V-Moda Crossfade Wireless Closed Over-Ears for $100 [updated]

Grab your e-wallets! For a limited time, Amazon actual is offering the new condition V-Moda Crossfade Wireless closed-back over-ear headphones for $100 with free shipping. Limit up to three per customer at the sale price. Only the gunmetal color scheme is this low. The in-stock estimate is July 2nd, so this offer is starting to run out ~ don’t sleep on it if you are interested!

This headphone averages 4.3 out of 5 based on 720+ customer reviews and it has 240+ answered questions. A second second-generation model has been released, the Codex edition but it costs over $300.

Note that this $100 model does not have the double-folding technology (marketing name: cliqfold) found in the original wired Crossfade and the second generation Wireless. Note also that it does not support apt-X or apt-X HD. Heck, even among the first second-generation Wireless 2 models, only the “Rose Gold” color scheme supported apt-X. It was only with the second second-generation models, “the Codex”, that all three color schemes supported apt-X.

These headphones do have a 3.5mm input and from what people are saying, the wired performance of the wired and the wireless models is on par.

Having said all that, keep in mind that this is a headphone that people were enthusiastically buying for $300, so at one third of the price a number of its “comparative sins” may be forgiven…

June 26, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: ,

[DEAD] EU: V-Moda Crossfade wired over-ears for 76 euro

UPDATE (early 6/30/19)
All the options under 100 euro have now sold out…

[Read more…]

June 26, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With:

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…

June 25, 2019 Filed Under: accessories Tagged With: , ,

Audio Technica A2000Z ART for $450 [MD]

Massdrop is now digging into the ART (no, not the Sigma ART lenses) Audio Technica headphones. For the next four days and change they are offering the new condition AT A2000Z closed-back over-ears for $450 with free USA shipping. It will ship in late July 2019 by Massdrop. There’s no mention of warranty in the listing.

It has that AT “auto adjusting” headband mechanism. It is definitely a “deep cut” type of a headphone for the audiophile types. It certainly won’t steal any sales away from the Beats and Bose and Sonys…

June 25, 2019 Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

1More Stylish truly wireless for $100

You are not buying truly-wireless headphones because you want to enjoy orchestral masterpieces at their absolute best. Quite the opposite, they are very digitally utilitarian but progress is being made with each new generation. Or something like that…

If you are sold on the 1More Stylish [that’s part of the product name I’m afraid] Truly Wirelss earphones, they are currently on sale for $100 by amazon.com (limit two per customer, ship in early July) and by Stacksocial…

PS: Amazon may have price-matched Stacksocial’s offering???

June 25, 2019 Filed Under: truly wireless Tagged With: ,

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…

June 24, 2019 Filed Under: accessories Tagged With: ,

Monoprice sale w/FUSS: M650 Open Over-Ears $120, Mega Tube Amp for $340, MP10 IEMs for $8, Etc

All the offers mentioned in this post below include free standard US shipping as of the time of writing of this post…

Monoprice is running another headphone-related sale with a variety of products, big and small. From small earphones to boulder-sized amplifiers 🙂

+ speaking of which, the Monolith Tube Headphone amplifier with ESS Sabre DAC is going for $340

+ Monolith M650 open-back over-ears for $120
+ the M600 and M650 are not planar-magnetic; you are correct, the model names are an “homage” to certain “Heiser” headphones ^_^

+ metal headphone stand for $18

+ MP-10 in-ears for $8
+ yes, despite the low price, you still get free standard US shipping while this promotion is running ~ after all IEMs can ship easily and don’t take up lots of space and can probably be shipped easily even with USPS first class mail [only guessing here, I have no clue how they will ship these]

+ Retro over-ears for $22.49
+ you are correct if it reminds you of a certain Superlux/Samson headphone 🙂

+ Monoprice 8323 with bluetooth for $23
+ the good old model now with bluetooth (and apt-X). I haven’t seen this new model but I had the 8323 and larger heads were not an easy fit. It also expands a bit strangely on your head, so if you are image-conscious note that when you are using it at coffee shops and libraries and such

PS: “FUSS” = Free US shipping and handling…

June 23, 2019 Filed Under: alternative headphones, amps and dacs, headphones, in-ears Tagged With:

Tin Hifi P1 In-Ears for $149 w/FUSS [MD]

It’s tin time! No, not Tiny Tim and no, not the metal. It’s the Tin Hifi P1 in-ears, offered for the next four days and change for $149 with free US shipping at the members-only but free-to-join shopping club that is Massdrop. Now of course renamed to just Drop.

They have a removable MMCX cable, come with a 1-year warranty and include eight pairs of eartips [do y’all have a system on how to organize the various eartips included in the various in-ears???]. Orders will ship from Massdrop in late July 2019.

June 23, 2019 Filed Under: in-ears Tagged With: ,

PWYW Music Bundle: 14 titles for $10+

Stacksocial is running a Pay What You Want promotion on music. Any payment over $1 gets you four titles but if you meet or beat the average ($10.62 as of the time of writing), you will receive another ten titles. All these are digital deliveries of course. The various options are described further down the page over there…

UPDATE: their semi annual sale includes among others the “Ultimate Logic PRO X Production Bundle” for $19. The bundle includes eight courses. Six of them are PRO Logic X centric, the other two are general purpose (Music theory and SongWriting).

PS: someone needs to create a course on how to pick a headphone from the Beyerdynamic DT 770/880/990 options 😉

June 23, 2019 Filed Under: general topics

Monoprice HR-5C Closed Over-Ears for $50 w/FS

More sale action at the Monoprice website, they are offering the new condition Monoprice HR-5C, a closed-back over-ear model going for $50 with free US standard shipping. You can buy up to twenty units per customer. It averages 4.8 out of 5 based on nine customer reviews over there. It is a limited time offer.

As you can tell from the picture, it may look familiar to you ~ check the various head-audio forums for details on the headphone and which other models are “related” to it 🙂

June 22, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With:

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.

June 22, 2019 Filed Under: accessories Tagged With: , ,

Thursday: B&O H8i for $300, Logitech Gaming Headsets

There are two headphone daily deals running for Thursday June 20 in 2019 as follows:

+ the Bang & Olufsen H8i bleutooth with ANC on-ears for $300 at Best Buy

+ a Logitech sale at the Amazon USA Gold Box includes keyboards and mice galore but also six Logitech gaming headsets with prices ranging from $33 to $100…

June 20, 2019 Filed Under: headset Tagged With: ,

Massdrop goes crazy with Curated “Bounty Boxes” for $100 or $250 [or a wild $5000 Ultimate Box]

UPDATE: this post has now been proofread. I posted the original while in a hurry 🙂

NOTE: This is a bit of a complicated offer, so don’t jump in until you read the description over there and/or check their forum to see what others are saying…

Massdrop is once again doing crazy things, this time with the Bounty Boxes. You pay $100 or $250, and for that you are guaranteed to receive something from Audiophile and/or Tech & Gaming and/or Outdoors and/or EDC (I’m assuming this is the industry-standard term for “Every Day (Steph) Curry” OOPS, I mean, “Every Day Carry”???)…

This is a curated “bounty box” in that the included items are pre-selected by Massdrop and listed for all to see [see below]…

To make it more enticing, Massdrop will be randomly upgrading some of the boxes with a more expensive item. Eleven out of 100 Silver boxes (the $100 boxes) will get an upgrade. And one in four Gold boxes (the $250 boxes) will get an upgrade.

What’s INCLUDED?
The $100 Silver box will receive four items. Three from the “Common” items category and one from the “Uncommon” items. The $250 Gold box will receive five items, two Common, two Uncommon and one Rare. If these don’t make sense, read the SPOILERS section at the bottom of this blog post below…

If you want to select which category your products will come from, you pay an extra +$10. So if you are interested in only one or two of those four categories, it may not be a bad idea to pay more for the guarantee. If you like all four categories, or you can gift what you don’t want/need/like, then no need for the +$10.

You won’t receive duplicates of the same product, but you will receive items from the same category ~ especially if you pay the +$10 to preselect the category of interest.

Each person can buy up to five boxes per shopping cart, so you can mix and match categories or have them all be randomly selected.

Free shipping is included but sales-tax is also included (eg in California where Massdrop is located). This is for US addresses only and they will ship in late July 2019 from Massdrop…

There is a return policy but read the terms on their website: items must be un-opened and un-damaged. There is a restocking fee. You can only return one bounty box per calendar month. So think before you buy if you think the chances are high that you will return it…

And then there’s the crazy $5000 tier
If you have $5000 to spare, they have the “Ultimate Bounty Box”. You receive a wooden crate that is filled with some of the items from the tiers below but they will also include additional unlisted items from the Massdrop general inventory. And per the description, these will apparently be individually gift wrapped making it a longer and more fun [and/or more frustrating] unboxing process. Note that the wooden crate will be nailed shut, so prepare your tools or bring in a handyman/handywoman to help you ~ especially if you are recording the unboxing video for YouTube purposes 🙂

SHOULD YOU JUMP IN?
If you are the type who enjoys the randomness of things, this is for you. If you are the type who only wants specific items and hates getting things you haven’t thoroughly researched and need, then avoid this. If you are somewhere in-between, do some soul searching before deciding 🙂

If you want to make an educated guess on what you might get, they are posting SPOILERS! A PDF file at the aforelinked page lists all eligible items for the Silver and Gold boxes. The $5000 box additional unlisted items are … not listed there 🙂 To preserve their SPOILERS policy, I will be discussing the available headphones below the break… Spoilers after this paragraph, you have been WARNED!

[Read more…]

June 19, 2019 Filed Under: store sale Tagged With:

Pre-order new Fostex T-XO II planars for $180

Planar continues to be all the rage these days and if you are on the planar steam train and patience is one of your virtues, Massdrop is launching a new headphone (an “In the Works” product) and accepting pre-orders for $180, it is the Fostex T-XO II planar magnetic headphones. The $180 price is good until July 18 in 2019. After that, the price will climb to $220 which is its “regular” price.

One thing of note with this headphone is that it is tuneable in two different ways: it includes two sets of damping foam and two sets of earpads, so you have four theoretical combinations to experiment with. Make sure you have a notebook standing by 🙂

That part about patience being a virtue? I was not joking! The shipping estimate for this is March 2020, that’s EIGHT months from the blog-posting date 🙂

June 19, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: , , ,

Monolith audio sale including planars, open-back & electrostatics

For a limited time only, the Monoprice website is having a Monolith Audio sale featuring a variety of their latest products including:

+ Monolith Electrostatic system: headphone with its side-kick amplifier for $630

+ M1060 open-back planars for $270, M1060C closed for $300

+ M565 open-back planars for $180

+ M300 planar earphones (it’s very hard to call them in-ears) for $100

+ open-back over-ear non-planar M600 for $70+

+ various amps, also Turntable for $200, and of course various cables

June 18, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: ,

Dark Voice 336-SE OTL headphone amp for $200 [MD]

Amp time at Massdrop! Good for the next five days and change, you can get the new condition Dark Voice 336-SE OTL (output transformer less) headphone amp for $200 with free US shipping. Orders will ship from Massdrop in mid-August. There’s no mention of warranty in the listings. You do have an option of power supply during the checkout process, so you can get 110V or 220-240V. Per the listings there, over 2,500 units have been sold of this through Massdrop…Dar

June 18, 2019 Filed Under: amps and dacs Tagged With: ,

Tuesday: Eargasm Earplus for $19, Klipsch R5 neckband bluetooth earphonesfor $48

There are not one but TWO headphone-related products in the Tuesday daily deals at the Woot website. At the main Woot, you can get the new condition Klipsch R5 neckband bluetooth earphones for $48 in your choice of brown or black with a 1-year manufacturer warranty… And at Sellout (now known as “Clearance”), you can get the new condition EarGasm high fidelity earplugs (they do not play music) in a gift box for $19 in the rainbow color scheme with up to three per customer at the sale price. These come with a 90-day Woot warranty…

All these end at 11:59pm central time (Woot is in Austin::Texas) on Tuesday June the 18th of the Year 2019. Shipping is free for Prime members ~ you have to connect as a one-time activity your Woot and Amazon Prime accounts. Non-Prime members pay a flat $6 shipping fee for ALL purchases made in a calendar day (eg from Tuesday at 00:01am until 11:59pm in the central time zone)…

June 18, 2019 Filed Under: in-ears Tagged With: , , , ,

Headphone sale at B&H’s Mega DealZone

New York’s critically acclaimed B&H Photo is now running a limited-time MEGA DEAL ZONE sale. This is a sale that aggregates many of their previous daily deals, but they are all running live at the same time, in parallel. Think of it as a more convenient version of a Woot-OFF where you don’t have to be glued to the screen all the time.

Some of the participating headphones are under the “PRO AUDIO” category ~ the horizontal banner with the participating product categories. Among them:

+ Pioneer HRM-7 DJ headphones for $90
+ Sennheiser HD8 DJ headphones for $150

+ Westone W60 six driver IEMs for $500

+ Polsen HPC-A30 budget studio monitors for $15
+ Polsen HPS-A40 for $50

+ Tascam CD-200iL professional CD player for $250

+ various other products from Zoom, Tascam, Blue, etc

As you can tell, the above are more PRO headphones, the ones below can be found in the “Mobile & Entertainment” category and they are more consumer-y headphones:

+ JBL E55-BT bluetooth over-ears for $50
+ JBL Reflect Aware sport earphones for $45

+ NuForce BE Free8 truly wireless for $60
+ BE Sport3 wireless necklace-style earphones for $35 (Add to cart to see the sale price)
+ BE2 necklace-style bluetooth earphones for $15

+ Auray HPDS-8 headphone stand for $12

+ other audio-related assorted items, eg $14 Samson BT30 30-pin bluetooth adapter-receiver

June 17, 2019 Filed Under: headphones

EU: Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 Over-Ears for 100 euro [iOS]

From the looks of it this headphone may be doing its “farewell tour” of Amazon Germany, it is the new condition black color scheme with iOS remote control buttons of the closed-back over-ear Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 going for 100 euro with free shipping within Germany. Up to six per customer at the sale price. The other options are either sold out or more expensive…

Note that you can use the headphone with any device, it is not limited to iOS devices. The only downside of iOS buttons with other devices is that some of the remote control functions (eg volume control) may not work or not work as expected. Other than that, it is a 3.5mm input headphone…

PS: from the looks of it, Sennheiser must have settled the “Momentum” naming dispute in the US market, because as you can see at the US Senheiser website (en-us sub-domain) at select ex-Momentum product pages, you are greeted by this message:

June 17, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With:

MEE Matrix 3 Low Latency Bluetooth Over-Ears for $80

Mayhaps a price-match of the Best Buy daily deal, but Amazon actual is currently offering the new condition MEE Audio Matrix 3 closed-back over-ear bluetooth headphones for $80 with free shipping and handling with up to six per customer at the sale price. This is an apt-X low latency model, of interest for TV and video viewing as well. It has bluetooth 4.0 with apt-X and promises up to 24 hours battery life. It also plays music via 3.5mm input.

Note that there are multiple different models on the same listing, so you have to filter the customer reviews for this particular model…

June 15, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: , ,

Monoprice M600 Open Over-Ears for $70 w/free S&H

Curiosity may have killed the cat but it won’t kill your e-wallet if you are curious about Monoprice’s relatively new non-planar and curiously-named open-back over-ear M600 headphones. They are currently on sale for $70 with free US shipping at the Monoprice website…

There they average 4.3 out of 5 but based on only three customer reviews so mayhaps of interest if you are the curious and boldly-going type. The only long review of the three is the 3-star review that brings the average down, written by a Sennheiser HD 600 fan, so you can get a good comparison. Said reviewer in there states that they are not big enough for his growing ears.

They are not stingy with the in-the-box accessories, you get a zippered carrying case, an extra set of earpads and a removable cable. The included accessories are shown on gallery picture #3 over there… One earpad set is velour, the other is leather (protein leather? it doesn’t say for sure). There’s no mic/volume on the cable but since it is removable you can use your own.

June 12, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With:

Woot Garage sale with Gaming Headsets including Sennheiser Game Zero for $100

Woot is running another iteration of their Garage sale. The headphones under “Electronics” have unfortunately sold out before I noticed the sale, but there’s a quintet of in-stock (as of the time of writing) gaming headsets under the Computers Garage sale as follows:

+ Sennheiser Game ZERO for $100

+ Skullcandy SLYR for $37~

+ Polk Melee for $24

+ HyperX Cloud PRO for $58

+ Razer Tiamat 2.2 V2 for $60

Check each individual listing for details on its condition, color options and warranty. The sale ends in about a week from the blog-posting date, except for items that sellout ahead of time ~ and the sellouts happen quite often during the “Garage sales”…

June 12, 2019 Filed Under: headset Tagged With: ,

Wedn: Audeze Mobius Gaming Headset for $299

Good until Wednesday 6/12/19 at 11:59pm pacific time (or earlier if sold out), you can get the new condition Audeze Mobium Gaming Headset for $299 with free shipping in your choice of three color schemes. You can buy as many as you like at the sale price…

June 12, 2019 Filed Under: headset Tagged With: ,

Sony XB950 Extra Bass sale: B1 for $125, N1 for $178

Also part of the previously mentioned Sony Summer Kick-Off sale you can get the following headphones as follows:

  • XB950-B1 “Extra Bass” (bluetooth, closed over-ears) for $125 to $128 in three color options
  • XB950-N1: same as above but with ANC as well, for $178 in two color schemes
  • WI-1000X neckband bluetooth earphones for $186 in black only
June 11, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: , ,

Sony WH-CH700N Closed ANC/Bluetooth Over-Ears for $128

The Sony Summer KickOff sale includes another headphone we didn’t mention before, it is the new condition WH-CH700N, a closed-back bluetooth with ANC over-ear model going for $128 with free shipping in your choice of black or blue. Limit up to three per color per customer at the sale price. The sale price is also available at various other participating authorized Sony USA dealers because that’s how a protectionist non-free market works 🙂

It also plays audio via 3.5mm, supports NFC for easier connectivity when there are “air wars”, works with the Sony “Headphones Connect” app, and charges through microUSB. NOTE that there are no touch controls – you have buttons on the earcups for play, pause, etc…

And as fate would have it, we have a text and pictures unboxing of this very model, going for less than half the price of the flagship WH-X1000 Mark III…

PS: the PORG is not included. It is our “blog pet” 🙂

June 11, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: , ,

EU: OKCSC M2 Open-Back breaches bottom of 59 euro

One of the “underground” open-back picks under $100 is the very pronounceable OKCSC M2 open-back over/on-ears and, as if this is a stock, it’s the first time I’ve seen it breach its bottom of 59 euro, it is currently just under 59 at Amazon Germany.

It’s a bit of a Grado homage, but unlike Grado, it does not come in a pizza box without pizza, but it comes with a zippered carrying case and a detachable 5M OCC silver-plated cable. Also unlike Grado, there’s some wood on it as well.

Having not seen this in person, I’m not quite sure if it’s over-ears or on-ears. Mayhaps that too is like the Grado on-ears which are a bit on the larger side of on-ears?

June 10, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With:

Monoprice Retro Closed Over-Ears for $20 w/free US S&H

If you are want a budget studio-ish headphone delivered to your door for $20, for a limited time, the Monoprice website is offering the new condition Modern Retro closed-back over-ears for $20 with free standard US shipping. Up to twenty pairs per customer at the sale price. It averages 4.5 out of 5 based on 150+ customer reviews at the Monoprice website and it has plenty of answered questions over there…

Keep in mind, despite the hype train, this is not a miracle/magic headphone. As reviewer Greg D. puts it,

“but I was hoping for a $200 sound in a $22 headphone”

If this looks familiar, it is probably because it looks like it has common ancestry with their Samson and Superlux cousins. And as fate would have it, we have a text and pictures unboxing of the Samson SR-850 which is a semi-open.

BOTE that this has a long-ass cable [yes, that’s a technical term], around 10 feet…

June 10, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: ,

Monday: Beats Solo 3 Wireless for $175 [select colors]

Even though they are new condition, these come with a 90-day Woot warranty (instead of a 1-year Apple Beats warranty) so keep that in mind: good until Monday 6/10/19 at 11:59pm central, you can get the new condition Beats Solo 3 wireless (closed-back on-ears) for $175 with free shipping for Prime members or $6 flat shipping for non-members. Five different options are available during the sale. You can buy up to ten pairs at the sale price per shopping cart during this sale…

June 10, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: ,

Saturday PADs: refurb LG V20 for $100

You don’t have to spend the big bucks if you want to get a solid Android phone with good audio/phile innards and with a big screen to boot when you are watching music videos or concerts or when you want to use elaborate equalization curves.

All that brings us to the refurbished scratch and dent LG V20 (unlocked) offered for $100 with free shipping for Prime members [or $6 flat shipping for non-members] and with a 90-day Woot warranty. Limit up to three per customer at the sale price.

As a refresher, this has the Quad DAC, a headphone jack, 4GB RAM, 64GB on-board and microSD storage, removable battery, USB-C, 5.7-inch screen, Snapdragon 820, Adreno 530, etc. This came out in the Fall of 2016.

Speaking of daily deals, the Best Buy website offers the new condition MEE Matrix Cinema Wireless Over Ears for $90 with free US shipping or free store pick up if possible.

The above offers end on Saturday 6/8/19 at 11:59pm central time ~ or earlier if they sell out…

June 8, 2019 Filed Under: digital audio players Tagged With: , , ,

Master & Dynamic MW60 bluetooth over-ears for $297 to $350

Bluetooth headphones get a lot of hatorade by some in some of the audiophile online circles, but I suspect quite a few of those, deep in their audiophile caves, they use them for convenience and then bury them in their secret vaults when not in use so their fellow audiophiles do not catch them 😉

Which brings us to the Friday daily deals at Best Buy’s website where the new condition Master & Dynamic MW60 bluetooth over-ears are the headliner daily deal for $350 with free US shipping or free store pick-up where available and possible…

But that’s not all. It appears the price has been matched and slightly bested for a different color at amazon.com. The all-black goes for $340, the silver-brown goes for $347, while two of the $399 colors have a $50 off clip-on coupon dropping them to $349.

BUT WAIT, there’s an even lower price. The silver-red color scheme goes for $297, this too sold and shipped by Amazon actual and you can buy as many as you like. This color may be a bit of an acquired taste unless you are a red leather.

The color combo names you see are meta/leather. The first color is the color of the metal parts, and the second color is the color of the leather parts.

Note that this is a bluetooth 4.1 headphone with apt-X, so if you are a BT 5.0 or apt-X HD fan, this is not it. It promises a 16 hour battery life in the product description. It has tactile controls on the earcups and the earpads are removable. It also plays music via a conventional 3.5mm input and comes with cables and cable box and canvas pouch for the headphones.

They average 3.8 out of 5 based on 64 customer reviews. Per the product description, the rechargeable battery is LiPo (lithium polymer).

Just like other markets/industries, many of the traditional audio/audiophile brands were unprepared for the bluetooth avalanche and they are trying to play catch up now. As you can see at the top selling over-ears at amazon.com, there are a lot of combo ANC/bluetooth over-ears in the top of the chart from brands with no audiophile history or tradition: Cowin, TaoTronics, MPOW, etc. Of name brand interest though, there’s Bose and Sony. In an era of cascading bad news for Sony electronics, their WH-1000X line of headphones has been a big hit with some claiming that it even defeats Bose on ANC, which is one of the main raisons d^etre for Bose.

Speaking of which, the Sony WH-1000X Mark III is currently on a summer kickoff special for $298 at amazon.com and other authorized Sony USA dealers participating in this promotion. It comes with Alexa built-in, which I’m not sure if it’s a feature or a bug 🙂

Speaking of top sellers, did you know that Amazon also keeps a best selling list for Headphone Accessories?. Yes, we have arrived audiophool neighbors, when our accessories have their own best seller list, we made it 🙂

Okay, this post has gone out of control, all apologies for the never-ending rumbling 🙂

June 6, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: ,

Etymotic ER3SE or ER3XR for $150 each, ER4S for $190

With 23 hours to go from blog-posting time, Massdrop is offering the Etymotic ER3XR or ER3SE flange-y in-ears for $145 each with free US shipping. Over 450 units have been sold from this listing per the page over there. There’s no mention of warranty in the listing. They will ship in early July 2019 from Massdrop, which is now just …Drop. They dropped the mass 🙂 I still prefer Massdrop 🙂

BUT if you don’t want to wait for that long and want the warranty too, the ER3XR goes for $146 and 1/2, and the ER3SE for $149 at amazon.com, and these prices are by Amazon actual, not marketplace sellers.

Speaking of this line of deep-insertion in-ears, the ER4S is currently on sale for $190 by Amazon actual…

June 5, 2019 Filed Under: in-ears Tagged With: , ,

Pre-order Hifiman HE 4XX planars for $180 [MD]

Planar time! If you are tempted by the Hifiman HE-4XX planar magnetic headphones, Massdrop is currently accepting pre-orders for $180 with free US shipping. Over 12,000 units have been sold so far during their Massdrop run per their stats over there.

NOTE that these are pre-orders ~ the shipment estimate for this set is mid-July 2019, so patience is a planar virtue 🙂

Since they are a co-operation between the two companies, they come with a 1-year manufacturer warranty, which, given some recent Hifiman reliability history, it is a big plus…

June 3, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: ,

Wednesday: JBL E55-BT Closed Over-Ears for $50

Wednesday 5/29/19 brings us some headphone action among the B&H Photo deals of the day, running until 11:59pm eastern time (or before then if it manages to sell out). It is the new condition JBL E-55-BT bluetooth headphones of the closed-back over-ears kind, going for $50 with free US shipping. Only the black color scheme is on sale at this low price. Some of the other colors are on sale for $75 when you “add to cart” but that’s a sale of their own, not linked to this daily deal that runs for 48 hours.

These have bluetooth 4.0 and also take 3.5mm audio input (1-button cable included). Note that this does NOT have NFC. NFC can be great when there are Bluetooth Air Wars in the areas you try to use your devices: multiple music sources and/or multiple music receivers ~ more so if you have more than one music source paired with a specific music receiver and they are both/all active at the same time 🙂

May 28, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: ,

Tuesday (Bluetooth): Razer Hammerhead for $50, B&O H9i for $400

Two headphones are among the Tuesday May 28 daily deals at Best Buy punto com:

+ Razer Hammerhead bluetooth in-ears for $50 (necklace style)

+ Bang & Olufsen BEOPlay H9i ANC/bluetooth closed-back over-ears for $400

Free shipping and free store pickup where it is possible and available. Their shopping cart will inform you of your options…

May 27, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: , ,

Monday: Sennheiser, Skullcandy, Samson, JBL, etc

There’s a random headphone sale at Woot Electronics masquerading as an “Odds & Ends” sale for Monday 7/27/19, that features eight different headphones including the $7 Skullcandy Jib earphones and the $23 Hesh 2 over/on-ears, the $50 Sennheiser HD 471G (G for Galaxy/Android) and the $50 HD-250 II closed-back over-ears…

Meanwhile the B&H Photo Monday daily deals include the $14 Samson BT30 30-Pin Bluetooth Adapter/Receiver

May 27, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: