1. I think dropping the price later has a lesser effect than dropping it shortly after launch. Some sort of price drop is always expected and it always comes, but it rarely comes sooner than say 6 months+ after launch, unless the said product does not sell well, where the price drop might come sooner rather than later.
By lowering prices early, HFM was/would be hurting the early adopters/royal buyers, who spread the word initially and helped their success or spread in the first place.
In their defense, the HE-5/5LE was their first foray into the headphone field, so I can't really blame them for handling this perfectly. My first purchase from them was the HE-6, which is still holding up very well at their retail. Also, the recent lowering of the 500/400 price, just before the 560/400i release, was a good move IMO as you can kinda call it a clearance price before the said products are discontinued. It was definitely not perfect [and the earliest adopters have the right to be pissed] but HFM hopefully learnt their lesson.
That is, fast price drops and revisions are not a good thing for consumers and their business, and that's exactly why [I reckon] they're taking their time now to do it right the first time through. Much better approach than revisions and price drops, certainly!
2. That'd be nice but Sennheiser actually did the opposite! In Europe, the HD800 actually went up in price a year or so ago [from $1300 to $1500]. It's now the same for EU and US but it'd be nice to have something cheaper for once, especially since they're manufactured in Germany.
3.I don't think so, more in point 1.
4.Certainly hope so, see point 1. They probably did drop/rise the price to make a distinction in the line-up [HE-6 went from $1099 to $1299 and HE-500 went from $899 to $699]. I bought the HE-6 later at $1299, but since the headphone is worth the price [much like the HE-500 seemed to be actually worth even the initial $899]. Still if I bought the headphone and a week later the price would drop, I'd still be pretty angry.
5.Yes, exactly. I 100% agree with this. Revisions are certainly much more harmful IMO. With price drops, you do lose some money if you're planning to sell the headphone but with revisions, most of the time you're stuck with a worse product [unless said company is willing to upgrade your pair to a newer revision for free or for a small fee] which might bring the price down even more than a price drop would. More often than not, a revision does something significant to make the product better and again, this really is a punch in the face to the early adopters.
So bottom line, price drops are IMO somewhat tolerable and understandable, while revisions only deter you from further purchases.
6. Buying a new headphone is certainly a big unknown. With the HE-400 for instance, the rev.1 headphone was significantly different than rev.2, which was then superior to rev.3, which was then replaced again by rev.2 [or rev.4 if you will]. The rev.3 replacements were free of charge so kudos to HFM for that though.
With the HE-560/400i, being an early adopter here myself, the situation will be hopefully much better as I believe HFM is planning to make the "final" release later this month their last for the 560. They're hopefully NOT planning any revisions at least for a year or so [hopefully indicated by them really trying to get it right the first time] or any too-soon price drops [which, to get the R&D associated with the 560/400i back would not be viable for them anyway].
If they do, I really don't know what my reaction would be on that... Not positive, that's for sure!
Glad we can get a nice discussion going
