I recently purchased the new generation Retro warm frosted LED bulbs. I have 6 EM’s set up in my game room.
I’ve tried LED’s before with poor results. The LED’s were too blue which washed out playfield colors, and were TOO BRIGHT. I have read that the new "Retro" warm bulbs are far better at emulating incandescent bulbs, so I thought I would provide before and after photos.
Daytime Viewing Incandescent playfield:
Incandescent Lighting (resized).png
This is the machine outfitted with incandescent 44 bulbs. Many would rather use the cooler 47’s, but I personally like the brighter bulb.
Pros: Warm candlelight ambience. The incandescent bulbs are actually part of the artistic tapestry.
Cons: Hot! When all games are on, the game room heats up. Burnout is common. Backglass and plastics are vulnerable to the heat. Although, in 40 years I haven't experienced any significant damage as result of hot bulbs, although I do use 47's exclusively for the backglass.
Daytime viewing LED Playfield:
Pros: These warm bulbs are certainly a lot less dominant than other LED bulbs I have tried. They are vey cool. No worries about potential backglass or plastic damage caused by the heat of the old bulbs. Even lighting.
Cons: "Warm" in an LED reality is less blue than the other LED bulbs, but there is still a dominant blue hue and there is still color washout. . You can see the color influence of the LED through the on-field plastics. I feel the game appears a bit too antiseptic. You can see the LED influence on the ball itself…it’s weird, like the ball is hyper-blinking.
NIGHTTIME VIEWING:
The warm LED’s are far from warm. In the darkness it becomes obvious how blue and flat the light is compared to Incandescent lighting.
Its Candlelight vs Flashlight.
Which do you prefer?