Kvant v SwissLas

[mick10256]

Before I part with hard earned cash anyone got any good / bad experiences with the Kvant Clubmax 6000 or the SwissLas PM-5700 projectors?

[WookieBoy]

Hi Mick.

Not used the Kvant, but I own a couple smaller PM series projectors and they're pretty good. Bit expensive for what they are, but beams are crisp and sharp.
External power supply is a bit of a pain sometimes, and they're VERY blue heavy but otherwise very nice compact little units...

[DanG]

Kvant. 100%.

I have seen both and IMHO the Kvant piece is superior, also as was said the PM's are super blue heavy.

[mick10256]

Cheer guys,
had loads of PM's on this one too.

[dave]

Kvant for the win!

Currently have quite a few of the clubmax's. They are solid little projectors.

[flecom]

I have a 1.2W 642nm kvant module and it sucks, take that for whatever it's worth

[mick10256]

Finally made a decision Evil Lasers Kore 7..

Having looked at the Kvant ClubMax 6000 and SwissLas PM-5700 I was looking for something with a warmer white balance in the 5 - 6 Watt class. The Kore 7 with its 2.8W 635nm, 2W 520nm and 2.8W 450nm seemed to fit the bill perfectly. I opted for the Pangolin 506 compact scanners which unfortunately delayed the build, but there are other scanners on offer. These two beauties arrived last week very well packaged and with a little personal touch, two packets of Austrian biscuits.

First interesting feature is they don't use OEM laser modules unlike my other Chinese lasers. Individual diodes are mounted and knife edged on the chunky laser deck / heatsink which is sealed from dust. I guess this is a real plus as diodes could be replaced if and when needed rather than sourcing new modules. The optics are also accessible should ever cleaning be needed, but then it's all sealed.

The lineup in the 7Watt version is 4 x 700mW 635nm red, 2 x 1W 520nm green and 2 x 1.4W 450nm blue. All manufacturers state the actual diode output in their sales literature but these guys go further and issue each unit with a certificate showing the power at the aperture for each colour. The 4 reds are knife edged in two pairs and then PBS combined. The two greens and blues are also knife edged. All colours are then beam corrected using cylindrical lens telescopes before being combined via the usual dicros.

The build quality is second to none. Most of the aluminium components are milled from solid and all fasteners appear to be stainless steel. Very nicely balanced so one man rigging is easy.

This is my first 520nm direct injection green, so having read other reviews on this, I was expected relatively poor yellow. Wrong! with the extra red, the orange through yellow through green is nicely balanced.

I must admit I'm new to the Neutrik power connectors but, as stated, they can't fall out unlike the IEC connectors on my other lasers.

All up, very solid build at a very competitive price. I'll add some photos if anyone interested .

[edison]

Be aware that Kvant and swisslas have single mode red and the kore 7 is multimode red. The kore is more a beamshow projector if you ask me.

The mulimode red diodes are officially 500mw from the datasheet that mitsubishi provides. I don,t say they can,t handle more power but be aware of that. What most important is divergence. The lower the divergence the better the graphics and the higher the brightness. My advise would be choose a projector that has single mode red in 1mrd or less in it with at least 1.3 watt in it. If you want warmer white about 1.8 - 2 watt red but the cost of such a projector will be higher then the Kore 7 when bought in Europe. If you buy it in china it will be cheaper. My advice would contact Able , good quallity and really good service.

[mick10256]

Hi Edison,
In my search for a single mode red diode I haven't found anything above the 100mW mark so what are these diodes you speak of? Once we start knife edging and combining surely we are multi mode?

[edison]

The difference between single mode red and multimode red is that the beam from a single mode diode itself is much lower in divergence and far better in quallity (perfect and almost round spot) compared to multimode red diodes wich produce more of a stripe or square depending on the way the correction of the fast axis has been done. In simple words multimode is more for beamshows if you ask me. Kvant, swisslas and most other companies are using modules wich are single mode diode stacking modules. These modules are based on the HL63133DG wich are 170mw. So a 6 combiner has 6 diodes in it. These diodes are more expencive and that is why companies that are aiming for a lower retail price use multimode red diodes. 1 multimode red produces 500mw/638nm diodes so you only need 2 to get 1 watt.

In fact the systems and modules from eightonlight is a straight copy from Kvant with almost the same quallity for a price that is 1/3th. The reason for this is that chinese labour is allot cheaper then slowakian labour. More and more people buy eightonlights since its virtually a kvant. If you want the best beam single mode is the way to go no mather how you slice it