At high drain I believe one 18650 can draw slightly more amp hours that 4xaa. The aa’s are good general purpose lights but I can see why there’s no development for such specialized products.
Really huge reflectors are somewhat expensive, mostly because in order to perform reasonably well, the bigger they are, the more perfect they have to be. Unless there is huge demand (like a BLF Group Buy perhaps?) I doubt any manufacturer would make a multiple AA light with huge reflector. I guess you could mod a light yourself, though, if you know how. Buy a GT and mod it to take AA cells!
Also, according to that site, the TN4A has only slightly less throw, is a lot more compact, and less than half the price as the Fenix right above it in the list. If I were choosing from that list, I would get the TN4A.
Hmm, this sound intriguing. I use a TN4A as my bike light, and while I don’t NEED additional throw, at times it would be nice. How hard could this be? Anyone know how to tear down a TN4A? I got the battery ring off and exposed the back of the driver, but the driver doesn’t just pop out for me.
Is there a reason you’re opposed to using li-ion cells? You can get 400m throw from a chunky multi-AA light but there isn’t really anything that compares with even a $35 Emisar D1S that runs on 18650s.