[Brood_Star]

First headphone order. Having trouble figuring out shipping costs. Never ordered online before.

From what I gather, USPS has a brokerage fee of $5 and FedEx express has a brokerage fee of $7 according to "warpdriver" from some thread in 2005. After that you have to pay all applicable taxes (GST/PST in my case). When I pop an item into any site that uses FedEx Express (for example Headroom) shipping prices come out a lot higher than just $2. Is there really any point to using FedEx Express over USPS except for tracking and speed of delivery? Is it worth the extra ~$25?

Also any suggestions pertaining to the topic title? The Alessandro MS-1's look like a good deal even if it may go over the budget a little bit (maybe? shipping is free from the Alessandro site... still gotta convert to Canadian currency and pay taxes no?)

Was eyeing a lot of stuff on B&H like the HD555, SR80s and a bunch of stuff on headroom as well (D1001) before I found out about the huge shipping charges.

Also looking to buy a pair of earbuds/iems, but that looks less complicated since a lot of stuff uses USPS or offers free international shipping. I'm willing to spend about half of that so ~$50. My current list looks like

jvc marshmallow $22. Don't know if I can kramer mod seeing as I'll have no foam
soundmagic pl30 $26
yuin pk3 $40
bijou 2 $60
j-jays $70 total including shipping and taxes
nuforce ne-8 $60 + $10-12 according to amazon
klipsch custom 1 iem $80 "free shipping"
ue super.fi 3 $78 + $7 shipping
er6i $90 + $7 shipping
westone um1 $110 free shipping

Leaning towards the pk3 or pl30 unless there's a huge difference in paying $20-$30 more since I know the ne-8 is receiving a lot of hype

As for my musical taste, I listen to a variety of stuff. Rap, different electronic genres, rock, pop, classical/jazz... probably looking for an "all-rounder" since I game as well but anything's fine as long as it sounds good. I'd rather something more than just a one-trick-bass-pony though

sorry for the tldr. thanks to anyone who replies

 

[Miskari]

SR60's or 80's would be a good start and you can find a pair of 1001s on the FS forum for cheap. as per earbuds I got my Marshmallows for $8 CDN from factory direct so that may be an option

 

[Brood_Star]

yeah newegg.ca has the px100's, hd202 and the hd555's.

can't for the life of me find any cheap grados, cx300s or marshmallows (start at $20! ill check out factory direct though, thanks)

hd555's are $125, tax +$16.45, but they only offer ups standard (which i hear is crappy but only $12) and ups expedited (more than 3x the price)

though if i could comprehend how all these stupid shipping systems work i could make a decision much easier. do i have to choose expedited?

will it also be a huge difference if i'm plugging them into an ipod mini? hoping to complete that flash memory mod sometime soon

 

[Brood_Star]

bamp

could anyone at least direct me to a site that ships to canada with USPS headphones and not earbuds please and thanks~!