Sennheiser HD 58X Jubilee returns for $160 [MD]

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.

March 7, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: ,

Monoprice M650 Open Over-Ears for $110 [corrected], MP30 IEMs for $12

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 🙂

March 7, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With:

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…

March 7, 2019 Filed Under: accessories Tagged With: ,

Aune X7S balanced head-amp or X1S Anniversary DAC/amp for $180 EACH [MD]

The head-audio party continues at good old Massdrop with the new condition Aune X1S Anniversary Edition DAC/Amp getting offered for $180. Also offered for $180 is the Aune X7S balanced headphone amp. Or you can buy both but there’s no combined-purchase discount in the shopping cart. The X7S is available in two color options, selecteable in the shopping cart of course.

The orders will ship in mid-April by Massdrop, but there’s no mention of warranty in the listing, which runs for the next five days and change [from blog-posting time].

March 7, 2019 Filed Under: amps and dacs Tagged With: ,

Topping DX7s Balanced DAC/Amp for $360 [MD]

Depeche Mode prophesized (spelling mnemonic: prophet + size) the popularity of balanced audio with their hit song “Get the Balance Right”. They were not just fountains of goth-emo 🙂

Which brings us to a new offer currently running at members-only BUT free-to-join shopping club/site Massdrop, it is the new condition Topping DX7s Balanced DAC/Amp for $360, in your choice of black or silver. It will ship in mid-April from Massdrop with the offer running for the next four days and change from blog-posting time. There’s no mention of warranty in the listing.

March 6, 2019 Filed Under: amps and dacs Tagged With: , ,

NuForce uDAC-5 DAC/Amp for $100 [MD]

And now some DAC/amp action at the Massdrop shopping e-club. They are offering the new condition NuForce uDAC-5 DAC/Amp for $100 with free US shipping. Don’t let the size in the pictures (without cables and other frame of reference devices in it) fool you ~ this is a small-ish device and weighs 3.5 ounces.

It has a USB audio input but it has more output options: RCA, coax (orange) and of course headphone out of the 3.5mm kind. Despite the size, it has a sizable (for its size LOL) rotary volume-control dial. It averages over 4 out of 5 based on 20 customer reviews at MD and it has almost 300 comments in its Discussion thread…

March 5, 2019 Filed Under: amps and dacs Tagged With: ,

Thinksound ON2 Closed Wood On-Ears for $90 [MD]

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]…

March 5, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: , ,

KZ AS06 BA In-Ears for $35 to $37 [MD]

The number of KZ earphones is increasing by the minute. One of the many models in their lineup is the KZ AS06, a three balanced-armature design, and it is currently on sale at Massdrop for $35 without a mic/remote, or $37 with a mic/remote. These will ship on April Fool’s Day from Massdrop. There’s no mention f warranty in the listing…

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

Tuesday: HyperX gaming headset sale (8 options)

Good until Tuesday at 11:59pm pacific time, inside the Amazon Gold Box there is a Hyper-X sale, and among the 18 items offered there are seven gaming headsets ranging from $30 to $100. There’s also an earphone going for $30…

March 5, 2019 Filed Under: headset Tagged With: ,

SMSL M3 USB DAC/Amp for $60 [MD]

And we are back at Massdrop with another fully-unlocked offering, running for the next four days and change from blog-posting time. It is the new condition SMSL M3 USB DAC/Amp going for $60 with a mid-April [something to soothe over Tax Day woes?] shipment estimate from Massdrop. There’s no mention of warranty in the listing.

Despite its compact size and price, this has three audio inputs, USB obviously [it’s in the product name after all], along with Optical and Coaxial. It also has a USB power input which is separate from the USB audio input. Output is RCA (for the DAC part) and headphone-out with an adapter included so you can use it with either 1/4″ or 1/8″ headphones.

What is not included is an AC power cable [it can be powered via USB, YMMV depending on the combination of inputs and outputs]. Also not included are optical or coaxial cables.

It averages over 4 out of 5 based on 17 customer reviews at MadDrops and its discussion has over 330 comments. A filter to separate the signal from the noise is NOT included, that too you have to procure on your own 🙂

March 4, 2019 Filed Under: amps and dacs Tagged With: ,

Tuesday: Polk Hinge bluetooth on-ears for $50

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 😉

March 4, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: ,

Marantz MPH-2 Studio Headphones for $40 w/FS

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.

March 4, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: ,

Sennheiser PC-37X Gaming Headset for $120 [MD]

Gamers without frontiers, Sennheiser without wallet tears! It’s a new song, look it up on my non-existent YouTube singing channel 😉 Which brings us to the Sennheiser PC-37X gaming headphone offered for $120 at the Massdrop website.

This is an “in the works” offering, which means a longer shipping date, late March 2019. On the plus side though, you have 14 days and change [from posting date] to order this, not the typically shorter traditional “drops” window.

This is yet another product in the Massdrop x Sennheiser partnership (which includes the critically acclaimed HD 6XX and HD 58X open-back over-ears), so you get a 2-year warranty with it.

March 4, 2019 Filed Under: headset Tagged With: , ,

EU: Motorola Pulse Max closed over-ears for 20 euro

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 🙂

March 4, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With:

Blue Bag: MEE Audio X-series bluetooth earphones for $25

If you are a fan of the mild excitement of not knowing exactly which model you will receive in the mail, Massdrop is running another blue bag sale, this time is the MEE X-series bluetooth earphones. You pay $25, and for that price you are guaranteed to receive one of four bluetooth earphone models:

+ MEE Audio X5 or X6 or X7 (chance of 30% each)
+ MEE Audio X8 (10% chance)

This being a random pick, you don’t get to pick the colors – they are what they are shown over there. There is a limit of two grab-bags per Massdrop account. There’s no mention of warranty. They will ship in late March 2019.

As usual, they also have “nilestone prizes” which include various AKG x Massdrop over-ears and the Hifiman HE-350 and the Noble X Universal. Think of these as lottery ticket type of chances, so don’t buy a grab bag just for a chance to win one of these.

March 3, 2019 Filed Under: in-ears Tagged With: , , ,

Audioengine D3 portable USB DAC/amp for $65 [MD]

On the portable USB DAC/amp front, the good old AudioEngine D3 is currently fully-unlocked at the Massdrop website for $65, with a late March 2019 shipment estimate. They will ship from the vendor [in other words, not by Massdrop itself], and there’s no mention of warranty in the aforementioned listing.

March 3, 2019 Filed Under: amps and dacs Tagged With: ,

Cadras EM5813 in-ears for $150 [MD]

More action happening at Massdrop, running for the next four days and change [from posting time here] is the new condition Cadras EM5813 in-ears going for $150 with a late March 2019 shipment estimate from the vendor. There is no mention of warranty in the listing.

March 3, 2019 Filed Under: in-ears Tagged With: ,

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…

March 3, 2019 Filed Under: accessories Tagged With: ,

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

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…

March 3, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With:

Dekoni Blue (by Fostex) Planars for $190 [MD]

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]…

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

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…

March 2, 2019 Filed Under: accessories Tagged With: ,

Etymotic ER3-XR or ER3-SE for $145 each [MD]

Flange fans, unite and take over! For the next four days and change [from blog-posting time], Massdrop is offering the Etymotic ER3 in-ears for $145 in your choice of either the XR or the SE model. There is no mention of warranty in the listing. The shipping estimate is April Fool’s Day, which is not as far away as it sounds, with today being March 1st 🙂

March 1, 2019 Filed Under: in-ears Tagged With: ,

EU: AKG K701 Open Over-Ears for $128

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…

March 1, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: ,

KZ AS10 In-Ears for $45 to $47 [MD]

KZ is riding high on the Chi-Fi Hype Train, but they managed to release so many different models, there’s too much confusion and one can’t get no relief without some googling around. Thankfully the Journeyman’s Toolbox has published an easy to read guide to many of the existing models, with reviews of them available as well.

Which brings us to Massdrop, where they have launched a drop on the new condition KZ AS10 in-ears with detachable cable of course, going for $45 without a mic/remote and $47 with a mic/remote. It would have been nice if they offered the option to purchase additional cables (eg one with and one without a mic/remote, but they don’t).

The orders will be shipped by the vendor on April Fool’s Day. There’s no mention of warranty in the listing. Two color options are available, either red or cyan.

PS: if headphones were groceries, considering the price, that’s like paying $9 per balance armature 😉

PS2: I’ve wanted to try out the KZ earphones for a while, but I’ve been suffering from analysis-paralysis from all those different models and sellers 🙂

PS3: here’s another take on the KZ options, this one a 5-minute video from Callaghan Reviews, YouTube-embedded below [may start with a 30-second ad]:

March 1, 2019 Filed Under: in-ears Tagged With: ,

EU: Sennheiser HD 559 Open Over-Ears for 62e

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 🙂

March 1, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With:

Pre-order the new Massdrop x Fostex TR-X00 with Removable Cables

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 🙂

March 1, 2019 Filed Under: headphones Tagged With: , , ,

NuForce BE2 bluetooth in-ears for $15

Good until Saturday MAR-2-2019 at 11:59pm ET (or earlier if it sells out), you can get the new condition NuForce BE2 necklace-style bluetooth in-ears for $15 with free US shipping at B&H Photo. The sale is only available on the white color scheme.

These have double-flanged eartips, with bluetooth 4.1 and support AAC streaming…

February 28, 2019 Filed Under: in-ears Tagged With: ,

Thursday: Bose SoundSport wired earphones for $50

Two days in a row now with a headphone-related daily deal at the Best Buy website, this time, for the last day in February 2019 [yep, two months are already gone from 2019, that’s 1/6th of the year gone BYE-BYE], it is the new condition Bose Soundsport wired earphones going for $50 with free shipping or free store pickup when that’s possible/available…

This is an older Bose style, they are neither earbuds, nor in-ears in the true sense of the word. There is a speaker-ish protrusion that breaks the plane of the ear canal, however, they don’t have the squishy eartip that forms a seal. The plus side is that they are more comfortable for people who have issues traditional in-ears, but on the other hand, you can’t get a seal, so say goodbye to isolation with these.

I don’t want to create a separate website category just for these, so I either put them under earbuds or in-ears 🙂

I have a different older model of these, they have their uses, and those “Stay Hear” things do indeed help them stay on your ear.

Speaking of Thursday’s daily deals, at the German Amazon Gold Bawx there’s a couple of truly-wireless bluetooths from Arbily [that’s the brand name] ranging from 40 to 48 euros…

February 27, 2019 Filed Under: earbuds, truly wireless Tagged With: ,

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 🙂

February 27, 2019 Filed Under: accessories Tagged With: , ,

Wedn: Beats Solo3 wireless on-ears for $160

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…

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

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…

February 26, 2019 Filed Under: accessories Tagged With:

Tuesday: 20% off most Monoprice headphones and such under $500

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

February 26, 2019 Filed Under: amps and dacs, headphones Tagged With: ,

Tuesday: Monoprice Electrostatic Headphone System for $560

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 🙂

February 26, 2019 Filed Under: amps and dacs, headphones Tagged With: , ,

20% off sitewide at HDTracks when you buy two or more albums

It’s a sitewide coupon sale at HD Tracks! Coupon code HD26FEB gets you 20% off when you buy two more albums. The discount is sitewide , so it’s a good opportunity to pick up music that rarely gets discounted. There are some exclusions to the sale: music that is already on sale by the record labels. You can muse the coupon as many times as you like until it expires at the very last second of February 2019 in the eastern time zone.

February 26, 2019 Filed Under: music Tagged With:

Echobox Audio Finder X1 IEMs for $50 [MD]

With three days and change left (as of the time of this post), Massdrop is offering a $50 IEM, it’s the new condition Echobox Audio Finder X1, showing that not all IEMs at MD are triple figure or above!

It comes with a clamshell case along with various different type eartips, but that’s not all, this one has “tuning filters”. Whether you find these useful or not, it’s up to you. Some like that, others find them as mostly gimmicky-marketing. We blog, you decide!

Despite the low price they come with a 3-year parts and labor warranty covered by the manufacturer and will ship from MD itself in late March 2019. US shipping is FREE, while international shipping appears to be under $8 for the various countries in various continents that I tried in the shopping cart. But obviously I can’t test every country out there – rumor has it there are hundreds of them and more are getting made every day 😉

February 26, 2019 Filed Under: in-ears Tagged With: ,