Wow! Thanks for those links. That is practically the price of Silverstars!

 

ebay baby!!

 

brightness IS anywhere near similiar. I'm speaking from experience, not guessing. as I mentioned before, my passenger side HL is 8000k and driver's side 4300k. The 4300k is oem and from an 04 so about 2 years old. I have no clue how old/brand 8000k is. I bought it used off of a member on here.

I'm not guessing and i've been informed correctly- higher K= less visibility.

I didn't ask about whether 8000k is brighter or not. I'm not arguing that 8000k is brighter because it's not. However, aftering putting them on MY CAR, the loss of visibility is very minimal from OEM. Why am I losing visibility over blue-er HL? because that's how I like it, period. You think it's rice and stupid? good for you.

btw, thanks for letting me know about akinaboy. it seems as though he only sells stock bulbs. I already have a pair of that. I emailed him to see if he has 6-8000k bulbs.

 

damn it i was about to buy those but its 4300k which is stock

 

can you post with his reply if he has 6-8 bulbs?

 

here's akinaboy's response on 6000k bulbs

i guess high quality bulbs last longer...

 

stock S2000 4100K bulbs > 8000k aftermarket bulbs

4100K comes close to the sunlight. 8000k is just for show of blue hue.

http://www.intellexual.net/hid.html . educate yourselves.

BULB SELECTION

HID bulbs come in two common standards today known as: D2S and D2R. D2S uses the D2 base and a clear, naked bulb. D2R uses the same D2 base and a bulb with a metallic strip along one edge to combat unwanted glare in the reflector headlamp. So in OEM HID applications D2R is used in reflector-type HID assemblies whereas D2S is used in projector-type assemblies. When you're purchasing an HID kit, you want to go with a D2S bulb because it emits slightly more light than the D2R.

As far as color selection goes, there are two main color temperatures out there: ~4100 kelvin, which is OEM color, and ~6000 kelvin, which is aftermarket color. By the way, the term 'color temperature' does not have any correlation with the property of 'thermal temperature'. I personally do not see any reason for buying anything other than 4100K OEM, but that's me. Some people like blue light and are willing to pay extra money for extra blueness and less brightness---and thus the 6000K market. I'm sure the reason isn't because people like to see everything on the road in bluescale, but because they want their headlights to appear blue to onlookers. The proper way to achieve more blue/violet in your HIDs is to do an OEM projector HID retrofit and upgrade the projector lenses to ECE-spec. For more info on this, refer to the Retrofit Section of the tutorial.

Now in selecting the brand of HID bulbs, you really only have two right choices to make. The safest, most dependable bulb manufacturers to go with are quite simply Philips and Osram-Sylvania. Between the two, I tend to favor Philips as, mano a mano, the Philips are slightly brighter and bluer than Osram. Both are incredibly reliable brands though. All automakers make seemingly simple business decisions on which companies they subcontract their manufacturing to. They ask themselves questions like "Which bulb brand should we use in this car?". A basic question like that leaves millions of dollars hanging in the balance. One minor defect in a sub-par HID bulb could force up to 100,000 bulb recalls per year. So if you follow these successful corporations who pour many hundreds of man-hours worth of scientific research into this stuff, you'll notice that they unanimously select German Philips or Osram-Sylvania bulbs. Even the Japanese cars that use Japanese ballasts and Japanese projectors will still use German bulbs. Philips and Osram bulbs have a lifespan of between 2000-2500 hours (the longest in production). Studies have shown that the average "alternative" Taiwanese and Korean-made bulbs last about 176 hours. This is largely due to massive defects attributed to poor manufacturing technique, workmanship, quality control, and distribution channels. These other smaller companies simply lack the major R&D money needed to develop the optimal chemical mixtures inside the capsules, which serves to preserve the electrode tips and prevent them from eroding prematurely. Automakers using exclusively Philips or Osram or both include: Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Chrysler, Ferrari, Ford, GM, Honda, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lexus, Lincoln, Mercedes, Nissan, Porsche, Saab, Toyota (2003), VW. No other automaker in the world uses any other name brand.

The following is probably one of the largest and most deceitful marketing ploys exploited on the internet today. So I will state, for the record: Osram-Sylvania's highest color temperature bulb is 5400K and Philips' highest color temperature bulb is 5800K (marketed at 6000K Ultinon). Nowhere on either of their corporate or consumer websites do they claim, endorse, or offer any HID bulb or kit that produces light over 6000K. I subscribe to both companies' online newsletters so in the nearly impossible event that they do make a 7000K or higher bulb, I will be one of the first ones in public to know about it and this page will be editted on that same day. But here is why Osram and Philips will never sell you a 7000, 8000 or 12000K bulb. Osram and Philips control the entire market on OEM bulbs, and they make enough money off selling OEM 4100K bulbs to ride it out indefinitely. So there is no reason whatsoever for either of them to nurture the trendy idea of high Kelvin blue/purple bulbs at the expense of their professional reputations.


MISCONCEPTIONS

There are many companies and private merchants out there that will advertise 7000K, 8000K, and even 12000K HID kits. Most of these vendors lurk around on ebay, online car forums, websites, and ricer accessory shops. 100% of the people that buy these kits do so because they are uninformed, uneducated, or misguided in the field of lighting, and will buy these junk kits thinking three things: that these bulbs are brighter, that these bulbs should cost more money, and/or that they will perform better. All three statements are completely false. Perhaps this misconception and frenzy for purple lights originates from BMW and Audi's infamous Hella projector HIDs.

So allow me to explain the real truth of the matter... Philips is the number one manufacturer of HID bulbs. The Philips OEM D2S bulb is rated at 4100K at 12.8 volts and produces 3200 lumens of light. The Philips Ultinon D2S is 5800K at 12.8 volts and produces 2400 lumens of light. As you can see, with all other factors remaining constant, the brightness of an HID bulb declines the higher up the color index you go. Vision, a Korean bulb manufacturer, makes an 8000K bulb, which they used to advertise on Acura-Forums as 2000 lumens bright. This is barely a marked improvement over halogens, and will produce more glare and eye fatigue than it is beneficial. 4100K has been proven through tireless independent research by the Germans, Japanese, and Americans to be the most functional, truest white and thus the brightest possible color temperature (ceteris paribus).

Every car manufacturer in the world (including BMW and Audi) uses none other than a standard 4100K gas-discharge bulb. No exceptions. The reason being is that 4100K is daylight white in color and produces the same color visible light as direct sunlight. This is least fatiguing functional color on the eyes and produces the most comfortable contrast on the road.

So the million dollar question is now: Why do BMW & Audi lights appear blue when they use a white bulb?

Well, this coloration is the result of the light projectors; the lenses: it's transparency, it's curvature, the tiny grooves etched into it; the projector assembly, the shield, and the reflector bowl. All these components work together to produce a signature of light unique to that particular optic's design. On the Audi and BMW projectors, the lens curvature at the edge bends the white light producing a "prism effect". White light is broken down to it's fundemental colors. Since blue lights is high energy, it is absorbed last and thus travels farther. So with this prism effect, you'll notice that BMW HIDs are only purple and blue from the sides, the top, and the bottom edges, but are always daylight white on the road and in the beam pattern. This phenomenon can be demonstrated when you watch an oncoming BMW hit a pot hole or speed bump in the road and the car's nose pitches up and down. The headlights will flicker and "throw colors off", but returns to a solid white beam pattern directly on the road.

Trying to emulate this color-flickering effect with a solid-state blue or purple bulb is only detrimental to lighting performance, it doesn't fool anyone, but most importantly it endangers other motorists around you. Blue light has what we call a very high diffuse density, which causes it to radiate outwards as opposed to forwards. What results is a wide glow of light outside the beam pattern that is blinding to motorists you share the road with. A blue HID bulb will produce color bleed around the headlight, around the objects it lights up, outside of the beam pattern, and around the cut off line. This is effect is known as "glare", and these illegal and improperly installed HID kits are the reason why HIDs get a bad wrap. As common evidence of glare, observe a traffic light at night in a dimly lit area. There is red light and green light. Red is opposite blue and green is next to blue, thus we can substitute green for blue. If you observe the aura, or glow, of light around a red light and compare it to that of a green light, you'll notice that the green light produces much more glare than red. Blue is even worse. Purple, the worst.

 

Thanks a lot
with this explanation clears up all my questions and misconceptions

 

let's hope it clears it all up for the rest of the 8000k bandwagon people as well.

 

Actually your eyes are being fooled. The driver side headlamp is aimed down towards the ground, so more of the light is focused in a smaller area, thus giving it a brighter apperance. The passanger side bulb is pointed up to the right, to iluminate a larger area (for reading road signs and such). So on the passanger side, you have the beam being scattered over a larger area, making it look dimmer.