we find good deals for you!
As of 8/7/16, this is sold out… The DPA-PUX1 Premium PU Case for the Onkyo DP-X1 DAP is currently available for $60 with free shipping by Onkyo’s Amazon store. This ships directly from Onkyo USA, so it is not eligible for Prime shipping…
This was one of a handful of items available at Onkyo’s Amazon Storefront.
Some may find this a fun item to add to their next Amazon order, it is a 10pk of Verbatim “Digital Vinyl” Blank CD-Rs going for $3 each. There are five colors, you get two of each color. You only get the CD-Rs, no paper sleeves. They are an Add-On item, so you must place a $25+ order otherwise their shopping cart will not allow you to buy them. The restriction applies to all, including Prime members.
PS: if you want more, they are also available in 25pk and 50pks. As of the time of writing, the 10pk is competitive price-wise, except for the Add-On restriction.
Speaking of Koss, the Amazon recommendation algorithm pointed these out while I was looking at the KSC75 listing, it is a zippered case specifically marketed for the Koss PortaPros by Geekria, currently going for $8.77, sold by Geekria and the order fulfilled by Amazon, so it is Prime eligible. It is NOT (thankfully) an Add-On item. The gallery pictures, especially #4, gives you a feel for its size, so other headphones of similar shape and size should fit as well. It averages 4.1/5 based on 46 customer reviews.
PS: the PortaPros come with a drawstring carrying pouch.
Sometimes a more affordable way for accessories is repurposing something that is made for some other use. One such case (pun intended) is taking small camera bags and using them to protect earphones, Which brings us to a limited time sale on eBay, Best Buy is offering this blue Lowepro Camera Bag for $2 with free shipping. Up to five per eBay member during this limited time offer.
PS: you have to Add to Cart or click on the Price “See Details” to see the $2 price. It’s part of the MAP song and dance unfortunately.
Now that the monthly Google Play Music subscription service can be paid with Gift Card balance (you no longer need to pay it with a credit card if you have a gift card balance that covers the monthly subscription fee), this deal became a lot better!
To take advantage of this, you have to be a member of the AMEX-powered Plenti rewards program. The offer is at RiteAid stores. You buy a $25 Google Play gift card (the plastic kind), and you get 600 points. 600 points are the equivalent of $6 in future purchases at RiteAid and other participating retailers. This is a limit two promotion for the week of 7/31/16 AM until 8/6/16 PM.
These offers return every few months at RiteAid, so you can use them to stock up in credit and have a regular discount on your monthly subscription fee. If you are on the $10/month plan, this offer gets you five months of service. If you are on the $15/month family plan, that’s three months with some change left.
Among the items pre-planned to go live at the Amazon Lightning Deals for Sunday July 31st in 2016, we cabinet of curiosities:
+ starts 7:04am ET: Sabrent Aluminum USB External Stereo Sound Adapter (price before sale $8)
+ starts 12:39pm ET: AGPtek Acrylic Headphone Stand (price before sale $10)
+ starts 1:54pm ET: ECHOGEAR 6ft Digital Optical Audio Toslink Cable (price before sale $7.50)
+ starts 9:39pm ET: 1 Pair Anleolife Replacement Earpad Mat For Steelseries Siberia V2
+ starts 9:49pm ET: Foxnovo Replacement Soft Foam Earpads for Logitech H800 Wireless Headphones
+ starts 10:09pm ET: CFZC 4GB Bluetooth MP3 Player with microSD slot (price before sale $28)
The last time I posted about the 6pk of Koss Portable Replacement Cushions they were going for $2.83 but they are restricted to the Add-On program, so you couldn’t just buy them and nothing else.
We now have good news and bad news. The good news is that the Add-On restriction has been removed. The bad news is that the price increased to $3.39 (was $3.73). Limit five per customer. Free shipping for Prime members even if you just buy one 6-pack. These fit the PortaPros, KSC-75 clips, and a few more similarly sized/shaped models… Price updated here 7/31/16…
Another day, another offer went live at members-only Massdrop, it is the colorful Rooth Earplugs (they do not play music, it’s strictly hearing protection) for $18 plus $3~ flat shipping. The colors are actually different models with different noise filtering at 9, 15 and 21 dB depending on color. These are triple flanged and discrete (they don’t stick out of your ears, but have a little tab to pull them out) and come with a carrying case. Offer ends in about 8 days from today and ship in late August 2016.
The Sabrent External USB Stereo Sound Adapter is now down to $6 at amazon.com and it is USB powered. It averages 4.3 out of 5 based on 2100+ customer reviews and has 300+ answered questions. This is more of utilitarian interest, than audiophile interest.
If you need more reviews, there is a similarly looking and similarly priced SYBA branded item which is however an Add-On item, so you must place an order of $25+ in order to buy it. This one also averages 4.3 out of 5 based on 3400+ reviews, and has 500+ answered questions. Plenty of details in those two places about it if you want to research them.
PS: I am doing a price-checking session at Amazon and Amazon Warehouse Deals, which is why you will be seeing all kinds of random things getting posted in the next few hours 🙂
This round of daily deals is now over…
As foreshadowed by the weekly ad teasers, the new condition Chromecast Audio is now on sale again for $30 (instead of its usual price of $35) with free shipping for all at the official Google eBay store and free shipping for Rewards members at Staples.com. Other retailers have it for $30 but no free shipping. You may also find it on sale for $30 at B&M stores (eg Best Buy, Walmart, etc) but I haven’t walked into those to check.
If you are Chromecast-Audio-curious, here’s our text and pictures useful Unboxing. Fear not, there’s no audio and no video. It’s a non-disruptive unboxing 🙂
From the “Phones as DAPs” department, the new ZTE flagship smartphone, the “ZTE Axon 7” is available for pre-order for $400 (unlocked, USA warranty, no contract) at various sellers. As of the time of writing, a couple of sellers are sweetening the pie with free headphones.
At NewEgg you get the Monster N-Pulse Over-Ear DJ headphones for FREE. They have a selling price of $200 but various marketplace sellers have the white color for $100 at NewEgg, while a …car parts seller has it as low as $55 at amazon.com. To cut a long story short, this is not a $200 freebie, just the usual marketing value inflation gimmicks 🙂
At B&H Photo you get two freebies without the hype, a $25 B&H Photo Gift Card (to be used in future purchases, not towards this purchase), and the Samsung Level U solid-frame bluetooth earbuds.
This is a heads up alert. According to the sneak peak of the Staples Weekly Ad for the week starting on Sunday 7/24/16, the Chromecast sale will return with both the regular and Audio versions dropping to $30 instead of their usual price of $35. In Staples’s case, the Audio is only available on their website. Usually the sale carries over to other retailers as well, either with price-match or a general purpose sale. You can also check starting on Sunday the official eBay store (it is $35 as of posting time).
If you are Chromecast-Audio-curious, here’s our text and pictures useful Unboxing. Fear not, there’s no audio and no video. It’s a non-disruptive unboxing 🙂
On the handcrafted wooden headphone stands, Massdrop has in fully unlocked state the I&S Millworks Headphone Stands for $55 plus $9~ flat shipping. Optionally you can upgrade to other woods for an additional fee. The offer is good for the next eight day and shipments will begin in early September 2016.
On the earphone storage front, now the black color scheme of the Pelican 1010 Micro Case has joined the red, both are on sale for $9.50 each at Amazon.com and they are Prime eligible. Practically there are no quantity restrictions on these unless one is a reseller (limit 87 units for the black, limit 90 for the red).
In a separate listing, the blue color scheme is also on sale for $9.50 with a limit of 55. The limit may just be how many units are available at the moment.
These have a clear lid, the color is the other three sides of the little cases.
In parallel, the Pelican 1012 Pick N’ Pluck Foam Set for 1010 is on sale for $3.17 each. It has the same crazy limit (up to 90 per customer), however, it is designated as an Add-On item, so one must place a $25+ order before they are allowed to purchase it. The restriction applies to all, including Prime members (after all, the Add-On program was created to counter the free 2-day shipping of Prime for low cost items).
These daily deals expired…
These daily deals expired…
The dream of the 90s is alive at Monoprice! Good until either 7/21/16 or 7/24/16 (I’ve seen conflicting ifo), coupon code PROJECT gets 25% off orders between $300 – $1000. Think of the possibilities, getting every headphone and cable sold by Monoprice for one giant never-ending review 🙂 Joking aside, this is a great opportunity if you had been planning a big multi-dimensional Monoprice purchase, a combination of cables and accessories and some bigger items.
For example, if you bought their Headphone Desktop Amp (Product ID 11567), the coupon would drop it to $74, while their Stereo Hybrid Tube Amp with Bluetooth (Product ID 13194) would drop to $105. There’s also the good old Monoprice 8323 headphone going that would drop to $12 with the coupon (it goes for $16 with free shipping without the coupon).
NOTE: some items are not eligible. There are two ways to find out:
The coupon is limit two uses per customer during this period, so if you have a $1000+ purchase in mind, you can split it in two and use the coupon twice, factoring in the $300 minimum purchase amount.
One of the many Brainwavz items participating in Prime Day 2016 (use your browser’s search feature to search for “Brainwavz” there to see them all scheduled) is the Brainwavz Hybrid Memory Foam Earpad Black PU/Velour offered for $15 with free shipping for Prime members. Offer ends 5:34pm ET or earlier if sold out. It is 28% claimed as of 12:49pm ET. Two more Brainwavz ear pads are going live at 6:29pm ET.
This expired as well…
Since I spotted the accessories pattern, now I have to follow it, in a quantum self-fulfilling prophecy kind of way 🙂 I’m not sure that sentence will make sense when I read it tomorrow morning but here’s the AmoVee Acrylic Headphone Stand going for $10.24 as part of the Prime Day festivities. This is good until 2:19am ET on Wednesday or earlier if sold out. The price before the sale was $12.80 last night when I did the schedule post.
There are five different designs on the same listing, so you have to check its filtered review list, which is the vast majority of the posted reviews.
This deal met the hanger too… Perhaps there is a method to the madness of the Prime schedule, start the day with headphones, and then offer accessories for the just purchased headphones 🙂 About an hour ago, two Braiwavz earpads went live at $13 each, now we have the Brainwavz Truss Metal Under Desk Dual Headphone Hanger going for $11 for Prime members. The price before the sale was $16.50. It averages 4.8 out of 5 based on 130+ customer reviews. Offer ends by 1:30am ET on Wednesday.
This earpad duo of duos expired as well…
This offer expired but this phone-as-DAP is frequently discounted, so if you missed it, chances are more offers will come for it in the future… From the “Phones as DAPs” department, the unlocked no-contract ZTE Axon PRO (the PRO part in the name is important as the non-PRO version is not as good) is on sale for $279 with free shipping at Amazon.com for Prime members in another “Add to Cart” promotion. The price before you add it to the shopping cart is $330.
There are a lot of earphones from unknown brands in Amazon’s Lightning Deals for Friday July 8. I won’t listen them all here, only a couple of items:
* starts 3:34pm Eastern: CASEBUDi XXL Sturdy Hard Shell Headphone Carrying Case (price before sale is $35; averages 4.7 out of 5; Description and Q&A and Reviews list headphones that fit inside)
* starts 7:39pm Eastern: Brainwavz HM2 Folding On-Ears (price before sale is $50)
* ends by Saturday 3am Eastern for Prime members only: Crosley CR8005C-CL Cruiser II Portable Battery Powered 3-Speed Turntable for $60 ~ six colors available
* ends by Saturday 3am Eastern Musical Instrument Sale (17 options, guitars, keyboard, drums, amps, etc)
This 4-hour offer expired…
Want to jump in the exclusive imported audio cable club but don’t want to spend a lot? How about this adorable 3.3ft 3.5mm audio cable, available in six different colors, including the prestigious gold, for $1.62 with free shipping from China (Shenzen) by eBay seller eternaldigital (98.8%). This ships from China so it will take a while to arrive. Only 6700 units were sold so far, so you will be in a very exclusive prestigious club of cablephiles. Rumor has it you can hear the tears of a dragon when you close your eyes and concentrate while using this cable!
If you are looking for an unpowered audio splitter, the white and black color schemes of the Belkin Rockstar are on sale for $8.50 each at Amazon. It has one 3.5mm input and five 3.5mm outputs. This is not powered, so depending on what combination of headphones you connect to, the volume/sound may be affected. I believe the math necessary to figure it out can be found in physics books 🙂
Of interest to the Cults of the PortaPro and the KSC-75, the 6pk of Koss Portable Replacement Cushions is on sale for $2.83 with a limit of five six-packs per customer at Amazon by Amazon actual. These average 4.5 out of 5 with almost 450 customer reviews.
There is a catch though, as the low price is foreshadowing, they are an Add-On items, so you must place a $25+ order before the Amazon shopping cart allows you to purchase these. The Add-On restriction applies to Prime members as well. In fact the Add-On program was created specifically to counter low-cost items getting free 2-day shipping.
As of 7/1/16, the prices increased by $1 for each option…
ORIGINAL: If you need multiple basic headphone pouches with drawstring and don’t want to pay the $5 for the previously mentioned Shure, there’s another budget option at Amazon. You get this 5-pack of Cosmos brand pouches for $10.50 $9.50 total. These are roughly 10.75″x 8.5″ in height and width. They have six pictures of them over there. As you can tell from the pictures, this a gray type of a color.
They also have the 5-pack in black (same dimensions) for $12 $11. These have 70+ customer reviews with a 4.6 out of 5. I bought these for review purposes, but I haven’t even taken them out of their …bag yet *sigh* 🙂
Both options are fulfilled by Amazon, so you get free shipping if you are a Prime member or with the usual $49+ threshold for non-members.
Good news and bad news. The bad news is that the price is slightly higher since we last mentioned it. The good news is that it has been liberated from the Add-On Program, so if you only want to get this and nothing else, and you are a Prime member, you get it and with free shipping and no other purchase necessary.
This refers to the Shure HPACP1 Headphone Carrying Pouch. It has a limit of 30 per customer. This is an item flying under the radar, it’s hard to find by searching at Amazon for some reason. I’ve been using it for many years and it’s pretty solid. It’s on my list of things to review.
It is made to fit Shure’s closed over-ears line-up of 840/440/240 and 750/550 DJ, so headphones of that ballpark size should fit.
It should go without saying that this won’t protect from impact, but from scratches, dust, dirt, liquids (if they avoid the bag’s opening), and such.
UPDATE 6/27/16: the price remains but it is “temporarily out of stock”. I adjusted the link below to point to Amazon’s own listing…
If you love seeing red, and are looking for a case to carry and protect your in-ears, the Pelican 1010 Micro Case in the Red with Clear Lid color-scheme is on sale for just under $10 at Amazon by Amazon actual. It is Prime eligible if you are a member, so free shipping. Not to jinx it, but it’s not an Add-On item! Interestingly this has a limit of 90 per customer instead of the usual limit 30. Guess what everybody’s getting for the Holidays? 🙂
Strategy session: this may be a computer price-match of a marketplace sellers who has it for the same price, but the marketplace seller charges additional +$5.49 shipping. So if you are a Prime member (or planning a $49+ order), you can score it at a nice discount.
The unlocker for the Poweramp Android music player is on sale for just $0.99 at Google Play. If you are not familiar with the player, it comes with a fully function 15-day free trial if you want to test it out before buying. I do not know when the 99c sale ends.
IF you like to try out music players and play local music (phone/tablet storage or memory card), then at $0.99 this is a slam dunk buy!
From the ever-increasing in popularity “Phones as DAPs” department, the 64GB version of the ZTE Axon PRO smartphone (the PRO is important because there’s also a non-PRO with lesser specs), unlocked without contractual requirements, is on a special promotion at B&H Photo. You get the phone, a $75 B&H Photo Gift Card and a phone case, all together for $330 with free shipping. No coupons or rebates, just checkout and it’s all good while this promotion is running.
NOTE: the free items are shown in the main product page at B&H while the various promotions are running. IF you don’t see the free items mentioned over there, it means the promotion expired.
Since we are talking hearing protection, a parallel to that is a basic decibel sound level meter. For under $20 you can get a rough estimate of how loud the music is between your ears or if you are blasting the speakers in the car or at home or how loud some of your regular work and hangout places are.
There are variations on a theme on this budget model, the more “extreme looking” in Yellow Black goes for $14.39 and Prime eligible, while the more subdued model in Cream and Black goes for $18 and also Prime eligible.
These are basic models that sample twice per second and can offer a continuous read (two new readings per second) or calculate a Maximum or Minimum (per individual session). They are powered by a 9V battery, so that’s a minus if you are a fan of using AA rechargeables for everything. Despite the spartanness of features, it has a tripod mount. They are accurate enough to get a general measure but if you want them for specific medical or studio/music purposes, you probably need to get a more advanced model. I am playing with one of these and a review is on the list of things to do.
This particular promotion expired but Amazon brings back hearing protection daily deals every few weeks…
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