I didn't even read this but I just bought my 1 st LED and its a KIND K5 750. research reviews are what did it. warranty is a big thing with me. It was between Kind 750 , Cali lightworks 880 and blackdog 750xl. Don't buy junk!!!!!If you don't have 1200 bucks don't buy LED right now!!! wait another year or 2.
Brands like Kind (Lush, Cali, HydroGrowLED, BlackDog, GrowBlu) make me nervous because they don't publish the chips they use, the spectrum and ratio. That's *a lot* of money to spend for what looks like a rebranded Chinese import.
And the whole secrecy thing doesn't make sense to me. They say it's "proprietary" and competitors would kill for it. But, very little is secret after a light leaves their possession. If the "secret" was as valuable as they claim, a competitor could order a light and spend $3k on a spectrometer to unlock that particular egg-laying goose. Even consumers can spend $40 on a DIY spectrometer from PublicLabs and discover the bands and ratio/count used.
It doesn't make sense. Probably the worst example are brands that publish the bands used but not the count (ratio). Anyone can put paper over the light (and/or use welding goggles with UV protection) to view the light at a comfortable strength. The individual bands will be discernible and therefore countable. But, the seller insists they can't publish that info because it would be like "giving everything away."
When I see stuff like that it sets off my BS detector. It sounds like they're selling speculation. Subjectivity not objectivity. The story doesn't add up and I'm left looking at slick, well-produced web pages. It feels like a "come on."
With more original and transparent brands like Apache, A51, Rapid/Onyx, Hans... I don't see any reason to bet on secrets.