we find good deals for you!
The Philips open-back over-ear wired headphones are now expanding their reach in the US market. They have arrived at the B&H Photo website and during the Black Friday season, they have been discounted as follows:
+ SHP-9600 (latest model) down to $100
+ good old SHP-9500 down to $80
+ we have a text and pictures unboxing of it here
+ Philips X2 (previous generation) down to $145
Monoprice has an actual doorbuster! The new condition SonicSolace ANC/BT Over-Ears are on sale for just $23 with free US shipping in your choice of brown or black color scheme. This is a big drop in price indeed.
As of the time of writing this averages 4.2 out of 5 based on 400 customer reviews and they have 100 answered questions…
UPDATE: thanks to one of our readers for the comment! Apparently these have been on sale in this range; the last time I was tracking them these were going for 2X, that’s why I thought they were a BF doorbuster!
NewEgg is running a 24 hour Black Friday sale for Thursday 11/27/20 [Happy Thanksgiving] on their website that includes three pages of Headphone deals including:
+ Sennheiser ME2IEI in-ears for $35
+ Sennheiser HD 2.30i or G closed on-ears for $28
+ Samson SR860 semi-open over-ears for $40
+ various other brands including Sony, Bose, Jabra, Anker, TrebLab, etc
+ Beyerdynamic sale with eight options including:
++ Amiron Home open over-ears for $320
++ Lagoon ANC Traveler for $210
++ Xelento wireless bluetooth in-ears for $599
++ a couple of “CREATOR 24” bundles
Part of the Black Friday – Cyber Monday festivities, Adorama is offering this AKG K92 + Tascam DR40X bundle for $150 with free US shipping. The K92 is a closed-back over-ear wired headphone while the DR40X is a 4-track digital audio recorder and USB audio interface. The Tascam is in the red color scheme.
Monoprice’s Monolith high-end audio brand is having its Black Friday sale as well. This includes speakers and subwoofers, but when you further page down over there you will find their headphone offerings. A total of eight products are on offer, five headphones and three DAC/amps!
Planar Open-Back Over Ears
+ M570 for $200
+ M1070 for $300
+ M1570 for $400
+ staircase prices in full octaves 🙂
Earphones
+ M350 planar earphones for $90
+ M-TWE truly-wireless for $100
DAC/amps
+ Monolith USB DAC for $70
+ Monolith THX AAA Balanced Headphone Amplifier for $330
+ Monolith Liquid Platinum Balanced Headphone Amplifier by Alex Cavalli for $400
The revitalized Philips is pushing forward with new products, and one of them is the open-back over-ear wired X3 headphone, the continuation of the line that began with the good old X1. As of the time of writing the X3 is down to $199 with free US shipping at Amazon by Amazon actual…
The revitalized Philips also “revitalized” their prices upwards, angering some fans who got used to the good old SHP-9500 pricing. But I’m guessing Philips saw the crazy prices on some of the hype headphones du jour on Head-Fi and elsewhere and mayhaps they decided they want some of that too 🙂
It’s not FOCAL week, I just post whatever deals I run into 🙂 As one of their Black Friday offerings, Massdrop is offering their new condition Massdrop X Focal Elex open-back over-ear wired headphones for $550 with a 2-year manufacturer warranty. Per the listing this is handmade in France!
This is estimated to ship in mid-December. Given the COVID situation, it may or may not arrive by the year-ending holidays, so YMMV (as with everything these days)…
There’s also an optional $20 off combined purchase discount if you purchase it together with the DROP + THX AAAâ„¢ 789 LINEAR AMPLIFIER. You add this from the product listing page, not from the shopping cart like you used to…
As part of the Black Friday festivities, for a limited time, Adorama is offering the new condition closed-back wired over-ear FOCAL Elegia [Audiophile Elegy?] for $690 with free US shipping and handling…
On the same listing you will see a used option for $479 and open-box for $519… Used quantities may be limited, so YMMV depending on when you read this and how much demand there is for the Elegia…
If you are looking for a studio headphone of the Sony V6/7506 homage kind, good until 11/25/20 at 10am eastern time [or earlier if sold out] you can get the new condition H&A Versa for $50 with free US shipping at the Adorama website…
They come with two cables (one straight, one coiled) and a 1/4″ adapter and a 1-year warranty…
Good until the end of November, some of the European Amazon websites are offering 30% off on select items that are in “Warehouse Deals”, their used products sales arm. The items must be sold by “Warehouse Deals” actual, not by other marketplace sellers.
+ at Amazon Germany they have nearly 900 headphone options, including some high-end gear like the Fostex TH-610, AKG K872, A&K IEMs, Philips X3, B&W, etc
+ at Amazon France they have over 850 options but the product coding seems to sometimes be off, so it may include some non-headphone items
+ at Amazon UK they have over 1000 options and they include the V-Moda M200, AKG K712, M&D, etc
+ similarly you can go through and check Amazon Spain, Italy, and don’t forget the more recently-launched Holland and Sweden
KEEP IN MIND, quantities of used items are often very limited. They may have only one unit of some of the items. The more niche usually, the smaller the quantity. Note also that some of these things may be a common inventory among the various EU Amazons. BREXIT does not kick in until 2021…
Time to reuse my favorite most irritating phrase! Come on Barbie, let’s have an electrostatic party! It’s a sale, a Black Friday week sale at Massdrop and now $390 is all it takes to get your hands on the new condition KOSS ESP/95X ELECTROSTATIC SYSTEM. This includes both the electrostatic headphones and their matching amplifier. Free US shipping and free US returns. International shipping is not free but it is discounted. You have a power option of 120V or 220V depending on your location and power situation/needs/preferences…
This is a KOSS x Massdrop co-operation and it comes with the customary KOSS limited lifetime warranty of the legendary company from the state of Wisconsin. And when you open the package, you will definitely smell their dairy air 😉
This is a quick-shipping offer, they are estimated to ship on November 30 in 2020, so it’s not one of those wait-and-pray five month long Massdrop offers 🙂
Freebie time for the new condition USA-warranty closed-back over-ear Sony WH-1000XM4 bluetooth with ANC headphones. This is the latest generation model. This is, as of the time of writing, on sale for $278 at select authorized Sony USA dealers. The offers are as follows:
+ at Adorama with FREE Energizer 20,000 mAh power-bank and cleaning cloth
+ without freebies at B&H Photo and by Amazon actual
It’s the return of an old hype-darling as Philips is getting re-invigorated with its new masters. That’s right, the open-back over-ear wired Philips SHP-9500 is now on-offer at Massdrop for $70. This is the standard version, not a Massdrop customization. The offer runs for the next seven days [as of the time of writing] and it is expected to ship in early January 2021, so patience is definitely a virtue, and it obviously won’t get here/there before Christmas 🙂
Plenty has been written about this and its SHP-9500S cousin. Here we have a text and pictures un-boxing of the cousin, which is pictured below…
Massdrop is back with more Black Friday 2020 offers, headlined by the new condition Hifiman HE-4XX planar-magnetic open-back over-ear wired headphones going for $160 with free US shipping and free returns. International shipping is discounted but not free. It comes with a 1-year warranty but optionally those in the US can add for an extra $20 a 3-year Massdrop warranty with accidental coverage.
This is not an in-stock drop. Shipping is estimated to begin in early December 2020.
The Thursday 11/19/20 deals at Woot have a couple of Android smartphone offers of headphone interest:
+ Sony WH-1000XM3 ANC/BT over-ears bundled with the new condition Sony Xperia 1 [SD 855] unlocked former-flagship smartphone for $550; with Sony warranty
+ the Xperia 1 supports LDAC, AAC, and apt-X HD per the PDF file specs linked-to from Woot
+ LG G8 ThinQ with Alexa for $350
+ the PDF file linked-to from Woot that has the specs says this has a 32-bit Quad DAC, and MQA decoder
+ I’ve lost track which LG phones have quad DACs, so be sure to research it to your satisfaction if you are not sure
If you are a fan of Sony’s audio gear, you are in luck because until 11/18/20 at 11:59pm pacific time, Amazon is running a Sony Home Audio sale featuring 11 products running from $73 to $1198. No headphones, this is speakers, subwoofers, soundbars and home theater kits… The prices range from $73 to $1198…
But to bring us back “on topic”, they are also running a Skullcandy headphone sale headlined by the Riff bluetooth on-ears going for $40… There’s also a $10 wired in-ear and a $25 neckband bluetooth earphone…
Good until 11/15/20 at 11:59pm, Best Buy is offering as one of their deals of the day the new condition matte-white color scheme of the V-Moda Crossfade 2 Codex closed-back over-ear wireless (bluetooth) headphones for $250 with free shipping or free store pickup where possible/available…
As of the time of writing they average 4.6 out of 5 based on 76 customer reviews…
Saturday November 14 in 2020 is of music interest at the Amazon Holiday Dash (aka Gold Box) as they have seven different color schemes of the new condition Beats Solo 3 on-ears (bluetooth with W1 techonlogy, closed-back) going for $120 with free US shipping. One per customer [not sure if it’s per individual color, or total one of this model]…
As of the time of writing, these average 4.7 out of 5 based on over 7900 customer ratings [this is a mix of written-reviews and star-ratings without text]. They have nearly 250 answered-questions by viewers like you…
In the earlier days of SONOS, may had wished for a portable option. Fast forward to know, and there are portable options, the battery-powered new condition SONOS Move Smart Speaker (with Wifi, Bluetooth, Alexa) is on sale for $299 with free US shipping. Two per customer, but it is available in two color schemes…
As of the time of writing the SONOS MOVE averages 4.7 out of 5 based on over 2200 customer ratings and has over 270 answered questions…
STORAGE!
And now to the hungry DAPs and PADs (phones as DAPs) and phones and tablets and laptops (with microSD slots) and media players with microSD or SD slots, and such. There’s a big WD and Sandisk sale that includes microSD and SD memory cards [starting at 400GB], along with external and internal HDDs [including a couple of RAID consumer desktop options], and a couple of SSDs…
Just don’t forget to keep backups! By now we’ve seen multiple digital music services go under and with most of them, if you hadn’t already made backups, it’s “tough luck” after they go down in flames…
Beyerdynamic returns once again at the Newegg daily deals for Friday November 13 in 2020 and it is the new condition closed-back DT 240 PRO going for $58 after using the $11 off promo code shown over there. Free US shipping. .. Also part of today’s deals is a refurbished Jabra Elite 65t neckband bluetooth earphone with ANC for $40…
All along the V-Moda Watch Tower says the audiophile to the merchant! That’s right, if you are a fan of Jimi Hendrix and the V-Moda over-ears wall of sound, you can marry them together in a single headphone that happens to be on sale as of the time of writing!
IT is the V-Moda Crossfade 2 wireless closed-back over-ears with Jimi Hendrix’s picture on one outer earcup (and his signature on the other; an easy way to tell L from R!) going for $220 with free US shipping at the Adorama website…
Here’s a screenshot of the Adorama product page:
These are the best kept secret in the world of pragmatic audiophiles. Neither retailers, nor publishers of high-brow audiophilia want you to know how good these are because you may just stop paying attention to the four-figure stuff 😉
And “these” are back once again for ordering at Massdrop, just in time for the holidays, it’s the Massdrop X KOSS KSC-75X Clip-ONs going for a very down to earth price of $20 with free US shipping and returns, and discounted international shipping. They come with the usual Koss limited lifetime warranty.
One difference between these and the original KSC-75 is that the Massdrop edition has a utilitarian 1-button remote/mic for the smartphone/tablet/DAP users 🙂
This drop is in “pre-order status” with nine days left (as of the time of writing) and they are estimated to ship in late November 2020.
I’m going to jump onto this for sure (unless I forget like the previous time) because my trusty old KSC-75 (which I found on the clearance/trash-bin of an Office Depot (if I recall correctly)) [see text and pictures unboxing] has now become “mono” [only one side plays sound]…
This one you can HYPE HYPE HYPE without fear!
PS: this has the added benefit of not messing your hair (for those lucky enough to have hair that is) and it doesn’t put too much pressure on your head and jaw with prolonged use (eg some over-ears and on-ears) or doesn’t keep your ears sealed to the world for too many hours (eg in-ears)… These type of clip-ons and the classic earbuds are, in my humble opinion, the easiest on the ears, especially for prolonged use…
One of the Hype Headphones du jour at the moment is the open-back over-ear Hifiman HE-5XX planar-magnetic headphones and their listing at Massdrop has seven more days [as of the time of writing of this blog-post] before they begin shipping. They are currently in pre-order status. If you want to be among the first to have them on your non-planar head, you have seven days to decide!
They currently go for $220 with free US shipping and free US returns. International shoppers get discounted shipping and they have a 30-day return option, but the shipping cost on the return is on the shopper, not on Massdrop.
They come with a 1-year manufacturer warranty. They are, as the name hints at, based on the Hifiman HE-500 series…
Hype, Hype, Hype!!! 😉
There’s another bubbling under options for open-back dynamic over-ear headphones under $100 and it is currently on sale at the Massdrop website. “It” being the new condition Hifiman HE-35X going for $75 with free US shipping and free US returns. International shipping is not free but it is discounted. Customs and import duties are your responsibility…
This is an in-stock drop, meaning it is available to ship directly from the Massdrop warehouses. Needless to say, due to COVID, some delays are possible… It comes with a 1-year manufacturer warranty…
PS: some of the other well-known open-back options under $100 include Grado SR80/60*, Sennheiser HD 5**, Audio Technica ATH-AD*, Philips SHP-9?00?, etc…
If you want some coffee to keep you up during those long listening and headphone testing sessions, there’s four different kind of Mr. Coffee options (including the audiophile-friendly pour-over and an All-In-One machine that clears space on the counters) at the Amazon Gold Box for Tuesday 11/3/20. But that’s what you are here for…
… what you are here for is their offer for the new condition BOSE QC 35 II closed-back over-ear ANC/bluetooth combo headphones going for $199 with free US shipping. This is available in three different color schemes. Up to five per customer. As of the time of writing they average 4.6 out of 5 based on 29,000+ customer reviews…
Beyerdynamic is back at the NewEGG daily deals, this one good for Tuesday 11/3/20 until 11:59pm pacific (or earlier if sold out). It is the new condition open-back over-ear wired Amiron Home going for $319 with free US shipping, sold and shipped by NewEgg actual. No promo code is needed for this offer. Up to three per customer at the sale price…
Some of the other Tuesday daily deals at NewEgg:
+ Anker Soundcore Spirit 2 necklace-style IP67 bluetooth earphones for $20 after a $10 off promo code
+ 256GB AData microSDXC (UHS-I, C10, V10, A1) for $26
+ feed the DAPs, and PADs and smartphones and tablets too
Meanwhile the NewEgg teaser for Wednesday 11/4/20 includes the Sennheiser Momentum Free necklace-style bluetooth earphones. The price is not shown in the teaser. We have to wait for Wednesday to find out…
Good until 11:59pm pacific time on Sunday November 1st in 2020, Touch of Modern is offering a 20% store credit on your Touch of Modern account over there with purchases made.
Their headphone inventory includes Audeze, Master and Dynamic, Sennheiser (including the HYPE HYPE HYPE Sennheiser HD 560 S), Shure, Bowers & Wilkins, and Astell-n-Kern…
They have a few more audio options under “Speakers” and “Components and Accessories” (Shure SHA-900 amp, Shure electrostatic system)…
Check each individual listing for details and shipping estimates and return policy…
More headphone action for Friday October 30 in 2020, where at the NewEgg daily deals the new condition closed-back over-ear Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO (32 ohm) is down to $124 with free US shipping after you enter the promo code shown over there…
Also at NewEgg’s dailies, the a Fuji Labs Sonique 2nd generation earhook earphones go for $10 with free US shipping…
Meanwhile Amazon USA goes the way of the Beats Solo 3 wireless (closed-back bluetooth on-ears with the Apple W1 class) where seven different color schemes are on sale for $120 with free US shipping per pair.
Also at Amazon, they have three more Beats on sale as follows:
+ Beats Solo PRO ANC on-ears for $230
+ Powerbeats PRO earhook earphones for $200 with W1 chip
+ Powerbeats necklace-style earphones for $130
UPDATE: but wait, there’s more for Friday, there’s a Woot OEM accessories sale that includes:
+ refurbished Apple 3.5mm Earpods from $9 (also available in multi-packs for further discounts)
+ refurbished Sony MDR-EX110AP stubby earphones for $8
As teased, Beyerdynamic returns to the NewEgg daily deals with the new condition open-back over-ears Beyerdynamic DT 1990 PRO (250 ohm) for $449 with free US shipping. This is sold and shipped by HH Gregg through the NewEgg site.
PS: for those not familiar, HH Gregg was a brick and mortar electronics chain on the Eastern side of the country that eventually succumbed to the “internet era” in 2017 and closed all B&M stores. It decidedly out-survived Circuit City and Electric Avenue [no, not the song, the song is timeless]!
If you want to try out this “planar type” which has shown to have staying power, for a limited time Massdrop has dropped the price of the open-back over-ear HifiMan HE-4XX planars to $160 with free US shipping and free US returns. International shipping is discounted but not free (depending on location, situation, COVIDalia, etc)…
Also for a limited time, an open over-ear but dynamic headphone is on sale at Massdrop, the Sennheiser HD 58X Jubilee are going for $150 with free US shipping and returns.
Both of these headphones are in-stock and ready to ship. Their current shipping estimate is around two business days from ordering time. No long waits for them to be made by the Audiophool Elves and Dwarves under the Magical Mystical Audio Mountain 😉
Beyer is dynamic again at the NewEGG deals du jour for Friday October 16 in the year of 2020 with the new condition closed-back bluetooth on-ears that go by the fancy name of Aventho in the black color scheme for $199 with free US shipping, sold and shipped by NewEgg proper, not iffy marketplace sellers. No promo code needed. Up to five pairs per customer at the sale price.
One last deal before we say goodbye to the Prime Dayz of 2020, it is the new condition Microsoft Surface 2 headphones going for $200 for Prime members during the “Prime Daze” 🙂
PS: as a fan of the Zune, I feel I must needs mention Microsoft’s poor management record on music/audio, OMG THEY KILLED ZUNE, you BASTARDS! In addition to Zune, they also launched newer music efforts which they also killed off shortly thereafter:)
PS2: of course not just Microsoft has a bad music record, The Great Satan of Search (aka Google) is pulling the plug on their own Google Play Music-selling digital store and killing off their nice “Google Play Music” app and forcing you to …create a YouTube channel if you want to have online access to your previously purchased music and playlists.
PS3: what do you expect when the tech world has become an archipelago of walled-garden island-monopolies?
PS4: wow that’s a great line in PS3, I will keep using it 🙂
Denon is having an Amazon Germany sale as well with their AH-GC30 ANC/bluetooth over/on-ears (I can’t tell from the picture) going for 169 euro in the black color scheme…
They also had a sale on the Denon AH-D7200 (which is also the name of an older Nikon DSLR) but as of the time of writing this one is sold out…
In addition to the previously mentioned offers, Amazon Germany is having a big Beats sale that includes the Studio 3 Wireless for 180 euro, the Solo 3 Wireless (Club Collection) for 123 euro, the PowerBeats PRO earclip earphones for 180 euro, the Beats EP closed wired on-ears for 55 euro, and lots more. Many of them are available in different colors…
Then there’s another big headphone multi-brand sale that includes the very budget Philips SHP-1900 closed-back over-ears for 7 euro (yes, seven euro), the Panasonic RB-M300BE-K bluetooth over-ears for 60 euro, some Kygo Xenons for 101 euro in three options, truly wireless from Philips and Panasonic, and good old “earhook earbuds” from Philips, the “Rounds” for 9 euro…
And if you want to feed your DAPs and PADs and smartphones and such, they have a big memory card sale and storage (external hard drives, flash drives, etc)…
If you happen to need a Sony smartphone and an ANC/bluetooth over-ear headphone, what a coincidence, among the Day #2 Prime Deals you can get a combo from Amazon actual that has the Sony WH-1000X M3 with the SONY Xperia 1 for $750 with free US shipping.
The Xperia 1 smartphone is factory unlocked with USA warranty, with a 6.5″ OLED 21:9 4K display, 128GB UFS 2.1 on-board storage, Gorilla Glass 6, IP65/68, dual SIM hybrid, Snapdragon 855, 6GB RAM, microSDXC slot, no headphone jack but bluetooth 5.0 with apt-X HD, released May 2019. The WH-1000X M3 is now the previous generation model, a closed-back over-ear with ANC and bluetooth.
Speaking of this line of headphones, the latest model, the WH-1000X M4 is also on offer at Best Buy daily deals for $298 with a $25 Best Buy gift card as a bonus… The same offer continues at Amazon Prime Days…
Our previous post talking about the Shure KSE electrostatic lightning deal got too long, so I’m having a separate post to outline some of the potentially interesting headphone/audio-related items that are scheduled to go live in the Amazon USA Prime Day #2.
I’m not posting links for each product because this post would take forever to write. You can find all the headphones by filtering the Gold Box / Prime Day lightning deals on the left hand side for “Headphones” or “Electronics”. Electronics is a superset because it also has the various headphones that are listed there but it takes longer to traverse.
Also note that I’m not including below any of the consumer-popular headphone brands such as MPOW, Aukey, TaoTronics, etc…
+ starts 3:40am ET: 1More Stylish dual driver IEMs
+ starts 7:35am ET: 1More Piston Fit in-ears
+ starts 9am ET: 1More Piston Fit neckband bluetooth earphones
+ this just in here, but I won’t be able to unbox it, take pictures and post them by the time the lightning deal goes live 🙂
+ starts 9:05am ET: KZ ZS10 PRO In-Ears
+ the teaser says 20% off
+ the product page already has a $4 off coupon, so it’s a good idea to clip the coupon to your Amazon account (sounds complicated, but you just click on the empty little square preceding the offer text) as soon as possible
+ price before the sale $49 – $4 off coupon = $45
+ HOWEVER, there are multiple options on the listing (colors, with/without microphone) so it is not guaranteed that the lightning deal will be on the variant that is shown above; you will know for sure when it actually goes live
+ starts 9:45am ET: JVC Flats lightweight on-ears
+ starts 1pm ET: Shure KSE1500 Electrostatic Earphone System
+ starts 3:55pm ET: Tribit QuietPlus Active Noise Cancelling Headphones
+ this has a $20 off clip coupon on the listing; add it to your account, these are often (but not always) stackable with the lightning deal discount
+ starts 4pm ET: Philips Performance PH805 bluetooth over ears
+ price before sale $149
+ also through the day three Edifier speakers and a KEiiD stereo shelf system
The Prime Day party continues with Shure, their AONIC 50 bluetooth and ANC combo closed-back over-ear headphones are a Prime day lightning deal going for $299 at Amazon actual…
Speaking of which, good for a very limited time only is the new condition Shure SE-425-CL in-ears going for $188 with free US shipping. As of the time of writing they are 59% claimed…
UPDATE: also participating in the promotion are various KZ in-ears at everyone’s favorite Chi-Fi prices 🙂
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