Ecoxotic E-Series LED Light vs Current USA Satellite LED+

So it has come to my attention that Ecoxotic has come up with a new led light fixture that sports white led lights along with full spectrum lights, it's basically a current USA satellite led+ Only, way more expensive! Ecoxotica lights even come with a wireless remote that looks very similar to currents wireless remote, save for a couple different buttons etc.

Here's the thing, if I remember correctly, I read that current USA and Ecoxotic are affiliated with one another, so basically the same company.

With that being said, it bugs me that they could just make a "new" product (Ecoxotic e series) and sell it for way more than what the other product is being marketed at (satellite+)

When I looked at the Ecoxotic one, it's essentially current USA satellite led+ technology, built into a current USA satellite (non+) body/fixture (they're skinnier than the satellite+'s)

And yet the Ecoxotic one comes out as much more expensive. Could just be that it's a new product, but I feel like something is going on here.

18-24" current USA satellite led+ is only $76.90
18-24" Ecoxotic e series light is like $179.99

That's more than double the price of a current USA satellite led+!!
What gives? I can only imagine that the one by Ecoxotic has better par values, but I can't really test that out for sure. Anyway, if anyone else has any idea on these lights, please share them!

Reference to Ecoxotic's e series light:
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Here is some more info about the Ecoxotic light (par, lux, #of LEDs etc)
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I think the primary difference is that the e-series includes an external 2 channel programmable controller for timing, ramp up/down, etc. It's the greatest shortcoming of the sat+ series, imo.

Not sure if that accounts for the entire price diff. Also believe that adding a "luxury name", a few cosmetic changes, then selling the same product for way more is pretty common! (see: automobile industry).

I wasn't too sure if it came with the ramp timer or not, but I still don't think that would justify that much higher of a price, considering that current USA's ramp timer is like $25 or somewhere along the lines of that.

When I get home, I will do more research and see what I come up with. I hate navigating through my phone. It's not as easy hahaha

Upon further research, it seems that, while the Ecoxotic E-Series lights have less LED lights... they do have somewhat higher PAR values, compared to Current USA's Satellite+'s . . . Granted, I have no idea how they got their PAR values (if they were tested from an aquarium filled with water, or if they were tested from a tank without water, etc...) but, assuming that because they (Ecoxotic and Current USA) are sister companies (or whatever), they may have tested within the same controlled environments (at least, let's just assume so, to make things easier).

Let's make a quick comparison:
Brand: Ecoxotic
Size: 18"-24"
Voltage: 24Volts DC
Wattage: 16Watts
LEDs: 8 White/2 RGB
PAR at 24" depth: 45

Brand: Current USA
Size: 18"-24"
Voltage: 12Volts DC
Wattage: 13Watts
LEDs: 36 White/18 RGB
PAR at 24" depth: 21

Here are more indepth infographics for each light:
Ecoxotic E-Series Light:
(http://www.ecoxotic.com/community/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/E_Series_Technical-Specification1.jpg)



Current USA Satellite LED+
(http://current-usa.com/aquarium-led-lights/satellite-freshwater-led-plus/)

The Ecoxotic uses LED emitters running around 1 watt vs. the Satellite + runs LEDs around 0.15 watts. There is a sweet spot around 1 to 2 watts where LEDs are at their best - putting out the most light per watt. The E-Series, as well as most other higher end (Build My LED, Radion, Aquatic Illumination, etc) use LEDs in this range - because there is a wide market for them (light bulb replacement, car tail lights), they also tend to be higher quality pieces than the lower wattage ones. The 18" e-Series is 24 watts vs. the Satellite plus is 13 watts - it's a pretty big difference . . . and it includes the ramp timer - the cost difference makes perfect sense to me.

With that few LED's you will probably get a spotlighting effect- Cory showed me this in the store when I was new to all this with an older fixture which only had 5 LED's over too big of an area, and it really did look bad when fish passed under it, going from bright spot to dark and then back to bright. But, I suppose if they are that much brighter and have proper lenses to spread out the light, it would work better in theory.

The optics definitely factor more into the quality of the light as you get into brighter sources. These aren't far enough apart I'd be worried about spotlighting - looking at the spec sheets, the LEDs are spaced about 1.25 inches apart - and these type of LEDs tend to be 1/2 inch or so in diameter - so probably not too bad. Still not sure whether they're the best deal or not - These cost almost as much as BuildMyLED lights, and don't put out nearly as much PAR, but include more features for the price.