Most of the car guys that I hang out with know that I hate the stock headlights on the A4. And yes, they are properly aimed. So I decided to try out a pair of real PIAA Plasma Blues, instead of spending the money for euro-lights.<p>Turns out that was a big mistake. The PIAA Plasma Blues were WAY too blue, and WAY too dim. About the only thing (performance wise) that it did better than the stock lights was light up white objects slightly better. Well, I don't know about where you live, but curbs in Dallas are most certainly not white. All the people that said the Plasma Blues were close to xenon lights were so wrong it's not even funny.<p>It's too bad I didn't read the post about the PIAA Plasma Blues by another A4 owner before I ordered them. They're quite expensive, and when I pulled them, I noticed that the ceramic tips had cracks in them. I wish I could sell or return these in good conscience. Live and learn I suppose. I don't know what I'm going to do about the stock lights. Maybe I'll just buy an S4 w/ xenon lights :P<p>For the PIAA Superwhite owners, could you pull your lightbulb and check the ceramic coating to see if it's cracked?<p>98.5 Wett RamAir'ed Santorin Blue 2.8QMS

PIAA makes the Superwhite bulbs, but do they make the Plasma Blues as well?<p>-jamie

I have tried nearly most of the bulbs discussed in the forum, Philip Premium, PIAA Superwhite and PIAA Plasma Blue. I have even tried different one on left and right to see the difference. Plasma Blue is the brightest and the whitest. Period. Warran, maybe your's is defective but even person that I ran into commented that how much better they are. However, if you don't like it than I don't know what you can change into, except a real HID.

I did a scientific measurement last week (see last archive). The Plasma Blue are half as bright as stock. If you still want them, $50 will buy them from me.<p>- Stan

I have a so call Euro setup as known to you guys in the State and thus using a H4 bulb. I saw the difference in size bet H4 and H7 and this could probably account for the difference in performance alone.<br>Stan, I miss your post last time and I've just seach it and read it. Honestly I don't think we are comparing apple to apple here. What I use is difference to what you have. I'll try to borrow a light meter and measure it and see

Yes, they look whiter, and appear initially brighter, if you're either staring at them or if you're lights are on a wall less than 10 feet away. Start driving around and you notice that the lights are so damn blue that they barely light trivial things, like the road...<p>All the talk about these looking like HID/Xenon is just plain wrong. These look absolutely nothing like HID. The difference is huge. These are just another pair of (bad) dichroic bulbs.<p>As for selling them, I wish I could, but after a few hours of having them on, there are hairline cracks in the ceramic tip, plus I think everyone else is safer without these on the street. If anyone doubts me, feel free to come to Dallas and I'll show you how bad they are.<p>98.5 Wett RamAir'ed Santorin Blue 2.8QMS

So you're saying, in H4 fitment, the Plasma Blue's are good bulbs? I too am running H4 headlights, and have the 55 watt (current draw) Superwhite's. (Shoulda got the 80watter's..oh well - ya can never have too much well-focused light!)<p>Are your Plasma Blue's the 80 watt draw? I'd like to get a set if they really are that good.. PIAA isn't known to make a crummy product.<p>Rich Quinlan<ul><li><a href="http://home.att.net/~richquinlan">Quinland</a></li></ul>

Rich, I don't think I should make any recommendation, to be honest. It seems like there is a dispute between whether the Plasma Blue is good or not. As I've said, it seems that the difference between H7 (which everybody else run) and H4 is quite big. I personally am quite satisfy but then it's very difficult to compare when we are in different environment.