cibie vs. hella vs. marchal headlamps

rsporsche

rsporsche

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okay ... back in the day i used marchal headlights and had great luck with them ... but they are now hard to get and expensive when you can find them. i see some new high beams on ebay, but no idea if they are NOS or new repros (i assume the latter)

i have hella on my coupe now, with the flat lenses. not sure that i don't prefer round (convex) lenses on a coupe.

daniel stern has cibie lights - they have h4 low beam - 2 options regular h4 and h4 with city lights - both with convex lenses ... they have h1 high beams, either in convex or flat.

so here's the question - has anybody tested / compared the flat vs. the convex? and what about bulbs? daniel stern has a big selection of different makes and wattages - i am intrigued by standard-wattage bulbs with higher filament luminance and tighter filament focus ... supposedly they give better headlight performance than standard bulbs. anybody have any experience here?
 
I don't have comparison experience. I will say that an H4 bulb is a dual filament bulb. If you actually run H4 outers with a dual filament bulb and a lense that includes a high beam pattern, that leaves your inner lenses for driving lights. If I didn't have headlight wipers I would run H4 outers with city lights and H1 pencil beam inners (like a Hella commet 500 spot beam).
 
I can add that my car has Bosch headlamps, I find them quite good. If I was to ever change out I would go Cibie in a second. Have them on other vehicles and find light pattern/distribution very sharp, focused and Bright! Lasting for decades in my experience,. Daniel Stern, it's all there.
 
Scott,

I had heard that back in the day that Cibies had the best light output. I have flat Hellas on the coupe and convex Cibies on the 2800. I love the Cibies, if had to do it again I would add Cibies to my coupe as well.

Markos,

Not sure what you are suggesting, the H4 with dual filaments of course, are never illuminated together when hi beams are on. The 55w low beam is replaced by the the 60w hi when activated.
 
Before I satisfied my Marchal fetish by sourcing hi and low beams (and driving lights) of them I had Cibie's and they were fantastic lights. Marchals are definitely rising in cost but occasionaly a pair can be picked off ebay for decent coin.
 
i think i have answered my question about the 'new' marchal - made in Japan and look the part, but don't perform like the originals. i think i will go with cibie on the new project.
 
HB Chris said:
Markos,

Not sure what you are suggesting, the H4 with dual filaments of course, are never illuminated together when hi beams are on. The 55w low beam is replaced by the the 60w hi when activated.
Click to expand...

Hi Chris,

Sorry for any confusion. I am referring to running H4's as the outer low/high. I understand how H4's work. I've upgraded every vehicle I've owned to H4's with exception to the the newer cars with projectors.

What I am saying is that if I could (which I don't think I can because the H4 lenses stick out too far for headlight wipers), I would run Hella H4 lenses and bulbs on the outer lights serving high and low beams. I would use a 55/100 bulb. I would run 5.75" pencil beam patterned hella lenses on the inner, with 100 to 130w bulbs.

All served up with a 30a fused relay for the low, one for the high, and one for the pencils. The factory headlight switch triggers the low beam relay and powers the in-relayed city lights. The stalk triggers the high beam relay. The interior high beam lead also powers the pencil switch, which when "on", triggers the pencil relay. That gives you optional blinding output which can be disabled with the stalk. I ran this setup on my VW's for about 15 years. I never ran auxiliary lights or high wattage bulbs on my jeep, just nice IPF lenses. Ive had relays fail and didn't want it to happen while camping or off-roading.
 
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