Archives for August 2019

15% off Audio & Sound gear with Stacksocial coupon

For a limited time, most likely part of the Labor Day festivities, coupon code SAVE15SOUND gets you 15% off the audio and sound gear at the Stacksocial website

Monoprice Retro closed over-ears for $26 w/FS

If you don’t want to wait for the Samson and Superlux variants to go on sale on their own, Monoprice is here to help because their website is offering the new condition Monoprice Retro closed over-ear headphones for the very specific price of $25.69 with free US standard shipping for a limited time only.

The headphones average 4.5 out of 5 based on 160+ customer reviews at the Monoprice website. I haven’t looked for comparisons between these and the Superlux/Samson variants, so your favorite forum and search engine are your friends…

NOTE that their non-detachable cable is nearly 10 feet long (three meters)…

For the speed readers out there, this is the closed back model. Not to be confused with a semi-open variant. We have a text-and-pictures unboxing here of the semi-open model, the Samson SR-850. A closer look at the earcup shells easily distinguishes the closed from the semi-open…

And with all that, we reach the conclusion of this blog post 🙂

Friday: SteelSeries Arctis 5 (2019 Edition) for $69

A computer gaming sale is the theme of the day for Friday 8/30/19 at the amazon.com Gold Box daily deals and of headphone interest, they are offering the new condition SteelSeries Arctis 5 (2019 Edition) for $69 with free shipping in the black color scheme with up to two pairs per customer at the sale price. This is an RGB Illuminated Gaming Headset with DTS Headphone:X v2.0 Surround and it can be used on PCs and PlayStation 4.

NOTE that when you are reading the customer reviews, you have to dig inside and filter them for this particular model because on the same root Amazon product page they have a a variety of other Arctis gaming headset models…

Thursday’s Feed the DAPs with 256GB Sandisk microSD for $30 and more

We have another “daily deals edition” of “Feed the DAPs”. It’s a computer accessories sale at Amazon USA’s Gold Box running for Thursday August 29 in 2019 and it is headlined by a FLAC hungry 256GB Sandisk ULTRA microSD card going for $30 (up to two per customer). There’s also a 512GB version for $80, but as you can tell from the numbers, the 256GB wins on bang for the buck…

Also part of the sale are external hard drives from Toshiba and Western Digital ranging from 2TB to 10TB and for the speed-hungry there’s a 500GB Sandisk Extreme PRO external SSD with a USB-C connector.

There’s also a variety of 2-in-1 style laptops and monitors and a few other accessories.

And of on-topic interest, the new condition SteelSeries Arctis 3 Console (2019 Edition) goes for $49 with up to two per customer at the sale price…

Thursday: Bang & Play H8i Closed ANC/BT On-Ears for $300

It’s back on again, mayhaps Best Buy has a special relationship with Bang & Olufsen because the BeoPlay H8i headphone (closed-back, on-ear, bluetooth, ANC) is back on sale again for $300 with free shipping at the Best Buy website for Thursday 8/29/19…

KEF Porsche Design Space One for $150

New Egg is having a bit of an early Labor Day sale with some headphones included. There are many “Fuji Labs” earphones participating but the headliner is the new condition KEF Porsche Design Space One closed-back bluetooth over/on-ears [can’t tell from the pictures] going for $150 with free shipping. The sale is good until next Monday Sept 2, 2019…

Starts Wedn 10:25am ET: refurb Beats Solo 2

According to the Amazon Gold Box teasers, starting at 10:25am eastern on Wednesday 8/28/19 there’s going to be a lightning deal on the renew (refurbished) Beats Solo 2 on-ears. This is available in three different colors. I don’t know which color(s) will be on sale. Their prices before the sale range from $89 to $109. I do not know what the sale price will be ~ it will be revealed for all to see when the offers go live…

Shortly after that, starting at 11:10am, there’s gonna be a lightning deal on the new condition Symphonized NRG 3.0 in-ears with the price before the sale being $22 for five of the six color schemes. They average 4.2 out of 5 based on over 2700 customer reviews. I don’t have this particular model but we have a text-and-pictures unboxing of the NRG 2.0 model

And if you are a fan of truly wireless, all kinds of them are running throughout the day. You can see them all at the Headphone Lightning Deals

Wedn: Sony WF1000X/BM1 Truly Wireless for $70

It’s truly wireless time on Wednesday as one of the Woot deals of the day with the new condition Sony WF1000X/BM1 going for $70 with free shipping for Prime or $6 flat for non-Primes. You can buy up to ten units per shopping cart at the sale price. They come with a 1-year Sony warranty…

I don’t have a lot of experience with truly-wireless [battery life being one of the scarecrows] so I can’t tell you much about it ~ the only truly wireless I’ve used is the Jaybird Run

Tuesday: refurb Logitech G933 Artemis for $60

Good until Tuesday at 11:59pm central time (or earlier if it manages to sell out ahead of time) you can get the factory reconditioned Logitech G933 Artemis gaming headset for $60 with free shipping for Prime members or $6 flat shipping for non-members. Limit up to ten pairs per customer at the sale price. They come with a 90-day Logitech warranty…

$5 off coupon: Linsoul KZ ZS10 IEMs

When you are logged on to your Amazon account, you can clip a $5 off “green” coupon to your account for various colors and options of the new condition Linsoul KZ ZS10 in-ears, a 5-driver model with four balanced armatures and one dynamic.

They have detachable 2-pin cables. Their prices hover around $50 as of the time of writing depending on color/option. The option is with or without a mic/remote. They average 4.6 out of 5 based on 101 customer reviews and they have 21 answered questions…

Monday: Razer Gaming Headsets and Hammerhead in-ears

It’s Razer day at the Woot daily deals for Monday 8/26/19 with a number of gaming products including the following headphone-related items:

+ Hammerhead bluetooth earphones for $60, for iOS for $74
+ these are multiple-flanged, so keep that in mind if you like or don’t like this style of in-ear insertion

+ four over/on-ear headsets ranging from $48 (D.Va Meka) to $120 (Tiamat 7.1 V2) with the Man-O-War TE for $60 and the Kraken Pro V2 for $64 in-between.

All these are new condition with a 2-year Razer warranty.

PS: speaking of gaming, there’s a clearance sale on MSI computers in the “Computers” Woot daily deal…

Thursday (starts 9:20am ET): HifiWalker A1 and A2 Gold Box offers

If you are a fan of the Hifi Walker brand and want to get them with Amazon Prime shipping (instead of waiting for the tall chi-fi ships to arrive), then today, Thursday August 22 in 2019 there are two Gold Box Lightning Deals scheduled on them as follows:

+ starts 9:20am ET: Hifi Walker A1 in-ears
+ price before the sale is $24~

+ starts 9:40am ET: Hifi Walker A2 in-ears
+ price before the sale is $23~

Dekoni Blue Fostex Planar Semi-Open Over-Ears for $180 [MD]

Fostex the People! The Massdrop offer on the new condition Fostex Dekoni Blue planar magnetics for $180 with free US shipping is nearing the end of this cycle at Massdrop. This is yet another variant of the good old Fostex T50RP Mark III, a fookin’ legend in Flea Bottom at HeadFi’s Landing 😉 The package includes an extra set of earpads, so you get one set of hybrids and one set of velour.

The orders will ship in mid-September 2019 from the vendor. There is no mention of warranty in the listing.

As a refresher, the Fostex T50RP-III and subsequently this variant are semi-open headphones…

Wedn: Jabra Elite Active 65t truly wireless for $90

Good until Wednesday at 8/21/19 at 11:59pm central time (or earlier if sold out), Woot is offering as one of their daily deals the new condition Jabra Elite Active 65t truly wireless for $90 with free shipping for Prime members or $6 flat for all calendar-day purchases per customer. Up to ten units per customer during this sale. They come with a 90-day Woot warranty, not a 1-year manufacturer warranty.

Tin Audio T3 IEMs for $60 [MD]

I’ve fallen behind on the latest Massdrop offerings, and since I can’t post them all at once, I’m starting with something small (in-ears) and reasonably priced ($60) and popular with Massdrop shoppers (over 2,500 units sold). It is the new condition Tin Audio T3 IEMs going for $60 with free US shipping.

IT comes with a 1-year manufacturer warranty and will ship in late August from Massdrop. This has MMCX connectors.

Monoprice Summer Clearance with FREE US shipping: Protein Leather Pads for $10, M600 Open Over-Ears for $60, Monolith Tube amp for $280, Electrostatic Headphone + Amp for $350, Etc

The Monoprice Overstock sale has some potentially interesting offerings for headphone fans as well. A total of seven options show when you filter for headphones including:

+ Memory Foam Protein Leather earpads for $10

+ MP20 in-ears for $12

+ M600 open-back dynamic over-ears for $60

+ M1060 planar open over-ears for $250

+ monster-sized Monolith Tube amplifier for $280

+ Electrostatic headphone with dedicated amplifier for $350

+ the M300 planar earphones go for $100 [corrected typo] which was their previous price

+ find them all in the Headphones Clearance page

All the items mentioned above come with free US standard shipping during this promotion. No coupon is needed. When the free shipping offer ends, it will simply stop being mentioned at the individual Monoprice product pages.

Now shipping: Monoprice multi-driver IEMs including the Quintet

The “Driver Wars” did not fail to gain traction at the Monoprice website and now they have up to five drivers in their latest in-ears. The Quintet (five drivers per side as the name suggests) goes for $80, the Quartet goes for $60, and the Trio goes for $50.

That’s about $16 per driver because headphone drivers are just like buying groceries by the pound or storage by the gigabyte 🙂

These have a detachable cable and they are new enough they don’t have any customer reviews on the Monoprice website. This is the first time I’ve heard of these, so I know nothing Jon Snow about them 🙂

Speaking of which, this is a handy link, it shows the last new products to hit the Monoprice online store. This is all products, not audio-related only…

Music Software return in PWYW Humble Bundle

If you are a fan of “pay what you want” promotions, the Humble Bundle is back with their MAGICX Music Software sale for the next eight days (as of the time of writing of this post).

+ paying $1+ gets you one software title: Music Maker (EDM Edition).

+ paying $16+ (beating the average) gets you two additional software titles: ACID Music Studio 10 and MP3 Deluxe 19

+ paying $25+ gets you three additional titles: Sound Forge PRO 10, ACID PRO 8, and Soundpool (Electric Trap)

Check the listing over there for terms and conditions and restrictions and things of that nature…

Monday (starts 6:49pm ET): TIN T2 PRO IEMs lightning deal

Speaking of lightning deals, starting at 6:09pm ET they are gonna have an offer on the new condition Tin Audio T2 PRO in-ears. There are three different models on the same listing, so it’s possible the others may also be on sale, or maybe one of the others is on sale instead. Unfortunately the Gold Box teasers are not very deterministic in situations where there are multiple models on the same root listing.

Note also that the T2 PRO has a $3 off clip-on coupon on its product page which should be stackable with the lightning deal discount. You have to be logged on to your Amazon account in order to clip the coupon to your Amazon account.

Starting at the same time they’ll have a lightning deal on a 2019 TaoTronics ANC/bluetooth combo headphone which goes for $70 before the sale. It is available in three different color schemes… I’m not familiar with all these new budget ANC/bluetooth combos, so be sure to check reviews and forums and such if you are not already familiar with them…

Monday (starts 12:49pm ET): KZ ES4 Lightning Deal

If you are a fan of the way KZ is doing in-ears and you don’t want to wait for a few weeks for these to arrive from China, starting at 12:49pm ET on Monday 8/19/19, there will be a lightning deal on the KZ ES4 in-ears at Amazon USA. Note that there are multiple options on the listing: different colors and with/without a microphone. We do not know ahead of time which one(s) of the options will be the lightning deal, so be sure to check the various options or go through the headphone tag in the Amazon Gold Box to find it quickly…

Monday (EU): Sony and Anker Headphone sale

It is Sony day at the Amazon Germany Gold Box or as the cool kids in Germany like to call it, the Ange Bote 😉 Among the Sony products on sale they have the following headphones on sale for Monday August 19 in 2019:

+ ZX-310 closed on-ears for 15 euro
+ I had this headphone in my to-go bag for a while, I swear this must have been tuned in a moderately busy coffee shop because it sounds very serviceable there but when you listen to it in a quiet place, it sounds quite un-audiophile

+ ZX-330BT bluetooth on-ears for 39 euro

+ MDR-XB950N1 ANC/bluetooth closed over-ears for 90 euro two color options

+ WH-H900N ANC/bluetooth closed over-ears for 160 in three color options
+ yes, Sony has a multi-tier approach for their ANC/bluetooth combos

BUT that’s not all. When you further scroll through the daily deals, there’s also a combo Anker and Soundcore sale. Soundcare is an Anker sub-brand because it sounds more audio-ish than Anker? Anyway, their offerings for Monday:

+ Soundcore Life2 closed bluetooth over-ears for 38 euro

+ Soundcore Spirit X exercise bluetooth earphones for 25 euro
+ Anker SoundBuds slim bluetooth earphones for 21 euro

+ Soundcore Liberty truly wireless earphones for 60 euro
+ mono wireless headset for 12 euro

+ and of course the obligatory handful of portable bluetooth speakers

Wedn: PowerBeats 3 bluetooth earphones for $70

Good until 11:59pm ET on Wednesday August 14 in 2019, at B&H Photo, you can get the new condition PowerBeats 3 bluetooth earphones, part of their “Neighborhood Collection” in the asphalt gray color scheme, going for $70 with free US shipping…

Tue: Fuji Labs HD 200 Wireless headphones for $35

Good for Tuesday August 13 in 2019 until 11:59pm pacific time, through the NewEgg website but sold and shipped by the manufacturer of the product, you can get the new condition Fuji Labs HD 200 Wireless headphones for $35 with free US shipping. Limit up to three pairs per customer at the sale price.

The specs promise that even at 80% volume you don’t disturb others near you (they are closed-back after all). They also promise up to 42 hours music playback time and have a LiPo battery. They average 4 out of 5 based on nine customer reviews.

I can’t tell for certain by looking at the pictures and casually looking at the reviews and answers whether these are over-ear or on-ears….

V-Moda Crossfade Wireless (closed over-ear bluetooths) for $100

The deal is back! Grab your e-wallets! Amazon actual is offering the four color schemes of the new condition V-Moda Crossfade Wireless closed-back over-ear bluetooth (but no ANC) headphones for $100 each. This is not a lightning deal, so expiration time/date is unknown to me. There is a second generation model, this is the first generation model, which was based up on the Crossfade M100 (first generation).

At Amazon, this on-sale wireless averages 4.2 out of 5 based on 770+ customer reviews, and it has nearly 250 answered questions.

PS: I believe you’ll find some VModa – Headfi fanfics at some of the fanfic websites 😉

Sony WH-1000X M3 with 20,000 mAh Power Bank for $298

It’s bundle up time, Focus Camera with the orders fulfilled by Amazon has created a bundle centered on the new condition Sony WH-1000X M3 closed over-ear headphone (with ANC and bluetooth) they are including a 20,000 Phone Energy power bank with it. The price listed is $348 BUT there is a $50 clip-on coupon [you have to be logged on to your Amazon account to clip the coupon to your Amazon account ~ obviously], which brings the price down to $298. This offer is available in either color scheme.

Meanwhile in Europe, there is no power bank bundle, but the standard headphone itself is currently on sale for 288 euro at Amazon Germany where it averages 4.4 out of 5 based on 600+ customer reviews and it has over 350 answered questions…

Friday: Master & Dynamic MW60 Closed Bluetooth Over-Ears for $250

There’s also a big battle for the “fashion” headphone brands at around $300-ish, it’s not just the ANC/Bluetooth over-ear combos. In the “Stylish Wars”, Master & Dynamic is firing a new volley for Friday 8/9/19, the headliner Best Buy deal of the day is their new condition MW60 Closed Bluetooth Over-Ears going for $250 with free store pickup (wherever possible) and/or free shipping within the US…

Also part of the Friday daily deals at Best Buy, they have the Aluratek bluetooth audio receiver AND transmitter going for $30…

1More Piston Fit in-ears for $10 [four colors]

On the budget side of things, four different color schemes of the new condition 1More Piston Fit in-ears are down to $10 by Amazon actual and you can buy as many as you want. They average 3.9 out of 5 based on 130+ customer reviews. They have a single button remote with a mic. Some of the colors look nice in the pictures (blue, pink) but I haven’t seen them in person, so YMMV…

Speaking of 1More, their new condition Dual Driver in-ears are on sale for the very specific price of $32.40 in the black color scheme. These average 3.8 out of 5 based on nearly 200 customer reviews BUT the reviews of the dual-driver and single-driver are grouped together, so you have to dig into the customer reviews to see which one is for which…

Sony WI-C310 bluetooth earphones for $28

Singing the same MAP song, many authorized Sony dealers have dropped the price of the new condition WI-C310 bluetooth earphones in different color schemes to $28 for the duration of this promotion, eg amazon.com with its many marketplace sellers…

Tue: Tascam TH-07 Closed Over-Ear Monitors for $50

Good til Tuesday 8/5/19 at 11:59pm ET (or earlier if it manages to sell out) you can get the new condition closed-back over-ear monitor-designated Tascam TH-07 headphones for $50 with free USA shipping at New York’s finest B&H Photo… Optionally you can add a headphone stand to your value meal for +$13…

They have three happy customer reviews so far…