Steep Headphone Discounts Extend to Wireless Models in Cyber Monday Promos

CTA projected headphones as a top seller in the holiday season -- with nearly 40 percent of survey respondents planning to gift headphones of some kind this year -- and Cyber Monday competition gave consumers a smooth road to purchase. Even high-end audio brand Bowers & Wilkins got into the promotional act, extending to Cyber Monday its $50 Black Friday discount on the P5 Series 2 ($129) and P3 Series 2 ($99) models. The B&W P5 wireless ($299) and PX noise-canceling ($399) weren’t discounted, we found. B&W competitor Sennheiser took advantage of Cyber Monday and dropped the price of its wireless noise-canceling over-ear model to $249 from $399 at Amazon and halved the price of the HD 579 open-back headphones to $99. Bose SoundSports were discounted 34 percent in an Amazon Deal of the Day to $99, a price found at Crutchfield and other e-tailers. In its Cyber Monday offerings, Target knocked 15 percent off the price of BeatsX wireless earphones to $149, throwing in a $20 gift card. Skullcandy drove a hard bargain in its Cyber Monday sale, taking as much as half off its full lineup in its “once a year” promotion. Skullcandy wireless headphones started at $17.99 (vs. $35) for the Jib wireless earbuds and hit the ceiling at $99 for the Crusher wireless cans (down from $199). Discounts were wide-ranging at Crutchfield, where JBL E25BT Bluetooth earphones started at $39 (from $59) and the Synchros E50BT over-ear headphones were sliced by half to $74.99. Harman’s AKG-branded headphones saw a $50 price cut to $99 for Cyber Monday at Crutchfield, and the audio e-tailer took $50 off the BeatsX in a cart-priced deal below the manufacturer’s minimum advertised price, beating the Target price by $50.