Archives for December 2019

Wedn: iLuv BubbleGum Air truly-wireless for $20

Happy 2020 with a new daily deal, good until 11:59pm ET on New Year’s Day, it is the new condition iLUV Bubble Gum [do NOT chew them!] Air truly-wireless earphones going for $20 with free US shipping at B&H Photo where it is one of their deals of the day. Up to five pairs per customer at the sale price. As of the time of writing they have zero customer reviews…

Massdrop sale of the decade is ON (HD-58X, Noble Uni, Koss Electro, Etc)

Massdrop is currently running their Sale of the Decade, as the parade / barrage / onslaught of decade puns in articles and sales continues…

Among them (in price order by product type):

OVER/ON EARS
+ Sennheiser PC-39X gaming headset for $90
+ Hifiman HE-4XX planars for $130
+ Sennheiser HD-58X Jubilee for $135
+ KOSS ESP/95X electrostatic system for $400
+ Hifiman Edition XX for $500
+ FOCAL ELEX for $600
+ MR Speakers ETHER CX closed-back for $700

IN-EARS
+ NuForce Stride bluetooth necklace-style for $40
+ NuForce EDC3 for $60
+ Noble X Universal for $125
+ Empire Ears Zeus Universal for $750

DAC/Amps
+ LEX CAVALLI LIQUID CARBON X AMP for $160

Bower & Wilkins PX ANC BT Oval Over/On-Ears for $230

NOTE: Because of the oval shape, I’m not sure I buy into the over-ear claim of these, so be sure to research it…

For a limited time, Amazon actual is having a sale on the new condition Bower & Wilkins PX ANC BT headphones for $230 with up to five pairs per customer at the sale price. Two color schemes are available. They average 3.9 out of 5 based on 460+ customer ratings…

NOTE that these are now a previous generation model. The current B&W ANC Oval-Ear headphones are the PX5 and PX7 models which go for $248 and $348 and are on-ear and over-ear respectively.

Thur: Auray headphone holder contraption for $12

Good until 12/26/19 at 11:59pm eastern (or before that if it somehow manages to sell out or run out), you can get the new condition Auray headphone holder with adjustable angle for $12 at NY’s B&H Photo with up to five per customer at the sale price…

This averages 4.5 out of 5 based on 50+ customer reviews. Note that this is not a conventional stand, in that it does not stand by itself, you have to attach it to something using its clamp. Can be used vertically or horizontally. Measurements of the padded area and such can be found on the aforelinked product page. Check the reviews as well to see how it fits various headphones mentioned by the various viewers-like-you…

Sunday: AirPods with Charging Case for $145

One of the Sunday daily deals at the Best Buy website is the new condition Apple AirPods with a (wired) charging case going for $145 with free US shipping and/or store pickup where possible. Only this option/combo is on sale…

Sunday: Polsen HPS-A40 Over-Ears (w/Bass adjustment) for $50

Good until Sunday 12/22/19 at 11:59pm ET, there is a headphone among the B&H deals of the day, it is the new condition closed-back over-era Polsen HPS-A40 going for $50 with free US shipping. One unusual thing about this headphone is that it has a 3-level bass adjustment. It averages 5 out of 5 but based on just three customer reviews…

JLab JBuds Air Icon for $40 [truly wireless]

As part of their 12 days of deals, the Best Buy website is offering the new condition JLab Audio JBuds Air Icon Truly Wireless earphones for $40 with free store pickup and/or free shipping depending on the situation.

These average 4.2 out of 5 based on 225+ customer reviews at Best Buy.

My only experience with truly-wireless so far has been the Jaybird Run [see partial unboxing]. The low(er) battery life eats away at its benefits as the battery life of over/on-ear bluetooth headphones has increased dramatically… But that of course depends on your needs/preferences/priorities and so forth…

Sony ZX310-AP Closed On-Ears for $19

Through the magic of price-matching, currently the new condition closed-back on-ear Sony ZX-310AP/B headphone is on sale for $19 at NewEgg (by Newegg actual) and by Amazon actual. Up to three per customer at each retailer…

The “AP” stands for remote control button for an Android phone, and the “/B” stands for the black color scheme…

I’ve used both the ZX310 and the ZX100 and I’m convinced these were tuned for use in a (at least moderately loud) coffee shop. There, they sound very serviceable but listening to them in a quiet place brings out the worst of them…

UPDATE: speaking of Amazon, as part of cascading AmazonBasics (house brand) sales, they are offering the AB replacement cables for Bose Quiet Comfort headphones for about $11 per cable. Not related to the Sonys, I’m just stuffing this here because it does not warrant a separate post…

Wedn: Audio Technica M-series sale (M20x for $35, M40x for $69, M50x for $103, M50xBT for $129)

It’s a big Audio Technica day at the Amazon Gold Box for Wednesday 12/18/19. Hiding inside a Gaming and Streaming sale a number of well-regarded closed-back over-ear Audio Tehcnica ATH-M series headphones are on sale:

+ M20x for $35
+ M40x for $69
+ M50x for $103
+ M50x bluetooth for $129

The sale also includes Blue Yeti USB microphones for $89 each and the Razer Kraken Tournament Edition THX 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset for $55…

Limit three of each item at the sale price. You may be able to get more if any of the marketplace sellers are also offering it at the same price…

Wedn: Sony Xperia Duo, Anker/Soundcore, JBL, Etc

For a limited time on Wednesday, B&H Photo is offering the new condition Sony Xperia Ear Duo truly wireless earphones on sale for $80 with free US shipping in the gold color scheme…

On the other site of the pond, Amazon Germany is having a sale on Anker’s Soundcore audio gear including truly wireless models starting at $30, bluetooth necklace-style earphones starting at $10, bluetooth over-ears starting at $40, exercise bluetooth earphones starting at $20, and various bluetooth speakers.

Meanwhile at NewEgg, this is not doing well in customer reviews, but if you know what it is and why you need it, the JBL headphone charging case is on sale for $9, with up to three per customer at the sale price…

Tuesday: NuForce BeFree5 Truly wireless for $25

Good until Tuesday 12/17/19 at 11:59pm ET, B&H Photo is offering the new condition NuForce BE Free5 truly wireless earphones for $25 with free US shipping. They are available in black or blue color schemes with up to per customer. They average 4.5 out of 5 but based on just three customer reviews.

For more sales, check their latest holiday season offers

Monday: Samson SR-350 for $10

Good until Monday 12/16/19 at 11:59pm eastern (or earlier if sold out), you can get the new condition closed-back over-ear Samsong SR-350 headphone for $10 with free US shipping as one of the deals du jour at NYC’s B&H Photo. This is the Special Edition Blue color scheme.

This should not be confused with the more famous Samson SR-850/950 headphones which share common ancestry with equivalent Superlux models. Just don’t ask me to recite all the models 🙂

Sennheiser HD8 DJ Closed-Over-Ears for $140

Good until 12/14/19 at 11:59pm eastern time, B&H Photo is offering the new condition closed-back over-ear Sennheiser HD8 DJ headphones for $140 with free shipping within the USA. Up to three per customer at the sale price. There, they average close to 5 out of 5 based on a Michael Jordan number of customer reviews…

PS (SPOILER ALERT): 23 customer reviews…

PS2: this is part of their latest offers for the holiday shopping season…

PS3: speaking of limited time deals, Amazon Germany is offering this AmazonBasics Transport for the Bose Soundlink Revolve speaker for under 4 euro. You can also fit other similarly shaped items in there. Check pictures, dimensions (I shouldn’t say measurements in an audio blog because some people might be measuring bags too) and customer reviews to see what else might fit inside…

Thur: Polsen HPC-A30 studio headphones for $15

Good until Thursday 12/12/19 at 11:59pm ET (or earlier if sold out), one of the B&H latest offers is the new condition closed-back over-ear Polsen HPC-A30 headphone offered for $15 with free US shipping…

It averages 4 out of 5 based on 70+ customer reviews. Off the top of my head it reminds me of a Tascam model, I’m getting visuals of a red/black color scheme, but I could be totally wrong…

Beyerdynamic DT770 (80 ohm) with $50 pGC for $179

As part of the limited time Green Monday festivities at NewEgg, you can check out their headphone sales which are headlined by the new condition Beyerdynamic DT770 (80 ohm) closed-back over-ear bundled with a $50 promotional gift card (hence the “pGC” in the blog-post title) going for $179 with free US shipping. Limit two per customer. This is sold and shpped by NewEgg…

Monoprice with Free S&H: Eapards for $9, Triple IEMs for $28, Planars for $70+

As part of the Green Monday festivities, Monoprice too has a Green Monday sale and they also have an Overstock/Clearance sale and in that sale they feature 10 headphones/earphones on sale as follows:

+ Memory Foam protein leather earpads for $9

+ Triple Driver IEMs for $28

+ Sonic Solace ANC/bluetooth over-ears for $50 in two colors

+ Monolith M300 planar earphoness for $70

+ M565 open-back over-ear planars for $157~

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

+ Monolith electrostatic headphone with amplifier for $300

+ space-eater Monolith Tube Amplifier with ESS Sabre for $190

+ all the items mentioned above in this post come with free US shipping

Focal Earpads for ELEX for $60

Massdrop is back with something specific and utilitarian, the FOCAL earpads for the ELEX headphones are currently running at Massdrop for $60 with free US shipping and returns. Nearly 500 units of these have been sold.

NOTE that these will ship on April Fool’s Day in 2020, that’s 3.5 months from the time of writing of this post, so keep that in mind if you need earpads yesterday…

Monday: Senal SMH-1000 Studio Headphones for $45

If you are looking for new condition studio headphones and cannot wait for another Sony MDR-7506 or V6 sale, then good until 11:59pm ET on Monday 12/9/19, B&H Photo is offering as one of their daily deals the new condition closed-back over-ear Senal SMH-1000 Studio Headphones for $45 with free US shipping. You can buy as many as you want at the sale price. They average 4.5 out of 5 based on 210+ customer reviews. The headphones come with a 3-year warranty, a rarity at these price [with a few notable exceptions such as the Koss limited lifetime warranty]..

Optionally, at the page over there, you can bundle them with the Auray Extra Deep Earpads for +$13 more. These Auray earpads are also compatible with the Sony V6 and MDR-7506, which means that they are probably compatible with other headphones that are compatible with 7506/V6 earpads. Check reviews and answered-questions and dimensions and such to be certain…

Speaking of B&H, they have now launched their Green Monday deals, because every Monday needs its own unique name 🙂

Speaking of daily deals, Woot is offering Apple & Beats on sale as follows:

+ urBeats 3 in-ears for $40
+ BeatsX bluetooth neckband in-ears for $70
+ Apple Earpods volume buy offer, one pair for $13, two pairs for $18, three pairs for $22
+ note that these come only with a 90-day Woot warranty

Free 3-month Spotify Premium trial

IF you want to try the premium Spotify experience, for a limited time, Spotify is offering a FREE 3-Month Premium trial. During these 90 days you get all the benefits of a premium (aka paying) member, with offline downloads, no ads, and so on.

Given that these days most of the major music streaming providers are mega-corps (Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft on-and-off), it may not be a bad idea to support the independent player in the field ~ if nothing else to keep the big boys in check.

That’s what I did, I went from Google Play (and I was in on the launch-time $8/month rate) to Spotify Premium. Neither service is perfect, if one could take the best features of each and blend them together, that would be GREAT!

Sunday: microSD sale (up to 400GB) and HyperX Cloud Stinger for $30

Feed your DAPS and PADs (= phones as DAPs) at the Amazonian Gold Box during Sunday December 8 in 2019 because there is a storage and accessories sale running until 11:59pm PT (or earlier if sold out). You can get up to three units of the same item per shopping cart.

MicroSD cards, of PAD and DAP interest, are offered from Sandisk with storage options ranging from 64GB to 400GB and prices from $9 to $47. They also have full-size SD cards on sale (Sandisk, Lexar) if you like to put music in your laptop’s memory card slots. And then there are various USB flash drives for additional and more portable musical storage and backups.

The accessories part of the sale is mostly gaming gear, and among them is the new condition HyperX Cloud Stinger going for just $30…

Sunday: NuForce BE Free8 TW for $30

The sales continue at NYC’s world famous B&H Photo with their Green Monday sale and for Sunday 12/8/19, one of their deals du jour is the new condition NuForce BE Free8 truly wireless (TW) earphones going for $30 with free USA shipping. Up to twenty units per customer at the sale price…

Magazine Sale: Stereophile $6.75/yr, Sound&Vision $4.75/yr

If you like to leaf through glossy printed magazines, there is a big Weekend sale at the DiscountMags website. Of audio interest they have the following magazines, with prices being for per magazine per year:

+ Stereophile for $6.75 per year (12 issues)

+ Sound and Vision for $4.75 per year (six issues)

You can sign-up for up to three yeas per printed magazine delivered to USA addresses. Per magazine you can select whether you are starting a new subscription or renewing an existing one or buying it as a gift for other people or locations.

Bose sale: SoundLink AE Bluetooth for $179, Etc

“Beats and Bose, they break my bones” rhyme some audiophiles, but not all are on a hatorade campaign on everything that is popular with the normies 😉 Regardless, Amazon is currently running a Bose audio sale that includes the following headphones:

+ SoundLink over-ear wireless for $179
+ SoundSport Free truly-wireless for $169

+ various speakers for computers, stand-alone portable and soundbars

Wedn (ebook): David Byrne’s How Music Works for $2

Good until Wednesday 12/4/19 at 11:59pm pacific, one of Amazon’s Kindle daily deals is David Byrne’s (yes, the Talking Head one) ebook “How Music Works” going for $2. It averages 4.4 out of 5 based on 260+ customer ratings. It is nearly 400 pages long…

Tuesday (Phones as DAPs): Unlocked Samsung Galaxy Note 9 for $649

Betrayed by Samsung, headphone jack fans can say goodbye to the Note 10, and can mayhaps hold on to the Galaxy Note 9 which is the most recent (and previous generation model) that has a 3.5mm headphone jack. And as fate would have it, the factory unlocked Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is on sale for $650 in the 128GB edition or $840 in the 512GB edition (FLAC fans unite and takeover) as one of the Amazon Deals of the day for Tuesday December 3 in 2019.

Up to three devices per customer at the sale price (ends 11:59pm pacific time or earlier if sold out). Three is also the number of colors the phone is available in. Unlike the Note 10, there was just one Note 9. This is sold and shipped by Amazon actual, so no worries about the warranty…

Hifiman Edition XX Planars (Massdrop) for $500

The Massdrop action continues with the new condition Massdrop X Hifiman Edition< XX/a> planar magnetic headphones offered for a limited time for $500 with free US shipping and a 1-year manufacturer warranty with this being an “X” product…

For more action, check the other Massdrop Cyber Week offers

Tue: Sennheiser G4ME ONE PC Gaming Headset for $80

Good until Tuesday at 11:59pm central time, you can get the new condition Sennheiser G4ME ONE PC Gaming Headset for $80 with free shipping for Prime members (or $6 flat shipping for the calendar day) as one of the Woot deals of the day for Tuesday 12/3/19. Limit up to five per customer. It comes with a 90-day Woot warranty…

Focal Elegia Closed Over-Ears for $598

FOCAL’s first attempt to enter the consumer headphone market was not greeted as a liberator but their subsequent entry into the open-back audiophile world generated a whole lot more excitement. And soon after that they also released closed-back headphones. One of them is the Elegia over-ears and they are currently on sale for $598 with free shipping by a trio of marketplace sellers (including World Wide Audio) through Amazon

Sennheiser HD 4.50 ANC/Bluetooth Over-Ears for $80

It’s a Game of Thrones but also a Game of Exclusives! Best Buy appears to be currently having an exclusive on the black/red color scheme of the new condition closed-back over-ear ANC with bluetooth Sennheiser HD 4.50 headphones for $80 with free shipping or store pickups. You also get free 90-day trials for Pandora and Sirius XM. Free trials for new subscribers only.

On the other hand if you want to optimize for lower price, the official Sennheiser Outlet is selling them for 15% off their $82.49 price (around $70) through Amazon

Speaking of which, a few more Sennheiser headphones have limited time 10% off coupons on them at the Sennheiser on Amazon Outlet store…

Koss ESP/95X “Massdrop” Electrostatic system for $400

Come on Koss, let’s have an electrostatic party! Massdrop is offering the new condition KOSS ESP/95X ELECTROSTATIC SYSTEM, part of their “Massdrop X” program on sale for $400 with free US shipping and returns as part of their Cyber 2019 offers. This took is an in-stock drop so it will ship one business day after your purchase. No long wait nightmares like some of those baby-long drops of the past 🙂

Jaybird Tarah bluetooth earphones for $50

If you are looking for name-brand exercise bluetooth earphones, the new condition Jaybird Tarah is also participating in the Cyber Black festivities, on sale for $50 per pair in new condition in different colors at B&H Photo and Amazon (Where the black/flash color scheme already sold out) and Best Buy

Chord Mojo portable DAC/amp for $399

If you can’t resist those adorable little round buttons, the Chord Mojo portable DAC/amp is currently on sale by various recognizable marketplace sellers for $399 with free shipping at amazon.com. Or you can go used with $349 over there.

PS: as usual, when buying audio gear from online marketplace that have multiple sellers like Amazon, eBay, Newegg, etc, make sure you check who the seller is and whether they are an authorized dealer…

Sennheiser HD58X Jubilee for $135

For a limited time only, Massdrop is having a sale on the new condition open-back over-ear Sennheiser HD 58X Jubilee going for $135 with free US shipping and returns, and a 2-year Sennheiser warranty. This is a limited time offer. It is an in-stock drop, so it will ship the next business day after purchase…

This is part of their Cyber Monday 2019 sales that include the Beyerdynamic DT 177X, Noble IEMs, Koss, and more…

Bose Soundsport Free (TW) for $139

Also part of the CM festivities, the space-age looking “Ultraviolet” color scheme of the truly wireless Bose Soundsport Free is on sale for $139 with free US shipping at amazon.com with up to five pairs per customer at the sale price. The other three colors go for more. They average 3.8 out of 5 based on 3880+ customer reviews and they are tagged as an “Amazon Choice” product…

UPDAtE: speaking of Cyber Monday, there is also a big sale on Edifier audio products, a mix of headphones and speakers of different kinds with headphones staying under $50 but speakers going up to $480…

AKG Cyber Monday sale: N90Q for $600, N5005 for $500, N40 for $145 and more

The official AKG online store is having its own Cyber Monday sale and among their offers they have:

+ AKG N90Q noise cancelling reference over-ears for $600

+ AKG N5005 Reference in-ears for $500

+ AKG N40 in-ears for $145

+ N20 NC (ANC) in-ears for $88

+ open-back K702 for $179, K712 PRO for $269

+ closed-back K553 Mark II for $89

+ good old semi-open K240 for $44, K240 II for $71

+ they also have headphone bundles with AKG microphones