Dekoni Eartips for $12+, AKG Earpads for $35 [MD]

If you are a fan of Dekoni “ear-thingies”, you’ve found the right post. Two parallel offers are currently running at Massdrop as follows…

The Dekoni Bulletz Ear Tips are offered for $12 in a multi-pack that contains three pairs, one in each size. You have options in the shopping cart for size (3mm or 4.9mm) and for +$3 you can get the “truly wireless” and for +$2 you can select single-size packs.

It’s easier when you play with the options in their shopping cart than describe it here in words :)… You can buy up to ten pairs and they come with free US shipping… They ship in mid-May 2020… As of the time of writing, they average 4.3 out of 5 based on 200 customer reviews…

AND now to the earpads. If have AKG headphones (and anything compatible/similar), they are offering the new condition Premium Earpads for AKG for $35 with free US shipping. Additionally, you have three options in the shopping cart that cost more for different material (sheepskin, hybrid, fenestrated).

They average 4.6 out of 5 based on 69 customer reviews as of the time of writing. The listed compatibility is the AKG K7XX, and select K6-series and K7-series models, along with their equivalent Q-series models. For more compatibility, check the reviews, comments and of course your favorite head-audio forums…

Thursday: Apple AirPods Charging Case for $70

The first generation of the Apple AirPods Charging Case is on sale in new condition for $70 with free US shipping at the Best Buy website until 11:59pm on Thursday 4/2/20 or earlier if sold out. You also get a free 4-month Apple Music music-subscription (for new subscribers only; you cannot append it to an existing music-subscription)…

NOTE: this is ONLY the CHARGING CASE – the actual Airpods are NOT INCLUDED!

Friday: Neil Young’s “To Feel the Music (a songwriter mission to save high quality audio)” for $3

Good until Friday 3/13/20 at 11:59pm pacific time, Neil Young and Phil Baker’s “To Feel the Music” Kindle ebook is one of their deals du jour going for $3. This is a 270 page ebook published in September 2019. It talks about high-quality audio in the digital age with the Pono story as a backbone.

I just purchased the book after going through the Kindle sample (it includes the various intros/prologues and the first couple of chapters) and will be reading it. I will be taking notes and if I have enough notes and things that merit discussion, I will be writing about it on the content-side of this website. In the Kindle Sample, Phil Baker did a good explaining in simple terms to the “common people” digital audio. Although I may take some technical issue with the pixel analogy but again the point is to make this accessible to the average Joe who’s listening to 28Kbps YouTube video music through a $10 half-working earbud 🙂

Print Magazine Sale: Stereophile $7.77 per year

Headphone magazines are very hard to come buy, especially in english, but there are some audio-related magazines and two of them are participating in this limited time sale at the Discount Mags website. These are print magazines, delivered via snail mail, to addresses in the USA. They do not auto-renew (thankfully).

Of the various options, these two are A/V related:

+ Stereophile for $7.77 per year

+ Sound and Vision for $7.55 per year

These prices are good for up to three years. You can use the offer for a new subscription for you, or a gift subscription for others, and you can also renew an existing subscription.

Remember, these are print magazines, not digital.

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…

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…

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.

Thur: Feed the DAPs and PADs with microSD cards

A busy Gold Box day at the flagship Amazon for Thursday includes a sale of various Sandisk and WD storage products. In addition to the various flash drives and internal and external disks that can be filled up with music, there’s also a sale on microSD memory cards to fill up your favorite DAPs and PADs (phones as DAPs).

The bang for the buck of this lot is the 512GB Sandisk Ultra microSDXC going for $64, while the Extreme version goes for $16 more. The Extreme is also offered in 1TB for $200, while down to 256GB they have the white-colored “High Endurance” Sandisk microSDXC card for $40…

The flash drives include the dual kind with two different connectors on each end, while the hard drives include not just plain internal and external but also various “personal cloud” type of WD devices…

Sales end on Friday at 3am eastern or earlier for anything that sells out ahead of time. Up to three units of each item during the sale…

Brainwavz Case & Earpads (for Sony V6, 7506, etc) for $22.50

We have a combo value meal if you are a fan of the Brainwavz brand. They are currently offering a headphone case + earpads for $22.50. The case is for folded headphones while the earpads are for the Sony MDR-V6, 7506 (and other compatible headphones). The earpads on their own go for $16.50, so you’re getting the case for $6 more.

The listing is a mix of earpads-only and case-n-earpads bundles, so pay attention if you are switching colors and options and if you are reading customer reviews and answered questions…

Wedn: JBL earphone charging case for $15 after coupon

Wednesday loves headphones it seems because the NewEgg daily deals [now with a more organized website that makes it easier to quickly skim and scan the daily offers] include one headphone item, it is the new condition JBL headphone charging case going for $15 with free US shipping after you enter coupon code 93XPC48 over there. Limit up to three per customer at the sale price.

This is sold and shipped by NewEgg actual. The charging case promises UP TO 16 hours of playtime, and UP TO one hour of playtime with 15 minutes of charge. This of course depends on the individual earphones and such. Picture #1 shows wireless earphones but I’m not sure if they are included or not. This is an earphone-sized case, not a full-size headphone case. You can guestimate the size by looking at the size of the charging cable.

This is the first time I’ve seen this, so I know nothing Jon “Audio” Snow 🙂

MPOW Over-Ear Ear Muffs for $10 [or $15 for newer model]

If you are looking for hearing protection in the form of a full size headphone, or if you want to use it so people will leave you alone, the current best seller in earmuffs at Amazon is the new condition MPOW 035 safety earmuffs going for $10 with up to five per customer at the sale price.

OR if you prefer, they have a newer model, which promises up to SNR 36 dB (versus 28dB of the $10 model) for $15.

The $10 model averages 4.7 out of 5 based on 4000+ customer reviews, while the $15 model averages 4.5 out of 5 based on 790 customer reviews.

This is not a lightning deal, so the sale could continue anywhere between nanoseconds and eternity 🙂

PS: of trolling purposes, you can hand these to someone who wants to listen to music and watch them try to figure out how to get them to play music ^_^

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…

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…

Monoprice 3.5mm M/M Mobile Audio cables start at $1~ [and lots more]

We have the opposite of “magic cables” here 🙂 The Monoprice 3.5mm male-to-male audio cables designed for mobile (the plugs are better designed to deal with headphone jacks and smartphone cases) are on sale, with prices starting at $1.06 for the 3-footer and slightly increasing as cable length increases.

Only the black color scheme is on sale. They average 4 out of 5 based on nearly 700 customer reviews at the Monoprice website…

Speaking of which, they are currently offering the new condition metal headphone stand in the black or silver color schemes for $17 with free US shipping. These are “compressed omega” shaped, the “omega shape” made popular mayhaps by the wooden headphone stands. The metallic Monoprice headphone stand averages 4.7 out of 5 based on 22 customer reviews over there.

If you are planning to place a Monoprice order anyway (eg one that already qualifies for free shipping), you could add as an appetizer this $3 wired earphones with mic/remote (one button type). They average 4.2 out of 5 based on 120+ customer reviews. I had these a while back, and the price is right for them, especially for utilitarian use. I suspect no one will buy these to listen to operas or audiophile jazz 🙂

With Amazon’s own Prime Day fast approaching, Monoprice too decided to have their own Prime Deals which include some headphones when you page-down towards the bottom of that page. One of which is the new condition Lightweight On-Ears (closed-back) going for $12 but shipping is not free, so you’d have to add them to an order that qualifies for free S&H on its own if you don’t want to pay shipping no matter what.

From the looks of it and the sound signature (although I don’t have both of them right now to compare them side by side) these look like they are closely related to the AmazonBasics On-Ears. I have the Monoprice version and will be posting an unboxing [spoiler alert: very spartan package] and opinions in the future. I’m wearing them right now, listening to Depeche Mode’s “Delta Machine” which tests a variety of things [in addition to me liking this album] and indeed, it is moderately bassy just as I remember the AmazonBasics headphones.

From what I recall, these were also sold under “Able Planet” and another brand I saw I think on BuyDig (or somewhere like that). And mayhaps even more chifi brands…

OOPS, this post has gone out of control in size. It’s like a Twitter feed but writteen in a blog-post 🙂

Monoprice Earpads (Velour or Pleather) for $13 w/FUSS

One thing that deserves a special mention from our previously mentioned Monoprice headphone-related sale are the new condition Monoprice earpads available for $13 with free standard US shipping in your choice of Protein Leather or Velour.

They both do well in the total of 15 customer reviews between them. You can buy upto twenty pairs per customer at the sale price. Free US standard shipping whether you buy one pair or ten.

The product description over there has a list of compatible headphones and for those and others not mentioned, don’t forget to check the customer reviews and the answered questions as well. The list includes many well-known headphones such as the Audio Technica M50X family (M40X, M30X, M50), their AD700X/900X open-backs, the AKG K551 and K553, Shure 840 and 440, Sony V6, MDR-1A, Fostex T50RP, Braiwavz HM5, Monoprice 8323, etc…

Hifiman Eartips for RE400 & 600 for $4 w/free S&H

IF you are looking for extra/replacement eartips for the Hifiman RE-400 and RE-600 in-ears, the official Hifiman Amazon store is offering them in new condition for $4 with free shipping. This ships directly from them and it is not Prime eligible. But that means all US customers get free shipping, not just Prime members.

As of the time of writing they have nine sets available (you cannot order more than nine)… Per the pictures over there, each set consists of four different pairs of eartips… If you are not familiar with them, research them before making a purchase (as usual)…

Monoprice Monolith 12ft RCA cable for $15 w/FUSS

Cables but they are not magic cables. At least not in terms of their price 🙂 For a limited time, the Monoprice website is offering their 12-foot Monolith RCA cables for $15 with free standard US shipping (the “FUSS” in the blog-post title here). Limit up to twenty per customer. They average 4.8 out of 5 based on 59 customer reviews over there…

These are part of the Monoprice Early Summer Clearance sale that features a few more cables and a couple of headphones ~ you can filter by product categories using the left hand side of their website…

Monday: Feed Your DAPs: 200GB Sandisk Ultra microSDXC for $24 [limit two]

Feed your DAPs and PADs with the Monday 6-24-2019 Gold Box Amazon deals of the day. Under the big “Laptops & Accessories” sale you will find the 200GB Sandisk Ultra microSDXC going for $24.

Meanwhile the 128GB Sandisk Extreme microSD is bundled with a USB 3.0 Sandisk mobile card reader together for $30. The 256GB version of that goes for $54. On the other hand, if you like to carry your music on compact flash drives, their 256GB Sandisk Ultra Dual Drive m3.0 (microUSB and full size USB ports) goes for $33~. And if you want to backup or store your music on external HDDs, the 6TB Seagate Backup Plus goes for $100…

Limit two of each item per customer. Sale ends on Monday at 11:59pm pacific or earlier for anything that manages to sell-out and/or become un-orderable…

Dekoni Earpads for select Sennheiser HD58* and HD6** headphones for $35 to $65 w/free US S&H [MD]

Earpads get nowhere near the glory headphones and DACs and amps and other music sources get but they are quite important in both the human comfort but also have impact on the perceived audio quality. I could be writing more and more paragraphs but I won’t 🙂

Which brings us to this Dakoni pads listing at Massdrop offering their audio donuts that are compatible with a variety of popular Sennheiser headphones: HD 6XX, HD 650, HD 59X, and the HD 580. The HD 600 is feeling a bit left out at the moment 🙂

The price depends on the materials as follows:

+ Elite Velour for $35
+ Elite Hybrid for $55
+ Sheepskin for $60
+ Fenestrated sheepskin for $65

These will ship in mid-July 2019 by the vendor. Free shipping for US addresses, low cost shipping internationally. There is no mention of warranty in the listing which is brand new. As of the time of writing, it has six days and change to go. In previous listings, they sold over 2,200 units and they average 4.3 out of 5 based on 20+ customer reviews.

EU: FREE Huawei FreeBuds Lite with P30 Lite purchase

Amazon Germany is having another promotion, this one from Huawei, you get their FreeBuds Lite for FREE when you purchase the Huawei P30 Lite for 369 euro. Despite the name, the “FreeBuds Lite” are not earbuds, but truly wireless earpod-style.

NOTE that you have to claim the free FreeBuds (they are not usually free, it’s just their name) from a Huawei website. They will NOT be included with the P30 Lite purchase from Amazon.de. Details and terms and conditions at the bottom of the aforelinked page…

Monday: Feed Your DAPs, Backup your FLACs!

Another opportunity to feed your DAPs and PADs and have more backups of your music because until Monday 4/15/19 at 11:59pm pacific time, the headliner daily deal at the Amazon US Gold Box is a storage sale featuring various products from the WD group of companies, namely Sandisk (microSD cards), and WD and G-Tech for internal and external hard drives. You can buy up to two units of a sale item during the sale.

The microSDXC cards have options of the Extreme and Ultra kind from 64GB (just under $9) to 400GB ($86). There’s full size SD cards too, and internal and external HDDs and SSDs. And of course a feast, not for crows but for USB flash drives 🙂

Friday (EU): Avantree Audio sale (stand, low latency, etc)

For EU audiophiles and anyone who can shop from the EU advantageously (eg currency fluctuations, forwarding service, friends/relatives there, etc), one of the Amazon Germany daily deals for Friday April 5 in 2019 is an Avantree Audio sale that includes their headphone stand with a “cable pool” for 15 euro, and their TV bluetooth headphones for 52 to 67 euro… They also have other bluetooth-audio related products, including a couple of low-latency transmitters/receivers… One of their TV headphones is BT low latency as well…

Thursday: 1-Year Stereophile print subscription for $10

Among the Thursday deals of the day at the Amazon USA Gold-Box there is a sale on print magazines. One of them is of potential audio interest, a 1-year print subscription with auto-renewal activated of Stereophile for the very specific price of $9.74…

MEE Audio 2-Pin Bluetooth Cable for $35 [MD]

Non-magic cables also exist at Massdrop, such as this new drop, running for the next five days and change, it is the new condition MEE Audio 2-Pin Bluetooth Cable offered for $35 with free US shipping. International shipping is surprisingly higher than expected, around $10 for a tiny little cable 🙂

This is bluetooth 4.0, with IPX5 rating. It will ship in late April 2019 from Massdrop. There’s no mention of warranty in the listing…

Sunday is World Back Up Day – backup your music, feed your DAPs!

The last day of March is “World Back Up Day” and a good opportunity to back-up your music, especially music that is hard to find on streaming services, or music that has rights issues and disappears from streaming service, bootlegs, high-resolution music, audiophile editions, and so forth.

Anyway, to celebrate this day, the Amazon US Gold Box is having a big storage sale with over two dozens of products, including microSDXC cards for your DAPs/PADs, internal and external hard drives for your music collections, SSDs if you prefer faster and high-resolution music, NASes (that’s not the plural form, is it?], and more!

Limit of two of each item per Amazon account. The sale ends on Monday at 3am eastern or earlier for any item that runs out…

Budget find: 1-to-5 3.5mm splitter ships from China under $2

We have a budget find. If you don’t mind waiting, GearBest is offering this 1-to-5 3.5mm audio splitter for under $2 delivered. IT takes one 3.5mm audio input and has five 3.5 audio outputs. A basic 3.5mm audio cable is included so you can connect it to a music source. The headphones (should) have their one 3.5mm plugs 🙂

Note that this is unpowered, so the sound will be affected depending on which and how many headphones you connect to. I’m sure some can do the equations to figure it out ahead of time. I can’t [yet] 🙂

Saturday: Feed your DAPs with 512GB PNY microSDXC

Good until Sunday at 3am eastern, the Amazon Gold USA is having a PNY storage-related sale. Of DAP/PAD interest, they have 512GB PNY microSDXC cards going for $110 (Elite) to $120 (PRO Elite)… They also have full-size SD cards from 64GB to 512GB, along with a vast variety of USB flash drives, sold individually or in 5-packs or in 50-packs. Might as well send them by the pound 🙂

1-Year Stereophile for $10 (digital)

For a limited time, Discount Mags is having a hobbies sale. Under the “Technology and Science” sub-category, they are offering a 1-year digital subscription to “Stereophile” for $10. This is 12 issues. The digital subscription is delivered and managed by Zinio.

You can sign up for up to four years at the $10/year price. You can also renew an existing subscription [append years to its renewal date]. From what I can tell, there’s no option for a gift subscription this time around.

PS: make sure you adjust the auto-renewal option at Zinio after your subscription goes live. I believe they default it to auto-renew!

Feed your DAPs (EU edition): 200GB Sandisk micro SDXC for 26e

Amazon Germany is helping you feed your DAPs, PADs and other smartphones/tablets and devices that can take 200GB microSD cards because they are now offering, in new condition, the 200GB SAndisk Ultra micro-SDXC for 26 euro. There’s no purchase quantity limit. IT is not part of their gold-box, so there is no baked-in expiration time ~ in other words the price can go up or down or stay the same. Only Amazon’s AI Price-Bots can tell 🙂

PS: make sure your device(s) are practically-compatible with 200GB cards, not just spec-sheet compatible. Meaning look for other users on the web and in the forums who have been using them and have not experienced any problems or issues…

Lin Soul OCC silver-plated cables for $50 [MD]

Magic cables without the magic price? 🙂 Cable is a very hot button issue in some audiophile forums, so it is up to you to decide where you draw the line on price, specs, benefits and the like 🙂

Running for the next week or so at the Massdrop shopping site is a sale on Lin Soul OCC silver-plated cables going for $50 each. You have various options in the shopping cart for either end of the cable. It can be 2-pin or MMCX on one end, and either 3.5mm or 2.5mm on the other end.

These will ship in early April 2019 from Massdrop. There is no mention of a warranty in the listing…

MAGIX Audio Software (including ACID PRO) on HB

It’s the return of the audio software bundle at Humble Bundle. These are titles offered by MAGIX software and as usual prices start at $1. Meeting or beating the average (just under $12.50 as of the time of writing) gets you “MP3 Deluxe” as well, while climbing to $25+ gets you “ACID PRO 7” and Sound Forge Audio Studio 12. Check their website over there for all the details.

Humble Bundle is all legit, and a percentage of purchases goes to non-profits – either the default non-profit or one of your choice. Their shopping pages have the details…

Feed your DAPs: 128GB Samsung microSDXC for $21

Time to feed the pets BUT also feed your DAPs and PADs and tablets and smartphones and such. The 128GB Samsung EVO Select micro-SDXC memory card is currently on sale for $21 by Amazon actual. If you want less storage, the 64GB option goes for $11, or if you want lots more, the 256GB option goes for $48…

Sunday: Auray headphone stand for $12

Good until Sunday at 11:59pm eastern, B&H Photo of New York is offering the new condition Auray headphone stand of the desktop kind for $12. It averages 4.6 out of 5 based on five customer reviews. Details and multiple angle pictures over there…

Wednesday: Feed your DAPs, Backup your FLACs!

Humans need to eat every day but the DAPs and PADs are not that hungry. But they must needs eat too, so if they need feeding, there’s a big Sandisk storage sale at the Amazon USA Gold Box daily deals running until Thursday FEB-28 in 2019 at 3am ET. The sale includes the 200GB Sandisk Ultra microSD card for $29.21 and the 400GB for $62.30. The 200GB is the bang for the buck of the two. But regardless, make sure your DAPs/PADs are compatible and perform as expected with them before buying them. This especially if you have older devices or devices without newer firmware updates.

On the FLAC (and other digital music) storage front, the sale also includes a vast variety of USB flash drives, conventional, tiny, and double-sided (connector wise that is). On top of that, there’s a sale on various Western Digital [which has purchased Sandisk a few months ago] external and gaming hard drives up to 10TB [that’s a lot of music].

And if you prefer SSD style storage, an external G-Technology USB flash drive that is advertised as more durable goes for $168.

You can buy up to two of each individual offering ~ or as many their shopping cart lets you buy 🙂

Losing the adapters? Cable with built-in for $7

If your nemesis is lost audio cable adapters at the most inopportune moments, this cable has the 1/4″ adapter permanently attached to the cable, so you can easily switch between 1/4″ and 1/8″. It is available in three sizes and starts at $7 and eligible for Prime shipping