Archives for October 2023

Monolith M565C Planars for $200, AMT for $900, IEM for $1

A Halloween themed sale at Monoprice brings us, among other things, the new condition wired closed-back over-ear planar-magnetic Monolith M565C for $200, the Monolith AMT (Air Motion Transformer) headphones for $900, or for the same price you can buy almost 900 “Premium” (product name, PID 18591, 1-button mic/remote) IEMs at $1.04 each 🙂

Various other products are on sale including cables for all sorts of things.

Refurbished Philips X3 open-back for $80 [no balanced cable]

These are open to all customers, they are not part of the Prime Deals!

If you don’t need the balanced cable and you are comfortable with refurbished headphones, the open-back over-ear wired Philips Fidelio X3 is offered for $80 by PhotoTech on Amazon. Per the customer reviews there, the balanced cable is NOT included in the refurbished package, even though the listing says it is included!

IF you want the balanced cable, the new condition Philips X3 is offered by Amazon actual for $140.

OR you can get the Philips SHP-9600 that hovers around $70 (depending on seller) in new condition OR around $50 as refurbished

KOSS Open-Back Big Prime Days sale [also regular sales]

Counter-headphone-culture darling KOSS is also participating in the Big Prime Deals during October 10-11 in 2023 with the good old Classic PORTA PRO going for $27.60 and the KPH-30i-RB going for $21. As fate would have it, I purchased the classic Porta Pro almost exactly ten years ago!

But the Koss Amazon store also has a few on sale that are not part of the Big Prime deals – meaning anyone can buy them, not just Prime members:

+ Koss Porta Pro Utility On-Ears for $25

+ Koss Porta Pro Black On-Ears for $30

+ Koss Porta PRO Limited Editions for $35 – either the “Black Gold” or the “Rhythm Beige”

Sennheiser at Big Prime Days includes 599 SE Open and 450BT SE Closed for $80 each

From the audiophile perspective, the headliner of the headphone deals during Prime Big Deal Days running October 10 and 11 in 2023 is a 16-item Sennheiser headphone sale that includes:

+ HD 599 SE open over-ears for $80
+ HD 600 open over-ears for $285
+ HD 660 S2 open over-ears for $427

+ HD 450BT Special Edition bluetooth over-ears for $80
+ HD 450BT Bluetooth over-ears for $95
+ Momentum 4 Bluetooth wireless for $300
+ RS 175 RF-wireless for $171

+ various truly wireless (obviously!)

Headphones are part of the Prime Deals

Headphones are part of the Amazon Prime Big Deal sales with three pages of offerings in this, headlined as per the Amazon display, by the Sony consumer headphones.

Needless to say, Amazon is not Massdrop, so you won’t find all the audiophile/audiophool products there, but there is Beats, Bang & Olufsen, Shure Aonic, BOSE, Sennheiser [there’s a separate post here on these], various Amazon-famous bluetooth-y brands, and of course the consumer-darling the AirPODS PRO (2nd Gen) for $189 in your choice of USB-C or the abandoned and discarded by Cupertino Lightning connector 🙂

Thursday: Eddie Trunk’s HR/HM ebook for $4

If you are a fan of heavy metal and eBooks, one of the Thursday 10/5/23 Kindle Deals du jour is the 562 page “Eddie Trunk’s Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal” going for $4. Yes, that’s the guy from Sirius XM and VH-1. As of the time for writing the book averages 4.5 out of 5 on 373 customer ratings.

Piercing treble and Grados, here we come 🙂

Hifiman HE-R7DX Closed Over-Ears for $89

If you are curious about Hifiman’s non-planar (dynamic) closed-back over-ear headphones, for a limited time, Massdrop is having a sale on the new condition Hifiman RE-R7DX closed-back wired over-ears for $89 with a 1-year warranty and 30-day returns. This is an “in-stock drop”, it will ship typically within two business days of ordering. The only included accessory is a TRS adaptor.