Sometime a company will do the strangest of marketing decision. Even since UE was bought over by Logitech, the brand has received a lot more criticism from the user across various forums. Now the new direction of company seems to be 'price cut and rename'. The new model UE600, which looks suspiciously like the old Super.fi 5 released 2 years ago, is priced at $100 and almost $70 cheaper than the now discontinued SF5 (if it is indeed the same IEM, I wonder how would those original SF5 buyer will feel like when they learn that UE could have sold the same IEM to them at $70 cheaper?). UE700, which was released just last year, has also became much cheaper, from the original $230 to the currently $150. While I have not objection about company lowering the price of their products, the approach UE (or should I say Logitech) has chosen is just bad for marketing. As a consumer, it makes me wonder if it is just the bad economy that forces UE to cut their price in order to attract more customers, or perhaps it is the flood of newer, better and cheaper IEM that makes UE to reevaluate their high markup policy? The only thing I can be sure of, is that it isn't going to look good for UE as an audiophile brand. It certainly makes me feel like the value of the brand has been diluted to follow what the mother company is good at: mass production and marketing. Where is the audiophile / sound quality association anymore?
Check out the new (confusingly named and priced) UE600, UE500, UE350, and UE200. I am sure most of us will find it nice for UE to have down-to-earth pricing, but I am a little worry about the brand's identity for now.
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