There are very great differences in light quality between various kinds of LED lamps.
You may have various LED lamps, all of which appear to have the same white color, but their spectra are very different. Those with narrow spectral peaks are very bad lighting sources, while those with wide spectral peaks, achieved by using multiple kinds of conversion phosphors, are much better lighting sources.
With the best LED lamps, there is not much difference in comparison with incandescent lamps. While incandescent lamps are best from the point of view of their continuous spectrum, their yellow light strongly modifies the perceived colors. While bluish white LEDs (e.g. of 6500 K color temperature) are also bad, neutral white LEDs (e.g. 5000 K or 5500 K) provide much better color perception than incandescent lamps.
For home lighting I prefer a white that is only very slightly yellowish, i.e. 4000 K lamps, instead of LED lamps with a higher color temperature or of incandescent lamps, which are so obviously yellow that no clothes have the same color as in daylight.
The best quality of lighting can be achieved by incandescent lamps in conjunction with frequency-selective filters, which modify their spectra to resemble the spectra of a blackbody with a higher temperature, like the Sun.
Such filtered incandescent lamps were used a very long time ago, to provide lighting for color photography, movies and television (e.g. for the original white point of NTSC), but they were abandoned due to high cost and due to an exceedingly low energy efficiency.
As I have mentioned in another comment, filtered incandescent lamps might see a revival, but implemented with very different technologies than those used a century ago.
I use 90CRI LED lights where I study. They are Philips' non-flickering, dimmable, High CRI bulbs, yet my classic 25W halogen table lamp still provides a far better reading experience. The spiky spectra of LED lights are not comfortable for eyes as a full-spectra incandescent light, let it be classic or halogen.
90CRI isn't good enough to replicate an incandescent bulb in my experience. Something in the high 90's can be much better (but admittedly hard to find). And of course you may want to match your preferred color temperature too.
For reading black & white text, incandescent lamps are perfectly fine.
However, if your book has color illustrations, a high-quality neutral-white LED lamp is better than any unfiltered incandescent lamp.
A standard white illuminant with filtered incandescent lamps would be even better, but such lamps, as they were made a century ago, were extremely good space heaters, which may prevent their use for reading a book.
There are very great differences in light quality between various kinds of LED lamps.
You may have various LED lamps, all of which appear to have the same white color, but their spectra are very different. Those with narrow spectral peaks are very bad lighting sources, while those with wide spectral peaks, achieved by using multiple kinds of conversion phosphors, are much better lighting sources.
With the best LED lamps, there is not much difference in comparison with incandescent lamps. While incandescent lamps are best from the point of view of their continuous spectrum, their yellow light strongly modifies the perceived colors. While bluish white LEDs (e.g. of 6500 K color temperature) are also bad, neutral white LEDs (e.g. 5000 K or 5500 K) provide much better color perception than incandescent lamps.
For home lighting I prefer a white that is only very slightly yellowish, i.e. 4000 K lamps, instead of LED lamps with a higher color temperature or of incandescent lamps, which are so obviously yellow that no clothes have the same color as in daylight.
The best quality of lighting can be achieved by incandescent lamps in conjunction with frequency-selective filters, which modify their spectra to resemble the spectra of a blackbody with a higher temperature, like the Sun.
Such filtered incandescent lamps were used a very long time ago, to provide lighting for color photography, movies and television (e.g. for the original white point of NTSC), but they were abandoned due to high cost and due to an exceedingly low energy efficiency.
As I have mentioned in another comment, filtered incandescent lamps might see a revival, but implemented with very different technologies than those used a century ago.
To put it bluntly, it could also be that your LED light sources are low-CRI junk.
I use 90CRI LED lights where I study. They are Philips' non-flickering, dimmable, High CRI bulbs, yet my classic 25W halogen table lamp still provides a far better reading experience. The spiky spectra of LED lights are not comfortable for eyes as a full-spectra incandescent light, let it be classic or halogen.
90CRI isn't good enough to replicate an incandescent bulb in my experience. Something in the high 90's can be much better (but admittedly hard to find). And of course you may want to match your preferred color temperature too.
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For reading black & white text, incandescent lamps are perfectly fine.
However, if your book has color illustrations, a high-quality neutral-white LED lamp is better than any unfiltered incandescent lamp.
A standard white illuminant with filtered incandescent lamps would be even better, but such lamps, as they were made a century ago, were extremely good space heaters, which may prevent their use for reading a book.
1 reply →