Video Transcript: FYRLYT Nemesis Vs Lightforce HTX - Driving light comparison
NOTE: 22/10/25: FYRLYT NEMESIS 9000 depicted in video are GEN 1.0 and now been updated to feature a tempered borosilicate glass lens with a billet machined lens bezel. The light output remains the same.
FYRLYT NEMESIS 9000 DRIVING LIGHT PAGE
G'day, I'm Jamie Benaud from Australian images and today I'm going to be performing a real-world comparison between a pair of FYRLYT NEMESIS driving lights and a pair of Lightforce's impressive-looking HTX hybrids.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, FYRLYT have asked me to do this comparison. They gave me the pair of NEMESIS lights a few years ago, I'm still running them, and they're still on the original globes. It'll be fair to say I'm very impressed with the lights. FYRLYT have loaned me a pair of new HTX's for the test, and they also give my son some karting sponsorship. Having said that, FYRLYT have not given me any direction whatsoever on how to do the testing, what to say, or how to produce the video. As with previous tests, there will be zero manipulation of the video or test photos, and I'll release the raw images with all the metadata intact.
So let's have a look at the lights. The FYRLYT NEMESIS is a 210-millimeter driving light with a composite body and a replaceable lens. The light source is a 250-watt, 24-volt Xenophot globe that has a color temperature of around 3400° Kelvin. The lights come with transformers for use with 12-volt vehicles, and they draw around 22 amps per light. At the time of making this video, the recommended retail is $995 a pair for the 12-volt versions or a few hundred dollars less for the 24-volt.
The Lightforce HTX is a hybrid light with a 170-millimeter center reflector surrounded by 20 LEDs. The two sections can be operated separately or together, and with both operating, they draw around 11 amps per light. In standard configuration, the HID has a color temperature of 4200° Kelvin, while the LEDs operate at a cooler 5000° Kelvin.
Now, having a light with two different color temperatures seems like a strange decision to me, but we'll see how it works out on the road. Price-wise, the HTX comes in at a substantial $1600 a pair for 12-volt or $1700 for the 24-volt version.
So let's wait for the sun to go down and get into the testing. Okay, we're out on a country road at 70 kilometers an hour, low beam.
I'll flick on the NEMESIS, and you can immediately see that there's plenty of light, particularly from around a hundred meters onwards where you want to be focusing. Colors are accurate and there's plenty of contrast. I always run these on the wide setting with a bit of overlap, so both the road ahead and the edges are quite well illuminated.
Now let's transition over to the HTX with both the LED and HID active. The first thing you notice is the blue-green hue from these lights, particularly in the foreground. I'm personally not a fan of cool white driving lights, but to an extent, that does come down to personal preference. The colors look a little bit surreal, which is most likely a combination of the cool color temperature of the LEDs and the HTX's relatively low score of 70 on the CRI scale, which is a standard measure of a light's color rendering accuracy.
It is true that over time using those lights, your eyes adapt to the color and you gradually lose the perception of the blue-green hue, but that doesn't change the fact that the contrast and colors you're seeing are not as good as when you're using a halogen driving light with a near-perfect CRI.
Now let's have a look at both lights at the same time, with the NEMESIS on the top half of the screen and the HTX below. It's clear that the HTX combo delivers a lot more light in the foreground than the NEMESIS, but also less light further down the road once the LEDs run out of range and they start depending on the HIDs.
If I turn off the LEDs completely, you can see just how focused the HID beam of the HTX is. Overall range is similar to the NEMESIS, but the narrow beam delivers much lower illumination of the roadsides ahead. Now, switching the HTX over to LED only, you can see that the foreground is very well illuminated and that there's less reflection from signs when compared to the NEMESIS, making them great in this configuration for tight winding roads. But the range is only a couple of hundred meters, meaning that the LED-only option isn't much use at highway speeds.
From the time I first laid eyes on the HTX, I thought it was a pretty impressive concept. Combining the long range of a traditional light with the wide-bathing light of LEDs seemed like a great idea, but in practice, I didn't like them as much as I thought I would. The build quality is excellent, although I do have some reservations about the plastic mounting foot, and they produce plenty of light.
But—and it's a pretty big but—the way that light is delivered makes them a bit unpleasant to drive behind for long periods with both HID and LED active at highway speeds. I felt the LEDs over-illuminated the direct foreground, and I found myself constantly refocusing between near and far, which made for a bit of a tiring drive. But turning the LEDs off didn't help because the HID beams are so narrow that the road edges ahead are poorly illuminated compared to the NEMESIS.
The bottom line from my perspective is that the NEMESIS is a much nicer light than the HTX on the highway, while an LED light bar or a pair of small light bars is a better choice than either of them when you're off-road or if you're on slow, winding roads. And for substantially less money than the price of an HTX pair, you can install the NEMESIS and the light bars, ending up with better lighting in every situation. Really is a win-win.
Thanks for watching. There's plenty more information, including downloadable images from the testing, on the Australian images website.