I'll take the efficiency hit for better light; the most common measure used, printed on the packaging of some bulbs is CRI (color rendering index). It's based on blackbody radiation, so incandescent bulbs and sunlight both have the maximum score of 100. The average unspecified LED is in the 60s and sodium vapor lamps are negative. 90 is good for an LED, and 97 is the highest I've heard of someone testing in an LED[0].
CRI isn't the whole story on color quality, and it's possible to have high CRI with off tints or even a peaky spectrum outside of the specific colors the CRI standard tests, though the latter doesn't happen in practice. Several newer standards for measuring color quality exist, but are unlikely to be listed on a light bulb label.
[0] http://budgetlightforum.com/comment/1096106#comment-1096106
High CRI strip LED arrays are surprisingly hard to find. The end result was worth it though - skin looks natural, and the nearest commercial version is upwards of $800 - and I'm not entirely sure they got the CRI right.
The housing used was extruded aluminum u-channel by Torchstar (U05, semicircular), very nice clean finish. Available on Amazon.
Like I mentioned, this was for vanity lighting - there's a full length mirror in the closet that's wedged on the wall between a closet door and a window. Not much room for anything else. Hung two vertical strips, ~ 4ft long, on each side of the mirror.
Light ended up soft, diffuse, and flattering - but still directional enough for good modeling. Significant other couldn't have been happier.
A few years back we changed every single bulb in our house (including the GU10s in the kitchen) to Philips CorePro LEDs. I've never seen this "flicker" or had any complaints about it from visitors (nobody even seems to notice that anything is different until I point it out). I also recently fitted out an office with SkyTile LED panels. Again, no flicker.
When I'm in a house or an office with cheaper LEDs for more than a few hours I find it very straining on my eyes. Then again, I had the same issue with CFLs, which is why I made the decision to change everything to LED in the first place.
CFLs are awful. I got rid of all of mine years ago back when LED bulbs were £20 a piece. Was worth it even at that cost!
There's _gotta_ be at least a smoothing capacitor after the bridge rectifier (are they actually that cheap to omit one?!). I can't find a single LED driver circuit schematic online without the low pass filter.
But otoh the osram ones have all failed or started blinking due to what I think is over heating.
Interestingly I stuck one on my bench supply (30v 2a) and I couldn't get one to blow out at all with that!
This is just normal color temperature and both come in all price points. I have several warm bulbs I got at Target on clearance for $2/2. I think it's just that the warm cheap LEDs are usually sold out, so all that's left are the prison-colored ones.
Same experience with the Philips bulbs here.
Philips bulbs are 100% clean. Poundland ones are not. Cheap no brand ones from Amazon are not. The latter two have a 100Hz output.
I suspect the hatred for LED bulbs stems from the cheap ones which use the lowest cost solution to get mains voltage into a constant current which is usually a capacitive dropper and rectifier with an inadequate smoothing cap.
Really as always with these things, buy the best you can.
Also the cheaper ones seem to have a blue/white tone whereas the expensive ones have a yellow/white tone and are warmer. This helps the eyes.