Well, I was hesitant about blackstars at first, luckily when I went back to NY I went to their store (gotham hydro) and saw them first hand. Figured it produced a shit load of light, at the right spectra, so why not?
After doing research I came to the conclusion that all the LED retails claim the same thing, and claim the same success, and charge a fuck load of money. My budget wasn't exactly limitless so the price was definitely a factor.
They produce next to no heat (surface temp was 100F on the diodes - nothing a very light fan wont negate), but this ended up being a big problem as my grow room is pretty chilly. I had to use the LED's as supplemental lighting as I relied on HID for heat output (didn't really think that one out too much before hand). I'm very happy with them.
I began to like the idea of mixing HID and LED, It makes a ton of sense, what the led lacks in footprint, hid make up. What HID lacks in targeted spectra, LED's make up. Its a nice mix. Im not trying to see what is the best light to mix with LED's. I have tried HPS, MH, and now will try CMH.
Im hoping the 288W of LED and 400W of CMH will work out to 1000W HPS of PAR. We'll see. I'll have 3 rooms. 1 will just a 400W CMH for veg (haven't bought that light yet), the next will be 1 400W CMH with a 500W Blackstar (288W draw), and the other will be 1 400W CMH with 2 240W (270ishW Draw for the both of them combined) Blackstars flanking it.
LED's are second to none as supplemental lighting. There a gentleman on here, Kush Groove, who is having a phenominal all blackstar LED grow, which I would check out if you are interested.
https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/414669-kush-groove-black-star.html