Spending money ..

I was looking at getting the package set of Alien Bee's 800, stand, umbrella to go with my 580ex. I would like to be able to have more than one light source, and thought getting the AB800s made more sense than getting another speedlight.

A friend of mine thinks getting another speedlight is the way to go and honestly I never really thought about it until he brought it up. My thinking was using that money towards a lens, (tamron 28-75) but I still think getting an extra light would be more usefull for portraits.

I'm just curious to see what random people on the net think.. Get another speedlight or go with the AB 800s

If you have another camera, I can see getting another Speedlite for it. Or if you want something very light weight and easily transportable for outdoor or location shooting and want to retain E-TTL, I can also see getting another Speedlite. However, if the lights are going to be used for portrait and mostly at home/studio, then a strobe would make more sense. For the same money, you can get a strobe or two that is more powerful than a Speedlite. And there are more options in terms of modifiers for strobes compared to those for hotshoe flashes. It all depends on what your priorities are for the lights.