OK, I haven't tried the Spe-Lu or the Stenlight - but something just occurred to me.
Take another headlamp for example - the Princeton Tec Apex. With all the favorable reports it has been getting recently, is it really worth spending 4 times as much on a Stenlight or 5 times as much on a Spe-Lu?
Sure, the big dollar headlamps are probably "better", but are they 4-5 times brighter and/or will last 4-5 times as long? Can you efficiently use standard AA alkaline or NiMH batteries with them? (I don't think so.) I've only tried an Apex in the store so far, but it's got the dimming 3 watt LED plus the 4 dimming regular LEDs, and it's fairly compact and waterproof. For $60-80, it seems like a reasonable deal.
For now I'm happy with my current main headlamp (a trusty 8 LED Duo, with a 1 watt LED on the high beam side) - but one day I'll probably upgrade to something new. I'm currently leaning more towards getting a headlamp like the Apex, and using all that money I save for gas/airfare to get to caves, new kneepads, excessive vertical gear I don't really need, etc, etc... Comments?