12000K vs 6000K bulbs

[CheesmoS4]

what is the difference between the two bulbs other than color. WOuld i have to get new ballast or popping them right in would be no issue? Can anyone explain please thanks!

[W1CK3D]

I'm almost positive you'll need new ballasts with a 12000k, because 6k is pushing it with ours. But seriously, 6k puts out a good amount of light and the color is nice, 12k is just f*cking ridiculous

[lil' is 300]

You have to realize what 12000 and 6000 actually mean. Many people don't understand that is has absolutely nothing to do with brightness. In fact, too high and you will ruin visibility.

If anyone has taken a photography class they know this...and have most likely seen this before (in one way or another)



6000 is universally known as clear daylight and is the best for visibility. As you get higher it becomes a darker blue and beyond 10000 is will become wha I like to call "ricer purple"...because only ricers put in the highest color temperature they can find because they have no idea what it actually means.

I personally would never go above 8000...but 6000 is the best with visibility and there aint any arguing about that. Whether one looks better than the other is a different discussion...

[Das General]

12k sucks and 6k doesn't...

you will have zero light output 12k...you might as well retro fit some halogens and get more output

[Kievskiy]

i have 10000k and i think that over 10000k is just a waste, but, it might differ for aftermarket HID kits...OEM is what lil 300 provided...

[imola]

with 12k, driving in the rain will be a nightmare

[Turtle]

what is stock?

[imola]

what is stock?

Isnt it 4500k or something?

[CheesmoS4]

Ok well the reason why I was given this choice was because hid lights.com are out of the 6000k white crystal ones. So they are like would u like to exchange for 10000 or 12000K bulbs and they gave me a couple of color choices. I am gonna see if they have the 6000K blue white bulbs. What do u think and I'd I did get the 10000 I would have to get a new ballast right and what else would I need?


Also this guy on the website keeps telling me DSC are the same bulbs as DS2 is this correct?

[AudiSportB5S4]

stock on the B5's is 3900K.... i upgraded to 6000KZiZa bulbs from ECS. great bulb, very bright i think its 50W. he is right about the brightness as it is only affecting the colour of the lamp itself. all xenon bulbs are made the same but to make diff colors they use diff gases depending on what colour you order. 12000K is something you see on like civics and shit thats just annoying. i LOVE 6000K looks great, nice bleu tint to it and you still have the benefits of xenon gas. i was told after 8000K you lose the intensity of the original gases made to produce the xenon light. have fun choosing.

[TalipseAWD]

6000k sounds like the choice to me

[saucys4]

5400K isnt bad either.

[W1CK3D]

I thought stock bulbs were like 4300 or something. I could be wrong though, that number just sticks in my head.

Haha yeah I guessed that that's why you were asking about 6k and 12k, hid-lights.com has tried that same ruse on 5 or more of us here on AZ alone. Tell them to f*ck off and get your money back and find someone either on the forum on on ebay. And really, anything over 6k is unnecessary. Stick with it and you'll be happy

[bigverge]

stock is 4300k for sure

[toaster]

4300K is stock on b6s, and probably b5 as well.

it is a whiteish and is ideal for visibility.

i decided to go with 6000k to have a bit of a purpleish light - purely aesthetic.

6000k does not light the road quite as well as 4300k, however it still lights up the road damn well, especially when coming from a stock halogen setup like i did.

sometimes in the rain, i wish i had the 4300k bulbs, however better fogs would really be what i would want.

i am very happy with my 6000k bulbs.

going above 6000k, aside from looking silly, usable light output will begin to get severely limited.

[[email protected]]

I'm pretty sure you'll get pulled over if you ran 12000K bulbs as the blue light color is very distracting to oncoming traffic and the amount of light output (lumens) is a lot lower the higher the color temp goes up.

I had 8000K bulbs and when compared with the 5000K bulbs they put out a lot less light.

Stick with 6000k

[[email protected]]

5400K isnt bad either.

5400K and 6000K bulbs are the same bulb.

[AudiSportB5S4]

stock is 4300k for sure

for the b5 s4, stock is 3900K. they jumped up to 4300K starting in 03 with the b6 chasis. i was at audi talking to them about this because when i was thinking of what colour temp to go with he said stock on all b5's has always been 3900K unless for some freaky reason at the factory a 4300K bulb was around, but he said at that time it really wasnt used so its very unlikely that they would be in there. then lltek told me the same thing. im not surprised though because our stock xenons are an ugly color. it doesnt really look like xenon especially if you drive around with your fogs on all the time like i do. so i went with 6000K up top and 2700K yellow for the bottom ! i love it, it draws attention with the yellow down below too.

[chrislane31]

4300K gives the best light output and is the same as daylight. Anything more than 4300K is just for looks.

[CheesmoS4]

yeah i think i am gonna get my money back from hid lights and just get them from somewhere else. Its ridiculous that they dont have a phone number and on top of that they say that they have the bulbs in stock. Yet they dont!

Also DS2 is our bulbs correct, and not DSC like this guy keeps saying

[AudiSportB5S4]

i saw that place it was shady. haha. i love my ECS bulbs. they wereeeeeeee 165. not bad. stock OEM is like pshh over 300, and not as good. these are ZiZa the brand is called. never heard of it but they work awesome and they look stronger than the stock bulb i pulled. its funny actually, they are so bright that ppl flash me ALL the time, and im like listen dick my highbeams arent on ! and whats even better when i do turn on my highbeams, it barely even helps over them. i deff. think i have the 50W bulb. its a beast. deff recommended in the 6000K colour. you'll love them. when i get my e-code headlights, i hear that helps even more !

[Daft]

Oh boy....


Let me shed some light on this (pun intended):

OEM HID bulbs (Philips or Osram) are rated at 4100K. They have been this way since they were first released in the late 90's.

Here's the white papers for the Philips 85122 (regular everyday D2S): http://www.nuconverter.de/assets/pbd2s.pdf

There are no OEM bulbs that are anything other than 4100K. Period.

Philips, Osram and GE do make some bulbs that are outside of this realm but, these bulbs are not sold as OEM and will not be installed from the factory.

The Philips Ultinon bulb (rated at 5800K) is the best known for it's extremely blue/white color temp. The unfortunate part is that the Ultinon bulb is about 800 lumen less in light output than the OEM 85122 bulb:

Ultinon white papers: http://www.autolamps-online.com/gasd.../GE%20D26K.JPG

Osram makes a 5400K bulb but, it's only made in D1S form (B6 cars use the D1S bulb). Eitherway, it's still lower ouput than the 85122.

Honestly, the brightest bulb that you can possibly buy on the market today is the Philips 85122+. The 85122+ is a 4200K bulb that produces 3400lm of light per bulb.

Here's the spec sheet:http://www.autolamps-online.com/gasd...es/d2%20PH.JPG

Also, all DOT HID systems are 35W. This means that you can't just slap a 50W bulb in them. You would need a 50W ballast to run a 50W bulb. Valeo does not make a 50W ballast. Hella does, Denso does and I believe GE does. Any others are aftermarket 35W ballasts that have been tweaked to run higher and will burn out sooner due to overload. You can't bump the wattage and not cause other problems in the ballast.

In a nutshell, any time you take an HID bulb and increase it's xenon gas ratio, you effectively increase the color temp. You also DECREASE the acutal light output. For a reason that I'm not completely clear on, the OEM manufacturers have not been able to get more than 3200-3400lm from an HID bulb if the color temp is beyond 4100-4200K. It apparently has to do with the properties of xenon gas and how it reacts to voltage.

The bulbs also contain salt crystals that allows the gas to support the arc of light. These salts and the gasses age over time and the bulb's color temp will shift higher than when it was new. As this shift occurs the bulb looks more blue/white.

This was extremely common on early 2000 cars that were fitted with HID hardware (Mercs, BMWs) and most are extremely purple now if they have not burned out yet. The key to this is that these purple lights are not providing good light on the road surface. You are dealing with a bulb that is near the end of it's life span and will not work for much longer.

If you take a look at the spec sheets I posted above, you'll notice a spec for each bulb called "Maintenance at 1500hr". This spec means that at 1500hrs of use, your bulb will only make 75% of the original light output (ie. 75% of 3200lm = 2400lm). This is the output of the Ultinon bulb!!!!

So in conclusion, you will always get the best possible brightness from the OEM bulbs. The 6000K and higher bulbs are not doing much for you and since you all are S4 owners and have HID hardware from the factory, you are effectively DECREASING the output of your lighting system by installing these aftermarket 6000K+ bulbs.

The choice is yours.

You can get with this \/\/

or you can get with that^^

[AudiSportB5S4]

well you certainly know much. lol. i love when audi is wrong, knew i shouldnt base my facts on the man getting paid by audi haha

[Daft]

well you certainly know much. lol. i love when audi is wrong, knew i shouldnt base my facts on the man getting paid by audi haha

Oh, just another quick FYI, OEM bulbs are not $300...


You can get a pair of 85122 or even 85122+ for $50-65. Simply do a search for "Philips 85122".

http://search.ebay.com/search/search...122&category0=

Ebay has tons of them. We also have a AZ member named "Akinaboy" who has a HID business and www.hidplanet.com has an online store that carries them but for slightly more ($80-$100 per pair).

[W1CK3D]

We also have a AZ member named "Akinaboy" who has a HID business and www.hidplanet.com has an online store that carries them but for slightly more ($80-$100 per pair).

to Akinaboy, someone pointed me toward him a few months ago when I thought one of my bulbs was going and I just had to mess with the connections. He's a good guy and he'll answer all your questions, so def. do business with him if you're looking into upgrading

[1997gtx]

Great info, Daft. Thanks!
--Adam

[///M3 TO S4]

Oh boy....


Let me shed some light on this (pun intended):

OEM HID bulbs (Philips or Osram) are rated at 4100K. They have been this way since they were first released in the late 90's.

Here's the white papers for the Philips 85122 (regular everyday D2S): http://www.nuconverter.de/assets/pbd2s.pdf

There are no OEM bulbs that are anything other than 4100K. Period.

Philips, Osram and GE do make some bulbs that are outside of this realm but, these bulbs are not sold as OEM and will not be installed from the factory.

The Philips Ultinon bulb (rated at 5800K) is the best known for it's extremely blue/white color temp. The unfortunate part is that the Ultinon bulb is about 800 lumen less in light output than the OEM 85122 bulb:

Ultinon white papers: http://www.autolamps-online.com/gasd.../GE%20D26K.JPG

Osram makes a 5400K bulb but, it's only made in D1S form (B6 cars use the D1S bulb). Eitherway, it's still lower ouput than the 85122.

Honestly, the brightest bulb that you can possibly buy on the market today is the Philips 85122+. The 85122+ is a 4200K bulb that produces 3400lm of light per bulb.

Here's the spec sheet:http://www.autolamps-online.com/gasd...es/d2%20PH.JPG

Also, all DOT HID systems are 35W. This means that you can't just slap a 50W bulb in them. You would need a 50W ballast to run a 50W bulb. Valeo does not make a 50W ballast. Hella does, Denso does and I believe GE does. Any others are aftermarket 35W ballasts that have been tweaked to run higher and will burn out sooner due to overload. You can't bump the wattage and not cause other problems in the ballast.

In a nutshell, any time you take an HID bulb and increase it's xenon gas ratio, you effectively increase the color temp. You also DECREASE the acutal light output. For a reason that I'm not completely clear on, the OEM manufacturers have not been able to get more than 3200-3400lm from an HID bulb if the color temp is beyond 4100-4200K. It apparently has to do with the properties of xenon gas and how it reacts to voltage.

The bulbs also contain salt crystals that allows the gas to support the arc of light. These salts and the gasses age over time and the bulb's color temp will shift higher than when it was new. As this shift occurs the bulb looks more blue/white.

This was extremely common on early 2000 cars that were fitted with HID hardware (Mercs, BMWs) and most are extremely purple now if they have not burned out yet. The key to this is that these purple lights are not providing good light on the road surface. You are dealing with a bulb that is near the end of it's life span and will not work for much longer.

If you take a look at the spec sheets I posted above, you'll notice a spec for each bulb called "Maintenance at 1500hr". This spec means that at 1500hrs of use, your bulb will only make 75% of the original light output (ie. 75% of 3200lm = 2400lm). This is the output of the Ultinon bulb!!!!

So in conclusion, you will always get the best possible brightness from the OEM bulbs. The 6000K and higher bulbs are not doing much for you and since you all are S4 owners and have HID hardware from the factory, you are effectively DECREASING the output of your lighting system by installing these aftermarket 6000K+ bulbs.

The choice is yours.

You can get with this \/\/

or you can get with that^^

Thankyou for clearing up some of the bullshit. People on this forum have no idea what they are talking about. They changed colors in differnent years LOL

[switchface]

Any idea on how the new Acuras, for example, seem so incredibly bright and crisp?

Is it due to the housing that is "channelling" a more direct light pattern?

[98Black30V]

Also, to go back to one of his original questions, will running a higher color temp on the stock ballasts cause damage?

[Daft]

Any idea on how the new Acuras, for example, seem so incredibly bright and crisp?

Is it due to the housing that is "channelling" a more direct light pattern?

The light appearances are really caused by the headlights optics. The combo of the projector and how the lense effects the light as it passes through.

In reality, 4100K light is not very blue/purple at all. We all see that color because of the light refraction that occurs as light is broken up as it passes over the cutoff shield. This is just like how light makes that rainbow pattern as it reflects off a CD or through a prism. We see more of the blue/purple because the blue/purple light waves travel the furthest. So we see them from far off.

Running a different color temp will not damage the ballast.