I believe all the Sofirn C8s are regulated but I could be wrong. I know the C8F has higher output but is a triple and obviously not a thrower (uses XHP50 IIRC?)

Yup, for me it was just luck that the Astrolux model was on sale. Same price and no work to put in a different driver, normally the $10 higher price vs many other C8s wouldn’t be worth it IMO. The output is higher stock vs stock but nothing mind blowing, just some icing on the cake.