Back in October I bought my first set of PD-6600s. I am happy with them and quite liked the "polished aluminium" finish.

Now I just received my second set and to my horror they have a matt-silverish grey finish to them and don't appear to be as nicely finished.

Are there two types of PD--6600? or did Shimano decide they looked too much like DA and decided to cheapen the appearance and hope nobody noticed?

My PD-R600, predecessor to the PD-6600, are polished; my DA PD-7800 are grey anodized, like your "second set". Are you sure both your sets are 6600 (look under the back end of the pedal for exact model)? Maybe some of the old R600 bodies made it to 6600 production. October would have been very early in the 6600 distribution.

My first set are in fact PD-R600, and my second set are PD-6610. I thought R600s were a much earlier release.

However, I believe the new 2005 satin-silver finish looks much cheaper than the polished R600s. I would be even more upset if I spent extra on DA pedals and got the same finish.