What are you getting for Black Friday?

[BoomerD]

I think Klipsch is running a pretty good bunch of offers right now if you don't mind the sound of their horns.

I haven't heard Klipsch in...20+ years. Unfortunately, the closest thing I have to an electronics store within 75 miles...is Walmart.
I've been looking at a couple of their soundbars as well as a couple from Polk Audio and Yamaha. I have a Sony that I bought in 2014. It's been OK, but I think it's dying. (Making weird "beeps and boops" and cracking sounds.)

 

[Captante]

Klipsch passive speakers are terrific sounding. Their amplified models/amps and circuitry OTOH have a tendency to fail without warning and the controls get "staticey" fast. (happened to me twice with 2:1's & 5:1's)

Logitech speakers may not have as fine sound quality but they're much more reliable AND they honor their warranty if they die instead of trying to blame your soundcard like Klipsch did to me.

(FWIW that PCI Creative Audacy II card STILL works perfectly today and is in my backup PC!)

 

[BoomerD]

Klipsch passive speakers are terrific sounding. Their amplified models and circuitry OTOH have a tendency to fail without warning. (happened to me twice with 2:1's & 5:1's)

Ugh...then MAYBE with a decent extended warranty.

 

[VashHT]

I spent over $400 on beer this morning, prolly all the shopping I'll do today.

I've had similar experiences with Klipsch too, shame because I really like their speakers other than the amps randomly dying. I got a set of bookshelf speakers for my PC like 6 months ago though and they sound great, hoping the amp doesn't die out of nowhere and they were 50% off so I went for it. I've got passive ones too hooked up to a receiver for my TV as well and they sound great.

 

[MrSquished]

Didn't have any specific shopping planned for today. But I had to run to get a prescription so I stopped at home Depot and picked the 6 ft Werner step ladder on sale. When i ever got a change a light bulb going to need one of these.

 

[Captante]

I actually sold the drivers and cabinets from my "deceased" Klipsch speakers on FS/FT lol and the 5:1's did last about 6 years to be fair. (2:1's died in less than 3 years!)

Meanwhile ALL 3 sets of Logitech speakers (which are a MINIMUM of 17.5 years old!) ALL work exactly the same as the day I bought them.

 

[lxskllr]

I'm still using Creative speakers from ~2004. I deleted the rear speakers cause I don't have a sound card anymore, but they're still working great as 2.1s.

 

[Geekbabe]

A pair of fleece lined hard soled slippers for myself. My feet are always cold & most slippers are soft soled….a fall risk for me

 

[deadlyapp]

A pair of fleece lined hard soled slippers for myself. My feet are always cold & most slippers are soft soled….a fall risk for me

I got a pair of LL bean hard soles last year that have been great. Bought a pair for my wife also.

 

[VashHT]

I actually sold the drivers and cabinets from my "deceased" Klipsch speakers on FS/FT lol and the 5:1's did last about 6 years to be fair. (2:1's died in less than 3 years!)

Meanwhile ALL 3 sets of Logitech speakers (which are a MINIMUM of 17.5 years old!) ALL work exactly the same as the day I bought them.

That's pretty cool, my friend has a Klipsch sub for his 5.1 setup that the amp recently blew up on, I've been thinking about trying to revive it by just replacing the amp circuitry. I hear ya on the Logitechs too, I gave my brother my 5.1 PC setup (Z5500 I think?) a while back and he uses it for his TV, gotta be like 14 years old at this point.

I'm still using Creative speakers from ~2004. I deleted the rear speakers cause I don't have a sound card anymore, but they're still working great as 2.1s.

I replaced some creative speakers on my PC with the new Klipsch ones I got. The left channel output on my mobo died and those speakers only had a 3.5mm input, the Klipsch ones I got have optical in as well.

 

[BoomerD]

A pair of fleece lined hard soled slippers for myself. My feet are always cold & most slippers are soft soled….a fall risk for me

Haflinger.

 

[SKORPI0]

 

[IronWing]

Klipsch passive speakers are terrific sounding. Their amplified models/amps and circuitry OTOH have a tendency to fail without warning and the controls get "staticey" fast. (happened to me twice with 2:1's & 5:1's)

Logitech speakers may not have as fine sound quality but they're much more reliable AND they honor their warranty if they die instead of trying to blame your soundcard like Klipsch did to me.

(FWIW that PCI Creative Audacy II card STILL works perfectly today and is in my backup PC!)

I find Klipsch speakers to be too bright and tiring on the ears.

 

[IronWing]

I put in for a free replacement on my Tilley hat. They've changed their replacement policy a bit so I don't know if they'll swap it out. This would be the third replacement. Desert UV is hell on cotton.

 

[MrSquished]

I find Klipsch speakers to be too bright and tiring on the ears.

Agreed, without a little work. I wish I got the SVS bookshelf speakers vs the Klipsch I have. However I did get the SVS sub to go with my Klipsch bookshelf and center speaker. That changed things. With the sub and a little EQ'ing they sound great. This is for music.

For movies/video - the setup was already perfect. Didn't need any EQ. But for music those horn tweeters need a little love.

 

[zinfamous]

I got myself a food shovel for my.....

food shovel

food shovel


food shovel

 

[SKORPI0]

Just curious, are long lines/camping outside the stores for Black Friday sales still being done? I haven't since BF 2017.

Fights, tents, swarms of people: What Black Friday in America looked like at peak chaos

Black Friday used to conjure images of frenzied shoppers hunting for bargains, but the beginning of holiday shopping looks starkly different today.

www.usatoday.com

Fistfights and Long Lines on Black Friday? Not as Much Anymore. (Published 2018)

Black Friday used to be all about midnight fights, endless lines and major markdowns on televisions. Like the rest of retailing, so much has changed.

www.nytimes.com

 

[balloonshark]

I bought an overpriced no name shower head and a 10% off a balanced cable for my Sennheiser HD 560S headphones.

Earlier this week I bought 2 pair of prescription glasses online, a $270 spin bike and 3x 4K blu-ray movies (Matrix Resurrections, The Northman and Jurrasic Park Dominion).

 

[Geekbabe]

Just curious, are long lines/camping outside the stores for Black Friday sales still being done? I haven't since BF 2017.

Fights, tents, swarms of people: What Black Friday in America looked like at peak chaos

Black Friday used to conjure images of frenzied shoppers hunting for bargains, but the beginning of holiday shopping looks starkly different today.

www.usatoday.com

Fistfights and Long Lines on Black Friday? Not as Much Anymore. (Published 2018)

Black Friday used to be all about midnight fights, endless lines and major markdowns on televisions. Like the rest of retailing, so much has changed.

www.nytimes.com

I can’t imagine camping outside a store for anything

 

[skyking]

It's official, we picked up fish and chips and filled up the car. 20 cents off reward woohoo!!

 

[snoopy7548]

H&R Block Deluxe + State 2022 for $22 (and 20% back to my Amazon card).

Besides that, I might order a few coloring books and a set of colored pencils.

 

[Kaido]

Just curious, are long lines/camping outside the stores for Black Friday sales still being done? I haven't since BF 2017.

Fights, tents, swarms of people: What Black Friday in America looked like at peak chaos

Black Friday used to conjure images of frenzied shoppers hunting for bargains, but the beginning of holiday shopping looks starkly different today.

www.usatoday.com

Fistfights and Long Lines on Black Friday? Not as Much Anymore. (Published 2018)

Black Friday used to be all about midnight fights, endless lines and major markdowns on televisions. Like the rest of retailing, so much has changed.

www.nytimes.com

I took the day off & went out for about 9 hours with a buddy just to hang out & get some food & maybe do a little shopping because I haven't had a true day off in forever lol. Zero lines anywhere. No good sales anywhere. Just like a normal store day's worth of people. I went to the mall for the first time in ages. A third of the stores were permanently closed. The food was terrible:

1. Got Wetzel's pretzel bites for the mall walk. Missed the timing & got the heat lamp ones. Was like eating rubber.

2. Got the famous mall Japanese chicken teriyaki. Used to be AMAZING. They cheaped out...no MSG, sugar, salt, pepper. It was just like plain store-bought teriyaki sauce on top of incorrectly cooked chicken. Pressing F for my fallen lunch comrade.

3. Got dessert at Cinnabon, the 4-pack of Mini's. We both ate one, looked at each, and threw the rest away lol. Even Pillsbury's canned cinnamon buns were 10x as good. The frosting tastes like how the inside of an Oreo tastes now, just kind of sugary & processed rather than really good.

I'll do another mall walk in another 5 years LOL. Went to a few other places (Home Depot, Lowes, Costco, Aldi's, etc.), no real deals anywhere. Got a few groceries. No traffic on the highway. No filled up parking lot lines. Best Buy had hundreds of feet of security rails for waiting in line, nobody was there. I did see another 8K TV there & holy moley it looks 3D from the detail lol. It was funny because the digital directions & advertising kiosk at the mall had a hard drive crash & no PXE boot for back up haha...it was the Space Odyssey 2001 monolith but by Bill Gates:

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

So, which is it?

Death of the doorbuster: Black Friday shatters online shopping record with more than $9 billion in sales as in-store participation wanes

Business Insider|24 minutes ago
Online sales were up 2.3% from last year, driven by an increase of consumers turning to buy-now-pay-later options to combat record-high inflation.

....

U.S. Shoppers Kick Off Holiday Season With a Muted Black Friday

Time|23 minutes ago
U.S. retailers discounted heavily on Black Friday to clear out bloated inventories but customers responded with only modest traffic, leaving profitability in doubt for many chains. Crowds were thin in the late morning at Connecticut's Stamford Town Center mall, ...



Blockbuster or Lackluster?

 

[lxskllr]

Depends on if you're amazon or bath and bodyworks.

 

[MrSquished]

Ended up buying a SoundBlaster AE7 on sale from Newegg because the onboard Realtek audio on my Asus Rog STRIX mobo are driving me nuts when I try to use equalizer software.\