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Originally Posted by socratic
Why are Litronics so expensive anyways? What can there be in a bulb and a transformer thing that makes them $1200 USD?
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There are several things currently driving the cost of Litronics. The first is that HID (High Intensity Discharge) for automotive use is relatively new. Unfortunately, existing HID technology (Mercury Vapor, Metal Halide, High Pressure Sodium) are not suitable for use in autos given their long warm up time (10 minutes) and long restrike (restart) time once extinguished (up to 30 minutes). So, a "new" technology was developed - Xenon. With the development of a new lamp, the supporting structures needed to be developed (ballasts and ignitors) and better optics.
As with any designed product, quantity generally drives cost. There just aren't enough out there. However, these will never be as cheap as a simple halogen system since HID also requires a ballast and ignitor (and sometimes a capacitor). These components, particularly for electronic HID (relatively new) are 2-3 times as expensive as comparable magnetic components. The HID lamp also requires more specialized optics. The smaller arc-tube of a Xenon means that the optics can be designed to provide a specifi forward and lateral distribution. The extra lumens with a Xenon also allows this distribution to have more light at all areas. By comparison, a Halogen source pretty much just dumps the light out there. If the forward throw (down the highway) is good - then the lateral throw (to the sides) is probably poor - and vice versa. There's just not enough light to do both well.
The Sylvania Silverstars have a color temperature of around 4000K versus about 3000K for standard halogens. To give you an idea - 3000K is about the color of a standard incandescent lamp while 4000K is generally what you see with fluorescent (although you can also get 3000K fluorescent). By comparison, most of the Xenons are around 4200K. Thus, a Silverstar is going to be significantly whiter than a standard halogen. A side-by-side comparison would be more noticeable.
However, this brings up another factor with lighting known as the CRI or Color Rendering Index. This index is used to measure how accurately the light renders the actual color it is shining on. Most Halogens have a CRI of around 90 to 97 which means they are very close to rendering colors as they would be seen in natural daylight. By contrast, HIDs have a CRI of 60 - 70. Okay, but what does that really mean? Well, we use color contrast to differentiate objects and help set depth perception. So, a lower CRI (as with HID) could actually reduce your ability to differentiate between objects.
So, Xenon is going to provide more lumens, better light distribution, a whiter light, but probably worse color rendering. Halogens will have less lumens, worse light distribution, not as white light, but significantly better color rendering.
Nuff said.