COMPARISONS: Sylvania XtraVision -> Sylvania zXe -> DDM Tuning HID

[MrGeekFreak]

After driving around in some incredibly dark weather for the past few months, I decided that my lighting needed a bit of an upgrade. The car originally had some typical Wagner bulbs in, which just weren't quite powerful enough for me.

The first attempt at an upgrade were some Sylvania XtraVision bulbs, which were a tad bit brighter, but not quite what I was hoping for.

I had considered trying out some Sylvania SilverStars, but after hearing a few stories about their incredibly short lifespan, I decided to hold off.

Next was the Sylvania zXe line of bulb. Now, I couldn't quite find much information on them, as seemed to be quite new, but thought to myself, "$60 for a standard halogen bulb? No way!" but my sense of curiosity soon took over as I found myself heading to the checkout counter with them. They've got a great color, white with a slight tint of yellow, and an above average amount of light output. But, the fact that they were a high-powered halogen bulb scared me, as the lifespan of such bulbs is typically pretty short. And, for the pricetag of $60, I expected a little more out of them.

In this picture, I was also comparing the original foglights with a new Pilot bulb I got as a pair for $15.

COMPARISON





I then moved onto the DDM Tuning HID kit. I ordered the 55w 4500k set, and they arrived straight from the child factory in China in a little over two weeks. After just installing them, I'd have to say that I'm very happy with the amount of light output, but the color seems to be a bit off. As the 4500k is supposed to be white with a little yellow, the output of these bulb seems closer to about 6000k.

COMPARISON





In all, I actually feel as if all three are good choices, depending on your budget, your typical driving conditions, and the look that you want.

But I think that, in the end, I'll most likely keep the DDMs, as their lifetime warranty, longer-lasting bulbs, and insane power output definitely has the absolute best price-performance ratio.

[bmwman91]

For the love of godm get rid of the DDM bulbs. After 12 months, they will be half the brightness and about 1500K bluer. If you are going to run re-based HID bulbs, get yourself some Morimoto 4500K ones from theretrofitsource.com. BTW, DDM 4500K, 5000K and 6000K bulbs were found to all be the same part with different labels.

[nando]

For the love of godm get rid of the DDM bulbs. After 12 months, they will be half the brightness and about 1500K bluer. If you are going to run re-based HID bulbs, get yourself some Morimoto 4500K ones from theretrofitsource.com. BTW, DDM 4500K, 5000K and 6000K bulbs were found to all be the same part with different labels.

This. Only, mine turned green after a couple years, and the brightness really dropped off. the ballasts were loud. one of my foglights turned orange. DDM is crap, there's a reason they are so cheap.

and yeah, the reason the 4500k looks like 6000k is because they ony sell 6000k bulbs but put a 4500k label on them. :|

[iansane]

How long did you use the zXe bulbs?

[MrGeekFreak]

How long did you use the zXe bulbs?

Somewhere around two weeks, and with close to three hours of driving each weekday, and barely any on the weekends, I'd say somewhere near 30 hours?

And, theretrofitsource.com's Morimoto series looks AMAZING, but as a student working part-time, I just can't afford such an expensive kit on top of what I've already spent. And judging by your opinions on the DDM kit, I would feel horrible trying to sell them to somebody else.

Maybe within the next couple months, and then I could compare them to the DDMs.

[bmwman91]

You can use DDM ballasts. Just ditch the bulbs. $40 for 4300K Morimoto bulbs isn't outrageous.

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=4117

They now have some $70 ones too, but I have no idea how good they are.

[blazinxpk]

finally a worthy thread in the lighting section, not the typical how do i install smileys...

i would like to thank you for the clearly labeled comparison pictures that you took.

it seems as though hids are the only route for maximum light output. all other routes involve some fancy bulbs that are too expensive. in my car i have the ddm tuning 55w slim ballast 5000k hids. mine are completely white with no blue, but i do agree with what is written above about ddm tuning selling the same bulbs under a different spec. i guess mine(actually bought by the previous owner) was just a hit or miss type of situation. it is common that you wont get the correct bulbs that you ordered, but it is not the case ALL the time. this is just a chance that you will have to take, when ordering an inexpensive kit.

bmwman91, im starting to favor what you have mentioned about pairing your current ballasts with morimoto bulbs. this seems like a good option because many of us already have "cheap" hids and want to gets bulbs that are the actual stated "colors". i was considering this option for my foglights, because i currently have 35w 3000k ebay bulbs paired with a ddm ballast. but i am not satisfied with the bulbs was thinking about the 4300k morimoto bulbs for maximum light output.

overall, for those who do not want to get into hids for whatever reason, the sylvania bulbs in this thread are good options to get and are a definite improvement over regular bulbs. but the general conclusion is that for maximum light output you will need to get 4300k hids(this statement does not consider retrofits). now the choice is up to the user to either buy a legit morimoto kit for $150, or piece together a ddm/morimoto kit as mentioned above.

sorry for the long post...

[MrGeekFreak]

No problem, blazinxpk, I'm glad you appreciate it! I've noticed that after a few days of using them, they've come closer to a 4500k color. They actually look pretty awesome!

I'll pick up some Morimoto bulbs in the next few weeks, and update the comparison pictures.

And, if I actually get my Canon T4i one of these days, I'll be sure to hook everyone up with a little bit better quality photos!