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Originally Posted by mexiken
Turns out bluest and brightest go hand in hand. On the color spctrum, blue (specifically, violet) is the highest color you can visibly see. (I should have known that already). So the higher the temp of the light, the more blue it is. Which is COOL !!!!
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Sheniferous has got it pretty much right.
Sunlight as we see it can range from 3000k on up to a pure blue sky.
When talking about putting the most useful light out on the road you always want to be in the 4-5500k temps. These are by far the best temperatures for humans to use at night. As you start getting higher than those temps you will lose visible light and in turn you will have a harder time seeing at night.
When you see the high end imports on the road at night and it looks like they have blue/purple HID's, you are seeing an effect from the projector lens from your viewing angle. If you sit in the car, you'll notice that the light is very white, and you will not see the array of colors you can see from outside the car.
Try driving a car with these "blue" coated lights in the rain, you'll be so sorry you ever wanted them, depending on their color temp they can be downright dangerous. Blue looks "cool" but it isn't very practical. That is why many of these aftermarket lights aren't DOT approved and they say "for show use only". This isn't the case w/ the silverstars or osrams, but some of the other cheaper ones aren't legal.
You will never be able to effectively mimic the look of a projector HID setup with a halogen bulb, no matter what gas is filling them(generally xenon) or what coating coating they put on them. The best thing you can do is get some Osrams, and be prepared to replace them more often than a regular bulb.