Black Friday and Other Great Deals

[NTP66]

oh dear lord somebody needs to save me. now I'm looking at a 3D printer for my daughter, who has asked about it in the past.

[dodint]

I can't find a simple headphone amplifier that I like so I'm looking at vintage stereo receivers. I'm firmly down a rabbit hole.

[faftorial]

I can't find a simple headphone amplifier that I like so I'm looking at vintage stereo receivers. I'm firmly down a rabbit hole.

What's your budget? Need a tuner as well or just the amp?

[dodint]

I'm at the opposite ends of a spectrum. I'm looking at '70s era stuff that have cool buttons and a vu meter. And then on the other end I'm looking at full blown HDMI switching modern units that I can put in my media room next year. So, just all over the place.

What started it is my Peloton isn't loud enough through my headphones and I wanted an inline amplifier for the headphones. But the ones that actually plug in are over $50, and the cheaper ones are rechargeable which I don't want.

Goodwill's online auction site has stacks and stacks of stereo receivers for like $8 with no bids so I'm just virtually rummaging through them until something clicks.

I also thought about replacing my older 2.1 system on my computer desk (which has headphones pass-thru) with a newer one, which I've wanted for a while, but I can't really differentiate good from bad on Amazon so I didn't pick one. I wouldn't go over $100 for that.

[skullman80]

Robot vacuum recommendations? Need a new one to replace our old roomba.

[NTP66]

Robot vacuum recommendations? Need a new one to replace our old roomba.

I have an older Roborock (S5 Max), and would definitely recommend their vacs.

[Joegap]

Robot vacuum recommendations? Need a new one to replace our old roomba.

Pulled the trigger on the iRobot Roomba 694. My wife said it had a really good rating on consumer reports too

[faftorial]

dodint, I found your headphone amp:

[dodint]

I'm a dodint not an dadhole.

[Beveridge]

Robot vacuum recommendations? Need a new one to replace our old roomba.

I have an older Roborock (S5 Max), and would definitely recommend their vacs.

Bought this one myself - love it.

[NTP66]

My only issue with Roborock is that they have like a dozen different models, and it’s damn near impossible to compare them all.

[NTP66]

FWIW, rtings has the Roborock Q5+ as their pick for the best mid-range robot vac: https://www.rtings.com/vacuum/reviews/best/robot

It's $300 off right now for BF/CM. No mopping function, though, if that matters to you.

[skullman80]

Yeah don’t care about mopping. Mainly for all the dog hair. I looked at that one yesterday may pull the trigger today we shall see.

[NTP66]

rtings shows ratings for all of the vacs in each category if you scroll to the bottom of the page. Nice to see that my 3+ year old S5 Max is still in the top third in all of them.

[scb147]

I have the Roborock S7, and it is heads and tails better than the iRobot i7+ that I also have. The Roborock app is also better than the IRobot one, minus the fact that I still can't schedule the Roborock to do a 2nd or 3rd pass in one schedule

[NTP66]

Source of the post minus the fact that I still can't schedule the Roborock to do a 2nd or 3rd pass in one schedule

This is literally my only gripe with the app. I have no idea why they won't incorporate this into schedules since it's easily done if you do a one-off cleaning. I basically just do a single zone cleaning once the schedule completes for the room that I want crossmapped.

[scb147]

I complained to their support about it, and that is what they told me to do. But they would pass the request onto the development team, lol

[NTP66]

I complained to their support about it, and that is what they told me to do. But they would pass the request onto the development team, lol

I did the same like two years ago, and have since given up hope that they add it as a feature.

[NTP66]

I told my wife that I was expecting a package today (drone), and after telling her that I bought something for myself, she's a little annoyed because I can't think of any Christmas gift ideas. I bought this myself because I don't want her spending a lot of money on me, but apparently that was the wrong move.

[tifosi77]

Anyone ever shop at DHGate or AliExpress? I've heard some good stories, and some bad stories, just wondering if anyone here has direct experience.

I had a recommended YT video pop up in my feed about these cheap knock-off replica guitars from China (aka "Chibson"), and I'm like 50-50 as to whether or not it's worth a couple hundo to get one as a wall hanger. I don't care if the instrument holds intonation or even if the pickups are wired; this thing would probably never actually be played. In effect, it would basically be an elaborate Zoom background.

[tifosi77]

I told my wife that I was expecting a package today (drone), and after telling her that I bought something for myself, she's a little annoyed because I can't think of any Christmas gift ideas. I bought this myself because I don't want her spending a lot of money on me, but apparently that was the wrong move.

Many years ago we created a shared Amazon wish list that my in-laws can see. Couple times a year, put like a really nice jacket or a label maker on it, or something. Boom. Christmas: Sorted.

[NTP66]

You could probably find a used, inexpensive guitar on eBay.

[tifosi77]

eBay. Never heard of it.

......................................................

I have my actual guitars on the wall and on stands in my office, this would just be an ornamental addition to that. But I'm looking at a knock-off of a specific famous guitar.

The real licensed guitars done in collaboration with the artist I'm talking about 1) tend to appreciate in value, cos they were a limited edition and 2) started at $25,000 when they were new. There's one currently on Reverb (eBay for musicians) that's listed at $41,392.16, which, according to the listing, is $4,599.13 off the item's in-store retail price. What a savings.

eBay won't carry listings for knock-offs. You know how YouTube is hyper diligent about policing copyright infringement, to the point of taking down videos that are legitimate Fair Use and dinging the uploader with strikes? eBay is similar; their policy is to regard knock-offs as counterfeit. The two are definitely not the same thing, but they adopt a "better safe than sorry" approach. There have been instances where US Customs has seized an entire pallet of these and similar guitars because one of them in the shipment had a fake manufacturer logo. So eBay wants nothing to do with potential customer complaints about shipping from China on these goods. But the sellers have started importing them and will ship to U.S. buyers from warehouses in LA or New Jersey if you buy from DHG or AE.

It's a weird situation in this particular instance, because garage builders and hobbyists make and sell these replica guitars all time (for their own hefty four-figure sums), and they can list those on eBay with no issues. And they are usually excellent guitars in their own right, such that I wouldn't want to relegate one to wall art duty. But the mass produced ones from factories in China are blacklisted.

So all of that is why I'm curious if anyone's had any direct experience buying on those sites.

[faftorial]

Anyone ever shop at DHGate or AliExpress? I've heard some good stories, and some bad stories, just wondering if anyone here has direct experience.

I had a recommended YT video pop up in my feed about these cheap knock-off replica guitars from China (aka "Chibson"), and I'm like 50-50 as to whether or not it's worth a couple hundo to get one as a wall hanger. I don't care if the instrument holds intonation or even if the pickups are wired; this thing would probably never actually be played. In effect, it would basically be an elaborate Zoom background.

Bought some car parts (lock cylinder, etc) from AliExpress and never had an issue. Delivery time was around 2 weeks.

[Shyster]

What started it is my Peloton isn't loud enough through my headphones and I wanted an inline amplifier for the headphones. But the ones that actually plug in are over $50, and the cheaper ones are rechargeable which I don't want.

I bought this headphone amp to use at work. I also have a little mixer where I mix a radio, my phone (for SiriusXM and my own music collection), and my work computer's audio and then feed it into this headphone amp. It might be bigger than you want, but it plugs in, sounds fine to me, and it's less than $50. There's currently a Cyber Monday Deal on it.