To paraphrase the expression: a watched price never drops… or something like that. And yet, my dream wired headphones, with a price I’ve been obsessively monitoring for months, have finally had their prices slashed. You can buy the Sennheiser HD-660S2 for £349 (was £499) at Amazon UK – which means they’re back down to the lowest price ever.
If you’re based in the US, don’t worry: there are discounts available where you are, with the headphones selling for $429.99 (was $479) at Amazon US. Sadly, this isn’t quite their lowest price ever – they hit $372.21 just after Amazon Prime Day back in July, which was a pretty steep $106.79 discount.
I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time; I decided to buy these headphones in May. But I knew they’d not long risen in price from their previous low of $372.21 / £359, so I figured it was worth holding tight until they reached that sweet spot again. Little did I know at the time I’d have a long wait.
I’m utterly thrilled to see they now have such an enormous discount, but with the official start of the Black Friday sales still more than two weeks off, I can’t help but wonder about the timing of this deal. Are retailers just trying to combat sales fatigue – or is there room for this price to drop even further?
As our Sennheiser HD-660S2 review explains, these headphones have the expansive soundstage I’d expect from a pair of open-backed cans, while being capable of an enormous frequency range, meaning they’d be a joy for my home listening. Moreover, the nuanced, well-apportioned Sennheiser sound makes these perfect for music production, one of my biggest passions.
Unfortunately, the sale days came and went: both Amazon Prime Day and many seasonal sales passed and the HD-660S2’s price didn’t budge an inch. Honestly, the cycle of hope and dashed expectations has felt a little like waiting for Half Life 3 or a George R. R. Martin novel to drop. After a while, my cynicism started to get the better of me and I accepted that the thing I was dreaming would never come to pass.
Predictably, that was the exact moment Amazon decided to slash these wired headphones’ price right down to their lowest cost ever. And while I’m pleased as punch to see it, I can’t help but wonder about the timing – why, after holding out so long and through so many sales, have the brands involved chosen to cut the price so long ahead of Black Friday? A small, paranoid part of my brain is left pondering whether further discounts are on their way.
That’s definitely an option. This could be an appetizer, just enough to whet audiophiles’ appetites and get them salivating before Amazon drops an even more irresistible deal during the weak itself. So maybe I should hold my nerve? After all, it would be awful to have waited this long only to miss out on the real discount when it materializes.
In reality though, I think there’s another far more likely explanation: I’m not the only one that’s been biding my time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
With so many sales going on, Sennheiser hasn’t wanted to jump too early and lose the impact of a good discount to sales fatigue. And yet to stand out against all the Black Friday noise, laying out its pitch early is a smart way to get more eyeballs on its deals.
In light of that, I’ve come to the realization that I should snap up this deal and take advantage of the £150 discount while I can. And I’d recommend you do the same – because, let me tell you, you don’t want to spend the next six months refreshing your browser hoping for a second chance.
