Originally posted by: hd54321
Originally posted by: jagec
the problem with those HIDs is that due to the color, sometimes you actually get LESS visibility...plus the fact that you're blinding everyone else on the road.
Yellowish is the natural color that we see best in (since it's the color of sunlight).
This is fact, the lower the kelvin rating on a bulb, the more white light it will emit. The more white light you have, the greater your visibility is.
Believe me on this - If you want the advantage of HID lights, DO NOT get anything higher than 4500k. I have a set of HID retrofits that I got off of ebay for $270. It has a kelvin rating of 4300k and it is perfect.
You guys have to realize that almost all the luxury cars that have HIDS produce the blue/purple effect ONLY because you are looking at the headlight off axis and the optics of the projector actually creates a blue/purple effect - the bulb produces a pure white light, it is only the optics of projector headlights that gives it color.
In effect, the higher the kelvin rating, you will be receiving a lower amount of white light thus foregoing the advantages of having HID's.
Also, I will completely agree with ZIVIC. Any non-HID headlight housing will NOT give you the same effect as a HID-compliant headlight housing. Why? The reflector in a halogen setup directs all the light in a certain way. Since an HID bulb produces on average, 100x more white light than a halogen bulb, the reflector in an HID-compliant housing will direct the beam in a way that will distribute 100% of the light - that is why the cutoff and beam of a true HID setup looks like a razor cut box.
Good luck.
-HD