Archives for October 31, 2018

USA: Creative Super X-Fi pre-orders November 1st [today]

For the USA market, Creative (formerly Labs) are NOW accepting pre-orders for their brand new Super X-Fi headphone amp (aka SXFI) for $150. And for a limited time, while supplies last, during the pre-ordering period, pre-orders will receive a FREE pair of SXFI certified Creative Aurvana SE SFXI earphones per the bottom of the press release [screenshot of that section below]…

The earphones are added automatically included in the order when you add the SFXI amp to the shopping cart. The product title in the shopping cart indicates there are free earphones included [screenshot inside the shopping cart below]:

This has already been released in Singapore. Creative is learning from the world of smartphones and they are attempting to build a whole ecosystem around this with various SFXI-certified headphones and such.

They have also unleashed a FREE Google Play music player app that takes advantage of the technology but everyone can use it. It requires Android 6 and later and is 54MB. It was updated a couple of days ago.

Here’s a 3 minute video from the IDG/PC-World group of companies talking about this…

October 31, 2018 Filed Under: amps and dacs Tagged With: ,

New at Massdrop (Thursday 9am ET): Hifiman Edition XX Open planars for $600

UPDATE: the shipping estimate has been revealed, it is the end of May 2019, that’s almost seven months from now, so patience is a virtue even for the patient ^_^

Massdrop strikes again! The date of interest this time is Thursday November 1st at 9am eastern! At that very point in time, after the Halloween festivities are over, they will launch a brand new custom co-brand headphone, the Hifiman Edition XX, an open-back planar-magnetic over-ear headphone. The verbiage at Massdrop says that at 20 ohm, an amplifier is not required, it can be driven from a laptop or portable media player. But what about the Sandisk Clip Plus? 🙂

The price is revealed in the listing, it will be $600 with free US shipping and subsidized international shipping. It will come with a 1-year manufacturer warranty which makes sense since it is a Hifiman x Massdrop co-operation.

The big unknown that will be revealed tomorrow is the shipping estimate. This is a new product, so I’m guessing don’t expect it to arrive in 2018 🙂

October 31, 2018 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: , , ,

Sandisk Clip Jam (8GB) for $30

The lime-green and red-orange color-schemes of the new condition Sandisk Clip Jam mp3 player are on sale for $30 with Prime shipping at Amazon’s website. These are newer models, after the legendary “Clip+”. They come with a 2-year warranty and support mp3, AAC, WMA, WAV and Audible’s DRM for audiobooks.

In addition to the 8GB on-board, they also have a microSD slot for additional storage. I don’t have this newer model, but I am frequently rotating between my three “Clip+” models which also have on-board storage plus microSD. You can view the music separately or together in the player.

It looks like this model however, unlike the Clip+, it does not have the Rockbox option…

October 31, 2018 Filed Under: digital audio players Tagged With:

AKG N90Q Reference ANC Over-Ears for $1000

For a limited time only, B&H Photo is offering the new condition AKG N90Q Reference class ANC over-ear closed-back headphones for a flat $1000 with free shipping and handling. Interesting choice to add ANC to a reference-priced headphone but if all the headphones were the same, it would be more boring 🙂

October 31, 2018 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: ,

Monoprice Headphone Stand (Aluminum) for $18 w/free S&H

Monoprice is back with a handful of special audio-related offers, some of which get unconditional free standard US shipping without coupons or other songs-and-dances…

+ Headphone Stand (PID 24462) for $18 with free standard US shipping
+ full aluminum construction; no assembly required

+ Monolith by Monoprice 6ft RCA Cable for $18 with free standard US shipping

+ Onyx Series Auxiliary 3.5mm TRS Audio Cable, 3ft for $1.05

+ Monolith by Monoprice Amplifier/Component Stand for $24

+ Lightweight on-ear headphones for $19
+ unboxing post coming soon [pictures taken; I must process them and write up the blog-post]…

October 31, 2018 Filed Under: accessories Tagged With: ,

SMSL SH-8 Head-Amp for $160, SU-8 DAC for $200, Both $340

Massdrop strikes again! Unlocked and ready for purchase with an early December 2018 shipment date is the new condition SMSL SU-8 DAC & SH-8 Headphone Amp drop [aka offer]. There are three options in this listing ~ you select them at the checkout. The SU-8 DAC goes for $200, the SH-8 amp goes for $160, or you can buy both for $340 [a $20 off combined purchase discount; stingy?] There are discussions, reviews and links for these models over there at the aforelinked MD webpage…

October 31, 2018 Filed Under: amps and dacs Tagged With: ,

Free Universal Case with Sennheiser HD 280 for $100

Proper studio headphones they are, the Sennheiser HD 280, and for a limited time, B&H Photo is bundling a FREE Auray UHC-725 Universal Headphone Case, all together going for $100. The case goes for $20 on its own and comes with a 1-year warranty of its own. The HD 280 are a known quantity. The case averages 4.8 out of 5 based on 14 customer reviews and it has a few questions answered as well. Between those and the pictures and descriptions [dimensions under the SPECS sub-tab over there] you can get a feel on what other headphones you can fit inside.

October 31, 2018 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: , , ,

Fiio RC-SE1 earphone cable (3.5/MMCX) for $25

This is not a magic cable. It’s a practical cable 🙂 The new condition Fiio RC-SE1 earphone replacement 47-inch cable is currently on sale for $25 when you add it to the shopping cart at B&H Photo. It is 3.5mm on one end, and gold-plated MMCX on the other end.

October 31, 2018 Filed Under: accessories Tagged With: ,