What does “washed out” mean, in terms of headlights?

Question

I have been doing research for retrofitting my headlights to HID and projectors. On different forums people are talking about how 55w ballasts tend to wash out the color of the bulbs.

What would a "washed out" bulb look like? Would it be more yellow, or blue? Or what?

Answer 1

Washed out means you lose some of the perceived intensity, clarity and sharpness - usually this means the colour temperature of the light drops so you move more towards the yellower end, losing those high intensity blue aspects.