Last September, my old Princeton Tec Matrix’s battery compartment clip broke and the tilt adjustment wore out (would not stay up). While annoying, I hadn’t really ever used the Matrix for running. November came, and with it so did the early darkness of late fall nights. It was time to get a new headlamp. While I’d love to have a Princeton Tec Apex, it wasn’t within my price range, and is a little heavy to wear while running.

After some searching, I narrowed the field to two candidates, the Princeton Tec Remix and the Princeton Tec Eos. Both are LED based headlamps, the Remix has three low power “indicator” LEDs plus a 1W high power LED. The Eos has only the high power LED. While I would like to have the LED setup of the Remix, it has one fatal flaw. The Remix does not have a gasket seal, and thus it is not waterproof. As my previous two headlamps were waterproof, this single feature sold me on the Eos.

The Eos falls under the “professional” branch of Princeton Tec’s products. Members of the “professional series” are waterproof to IEC Level 2 (down to 1m). This means they all have a rubber o-ring, something none of the “the family” members such as the Remix have. Additionally, members of the “professional series” feature regulated output.