink, keeping space to a minimum without sacrificing the ability to stay cool. The wiring is clean, out of the way, and can be disconnected with ease.

Simplicity: Forget about separate bulbs. Forget about big ballasts, or where to mount them. Forget about complex relay harnesses, and where to run them. Here, you've got the projector and a small external LED driver to regulate power and control its function. If you're a clutter-phobe, or simply tight on space working on something like a motorcycle: the M LED 2.0 is the way to go.

Details: From the weather-tight grommet on the wiring to the blue-anodized lock ring, nothing was left behind. The lens holder looks great, the grille on the reflector bowl is unnecessarily beautiful. The geometry on the vanes on the heat sink were aligned to maximize air-flow and minimize temperatures. The abundance of precise, die-cast and CNC machined parts (rather than stamped) in the entire system makes for a slop-free setup and conveys quality over cost savings. It may be built for retrofitters, but the fit and finish is on-par with any OEM projector.

Worth it? If you want the latest and greatest, Then yes. It is. Go for a comparable Bi-xenon setup and you'll need to buy big money bulbs, ballasts, and a relay harness for about the same price. Go for something like the UPS Power Plus Bi-LED / Hybrid laser projectors and you'll spend much more and can forget about an easy install. Morimoto's M LED 2.0 projectors may seem expensive on the surface, but you pay for what you get, and all things considered, they've got the most bang for the buck in the business right now.