Premium Blu-ray Decks Key Best Holiday Weekend Shopping Deals
Savvy shoppers who combed e-tailer websites over Memorial Day weekend could well have scored bang-for-the-buck CE deals ranging from steep discounts to freebies, we found in a scan of online ads Friday. Though the magnitude and number of deals fell far short of holiday selling season frenzy, hhgregg’s $99 offer on a Coby 19-inch LED-backlit LCD TV had a distinctly Black Friday feel, advertised as it was as a “doorbuster” deal with a limit of one per customer.
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Blu-ray deals were especially appetizing for consumers, as a number of full-featured models fell solidly into the double digits. Amazon offered big savings on Blu-ray players, taking $40 off Panasonic’s “ultra-fast booting” DMP-BD75 to bring it to $79.95 and whittling the premium LG BD670 3D Wireless Network Blu-ray Disc Player with Smart TV from $199.99 to $138.77, according to the site. At hhgregg, the Samsung BDE5300 Internet Blu-ray player sold for $77.99, just nipping the Toshiba BDX2250 Wi-Fi model at $79.99. A DVD head-turner was the mass-brand GPX compact player that was discounted by $10 and further promoted with a $10 mail-in rebate to arrive at $9.99 -- a buck under the price of a 4-GB SanDisk SD card at hhgregg.
Sony was the Memorial Day headliner at Amazon, pushing 46- and 55-inch KDL46HX750, KDL55HX750, KDL46HX850, and KDL55HX850 TVs with the lure of a BDP-S590 Blu-ray player. The 46- and 55-inch KDL46EX640 and KDL55EX640 netted a free BDP-S390, Amazon said. The freebie Blu-ray players, offered through June 2, gave retailers an end-around pricing play following unilateral pricing policies set this spring on TVs, select Blu-ray players and higher-end cameras. TV pricing appears to be holding at Amazon, where the KDL55EX640, a headliner of the Memorial Day sale, was discounted only by $100 to $1,698. The giveaway BDP-S390 sold separately for $116.67 Friday at Amazon, down from a $129.99 list price.
At Best Buy, TV deals on premier brands were scant, but Samsung took $500 off mid-sized TVs for Memorial Day weekend, including the LED-based LCD UN46D6900W, a 3D model that was discounted to $1,499 and the LN52C530F1F, a fluorescent-based 60 Hz model, dropped from $1,299 to $799. A Mitsubishi 60-inch 3D DLP TV took a $150 cut, bringing it to $849, and a $200 cut on a 65-inch DLP TV that settled at $999.
Plasma TVs continued to be some of the best bargains around as Amazon lopped $1,200 off the 65-inch Viera TC-P65VT30, a 3D model, bringing it to $2,799, and the 47-inch Viera TC-L47E50 was marked down from $1,099 to $799. At Fry’s Electronics, LG’s 60-inch 60PV450 was nearly halved to $799 from $1,499. Crutchfield shaved $700 off the Samsung PN59D7000 3D TV with Wi-Fi, bringing the 59-inch smart TV to $1,799. The similarly configured 64-inch Samsung PN64D8000 got a $1,400 price break to $2,399. Also at Crutchfield, the LG 47LM7600 LED-based LCD 3D TV with Wi-Fi was offered with $300 instant savings, bringing the set to $1,499.
Crutchfield offered a few summertime audio deals, including a discount of $250 off the Denon AVR-2312CI seven-channel AV receiver, bringing it to $599, as Denon prepares to launch its 2012 lineup just after Memorial Day. The five-channel Denon AVR-1612, after a $130 price cut, reached $219. Denon’s AVR-2312CI, for the custom installation market, took a $250 sale charge, bringing it to $599 at Crutchfield.
As more headphones flood the market, consumers are the winners in terms of choice and price, we found at Amazon. Panasonic’s recently launched RP-HC55-S noise-canceling earbuds were chopped from $99.99 to $43.99 and Sony’s MDR-XB500 over-ear models took a $30 cut to $49.99. Bose wasn’t immune from the discounting, although at $10 and $15 on earbuds and over-ear models, the discounts were modest.
Higher-priced headphones showed signs of pricing pressure, as Crutchfield scratched out discounts of $10-18 off its Bose earphone and headphone line, which starts at $134.95. Beats by Dr. Dre Tour earphones showed a minor discount of $20 at Crutchfield, coming in at $149.95. Monster’s Turbine Pro earphones, in copper, were slashed by $100 to $279.95 over the holiday weekend.
Mid-priced headphones at Fry’s presented a few tasty deals for shoppers. The Klipsch in-ear “noise-isolating” headphones took a $25 hit to $24.99. Logitech’s H800 headphones, touting premium wireless capability, were discounted by $30 to $69.99. Not surprising, the low-end of the headphone market is showing wear -- even with Sennheiser, which took $10 off its $29.99 HD 202 II over-ear phones at Amazon.