I'd go for the textured reflector. The "dark" donut rings are definitely evident with my smooth reflector. I've put dark in inverted commas because I remember somewhere on the Candle Power Forum someone took some beam shots. The dark bits aren't actually dark but it's just compared to the bright centre spot that they are dark. An optical illusion of sorts. But it is annoying and I wish the orange peel reflectors were available when I was buying my L2D. However, as mentioned above it decrease the overall throw of the light.