we find good deals for you!
IF you are looking to get the open-back over-ear Focal Elear in new condition, as of the time of writing, Amazon actual is offering them for $549 per pair. You can buy as many as you like at the price. This is not a lightning deal, so there’s no public expiration date…
FOCAL has multiple options these days on the open-back front and of course the competition is not sitting idly either. Check your favorite forums and websites if you need ideas on what to pick and what to avoid…
Sub-$100 headphones in Europe are harder to find than the US market (there’s no Grade for one thing and AT prices are higher), but if you are willing to boldly go with a chi-fi brand instead, as of the time of writing, Amazon Germany itself is offering the new condition OKCSC M2 Open-Back Over-Ears for 62 euro with free German shipping. The in-stock estimate of this is April 4 in 2019.
This headphone has a bit of everything, some wood on the earcups, a detachable cable, and 57mm drivers. There are seven good gallery pictures over there to give you a good visual feel for it. Judging by the last picture, it comes with a zippered case (I think).
I haven’t seen or touched or listened to it. The search-engines are your best online friends 🙂
Do not panic, there is a slightly remodeling of the Massdrop website. Your memory has not been re-arranged by The Reptilians and The Grays while you were asleep! Which brings us to another new offering over there, it is the new condition ESS 252 closed-back over-ears going for $90 with free US shipping and around $10 international shipping [I can’t test every country, so YMMV].
These have wooden (walnut) earcups, detachable cable, collapse [into now?] into the included case, 32 ohm impedance, 50mm drivers and such. There’s no mention of warranty in the listing. They will ship from Massdrop in late April 2019…
The EU doesn’t have as many options in the budget bluetooth closed over-ears segment as the US, but one of the models that is finding itself in some recommendation lists is the Tribit Xfree bluetooth closed over-ears and it is currently going for just under 46 euro, with the order fulfilled by Amazon Germany… At Amazon USA, this goes for $48, thanks to a 5% off clip-on coupon ~
fulfilled by Amazon USA…
In Germany, they average 4.6 out of 5 based on 159 customer reviews, while at USA they average 4.6 out of 5 as well but with 650+ customer reviews. They also have nearly 200 answered questions…
A new exclusive is coming at Massdrop! A new “fruit” of their co-operation with HiFiman, available for pre-ordering right now [what Massdrop calls “in the works”], it is the open-back over-ear Hifiman HE-35X headphones, a dynamic, an improved driver over the HE-350 per the listing over there. Not everything Hifiman makes is planar after all 🙂
The listing stresses that their durability has been improved, which was a must have given the many problems Hifiman users had experienced ~ as you can see in various forums and blogs and such…
This “in the works” has a special pre-order price. If you place an order before April 19 in 2019, you will pay $90 instead of the headphone’s regular price of $120. There is also a limit of 750 units available for this run, so the offer ends when they run out or when the deadline arrives – whichever happens first.
Being an “X” product, it comes with a 1-year manufacturer warranty. Note the shipping date however, late August 2019 that’s four months from blog-post date!
One of the budget options in studio-ish headphones is a common lineage design used by Superlux and Samson among others. That design is also part of the ever-expanding Monoprice line-up, and as of the time of writing, their new condition Retro semi-open over-ears go for $22 with free standard US shipping. Limit up to twenty pairs per customer at the sale price.
But that’s not all. Monoprice is currently running various sales on some of their other headphones and they pair the sale with free standard US shipping. Among them:
+ M650 open-back over-ears for $110
+ I previously posted this but had a typo in the price in the blog-post title, so those of you skimming may have ignored it as not a good price 🙂
+ Turntable with AT100E Cartridge for $180
+ HR-5C closed over-ears for $55
+ IPX4 truly wireless for $45
+ 8323 with Bluetooth for $27
+ this is a bluetooth version of the famous 8323 closed-back over-ears
+ all the above come with free standard US shipping
Note that the free shipping offer is as of the time of writing. I do not know when it will expire for each headphone mentioned above!
But wait, there’s more! The Monolith line of high-end audio is also expanding at Monoprice with two new models coming out. These are not headphone amps. The 9-Channel Power Amplifier with XLR goes for $2000, while the 11-channel model goes for $2500
Audio Technica is also vying for the more stylish segment of the market, and one of their entries in this arena is the closed-back over-ear ATH-MSR7. The “GM” (gunmetal) color scheme of this headphone is currently available in “Used – Good” condition for 132 euro by Amazon Warehouse Deals, or for 139 in “Used – Very Good” condition.
CAUTION: there’s a just launched “fulfilled by Amazon” 3rd-party seller offering it for 150 euro in new condition. Judging by the seller profile, this looks like a high risk transaction, so keep that in mind when price-checking at Amazon, since it is an open-market and iffy sellers manage to sneak through Amazon’s AI filters…
Good until Tuesday 19-MAR-2019 at 11:59pm ET (or earlier if sold out), New York’s B&H Photo is offering the new condition closed-back over-ear Polsen HPS-A40 headphones for $65 with free US shipping.
One unusual thing about them is that they have a physical three level bass adjustment on each earcup. Each level adds 3 dB to those frequencies under 200 Hz. Not unlike the Richter scale, dB measurements are logarithmic, so an extra 3 or 6 or 9 is not “just a little more”.
They also have enough features to call them DJ-ish headphones, earcups that swivel 90 degrees, detachable single-side cable, replaceable earpads,
The new condition Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO (250 ohm) open-back over-ears going for 122 euro at Amazon Germany, but if you are fond of used headphones, you can get it for around 91 euro by various sellers through Amazon Warehouse Deals… It averages 4.4 out of 5 based on over 500 customer reviews and it has over 130 answered-questions by viewers like you…
Given the 250 ohm, some kind of amplification is probably needed unless you have a mobile device with a really good built-in amp. When in doubt and you can’t try it out yourself, there’s websites and forums 🙂
On-ear earphones? I’ll let the classifier gurus decider on where and how to classify these, but in the meantime, Massdrop is offering the new condition Koss KDE250 Earphones for $60 with free US shipping. Shipping appears to under $3 for many international locations [but I obviously can’t test them all]…
These will ship from Massdrop in mid-April 2019. There is no mention of warranty in the listing. This is not a “Koss x Massdrop” which mayhaps suggests this is sold via third parties (or something like that), thus no mention of a warranty???
Grado and Sennheiser are well-known for their sub-$100 open-back over-the-ear headphones but they are not the only ones offering them. Audio Technica is in the game too and thanks to this new Massdrop listing, they are offering the new condition open over-ear Audio Technica AD900X for $100. Massdrop will ship these in early April 2019. There is no mention of warranty in the listing…
A Woot Garage sale running until March 19 (or earlier for many of the products that sell out), you can get the good old Logitech UE 9900 closed-back over-ear bluetooth with ANC headphones for $120 with a 1-year Logitech warranty. Free shipping for Prime members or $6 flat for non-members.
These also play music via 3.5mm audio input. They include a flat-inside solid headphone case which you can easily reuse for other over/on-ear headphones that can fit inside. Limit up to ten units per customer…
PS: “good old” because once upon a time these was among the recommended ANC headphones, especially in the price range. These days there seems to be a battle between Bose and Sony and some models from select other well-known audio/electronics makers. Or something like that. Personally I’m not a big fan of ANC, I prefer to use “in-mind” ANC 🙂
If you are a fan of (PRODUCT RED) or a fan of red headphones in general, or if the chant “Beats and Bose break my (audiophile) bones” does not scare you away, good until Tuesday MAR-12-2019 at 1am central time [or earlier if sold out] you can get the new condition PRODUCT RED Beats Solo 3 on-ears (bluetooth with Apple secret sauce, closed-back) for $220 with free shipping for Prime members.
Or $6 flat shipping for all purchases made in the central time zone of the day for non-members. Up to ten per customer during the sale. They come with a 1-year Apple warranty which mayhaps suggests the Amazon-Apple cold war is slowing thawing 🙂
Jovial Jubilation! The Sennheiser HD 58X open-back over-ears Jubilee edition is back on at the Massdrop website for $160.
This being a “work in progress” listing, you have until the end of March 2019 to order it, so more time to think about it instead of the usual week-or-less time of the traditional Massdrop-drops. But fear not, shipment will not take much longer, it will ship the first week of April, soon after the listing closes. Shipping is free in the US, extra for international addresses (mayhaps $15 flat).
This headphone being a Massdrop X Sennheiser product, it comes with a 2-year manufacturer warranty. They come with one detachable cable, individually serialized, a 1/4″ adapter, and are made in Ireland. Kerrygold not included 🙂
It has 150 ohm impedance, so do check forums and reviews if you are planning to use it with lower power devices.
Monoprice did not hide their intent to go after the Sennheiser HD600 and HD650 duo when they released two new open-back headphones going by the names of M600 and M650. Of those two, the new condition M650 is currently on sale for $110 with free US ground shipping with up to twenty pairs per customer…
If you have any coupons, it doesn’t hurt to try them, although more often than not, specials offers are not stackable with coupons. However, enough times they are, so, as I said, it doesn’t hurt to try them in the shopping cart…
Speaking of the Monoprice website, they are also offering the new condition MP-30 earphones for $12 with free US standard shipping, with up to twenty pairs per customer at the sale price. This model has two tuning nozzles as well ~ the look/design looks familiar but off the top of my head I can’t tell/recall which model(s) these are “related” to 🙂
Knock, on Wood, Baby! Massdrop is back with another offering, it is the new condition Thinksound ON2 on-ears, closed-back, so closed it has wooden earcups, going for $90. They come with a 2-year warranty from Thinksound and will ship on April Fool’s Day from the vendor. Two cables are included (with and without mic). The offer runs for the next five days and change [from blog-posting time]…
It’s Woot time once again, good until Tuesday MAR-5-2019 at 11:59pm central time [Woot is in beautiful Austin, Texas], you can get the new condition Polk Hinge bluetooth on-ears [closed back obviously] for $50 with free shipping for Prime members or $6 flat shipping for all calendar-day purchases at Woot for non-members. They come with a 1-year warranty and you can buy up to ten pairs at the sale price. You also have a choice of color, black or camel brown. An actual camel is NOT included. Not even a toe 😉
Good until Tuesday at 8am eastern time (or earlier in the unlikely event it sells out), you can get the new condition Marantz MPH-2 Studio Headphones for $40 with free shipping at Musician’s Friend where it is their deal of the day.
They average 4.3 out of 5 based on 70+ customer reviews over there.
If you are a fan of the Motorola brand, Amazon Germany is offering the new condition Motorola Pulse Max closed-back over-ear headphones for 20 euro with up to nine per customer [probably because they have nine units in-stock]. This is in the white color scheme. They come with a detachable 1-button cable, so you can reuse the cable as well 🙂
Monoprice continues to add more headphone gear to their line-up, one of which is the brand new HR-5 open-back over-ears, and as of the time of writing, they are on sale for $50 with free standard US shipping at the Monoprice website. Up to twenty pairs per customer at the sale price. They don’t have any reviews at the Monoprice site, so your favorite search engines and forums are your friends…
They come with a generous package for the price, two sets of earpads included (protein and velour), a carrying case and a good old 1/4″ adapter. As you can tell by the accessories, the earpads are removable/replaceable…
AND in a parallel promotion, they are offering the HR-5C closed-back over-ears for $55 with free standard US shipping. This one has two customer reviews with a 4.5 out of 5 average, and it also has a few questions answered…
Planet Planar continues to expand with newer options, one of which is now fully unlocked at the members-only BUT free-to-join Massdrop webite. It is the new condition Dekoni Blue (by Fostex) semi-open over-ear planar-magnetic headphones, based on the good old Fostex T50RP Mark III.
The price is $190; orders will ship in late March 2019 from the vendor. There’s no mention of warranty in the listing. The drop runs for the next four days and change [from blog-posting date that is]…
Thanks to its latest new parents, AKG is now touching three major continents, but that’s a story for another day. Their new condition good old open-back over-ear K701 headphones are currently down to 128 euro with free shipping in Germany by Amazon Germany actual with up to three pairs per customer at the sale price. The price is such that the used options over there cost more than the new condition. They average 3.7 out of 5 based on 210+ customer reviews over there.
Note that AKG has released newer models since, including those Massdrop exclusives, so if you are not up to date with their open-back line-up, the forums and the search-engines are your friends.
Not far off in price, their K702 open over-ears go for 122 euro but they are currently restricted to Amazon Germany Prime members only…
Meanwhile the AKG K612 are currently available in “Used – Very Good” condition for around 79 euro by Amazon Warehouse Deals actual…
This has dropped further down since our previous post. Open-back headphones are harder to find in Europe than the US market under 100 [there’s no Grado officially in Europe and the good old Philips SHP-9500* are history], so there’s less competition for Sennheiser, but their new HD 559 open-back over-ear is now down to 62 euro by Amazon actual with up to three pairs per customer at the sale price.
NOTE that this comes with a cable that terminates in 1/4″ (6.3″) because Sennheiser envisions this as a “home audio” headphone. So if you want to use it with smartphones or portable DAPs and such, you need to use your own 1/4″ to 1/8″ adapter or if you have compatible Sennheiser cables from previous purchases of other compatible models.
Sennheiser should have really inclued the 1/4″ to 1/8″ adapter. Come on now 🙂
Fostex the People! I just can’t resist recycling this old joke 🙂 Massdrop is back with two new TR-X00 closed-back wood over-ear headphones! They are the old favorites but now with removable cables. These are a pre-order, an “in production” listing, with a mid-April 2019 shipment estimate. Just in time for the tax deadline 🙂
The Purple Heart goes for $470, while the Ebony goes for $520. This being a Massdrop-Fostex partnership, they come with a 2-year warranty.
These being a pre-order, they also come with these perks:
+ coupon for $10 off your next Massdrop order
+ a polishing cloth
+ an exclusive Q&A with the project leader
So if you are a fan of removable cables, and you are a boldly going early adopter of pre-production, hide your wallet 🙂
Good for Wednesday FEB-27-2019, one of the Best Buy deals du jour is the new condition Apple Beats Solo 3, a bluetooth closed-back on-ears with some Apple-ish W1 technology mixed in going for $160 with free shipping or free store pick-up if that’s available at a nearby store.
As of the time of writing, amazon.com did not price-match it…
A parallel coupon, promo code SURPRISE1 gets you 20% off most Monoprice brand products under $500 at their website. The maximum discount with the coupon is $100, so you have to prioritize what you want to get if your order total is over $500. As you can see at the aforelinked page, a number of headphone-related products drop interestingly:
+ M600 open over-ears drop from $80 to $64
+ M300 planar in-ears drop from $100 to $80
+ M1060 planar open over-ears drop from $250 to $200
+ Truly Wireless drop from $50 to $40
+ the above four items mentioned come with free standard US shipping
More headphone-related items are eligible, but these days Monoprice has so many headphones, earphones, DACs, amps and assorted cables and accessories that due to time constraints I cannot coupon-test right now…
Exclusions and restrictions apply. The linked-to page above has a link to the exclusions list, or more easily, you can test the coupon in the shopping cart and it will show what qualifies. You don’t need an account/login to test the coupon
Good until the end of day on Tuesday FEB-26-2019 in the pacific time zone, promo code SURPRISE2 gets you 20% off most Monoprice brand products priced over $500, and among them is the Monoprice Electrostatic Headphone System which, thanks to the coupon discount, drops from $700 to $560. It also comes with free standard US shipping.
It has one detailed customer review over there, so for more on it, your favorite audio forums, websites and search engines are your e-static friends 🙂
The smartypans Nuraphone Wireless [bluetooth] headphones are one of the Amazon Germany deals of the day going for 319.20 euro with free shipping in Germany. Shipping is extra in other countries. Shipping restrictions apply as usual because even though we have internet flowing across the world, shipments are caught up in all sorts of crazy geo-socio-corporate-o-political nonsense #RANT
They are also a new drop at Massdrop going for $320 and optionally you can add cables for $more$. They will ship from Massdrop in mid-March…
One more [no pun intended] headphone’s price is coming down to earth. The 1More Triple Driver Over-Ears are now going for $130 at Massdrop with the offer running for the next five days and change [from blog-posting date]… Note that despite the open-ish look of the earcup grills, these are closed-back headphones…
They are estimated to get shipped around the start of March Madness 2019 [mid-March] from Massdrop. There is no mention of warranty in the listing… They average 4 stars and change based on 15 Massdrop customer reviews…
While price-checking and surfing around for the previous Klipsch post, this one surfaced too, it is the new condition Reference On-Ear II, another closed-back on-ear model [as the name suggests], in the black color scheme, going for $44 with free shipping by Amazon actual with a limit of two per customer… These average 3.7 out of 5 based on 90+ customer reviews…
If you are a fan of the Klipsch headphones or shopping the price point, as of the time of writing, Amazon actual is offering the new condition Klipsch R6i closed on-ears for $29 with free shipping. They have a 3-button remote but it is not detachable so you can’t reuse the cable. But they come with a drawstring pouch which can be used with other headphones [as long as they fit inside that is]…
These average 4.2 out of 5 based on 55 customer reviews…
Or for a few dollars more, as of the time of writing, the new condition Reference On-Ears go for $40 but in the white color scheme. These are however sold by a marketplace seller with the orders “fulfilled by Amazon”. This model averages 3.9 out of 5 based on 66 customer reviews.
Sennheiser and Grado are not the only ones with a sizeable open-back line-up. Less memorably named they are, but Audio Technica too has their AD-line of open-backs, and the entry-point in this line-up is the ATH-AD500X which currently goes for $70 by Amazon actual but it is currently restricted to Prime members… But that’s not all, when you are logged on to your Amazon account, there’s an option to clip-on a $1.50 off clip-on coupon, dropping the price down to $68.50…
For whatever reason Amazon has grouped three different models from this line-up in the same root listing, so you have to go through the customer reviews and filter them by this option. The review score you see there is an aggregate of all three models. Strange that Amazon hasn’t figured how to sort this out yet ~ considering how obsessive they are with data and AI 🙂
If you are not a Prime member, or if you are not fond of the way Amazon does things, they are on sale for $70 by Walmart actual…
If you are looking for retro-style but bluetooth headphone, the gray-black color scheme of the Panasonic RP-HTX80B closed-back over-ear headphones is now down to the very specific price of $43.89 by Amazon actual. You can buy as many as you like and it is not a lightning deal, so prices are organically/dynamically adjusted by the Amazon Price Bots (TM). The new condition price is low enough it surpasses the used prices of other colors of the same model…
IF you are curious about this headphone, we have a text and pictures unboxing of the black color scheme.
If you are looking for Sony bluetooth on-ear headphones of a recent generation, their WH-CH500 in the black color-scheme is currently available in multiple listings for the very specific price of $32.54 in “Used – Very Good” condition and $34.29 in “Used – Like New” by Amazon Warehouse Deals actual [this link shows ONLY those listings where AWD is the actual seller].
AS it is often the case with Sony headphones, there are many more listings from other marketplace sellers with an increased risk [especially those with thin profiles and even more so the “Just Launched” fly-by-night types], especially if they are not fulfilled by Amazon. This listing shows all sellers.
They average 4 out of 5 based on 160+ customer reviews, and they were revealed at CES 2018 which feels like yesterday even those it was 13.5 months ago!
NOTE: we have here a text and pictures unboxing of a different model in this series, the over-ear WH-CH700N…
Sony has over/on-ear bluetooth headphones in some of their lines of products as well, including their good old ZX-series and the basshead-friendly XB-series…
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